Spore Comments by Tom Bramwell

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...

I love the Sims as well.

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!)

I agree with dryden. Spore is awful.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Well this review turned out to be woefully misleading. At no point does it tell you how mindlessly repetitive and dull grinding through the first four levels actually is. So far Spore is a massive disappointment and a 7 at best (and that's dragged up by the editors).

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

"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.

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.

@chalee: plus 1

Personally I can be both and enjoy either. This weekend has been perfect for the former aspect of myself..as I got Spore and VP2.. creators heaven.

I have to buy this. :D

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.

8/10 at best. GameSpot put it best.

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%

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.

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.

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!!!!

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?

More than 3 installs please!

Lol@foolonfire haha

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.

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

http://kotaku.com/5046552/amazon-reviewe...

would have thought it was news worthy considering how many people will buy this game on the strength of a EG 9/10
...

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?

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!

"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.

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.

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.

3 installs only = fuck right off!

DRMLOL

DRM OMG

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

SHAME!! crap packers.

Big Brother. Big Government Big Corporations

instant buy for me...

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! .-)

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

In Soviet Russia, DRM hates you.

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

This game is far too addictive, beware.

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.