Spore

[Soviet]

Spore is a peculiar thing. I can give you a rundown.

The cell stage is extremely short and you go through it in about 30 minutes. Artistically, it is very impressive. It is extremely easy and very simple however.

The creature stage is pretty fun. The social capabilities are fairly easy to use but almost too simplified. The combat abilities are basically like most MMO's. You have ability buttons and they have recharge times. The objective is to either befriend or kill species to find 'parts.' These 'parts' are what allow you to evolve (this also applies in the cell stage). You can also find 'parts' in random bones lying around. Honestly, I found the entire concept to be kind of disappointing and not at all evolutionarily accurate. It is fun to constantly evolve your creature though. Once again, over simplified and the whole thing was over in 1-2 hours (depending on how much you stretch it.)

I was fairly indifferent to the tribal stage. The problem with it is the only way to win that I have found is essentially rush them (like almost any other RTS). Before you know it all the hostile tribes are up and if you don't act quick bad stuff is going to happen. Because of this, the tribal stage took about 2 hours the first time I played it with a carnivore and about 45 minutes the second time I played it with an herbivore. Once again, short and far too simplified.

The Civilization stage is pretty much the same. Everything moves far too fast and with only one resource to find, it is extremely simple. I never really worried about resources. The customization of all my different buildings was fun, but it did get old (considering you have to build 4 units and 4 buildings from scratch each time). I finished this stage militarily in about 1 and a half hours. Religiously I finished it in an hour. Once again, it was over simplified in every way.

Overall, all these previous stages just end up feeling like a giant customization for your creature in the space stage.

The Space stage is where the game really does something. Given the vastness of the next area, it is really a question as to how addicted you become as to how long it lasts. I set a goal in this stage, and reached it in about a week. Conquering entire empires is no easy tasks as it was in the previous stages and buying out entire empires economically is basically impossible. I'm not sure if you can do it religiously, however I have only every conquered with military in the last stage. There is quite a bit of strategy in it, and while there is somewhat of a formula to use, it actually remains pretty open ended and doesn't get old too fast. That being said, the stage has major flaws as well. Certain things can be a major annoyance, and the game gets hard to continue after you've captured about 100 planets. I thoroughly enjoyed this stage because it was original and unlike anything I had ever played before. Also, the economic aspect was a bit more complex and influenced my strategy quite a bit.

Overall, the game felt like each stage was made by entirely different people and then slapped together with a few cutscenes at the very end. The previous stages seem oddly unimportant and go by far too fast. There is a massive amount to do in the space stage, however the galaxy is so fucking huge you'd have to be insane to dedicate any serious amount of time to it (as you would probably go insane). Planet altering is very interesting, and at first creating a survivable ecosystem is fun. By the end, however, it is just a repetitive process that is annoying.

I would recommend Spore if you want to try out the excellent technology, experience something totally new, and if you don't expect much from the first stages. The game is seriously watered down in all areas (except for the space stage which is too hard due to some gameplay flaws). I don't regret buying it, but it seriously matches what I am interested in. Also, the game seems unfinished. I think if they had spent a few more months just fleshing it out and beta testing, they could have created a much more expansive and less frustrating gameplay experience.

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

I have no desire to buy Spore, I never had.

[aicaramba]

What I read about it is.. The first 4 stages are far too easy and short.. The customazation is mostly (read: entirely) cosmetic... The sepperate stages are put together as you said and the 'skills' of your kind has little to no effect on the continuing phases.
Then comes the space stage which is a lot harder as the previous stages.. You can only build 1 space ship, so no fleet and you're supposed to defend all your planets with that 1 spaceship. And that phase got repetetive quickly..

That was the oppinion of most ppl, so it doesnt really sound good to me

Oh ye, not to forget the bit where u can only install the game 3 times and that you can only have 1 profile/game.
So pretty fucked up if more then 1 ppl want to play it.

and here:
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B0 ... ewpoints=1
from 1 to 5 stars, the game gets 1.4 rated by nearly 3000 ppl.

Just to make clear: This is what i read about the game, not my personal oppinion.

[Soviet]

The profile thing isn't really true. While you can only have one profile, you can start games on about 10 different planets which are so far apart in the galaxy they are practically separate profiles.

The customization of the body is cosmetic, however the parts you add give statistics to your creature. Any modifications to size or actual place of the parts have no effect on capability though.

The 1 space ship is the problem thing I was talking about. You have to avert economic disasters, pirates attacking your planets, pirates raiding your resources (really doesn't matter that much), and any empires you are at war with attacking you. It does get repetitive, but not all too quickly. There is enough variance for it to be entertaining for a long time, however you have to reach a level of depth in the game to experience it.

As for the reinstall thing, I believe you can talk with EA and get it working again or whatever (similar to microsoft and reactivating a copy of windows).

It is still a big leap in gaming, it is simply unfinished.

[Nightmare]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... /218-Spore

I might/might not get it, not on the top of my list at the moment.

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

Probably gonna get loads of patches/expansion packs.

[aicaramba]

I heard EA is going to 'fix' the 3 install problem..
You can still install it on 3 computers, but you can undo the install aswell, so you still have 3 installs left. Which is fair imo.
It was made to prevent piracy, but if i would download the game, I wouldnt have those problems. So I think it only increases piracy.