Entries tagged: spore
Spore: First Impressions
Posted by Jon Grant
at 11:50am on Wednesday 10th September 2008.
Tags: first impressions, game, review, spore
So I've completed the first three stages of Spore; a game I have been waiting for for about the last two years. So far I have played the Cell, the Creature and the Tribal phases, and I thought I would post my impressions so far.
I think the best summary would be that it's a really fun toy: none of the modes I've played so far are "deep" enough into that specific genre to really warrant wanting to come back and play through them again. The stages I've played through so far are both too long (repetitive and a bit dull) and too short (it abruptly ends and you're expected to move on, even though you have probably only discovered maybe 25% of the available stuff).
There are some really fun touches, like seeing the occasional spaceship fly overhead and abduct someone, and there are a few "epic" creatures scattered about the world which are just huge versions of a specific creature type, and they have loads of health and give lots of food when killed (but it took about 30 deaths of my guys to kill it).
I suppose my main gripe with the game is the way some of the stages hang together; for example when you click the button to exit the tribal stage, you get a cutscene where random symbols appear over your creatures' heads and then it just dumps you into the building editor, and you're supposed to know somehow that you're designing yourself a city hall. After that you get dumped into another editor and this time you're building your military vehicle... it doesn't seem to introduce it very well. Also at the end of the tribal stage, it just throws up some text saying something like "your creature has now spread across the world, but has broken into factions"... I would have much preferred it if they actually showed this happening in the world rather than just cheating and sticking some text up there. The stages feel a bit too discrete and could have used much better storytelling to link them together I think.
So now for the more petty gripes: the control scheme is a bit rubbish. I suppose they copied it from the Sims or something, and additionally there is the need to have a consistent control scheme throughout all the modes, but still it felt kinda awkward.
Also, the tribal stage customisation is a bit lame. You get bits of outfit to put on your character: hats, shoulderguards, backpacks, and so on... but there are no restrictions on the number of hats (for example), or where you can put them... so I ended up using hats as kneeguards :) But you don't really feel like you're dressing your character, more just sticking badges on him.
So anyway despite those flaws it still is fun to play, but I don't see it having a huge amount of lasting appeal... but maybe the later stages will have more replayability, I don't know. Also I think it might be more fun if I knew a few people who were playing and then would see their creatures in my world rather than the Maxis pre-loaded ones or ones from general randoms.
There's a bit of a revolt kicking off over on Amazon over the draconian DRM that Spore comes loaded with, too. It wasn't a deal-breaker for me, but I am dreading that fourth install after wiping my PC again...
I think the best summary would be that it's a really fun toy: none of the modes I've played so far are "deep" enough into that specific genre to really warrant wanting to come back and play through them again. The stages I've played through so far are both too long (repetitive and a bit dull) and too short (it abruptly ends and you're expected to move on, even though you have probably only discovered maybe 25% of the available stuff).
There are some really fun touches, like seeing the occasional spaceship fly overhead and abduct someone, and there are a few "epic" creatures scattered about the world which are just huge versions of a specific creature type, and they have loads of health and give lots of food when killed (but it took about 30 deaths of my guys to kill it).
I suppose my main gripe with the game is the way some of the stages hang together; for example when you click the button to exit the tribal stage, you get a cutscene where random symbols appear over your creatures' heads and then it just dumps you into the building editor, and you're supposed to know somehow that you're designing yourself a city hall. After that you get dumped into another editor and this time you're building your military vehicle... it doesn't seem to introduce it very well. Also at the end of the tribal stage, it just throws up some text saying something like "your creature has now spread across the world, but has broken into factions"... I would have much preferred it if they actually showed this happening in the world rather than just cheating and sticking some text up there. The stages feel a bit too discrete and could have used much better storytelling to link them together I think.
So now for the more petty gripes: the control scheme is a bit rubbish. I suppose they copied it from the Sims or something, and additionally there is the need to have a consistent control scheme throughout all the modes, but still it felt kinda awkward.
Also, the tribal stage customisation is a bit lame. You get bits of outfit to put on your character: hats, shoulderguards, backpacks, and so on... but there are no restrictions on the number of hats (for example), or where you can put them... so I ended up using hats as kneeguards :) But you don't really feel like you're dressing your character, more just sticking badges on him.
So anyway despite those flaws it still is fun to play, but I don't see it having a huge amount of lasting appeal... but maybe the later stages will have more replayability, I don't know. Also I think it might be more fun if I knew a few people who were playing and then would see their creatures in my world rather than the Maxis pre-loaded ones or ones from general randoms.
There's a bit of a revolt kicking off over on Amazon over the draconian DRM that Spore comes loaded with, too. It wasn't a deal-breaker for me, but I am dreading that fourth install after wiping my PC again...