*** SUMMERY AT BUTTOM ***
SPORE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS
This game has had a lot of hype and I must confess I've been anticipating it's release for quite some time now. The concept of living and surviving through the evolutionary phases of a single cell organism to a galactic space ferrying civilization is a very cool one. Also the concepts of everything I create being shared with other players and the things they create being shared with me, and thus creating a sort of psud0-MMO-Universe is also very cool in my foolish opinion.
First Impressions: Things I Like:
I found the single cell/water stage very exciting. The objective of the game is to run around finding things to eat while avoiding things that are trying to eat you. It's a bit like another game I played where you start out as a little fish and get bigger the more smaller fish you eat, but there is always a bigger fish to eat you.
I also like how I can upgrade (a large point of the game) my little critter at various stages (by mating) to improve the stats of my little swimming critter.
After the water phase your little critter grows legs and heads for land. On land one also has to search for food and avoid being eaten. In concept that's the exciting part. Another thing one can do on land is make friends with other species. (In order to make friends you must be able ti mimic the other creatures. If they sing, you have to sing; If they dance you have to dance; and you have to do as good a job or better then they can.)
First Impressions: Things I don't like:
The swimming phase was way too short. I can understand that the game designers would feel people would want to get on with the land-based portions of the game as fast as possible; and thus I can understand that they would design it so one can complete the swimming phase in one sitting. However, I was able to complete the swimming phase in about five to ten minutes. (I didn't time it, I think I will time it for my next review.) Since the swimming phase was very exciting, I would have definitely liked there to have been more of it. One can of course always start a new critter and play the swimming phase again, but... Well, it's not the same: I am trying to get to the space age after all; It's just that I feel an important part of a game is it's challenge and I didn't find the short swimming-phase challenging enough.
I would have liked to gotten to a phase where I no longer looked like a cell but perhaps more like a fish before jumping right onto the land. Something more between single cell with testicles to land critter. Maybe even going to a phase where I could be very fish-like or lobster/crab like.
Also, while one can construct their creature to look like an insect, it might have been neat to be an insect for a while.
Another thing I didn't like is that one literally has the freedom to do whatever they want to their creature. Another area where I can understand the designers wanting to give players the freedom to do what they want; It is a game about people creating their own creatures after all; But since one can always start at any phase up to the last one they've completed... I think they should have made the "Absolute Freedom of Creature Creation" more of an unlock sort of thing then part of the "Main-Game" or "Main-Story" if you will.
The reasons I don't like this absolute freedom of design at each upgrade point are:
1. Your creature can look entirely different then it did before. You may have had six arms in one phase, and in the next phase have no arms and a bunch of spikes, and then the next phase have four arms again. - When you don't want a part any longer, you can sell it back and buy something else.
I would have liked to have seen it so you can't sell items you had from a previous phase back. I'd can see allowing the player to remove them, but they shouldn't get the value back. - In my foolish opinion. - Making the choices more challenging. Also, it would make your previous choices count for more.
2. It's too easy (especially if you know how the game works; So, say second time around playing:) to tailor your creature for to be the best at one thing in a phase, then the best at a completely different thing the next mating cycle, and then yet another specialty after the next mating cycle, so that your crature isn't really surviving on it's previous merits.
[Ok, I'm not the best at organizing a Blog. I'll work on it.]
Another thing I do not like is how easy it is to befriend other creatures. The thrill of trying to collect food without getting eaten just isn't there when a giant carnivore can be made your friend by simply approaching it in a friendly stance and then singing to it. I don't care how well a deer can sing, a wolf will always see it as a meal.
The idea of befriending creatures is a good one, I just wish It would have been made more difficult. If a carnivorous creature is hungry and on the hunt, I shouldn't be able to walk up to it and start singing to it to make it my friend. Maybe if it's got a full belly already I could see a lion talking to an antelope, but if the lions hungry I don't care how well that antelope can sing it's best chance for survival is running!
I'm not saying one shouldn't be able to befriend meat-eaters: Just that is should be more difficult, and impossible if they're hungry.
On the subject of hunger, the game says eating is important but yet my critter doesn't seem to really need to eat that often. I wouldn't want it to be as annoying as a Tomigochi when it comes to feeding, but I seem to be able to get away with a single meal per day.
As an Herbivore I'm able to find fruits laying around and hanging from trees, which is all fine and dandy, but I found that my creature can not reach the fruit at the high tops of the trees (without wings). Despite the fact that I look like a four armed (six limbed) monkey, I can't get to the fruit at the top of the trees. There's no climbing, and while I haven't tested out wings yet there doesn't appear to be any true flight in the pre-technology phases. Wings seem to only allow creatures to jump higher and glide a bit.
And my last Dislike before I go off to play some work done or play some more Spore: I am currently playing in the pack phase. I am awarded points for befriending other species. So far I've been able to befriend nearly every species I've come across, and the ones I am unable to befriend aren't meat eaters. So basically I can wonder around the world without any fear of being eaten. I'm attempting to collect allies and pack mates, and to do this I have to communicate with the other species (singing, dancing, whatever: I have to be able to copy them), and frankly it's rather dull. I mean, the whole process is: Walk up to creature in friendly stance, wait for creature to make a gesture, mimic gesture, and then repeat. I hope later phases of the game are more interesting.
=-=-=-=-=-=
SUMMERY:
GOOD STUFF:
1. Neat Concepts
2. Fun to play around with. (Like Play Doe)
BAD STUFF:
1. Repetitive
2. Not very exciting (so far) after swimming phase.
3. Gets boring (Like Play Doe)
4. No climbing
5. No true flight
6. Not challenging (so far)
Other Thoughts:
Spore seems to have broken new ground in concepts of player/user/communit made content. It has some neat ideas, but as a first generation of it's kind it seems to have lots of other short commings. I have no doubt there will be spin off games and perhaps the next evolutionary phases of games like Spore will be more enjoyable. (I can already picture games where players create their own creatures and battle them out like Monster Rancher or Pokemon.)
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