So I've entered the Tribal Phase of Spore...
After one enters this phase you can no longer alter your creatures appearance. I was pleasantly surprised about that, since before I was able to alter my creature so often it didn't even appear to be the same species from one phase to the next. I was glad to see that now some choices had to be made, and whatever they were; they'd stick!
So: At the start of the Tribal Phase I got to alter my creature for one last time. I sat there looking at the four armed monkey with a bulls face and wondered what to spend with the nearly 600 extra "DNA" (money to buy bits and pieces with) on. After several generations the creature looked exactly like I had wanted it to look... Well, almost; I couldn't find a mouth I really loved, but I had every herbivore mouth and out of my choices I picked the one I felt was best. I had all this bloody money (I mean DNA) and nothing to spend it on. I felt jipped!
Just as I had suspected: When I was finished with my critter all that extra DNA disappeared and was gone.. wasted... I was jipped! I mean: No bonus points; No larger brain; No extra tools or anything (that I could tell) for having the extra DNA. I got nothing for it! Nothing!
OK, SO! Tribal Phase!:
New things:
1. You now control multiple creatures instead of just one. (Anyone watching a preview for Spore knew about this already.)
2. Your tribe now gets tools; Like torches, spears, and didgery-do.
Goals:
1. Gather food for your tribe so you can spend it on building new buildings (like spear huts and didgery-do huts)!
2. Defeat or Befriend other tribes.
At first this phase sounded like more of the same from the last phase: Gather food which is in such plentiful amounts that my tribe couldn't starve to death if it had a population the size of New York (and I'm only allowed a max of six tribe members to start); Kill or Befriend tribes.
However, I got very excited when an opposing tribe showed up and raided my tribe's food! I was like, "Neat! Some action!" Then another tribe came along and tried to destroy my torch-hut. 'Awesome! More action!' A third tribe showed up and attacked my main-hut! Ok, this phase of the game could be interesting!
Sadly, it wasn't. I went over to the first tribe that attacked me, gave it an offering, played my marraccas for them and made them my allies. Then I went and did the same thing for the other two tribes, only the third tribe required I play didgery-dos and wood-horns for them too!
After I had befriended the nearest tribes: I no longer had the threat of being attacked by them. In fact, the friendly tribes would often bring my tribe offerings of food! As if there wasn't already enough food that my tribe could all be as large as huts themselves and still never feel hungery!
Occasionally some little critter of lesser intelligence would sneak up and attempt to steal some of my food. However when I've got a stock pile of 600+ food and the critter can only eat 5 to 10 pieces before it felt full; Most of the time I didn't even bother to shew them away.
Conclusion: Tribal Phase is more of the same Simon Says crap of the "Solo Creature Phase".
Heck, at least in the "Solo Creature Phase" I could alter my creatures appearance. At the start of the Tribal Phase I threw some clothing on and I haven't felt the neet to alter it since. If it wasn't for the fact that I'd like to play this game all the way through to the 'end' in some hope that it'll become more fun; I'd stop playing right now.
Until next time, this fool will be fooling around!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Spore: In Depth Review: Part 2: Solo Creature Phase
Or better named: The Solo Creature Until You Get a Larger Brain and Then Become a Pack Phase.
In this phase ones goals are to find food, avoid being eaten (much like the cell phase) and make friends. I also got some sort of special ability called Siron Call that I have no idea what exactly it did except make my creature sing out. Your other goals in this phase are to get points called DNA which equates to money that you can spend to modify your creature, and in the process you get a larger brain.
To gather DNA you need to either kill other creatures or befriend them. Since I had choosen to be a herbavour I wasn't interested in killing the other creatures so for me to gather DNA I ran around befriending as many of them as possible. A task that was kind of neat and felt a little like Close Encounters of the Third Kind the first time I did it, but then quickly became a repetitively boring game of simon says where the creature you wish to befriend performs some move or manuver and you have to copy it with your creature. Interestingly enough if your creature has a very high skill in one manuver, in some cases you can simply perform that manuver over and over and still achive the desired effect, while in other cases no matter how perfect you as a player copies the creature your trying to befriend: If your creature doesn't have a high enough skill they won't befriend you. No fret though, since most creatures are harmless and wont eat you wether you make them your allies or not. (At least for me. I know the game is based on player content (or supposed to be), but I'm sorry it was utterly peaceful most of the time; With the scariest creature I met being some giant-green-spider looking thing that I managed to befriend.
The idea of collecting food and staying alive can make for a very exciting game. However, I'm sad to say while the concept sounds exciting it really falls flat on it's face in Spore. Most of the creatures I ran across were not interested in eating me, and even those who might think to nibble on me were extremely easy to befriend.
Things might have been a little bit more interesting if I had been a carnivour, but some how I doubt it. At one point I was amused when a UFO flew in and started abducting creatures. However, it didn't bother me. (Too bad, I would have loved to have seen the inside of their space ship. :P )
In this phase ones goals are to find food, avoid being eaten (much like the cell phase) and make friends. I also got some sort of special ability called Siron Call that I have no idea what exactly it did except make my creature sing out. Your other goals in this phase are to get points called DNA which equates to money that you can spend to modify your creature, and in the process you get a larger brain.
To gather DNA you need to either kill other creatures or befriend them. Since I had choosen to be a herbavour I wasn't interested in killing the other creatures so for me to gather DNA I ran around befriending as many of them as possible. A task that was kind of neat and felt a little like Close Encounters of the Third Kind the first time I did it, but then quickly became a repetitively boring game of simon says where the creature you wish to befriend performs some move or manuver and you have to copy it with your creature. Interestingly enough if your creature has a very high skill in one manuver, in some cases you can simply perform that manuver over and over and still achive the desired effect, while in other cases no matter how perfect you as a player copies the creature your trying to befriend: If your creature doesn't have a high enough skill they won't befriend you. No fret though, since most creatures are harmless and wont eat you wether you make them your allies or not. (At least for me. I know the game is based on player content (or supposed to be), but I'm sorry it was utterly peaceful most of the time; With the scariest creature I met being some giant-green-spider looking thing that I managed to befriend.
The idea of collecting food and staying alive can make for a very exciting game. However, I'm sad to say while the concept sounds exciting it really falls flat on it's face in Spore. Most of the creatures I ran across were not interested in eating me, and even those who might think to nibble on me were extremely easy to befriend.
Things might have been a little bit more interesting if I had been a carnivour, but some how I doubt it. At one point I was amused when a UFO flew in and started abducting creatures. However, it didn't bother me. (Too bad, I would have loved to have seen the inside of their space ship. :P )
SPORE: In Depth Review: Part 1: Cell Phase
Alright, I've decided that since Spore is sort of several games wrapped into one: I will review spore in sections. One section for each phase in the game Spore.
Spore: Cell / Water Phase
I found the water phase of Spore very enjoyable. In fact, as of this review I am currently in the tribal phase and I have had the most fun with Spore in the cell phase. The graphics are great, the challenge (on normal difficulty) is just enough to keep things exciting. It's not so easy that I could fall asleep or leave my computer and then wake up or come back expecting to be alive; While not being so difficult that you die so often you want to throw your monitor across the room.
In the Cell / Swimming Phase (For those of you who have been living under a rock and haven't seen a preview for Spore) you start out as a cell and run around eating trying to eat either green stuff or red stuff (depending on the type of mouth or mouths you have) that is smaller then you while trying to avoid being eaten by bigger things. You can modify your little spore to either be a quick little bugger who avoids danger, a spiky slow moving prick who kills anything that tries to eat it, or any variation and combination of that.
The things I found great about the Spore Cell / Water Phase are:
1. Trying to gather food while staying alive is very exciting. It's a bit like pack man, and almost exactly like some fish game where you eat little fish, avoid being eaten by big fish, and you keep getting bigger and bigger.
2. Being able to modify your little Spore / Cell / Fish? (I guess at some point it's like a fish, though there isn't really any phase that says your a fish.) is also very fun. The modification of your species is the whole point of Spore, and it is definately very fun at this stage of the game.
3. The controls are properly easy.
4. The graphics are great.
5. The veriety of things trying to eat you helps spice things up. (It's not all one type of larger fish trying to eat you.)
Thing I didn't like about the Cell Phase of Spore:
1. It's far too short in my opinion.
2. There is no phase where one becomes a "fish". You just sort of keep becoming a bigger and bigger cell until suddenly it's time to grow legs and hop onto land.
Until next time, this fool will be fooling around!
Spore: Cell / Water Phase
I found the water phase of Spore very enjoyable. In fact, as of this review I am currently in the tribal phase and I have had the most fun with Spore in the cell phase. The graphics are great, the challenge (on normal difficulty) is just enough to keep things exciting. It's not so easy that I could fall asleep or leave my computer and then wake up or come back expecting to be alive; While not being so difficult that you die so often you want to throw your monitor across the room.
In the Cell / Swimming Phase (For those of you who have been living under a rock and haven't seen a preview for Spore) you start out as a cell and run around eating trying to eat either green stuff or red stuff (depending on the type of mouth or mouths you have) that is smaller then you while trying to avoid being eaten by bigger things. You can modify your little spore to either be a quick little bugger who avoids danger, a spiky slow moving prick who kills anything that tries to eat it, or any variation and combination of that.
The things I found great about the Spore Cell / Water Phase are:
1. Trying to gather food while staying alive is very exciting. It's a bit like pack man, and almost exactly like some fish game where you eat little fish, avoid being eaten by big fish, and you keep getting bigger and bigger.
2. Being able to modify your little Spore / Cell / Fish? (I guess at some point it's like a fish, though there isn't really any phase that says your a fish.) is also very fun. The modification of your species is the whole point of Spore, and it is definately very fun at this stage of the game.
3. The controls are properly easy.
4. The graphics are great.
5. The veriety of things trying to eat you helps spice things up. (It's not all one type of larger fish trying to eat you.)
Thing I didn't like about the Cell Phase of Spore:
1. It's far too short in my opinion.
2. There is no phase where one becomes a "fish". You just sort of keep becoming a bigger and bigger cell until suddenly it's time to grow legs and hop onto land.
Until next time, this fool will be fooling around!
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