Spore Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 4 September, 2008

We looked over the hill and we saw fire.

Version tested: PC

At the heart of Spore, say some, lies a fascinating, amusing, baffling contradiction: you're the Creator in the ultimate God game, in which you can succeed by imposing your beliefs on others, and yet Maxis' universe - a convincing mishmash of procedural and many-user generated species - is, as the game puts it, "an epic journey of evolution". One tends not to get on with t'other.

However, as with so many things (religious fundamentalism, for instance), the mistake was to accept the premise; Spore isn't a God game, it's a many-Gods game. In it you guide the development of your species from a single cell in a 2D ocean onto its newly formed feet, along a prickly path to abstract reasoning, problem-solving, emotion, science and interstellar conquest, with rest-stops in savagery, tribalism and tank-rushing. As you do this, thousands of other real-life players do the same and their species become part of your game-world, adopted by the AI ruling their own planets to greater or lesser effect.

Spore's happy to think of you as a God, but in the end your status is debatable. Perhaps you're just evolution itself. So endeth the contradiction in what, as is typical of Spore, turns out to be bright and amusing fashion.

The many-Gods structure is a novel idea, but it's also the source of so much of Spore's appeal; the game-world is a Frankenstein's universe of inventive or funny or pop-culture or genital Adams-of-the-other-guy's-labours, and that self-replenishing variety (optional, if you're boring, and actually rather devoid of penis monsters) is as crucial to keeping the smile on your face and compulsion in your exploration as any of the game mechanics Maxis has implemented.

If Spore's on your watch-list then our encouragement is probably redundant, but it's worth throwing in for the only semi-curious: invest yourself in the things you make. Your first hours in the game are spent tooling around the Cell, Creature, Tribal and Civilization phases, which are simplistic (and difficult to fail) challenges that owe much of the appeal they have to your and other creations.

'Spore' Screenshot 1

Cell's a great, beautiful introduction that doesn't outstay its welcome.

Cell is a physics-based survival contest; eat the flora or eat the fauna, which you kill by driving yourself into it with spit or spikes pointing in the right direction, or a tendency to go electric on contact. It's beautiful and elegant, but over quite quickly, and you might not throw much thought into your Cell creation, although it's still quite good fun in either case. From Creature onwards though, do.

Creature is about charming or attacking others, which means integrating the right combination of body parts, some of which are ornamental, but many of which enhance certain abilities, like singing or dancing on the social side and striking and charging on the other. As you explore the planet you collect body parts from allies, defeated enemies and discarded remains, and it's worth doing a bit of good and bad so you'll have allies when something bigger and badder comes along. Maxis means something else when it says Spore is a bit like a single-player MMO, but Creature is pretty comparable to soloing the low levels of your average fantasy online world; keyboard shortcuts, cooldown times, simple tutorial quests, albeit under the terrifying gaze of the occasional spaceship or quaking at the feet of an epic monster.

What makes it work is how much you like your own creature, and what you encounter. There are herds of Star Wars walkers, beached baby seals that slide along the ground, moustachioed gremlins... What's that coming over the hill? It's a reference, to a videogame or film or cartoon or internet meme or book or TV advert. Watch out for our Bank Holiday sofa sale species; they don't bite you at first, but the interest gets you in the end. New parts and ideas and stronger foes send you scurrying back to your nest to revisit the Creature Creator and evolve or redesign.

With enough huntering and gathering and copyright-infringing under your belt, you then progress to the Tribal phase, with a hut and a Costume Creator, and a mandate to ally or conquer neighbouring species as they reach the same stage as you. The mechanics are similar to Creature, with a few extra concerns; which instruments to give your social mob, how to split your force, whether that buffing breastplate is worth the aesthetic counterpunch. Do the needs of the tribe outweigh the needs of the visual reference?

The Tribal phase is over quickly, though, at which point it's time for Civilization, and here the creation tools start to stack up. You could borrow the work of others in the Sporepedia easily, but why would you do that? So you need a city hall, entertainment, a factory, houses and turrets, not to mention land, sea and air vehicles, and whereas the Creature Creator demands more compromise by forcing you to incorporate certain parts to improve key stats, with the Vehicle Creators the strengths of each component are distributed across a percentage scale of speed, health and might.

Outside your city borders are spice mines to control, which builds up resource to spend on infrastructure and units, and the goal is to conquer your continent and eventually the planet. We did this by imposing our beliefs: broadcasting a mile-high image of our singing chief to neighbouring infidels until they were normalised, but you can do it by force or diplomacy if you prefer.

With the world under your control, it's time to go to space, the Spore endgame, where your options suddenly multiply enormously. You can fight, colonise, trade, explore, establish relations; only a certain amount is imposed, and while there is a lot to do, you're prepared for it, thanks to what's arguably Spore's greatest trick: the hours you've spent up to now were an elaborate combination of character-creator and tutorial masquerading as a game.

It makes sense in reverse. Cell taught you the basics of survival; Creature showed you the virtues of social and militaristic growth; Tribal introduced you to society and multitasking; and Civilization honed everything and taught you to conquer on a massive scale and multiple fronts. You were designing your species - or rather Designing - and of course actually designing in the visual (and aural) sense as well; establishing your look and play styles by living through elaborate and occasionally brilliant examples.

'Spore' Screenshot 3

In the Civ phase you lay out your city so the workers are relatively happy but also productive.

And so to space, where the potential is still slightly overwhelming, but not too much. After a brief piloting lesson you take your spaceship - your avatar for the rest of the game - away from your homeworld by dragging back on the mousewheel and ascending through the atmosphere to witness your planet travelling past the sun in its green (ideal-for-life) orbit, and while you orbit a planet you can contact the people on the ground, receive missions, sell anything you've looted and buy upgrades, terra-forming equipment and more.

A few more wheel drags and you leave the system and get to pilot yourself to nearby alternatives on whatever premise. Pick somewhere you like and grind the wheel forward and you descend. Perhaps you'll make contact with a new species and trade, kill or befriend, or perhaps you'll just fly around the planet abducting plants and animals you like.

Travel is limited at first, partly by your ship's entry-level warp drive (forcing you to hop between local systems to reach the distant ones), and partly by the competing needs of your growing empire of colonies and network of friends and enemies.

Lovable as you are, people need convincing. One of our early acquaintances - the self-appointed fashion police of the universe - demanded that we rid a neighbouring planet of its ghastly turrets to earn their trust, which was painstaking (and painful) as we were already part of a trade route with them. Others are too meek or aggressive to be dealing with; and then there's the Grox, the pirates and other ever-present threats. It can all seriously hamper your quest for the many Achievement-style badges, the rare item sets, terra-forming equipment and proficiency, and the big secret at the centre of the universe, but it's seldom the tedious drag of the Sims' inability to wash themselves or clean up.

There is so much to do, and while much of it seems functional on the page (the many fights with pirates bothering your trade routes; scouring systems for tell-tale yellow outlines that predict a rare item; building up a fleet of allies; looting and grinding to gather money to spend on new kit and to buy up entire systems) there's an inherent appeal that's traceable partly to the desire to experience the unknown. The history of your species is on a timeline of exploration, and there's always a What's Next. (There's also a visual timeline of your exploration to inspect, if you're curious about what you did yesterday.)

It's also partly attributable to Maxis' Sims-style sense of humour, ballooned manifold by the massive expanse of populated space into which you're thrust. There's the reams of dialogue to chuckle through (with your own range of amusing responses; Star Trek's first contact could do with more "Yeah, I could get into that"); there's the Sporecasts you can sign up to, which populate your galaxy with the best of someone else's discoveries, ever the hook.

By now though your eyes have crept down (after all, What's Next?) and maybe started a bit at the number, and it's true that Spore's recommended with caveats. Although you're mostly prepared, space can still be unforgiving after a sequence of innocent missteps, like a shortage of funds because you misinterpreted an instruction, or an unwinnable war you stumble into, and while the Spore Guide help files are deep, they don't always answer your questions.

'Spore' Screenshot 6

Given what people achieved with the Creature Creator, the Vehicle Creator's future will be fascinating to watch.

And for all their mighty purpose, the first four phases of the game don't always play brilliantly, and they're too fleeting. Creature is the best place to experience other people's work, for example, and while there's nothing to stop you lingering or beginning again in Creature, there's not enough in the repetitive gameplay to encourage this. Throughout the four there are myriad reasons to frown intermingled with the smiles: the Costume Creator is a bit crap; the Civ and Tribal phases are very lightweight and there are too many buildings to edit in Civ; the Creature Creator doesn't let you make exactly the creature you want because your survival depends on parts that spoil the look.

But while there are days you won't want to go to the four-stage school, and compromises to be made, such is life; and ultimately it is worth it for the fun you have along the way and the experience of the space strategy game at Spore's heart, which overwhelms any burgeoning disappointment. All along we've known that Spore's ambitious design demanded so much of the developer that it had to - and of course wanted to - pass some of that onto you, and perhaps the flaws that endured are symptoms of that extensive, intricate development and infrastructure, and that fate which sometimes befalls even the best developers: losing sight of a few basics.

Yet they're irrelevant to the bigger point. We're all familiar with the innovative, web-aware customisation cloud that underpins Spore, but nobody's done it better (even though many now do it - apparently years after Maxis thought of doing it here) and the final game is proof that it was all worth it: you're all one big Designer, and Spore succeeds as much because of you and me as the many worlds scattered across the stars and the many ways we've been given to explore them.

9 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (134) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • L0cky #1 3 years ago

    Arh, looks like I won't be avoiding this after all.

  • coastal #2 3 years ago

    come on consolefan_boys tuck in.


    oh, sorry. er DS?

  • Ginger #3 3 years ago

    woohoo - 9!

    /goes back to read review
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 08:15

  • Stickman #4 3 years ago

    God, I've been wanting this for aaages! Awesome.

  • DDevil #5 3 years ago

    Dammit, I've got to buy it.

  • SentientNr6 #6 3 years ago

    Nice score. Still not sure whether this is something for me.
    I am still afraid that it will be a sim like experience which is fun for a few hours and you never come back too.

  • mazzl #7 3 years ago

    yo EG. since it's a pc review.. please post the system recuirements!

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #8 3 years ago

    Whew, after Ze Germans were so down on it, I was worried my 25 quid had been squandered.

  • UncleLou #9 3 years ago

    Hm, good to hear - because I just arrived at the space age (but not really played that yet), and even without especially big expectations, I am rather underwhelmed. It's very funny and charming, but I have no desire to ever play these stages again - they are formulaic (conquer village A, conquer village B, your village grows a bit, conquer village C which has now also grown a bit), almost shockingly shallow with surprisingly little to do, and even a tad tedious.

    Frankly, I almost had more fun with the creature editor in the past than now with the full game, and I almost wish they hadn't released the editor earlier, as I feel like I have also already (via the Sporepedia) seen a few too many creatures.
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 08:31

  • aldo_14 #10 3 years ago

    Excellent. Hope my pre-order arrives early, then......

  • seasidebaz #11 3 years ago

    £12.99?

    Sold.

  • tomkuryakin #12 3 years ago

    I presume that all the stages are RTS? The review doesn't really make it clear.

  • septimus #13 3 years ago

    Want to get it, but damn it, I just won't have the time to invest in something like this.

  • Zomoniac #14 3 years ago

    Better than Seventh Cross then?

  • ciril #15 3 years ago

    Isn't it funny that after all those super hyped games that failed to deliver what promised (or just flopped) released lately it is an EA branded game that's a great game? :p

  • Harlequeen #16 3 years ago

    Phew. They actually managed to make a game of it. Much kudos.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #17 3 years ago

    I presume that all the stages are RTS? The review doesn't really make it clear.

    Inded, I've read a fair bit about spore but, apart from the Cell stage and obviously the Creature editor, I still have very little idea of how it actually plays.

    I guess I'll find out as soon as I get my copy, though.

  • space_ace #18 3 years ago

    spore manages to score!

  • PearOfAnguish #19 3 years ago

    £12.99?

    Sold.

    That's the price of the strategy guide, not the game.
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 08:56

  • the_dudefather #20 3 years ago

    I was so sure this was going to get the controversial 8/10 thing

    looking forward to day off and copy of the game arriving :)

  • DFawkes #21 3 years ago

    Better than the recent Off Road on Wii then?

  • booner #22 3 years ago

    This game promised so much and by the sounds of it, delivered. I will be buying on release day. It's very rare for games to deliver on hype these days.

  • Crea #23 3 years ago

    As above, I'm interested in how this runs? Is it a system hogger?

  • the_dudefather #24 3 years ago

    @Crea
    It runs well on older PCs apparently, its reasonably low spec

  • penhalion #25 3 years ago

    Played my mates review copy. Not that interesting to be honest. The whole fun is the space exploration. The develope your character bit is just a cobbled together route to that. I'm not going to get into what score it deserves I'll simply say that it's definitely not going to be everyones cup of tea.

  • BiscuitBase #26 3 years ago

    SOLD

  • ConsoleCowboy #27 3 years ago

    Hi all,
    I am one ze Germanz and I have to agree with some of our magazines: The game is all show no go. The first four parts are cute but have zero replay value. It's like playing 4 casual games with a 6- or 7-ish rating in a row. Then at space, the game gets much better, though not as good as MOO2 or the usual CIV4 Mods. The Editor is uber-great, yet I felt like creating stuff for hours to be placed in a mediocre game.

    But if you feel that Spore is greater than the sum of it's parts it might be a good buy for you, especially if you like designing stuff for the sheer fun of it (which it is!). If you are looking for one whole, sound and deep gaming experience with real replay value, I would strongly suggest to try before you buy.
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 09:39

  • hiddenranbir #28 3 years ago

    OMG not a 10? MEGAFLOP!

    My order arrives tomorrow. Woo! :D

  • Darren #29 3 years ago

    I can't wait to play this... the game came in this morning's post but too late to try it before leaving for work. I've got it with me here at work and looking at the back cover and manual just makes me sick to try it! I haven't read the EG review yet (will do later) but the score is very encouraging! :D

  • mingster #30 3 years ago

    It'll sell like hotcakes to the same sort of crowd that bought The Sims.
    But in general i think its a bit 'meh' to any RTS/4x4 PC strategy fan.
    All show no substance.

  • Ryuken #31 3 years ago

    "though not as good as MOO2 or the usual CIV4 Mods."

    Euh, it's rather more like Star Control II than like those games.

    Anyone else having problems with registering? It's getting ridiculous here.

  • rover #32 3 years ago

    * gah*
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 10:09

  • johnnybrn #33 3 years ago

    Hey Darren,

    Good to see you around.

    Methinks I'll be getting this come Saturday although I might have to get more RAM for the PC to optmise it properly.

  • zuul_ #34 3 years ago

    I wish the review would go into more detail about the actual gameplay of the different stages. Spore always sounded like a collection of mini games, and the lack of actual gameplay videos (other than creator/designer movies) didn't help clarifying that. Now this review doesn't give much insight, either. Shame.

  • ConsoleCowboy #35 3 years ago

    @Ryuken: Yes, you're right. Must have been a reflex to mention Turn-Based Games instead of RTS. Nevertheless, if you compare the space part alone to the other 4x RTS Spacegames, it's 7-8ish.

    ... I sense a certain difference on this board between ppl who have and those who have not played the game yet :-) I predict great initial sales and much media-buzz and in two months nobody will talk about Spore anymore.

    {activate flameshield}
    {set flameshield to max}

  • Snooz #36 3 years ago

    If it keeps you busy like the Sims games then it'll certainly sell, I did like sims although my only memories of playing it are placing furniture and having a sim-person that always needed to pee during the night.

  • crazymonkey66 #37 3 years ago

    Can someone explain how eurogamer gets to review one of the biggest games of the year before anyone else?

  • BillyBrush #38 3 years ago

    Guardian have reviewed it too..you just need to looky looky

  • zuul_ #39 3 years ago

    Gamestar reviewed it two days ago. Test folk usually get their review copies earlier

  • TheJuriel #40 3 years ago

    I'm still not clear on what you do in it, gameplay-wise, or how long it takes, or especially how much replayability there is...

  • viper_h #41 3 years ago

    I just ordered this. Hope it's worth it.

  • UncleLou #42 3 years ago

    @ConsoleCowboy

    Good mini-review, fully agreed, these are exactly my thoughts. Must be a German thing! :)

  • Wyrm #43 3 years ago

    I hope this is correct, so far I've only got to the Civ stage and frankly it's a massive disappointment. Yeah it's cute and funny, but shallow as hell. I shall have to play on to the space section, but even still, to have such a large slice of the game be so shallow and not worthy of replaying is a shame.

  • Gearskin #44 3 years ago

    I am all over this. Hit up Sporepedia "MoBiUGeArSkIn" to download mai beasts :D

  • FWB #45 3 years ago

    I thought Germans liked minimalism and nihilism. A game that goes nowhere should be perfect, no?

  • sanctusmortis #46 3 years ago

    Damn it, not an 8! Disappointed...

  • hulahoops #47 3 years ago

    "It'll sell like hotcakes to the same sort of crowd that bought The Sims."

    Do you really think so? I think the crowd who bought The Sims are precisely the people who couldn't give a stuff about a game like this.

    Why do you think they'd be interested of all people?

  • mossychops001 #48 3 years ago

    PC crap,The Mac is better.

  • Meho #49 3 years ago

    It's not that it goes nowhere, it's that after initially being wooed with the very pretty presentation, you discover that four out of five stages of the game are rather shallow with the fifth being much deeper but not as deep as existing games out there.

    Which is fair play, as SPORE seems to be more about being a toy than being a game (even though it has a proper ending and all).

  • rudedudejude #50 3 years ago

    Looks like it will follow a sims pattern - play it for 5 days then never touch it again.

  • UncleLou #51 3 years ago

    Yeah, but the problem is that the spaceship editor - for me at least - isn't nearly as much fun as the creature editor, so one of the games biggest plus points plays almost no role in the game's bets part.

  • ConsoleCowboy #52 3 years ago

    @FWB: I thought Germans liked minimalism and nihilism. A game that goes nowhere should be perfect, no?

    No. And you forgot to mention beer, megalomenia, lederhosen and david hasselhoff. Well, there *is* megalomania in spore, but "The Hoff"? Now that would be a helluva creature! :-)

  • FWB #53 3 years ago

    Am I smelling lobotomy to shift expansions?

    Surely you can make the Hoff with the creature creator?
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 12:03

  • urban #54 3 years ago

    i've got to tell you, i've been having some real problems on wether its a good game or not, and you know, despite the cell frustration stage, i still don't know.

  • Agent_Orange #55 3 years ago

    Hmm wierd. I just looked at the review on Gamespy, and in their pros and cons section, under cons it had:

    "Space game can get repetitive; "

    Completely the opposite to this review? It got a high score - 4.5/5 - but for different reasons.

  • ConsoleCowboy #56 3 years ago

    First one to present a Hoff Sporecreature get's beer & cocktails on my money in Duisburg / Germany! I dare all of you out there to create this fiercest of all fiends and receive endless germanic worship forever!

    ...modelling KITT too is a plus. Oh and always remember: Don't drink and drive.

    Edit: I misspelled KITT! Will wear paperbag on head for 3 days.
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 12:23

  • Agent_Orange #57 3 years ago

    Ok so i had a look couldnt realyl find any decent hoffs. The best i could find was this Kitt.

    [link url=http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=srch-kitt%3 Asast-500000295890
    ]http://ww w.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=srch...[/link]

    Dont hate me.
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 12:16

  • hiddenranbir #58 3 years ago

    Why were some people expecting some heavy, meaty, 'substance' to this game?

    Have you ever listened to Will Wright?

  • dr_faulk #59 3 years ago

    Yay! My new iMac can become a genuine gaming machine!

    (without BootCamp)

  • TurboBailey #60 3 years ago

    Think i might treat myself to this - Sounds like a cross between Civ, the sims and rollercoastertycoon sandbox mode - bang goes the social life


  • secombe #61 3 years ago

    I just read all of that, and I'm still not particularly clear on what Spore actually is. What do you actually spend most of your time doing?

  • Razz #62 3 years ago

    Surely this is just a more complicated tamagotchi

  • the_dudefather #63 3 years ago

    @secombe

    parts 1+2 = running about, eating, avoiding being eaten
    parts 3+4 = building up a settlement, cities, killing other civilizations, RTS style stuff
    part 5 = similar to 3+4, but in space

  • Ninja_Tino #64 3 years ago

    I NEED REVIEWS OF SPORE CREATURES! Off to America soon and I know the DS version is completely different but it still sounds promising! When Eurogamer, when?

  • UncleLou #65 3 years ago

    Why were some people expecting some heavy, meaty, 'substance' to this game?

    Have you ever listened to Will Wright?

    There's a lot of room between "heavy, meaty substance" and the first few stages of Spore. A lot.

  • y2rich #66 3 years ago

    9/10 just so that EA would let them get the game review out early methinks. Yet another game to suffer due to the massive hype I'm afraid.

  • Orange #67 3 years ago

    The review reads like an 8. seems that game sites are scared to give it less than a 9, lest EA punish them.

  • Lawlost #68 3 years ago

    No, won't be getting this

  • Lea #69 3 years ago

    @y2rich: wrong. The worldwide online-embargo is due today....

  • herflet #70 3 years ago

    thanks for the balanced review. it's more than the number 9, its reading about the balance between the different stages of the game.

    i've already pre-ordered (and the digital download is waiting on my drive for it to unlock) but i'm trying to temper my expectations. we'll see. I've always loved Wright's Sim stuff, but never got to carried away with it either. The Sims did that to me--"why am i washing my Sim's dishes, when I should be washing my own dishes?".

    I think the journey into space will be a bit more bracing.

  • Hypercube #71 3 years ago

    Can you make sinister looking creatures, or do they all come out looking like happy, bouncy, rubbery limbed cartoons? Not that that is a bad thing, but I had a plan to make some of my favourite sci-fi villain species...

  • El_MUERkO #72 3 years ago

    "Spore's happy to think of you as a God, but in the end your status is debatable. Perhaps you're just evolution itself. So endeth the contradiction in what, as is typical of Spore, turns out to be bright and amusing fashion."

    or

    "You are the intelligence behind intelligent design"

    that'd piss all kinds of scientists off :D

  • Carbon_Altered #73 3 years ago

    Poorly written review in my opinion - far too fluffy, like the author was trying to justify the English degree and creative writing course. I much prefer the reviews that focus more on the "nuts and bolts" of the game, especially for games like Spore where it is very unclear what you actually DO in the game.

  • FooAtari #74 3 years ago

    "Poorly written review in my opinion - far too fluffy, like the author was trying to justify the English degree and creative writing course."

    Every so often these kind of comments come up. Quite annoying they are to.
    Listen up EG, Simple writing and controversial comments are the order of the day. Don't forget that all game reviews should be written in exactly the same way. Shame on you for having no concrete basic structure, to which all reviews should rigidly follow.

    MGS4 gets an 8 and people take the piss saying that an 8 is a shitty score. Spore gets 9 and people say that score is amazing.

    According to gamers, there is a one point difference between a good score and a bad one.

    We may as well just have a three-number scale LOL 1=bad 2=good 3=great. Easy :p

    MGS and Spore are not even remotely similar though are they. No comparisson can really be made, and as such score and scales are different for each game.

    You do have a point though with scores. I'd prefer if they were removed completely myself. Would make forums and comments a more pleasant place to be.



    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 14:35

  • Pulsar_t #75 3 years ago

    Never liked the Sims, so this isn't for me. Funny how 3 pages of "critique" aren't enough to describe how this plays.

  • wingzerosys #76 3 years ago

    I'll be missing out on this, not got a PC or Laptop. : (

    Too bad, as I would've tried to make the Starship Enterprise NCC 1701-A as my space ship.

  • judas #77 3 years ago

    To cute for me, keeping my bucks for F3!

  • paulf #78 3 years ago

    'Listen to the people who buy the games and play them for more than 3 hours, gamers, not people in the industry. Game is probably shit. It looks it anyway.'

    or alternatively listen to people who obviously haven't played the game but say its 'probably shit'

  • Hypercube #79 3 years ago

    +1 to paulf. I've ordered this anyway, so I'll form my own opinion tomorrow (assuming it gets delivered on time).

  • makeamazing #80 3 years ago

    Game turned up today. Its for my son and his birthday isnt until Tuesday.... wondering if i should "Check" to see if it works or not... :D

  • makeamazing #81 3 years ago

    Oh please...... lets note have MGS got 8, etc etc... use your common sense, the game is rated based on what type of game/content, you dont compare each game directly against each other. Otherwise you would compare all games based on Pong or something.
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 18:51

  • VMerken #82 3 years ago

    Yes kids, this is better than MGS 4. ZOMG Wright > Kojima!1

    To be consistent, Tom Bramwell used to review only different types of games before this, yes?
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/08 @ 19:29

  • Verwandlung #83 3 years ago

    One question: Is it possible to create/evolve into humanlike creatures?

  • Chufty #84 3 years ago

    Hmm. You can't make the mouse inverted, nor change the controls. Compounds other crapness in the options menu, such as having to restart the game to change the resolution - made all the more annoying by the short but unskippable intro.

    There is actually a dsicernable game in there somewhere, but if it wasn't wrapped up in all the customisation jazz, it wouldn't be a very good game.

    And, of course, you can't make the damned mouse inverted!

  • penhalion #85 3 years ago

    Played a bit more of this today and decided not to pick up my pre-order at game. I'll get infinite undiscovery instead and maybe mercenaries.

    I finally got into space and it's just a series of missions which nearly all have the pattern of:-

    Find planet.
    Scan planet
    assimilate or steal tech.
    upgrade ship
    fight, trade with or form alliance on other planet.
    rinse and repeat.

    Oh and you can terraform barren worlds occasionally.

    ho hum......

  • dryden555 #86 3 years ago

    I'm playing it. Its very, very simplistic gameplay folks. I would take this EG review with a grain of salt.

  • djed #87 3 years ago

    NO WAY IS THIS BETTER THAN MGS4:GotP, SORRY TOMMY.

    Will buy it when expansion no. 4 is out and the OG costs < 10 DOLLARS (lol almost free!)

  • autogunner #88 3 years ago

    I got it today (thank you shopto) havent played it yet but my brother has been on it for the past 6 hours without moving, so it must be ok. I like what I see, but feel that there could be alot more depth to the whole experience

  • shamblemonkee #89 3 years ago

    it's lowest score so far is 79% got to be half decent at least.

  • DJLM #90 3 years ago

    What is up with all this hate for a game that is meant to be a lighthearted experience?

  • ConsoleCowboy #91 3 years ago

    For all who wondered why uz Germanz have given the game a 79% Score in on of our leading magazines: They translated their review to english. Spore review on gamestar.de (english)
    I really share their opinion, although I am not such a fan of customization features (in general) and would have thus given an even lower score.

  • Fillem #92 3 years ago

    t's lowest score so far is 79% got to be half decent at least.

    Remember Black & White?

  • Harmonica #93 3 years ago

    Well B&W was brilliant for a few days at least. All aboard the Spore express.

  • LFace #94 3 years ago

    Question about the Tribal stage to people who have gotten to it/past it...

    I was up late last night playing it and when I got to this stage, I followed the tutorial and created babies, collected fruit etc.. then it had the other tribe appear and I had the option of becomin friends and impressing or killing them to progress...

    I have been a pacifist so far and want to impress but when the mini-game comes on to impress them, they show a picture of like a club or something and it tells me to press the corresponding key/button but there are none... My tribe leader is selected and tutorial says it gives options as him but nothing pops up - cant right click him or the button, cant left click him or the button..

    Im at work right now so cant have a tinker but thought I would post and see if anyone can suggest what I wasdoin wrong. Have I gone too far ahead and need to discover the things they were showing me or am I missing something..

    Cheers

  • MoFo #95 3 years ago

    "Do you really think so? I think the crowd who bought The Sims are precisely the people who couldn't give a stuff about a game like this.

    Why do you think they'd be interested of all people?"

    Well let's see:

    Sims lets you customise your Sim's appearance.
    Spore lets you customise your creature's appearance.

    Sims lets you choose the path you wish your Sim to take
    Spore lets you choose the path you wish your creature to take

    Sims follows the development of little beings from birth to death
    Spore follows the development of little beings from conception to galactic dominance.

    Sims has cutesy graphics
    Spore has cutesy graphics

    Sims was designed to allow the publisher to rip us off with add-ons
    Spore was designed to allow the publisher to rip us off with add-ons

    Sims ultimately left you with a hollow feeling inside once you realised there was no real point to it all.
    Spore ... well the jury's out!

    How exactly do you imagine Sims players will not be the kind of people who'd want to play this?

    Incidentally both myself and my GF enjoyed playing the Sims and we are also both looking forward to this. Yes that's right people, WE ENJOYED PLAYING THE SIMS AND WE'RE PROUD OF IT! I refuse to hide in the closet and pretend to be another of those Sims bashers.


  • Agent_Orange #96 3 years ago

    MoFo,

    You cant really compare the Sims to Spore, as the core gameplay elements are a little different. Sure there are some broader similarities, but you don't really control your character to the extent you do in Spore. Obviously spore has different play styles for each stage too. I'd guess the most similar the two games would be is in the Spore creature stage where you have to dance etc and make friends with other creatures...

  • Krun #97 3 years ago

    I love the Sims as well.

  • hiddenranbir #98 3 years ago

    re@ DJLM "What is up with all this hate for a game that is meant to be a lighthearted experience?"

    Exactly. It's as if they didn't realise Will Wright has for years now explicitly made it clear he's going for simple games. I think people got swept up and made up their own expectations. Afterall, how many times must you have heard someone say "SimEveryting" ?

    A poor nostaligic hope of all the past "Sim" games.

    Enjoy the game for what it is not for what you hoped it to be, people. (Whatever the score and pointless review may have said!)
    Edited by 1 at 05/09/08 @ 10:57

  • Jigglybean #99 3 years ago

    I agree with dryden. Spore is awful.

  • spekkeh #100 3 years ago

    I see a lot of reviewers mentioning it's kind of a singleplayer MMO, although nobody bothers to explain wtf that means. Is that just sporepedia, or something else?

  • Trikk #101 3 years ago

    This is basically a softcore version of The Sims. You basically get to do the same thing (design your people, design where they live, manage them) except in Spore, your designs are purely cosmetic and doesn't affect the performance at all.

    I made a herbivore with his feet on top of him, his mouth inside his curved body pointing inwards, all stat parts I could find the smallest size and inside his mouth. He had no trouble fighting, sprinting, etc.

    The game starts of as a grand plan, but ultimately falls flat on its face due to the simplistic nature of it all. There's no planning for the future, the germ phase is completely pointless, the creature phase is just running around and clicking on stuff, the tribal phase is just outproducing your neighbors, the civilization phase is again outproducing your neighbors and the space phase is just flying around clicking on planets.

    You are never challenged, you never have tons of options to choose from, your decisions are largely cosmetic and of no importance to your success or failure. It looks cute and you can play around with it for a while, but in a sandboxish game such as this one, you need more depth than this.

    I'd rather play Black & White.

  • hiddenranbir #102 3 years ago

    Played it a lot now. One suggestion:

    DO NOT RUSH.

    You will miss some cool things. In creature phase I saw a pack wiped out by a meteor shower. I found a crashed spaceship and an alien spacecraft came and abducted creatures (and destroyed some!) Take your time and enjoy Will Wright's lighthearted fun.

    This is a delightfully fun game.

    lol@ohnoesclicking

    @reviewer: This is not the ultimate God Game. Will Wright never described it as such, why are you doing so? It just makes you unsatisfied.

    Will Wright made it clear in the first video when he shocked everyone that the earlier stages were all to teach players the game's concepts and tools until they were ready to hit the meta-game.
    Edited by 3 at 05/09/08 @ 22:57

  • Trikk #103 3 years ago

    Will Wright made it clear in the first video when he shocked everyone that the earlier stages were all to teach players the game's concepts and tools until they were ready to hit the meta-game.

    What meta-game? None of your decisions matter. It's dressed up a bit, but the gameplay basically boils down to "press any key to continue". There's no challenge, there's nothing to solve, no skills involved, no strategy, no tactics, no planning, no managing, nothing. To call it a light-hearted game is basically giving a free pass for companies to keep releasing shit because as long as it's pretty to look at we'll buy it.

    Fuck Spore.

  • Tlaloc #104 3 years ago

    You know, when I realised that it wouldn't cream when I machine gunned it I kinda lost interest. Call me shallow, but this game sounds like working quality control at a button factory.

  • Setaro #105 3 years ago

    Well fuck all the naysayers because I love this game. I played through to the Space Stage in the first sitting, still taking my time (about 8 hours), even though its very possible to rush job it in about 2-3. Stop moaning about 'shallowness' when we all knew the meat of the early stages is in the creators (the building and vehicle editors blow my fucking mind). There's an absolute ton of stuff of stuff to do in the Space stage, I'm overwhelmed by things and I'm still stuck in my local star cluster, which is about 0.0001% of the Galaxy.

  • Lemming81 #106 3 years ago

    Got it this morning and completed the cell phase before having to go to work. So far so good....

  • Ryuken #107 3 years ago

    "There's no planning for the future"

    I'd love to see you managing things when you suddenly decide to go for a peaceful approach in the Space stage when you've been playing the carnivore/military in all the previous stages. It's ALL about planning really. As other critics have said: the four first stages are your character creator, once in the Space stage things hold up relatively well compared to the likes of Star Control II. Not perfect by a long shot but if you can't sense the potential or a certain drive in Space then it just isn't the game for you.

  • Chalee #108 3 years ago

    If you're a creative sort who likes seeing what other people dream up you'll enjoy spore. If you like to shoot things you play gears of war.

  • sanduixe #109 3 years ago

    I have to buy this. :D

  • UncleLou #110 3 years ago

    I'd love to see you managing things when you suddenly decide to go for a peaceful approach in the Space stage when you've been playing the carnivore/military in all the previous stages.

    Doesn't make a difference, really. Slightly different perks/skills is all. It's not like you can't start a new game in the space stage with a "blank" creature, anyhow.

  • butler` #111 3 years ago

    8/10 at best. GameSpot put it best.

  • CouldntResist #112 3 years ago

    Come on guys did you ever think that they could develop a system as sophisticated as they were claiming in the previews? 5 stages all with incredible depth? An AI system that could change it's playstyle and strategy depending on an abstract set of creature desgin parameters?

    The first time i read that, i was pretty much rofllmao, this guy is talking out of his ass.

    "I'm still stuck in my local star cluster, which is about 0.0001% of the Galaxy."

    The problem is your 0.0001% is exactly the same as the rest of the 99.9999%
    Edited by 1 at 07/09/08 @ 19:18

  • Trikk #113 3 years ago

    If you're a creative sort who likes seeing what other people dream up you'll enjoy spore. If you like to shoot things you play gears of war.

    The thing is, again, you only have a limited set of pieces and your design is purely cosmetic.

    So basically it's like playing with Lego except more restricted and you can't do anything fun with the things you build.

    Sure you can call it "creative", I'd call it a waste of time.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #114 3 years ago

    I'd call it a waste of time

    Ah, but is not all gaming, essentially a waste of time?

    Comparing this to lego (actual lego, not those Travelers Tales games) is probably the highest compliment you could give Spore, and I'd say it's a reasonably fair one.

  • bongoloid #115 3 years ago

    EG - How can you give a PC game that limits a legitimate user to just three installs 9/10?
    As someone who regularly reinstalls my OS and games for various reasons, this is a long way from acceptable DRM protection, in my opinion!!!!

  • ConsoleCowboy #116 3 years ago

    Well then let's discuss Spore as a graphics tool. Lemme see if I get your opinions straight:
    As a game, it's not very good because of it's game-mechanic, and most ppl in this board who actually have played it agree with it. Comes in the design factor. Its design tools are awesome and unprecedented and make the game a good investment for some ppl. What makes the gaming crowd angry here, is that your design has nearly no effect at all for the game and is hugely cosmetic. Which is not enough incentive for many gamers to put their money in a "graphics tool".
    So can we agree on recommending it for folks who are happy with a creature-design tool + 5 (mediocre) casual games?
    Because one thing is certain from the comments here (as well as my own opinion): This game is a great disappointment for the hardcore crowd of RTS or Civ Fans and has not the expected depth (ppl obviously expected that despite Will Wright's statements whatsoever) nor any kind of innovative features (KI or gameplay wise) besides it's undoubtly great design tools.

    So what would Spore 2 need?

    1. Your Species-Design really needs to have a far greater impact on the gameplay.
    2. The series of casualgames that are Spore need to be better blendet/connected with each other.
    3. The controls must be improved and not be so vastly different from one part of the game to the other.
    4. The game should offer more variety in its stages and not to repeat the same missions over and over in the space stage.
    5. We don't need a huge universe to explore with nothing to do, nothign to see in there.

    What else?

  • bongoloid #117 3 years ago

    More than 3 installs please!

  • Verwandlung #118 3 years ago

    Lol@foolonfire haha

  • Red-Moose #119 3 years ago

    No comments in the EG review of the appallingly restrictive DRM limiting to three installs of the game and writing Securom code to your windows kernel.

    I rate this review as 2/10 for representation of the game people can actually buy in the shops.

  • actionfitz #120 3 years ago

    Erm
    Am i just being Dim or has their really been no mention on Eurogamer of this?:

    [link url=http://kotaku.com/5046552/amazon-revi ewers-do-not-take-kindly-to-spores-drm
    ]http://ko taku.com/5046552/amazon-reviewe...[/link]

    would have thought it was news worthy considering how many people will buy this game on the strength of a EG 9/10
    ...
    Edited by 1 at 08/09/08 @ 18:45

  • actionfitz #121 3 years ago

    Might also add that apparently Amazon are deleting all of the reviews that appear on the UK site.
    go to the page on amazon.co.uk and check the discussions at the bottom...

    Big Brother much?

  • bigbadbeasty #122 3 years ago

    Well I am enjoying it, already spent too much time in the Spore universe.

    It is not a shock that everyone doesn't like it. I mean, is there any game that EVERYONE likes?? Of course not. People should know if this kind of title appeals to them or not.

    The game isn't perfect, but it is highly enjoyable!

  • Barkotron #123 3 years ago

    "I see a lot of reviewers mentioning it's kind of a singleplayer MMO, although nobody bothers to explain wtf that means. Is that just sporepedia, or something else?"

    I'm guessing they mean it's a dull as fuck grindfest without even the dubious "advantage" of having a chatroom attached.

  • Krun #124 3 years ago

    What the MMO part means is that everything you create populates everyone else universe. Plus if your freinds have the game and you put them on your buddy list their creations show up a lot more often than everyone elses. However, you do not actually interact with other peoples worlds, your creations just become the NPC's in other peoples universe. I hope that explains it.

    Oh and I tis by far the easiest, and most fun galactic space game I've played. I've always wanted to play one, but found them all to be over complex and lacked things to find. Spore gets round this by sharing everyone characters with everyone else's so, there are no end to the amount of weird aliens you can find.

    If an easy to use (for the EvE player, that may read, "dumbed down";) space game, that doesn't take it self very seriously is not what your looking for then do move along. For me however the games pretty damn good, and could easily bring people into a type of game that they may never have even thought about playing.
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/08 @ 23:38

  • Megalodon #125 3 years ago

    You guys' articles are getting way off as of late.

    First the needless negativity about every little aspect of Obl...eh...Fallout 3 (when I know a few haters that actually enjoyed Fallout 3 immensely on Leipzig), and now this.

    Not good. Not good at all.

    Relax with the 'Holier Than Thou' attitude towards the gaming industry as a whole, and you'll be just fine again. I hope.

  • mingster #126 3 years ago

    3 installs only = fuck right off!

  • iter #127 3 years ago

    DRMLOL

  • Mordaan #128 3 years ago

    DRM OMG

    no way I'm buying it. And Eurogamer didn't say a word!

    SHAME!! crap packers.

    Big Brother. Big Government Big Corporations

  • Apologie #129 3 years ago

    instant buy for me...

  • 7creature #130 3 years ago

    So in the world and age of internets, where postcount >> all and everyone has at least 4 serious opinions, Spore was now proclaimed to be fail by EG posters... ggkthxnore EA! .-)

  • peppergomez #131 3 years ago

    i hope EA loses tons of $ on this from people pirating it. EA is officially the enemy.

  • captain-future #132 3 years ago

    In Soviet Russia, DRM hates you.

    NO SALE. I will not buy games with this kind of draconian DRM. Period.

  • MilkYMoO #133 3 years ago

    This game is far too addictive, beware.

  • Maximilian #134 3 years ago

    How is this game a 9?

    It's a 7 being extremely generous. First 4 parts are kind of fun the first time around. Space is repetetive.

    Just get Sins of a Solar Empire instead.