I have played games like Warcraft, Age of Empires, SimCity, Civilization, Starcraft and always wished for a game that had the elements of all these games. Well heary heary, Spore from Electronic Arts has managed to do just that, using evolution as the backdrop. You are taught the finer nuances of evolution as you guide your creation cell stage, creature, tribe, city and space stages.
Spore is very different from any game Will Wright ever made till now. Yes, it has elements from his past creations such as SimCity, Sims, SimCity Societies etc. Those games look like the building blocks for this game, because while playing the Spore one can see elements from those games like happiness meter like in SimCity Societies, interactions with other creatures as in Sims, city management as it was in SimCity.
Spore-ific experience:
As soon as you done with the installation and you fire up Spore, you are requested to register online. Once that is taken care of, you are thrown into a universe with more than a million planets and races, each quite different from each other. You can select one of those planets and use these creatures in your planet or create your own creature. When you try for the first time, it is better to start from zero and create your own creature and that is exactly what I did!
The first thing I realized was that evolution was all about choices organisms make through the ages! The first choice I had to make was regarding my dietary habits. Vegetarian or non-vegetarian I was asked. Non-vegetarian I said without second thought. Why? No clue, may be I like Salman Khan, find hunting cool!
Soon my creature, or should I say my single cell creature was thrown into an ocean of life where it swam eating other organisms. As it ate, it bloated in size till it made other single cell organisms feel insignificant. Then I got for it a pair of horns and let it bully everyone around. Soon its evolution meter was full and it evolved into a creature with a pea-sized brain, something is better than nothing you see.
At this stage, I was told that I could now ‘grow’ a pair of legs with the DNA points I gained my eating. And grow I did, and thus I got out of the slush to face the brave new world. Every time one would mate or move from one evolution stage to another, the good ol’ Spore creature creator pops up and you can make changes to your creature’s body and buy body parts with the DNA points which you gain every time you eat.
Soon my creature was hunting primates and making friends with other races. While at it, I had the option to dig out bones to unlock new parts for the body, like better claws/fists, which could make my creation more aggressive or charming. Keep eating, hunting and make friends with other species and your DNA meter will fill up, again, and I had now evolved into Tribe stage.
In tribe stage of Spore, I was presented with the opportunity to dress up your character with headgear, chest armor among many other options. This stage felt more like Age of Empires or Warcraft. It was simple, gather food, build buildings, make babies, strengthen tribe, and annihilate surrounding tribes. This was the shortest stage of the lot and I was soon in Civilization stage and I started setting up cities.
Civilization stage plays out like the game Civilization, the only difference is that it’s not turn based unlike the popular franchise. In this stage you are also presented with the option to design buildings in your city, again we are presented with the same intuitive interface we saw in Creature Creator.
Similarly you can design your own vehicles as well and there can be different vehicles depending upon the nature of the city. Religious cities will have vehicles which will convert other vehicles into your own, while military ones will have aggressive vehicles which are out to destroy anything in its way. You are required to conquer all cities and let me assure you it’s a piece of cake!
Once you conquer all cities you move into space age. Space exploration is the most enjoyable, yet the most confusing part of Spore. You might easily lose your way among the countless stars that surround you. To enjoy this part of the game, it is best to be connected online. To see creatures other users have created and the environment they have set for their creatures will make your jaw drop in awe.
Verdict
Gameplay of Spore is fantastic, controls feel a little funny when in space age, apart from that even the most noobest of noobs won’t have an issue. Graphics are of the best kind, the sheer diversity of the worlds and the variety of creatures that can be created within this game is astounding.
I am one of those guys who spent hours oops days, trying to create a cool looking monster in 3D studio max, with no gain of course. However, Spore rewrites those laws. 3D creatures, buildings, and vehicles, ah, I can now build them in two minutes now.
However I expected a bit more from the tribal/society stage. The kind of stuff one can find in games like AOE. In Spore, the only thing you need to have an advanced DNA is kill, eat and make friends. How about things like learning, research which can lead to actual scientific progress. Such development is totally bypassed in the game.
The game tries to stick to the line “Survival of the fittest,” shouldn’t it have been “Survival of the smartest.” After all human beings are not the fittest race on earth!
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Cost Rs: 999
Developer: Maxis
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X
Rating: ESRB: E10+
DRM status: Yes
- By Danton Brown