Spore puts players in control of their universe: They can create a creature, help it survive through its evolution and interact with other races in their own firmament. The multi-genre video game for the PC was developed by Maxis — the minds behind The Sims and The Sims 2 — and employs online-compatibility.
The creature creator, the most celebrated of Spore’s features, provides an infinite number of ways to create a monster. Players can put on up to four arms, six legs and three heads — and even decorate their monster with claws, horns, wings, mouths and other additions. After selecting the desired color for their creature, players are finished with the creature creator and can now begin to watch the evolution of their monster.
In the beginning of the game, players start out commanding their simple blob-like creature as it consumes other organisms — growing larger and larger with each swallow. After a short while, the blob grows feet and becomes a land creature.
This land creature attacks and befriends others while slowly evolving into a primitive tribal leader. The leader commands his tribe and decides what weapons or items they use and how they use them on the other tribes.
In the next stage, the former tribal chieftain advances to the leader of the planet. The final phase begins as the once-primordial creature now travels through the universe as a space pilot, choosing to make peace or war with other planets.
Although Spore features incredible customization in a unique environment, the game suffers from several flaws which subtract from its entertainment value.
The player’s camera angle changes after each of the four stages: first from above, then from behind, next from above and finally from behind again. The different perspectives annoyed me as a player and created an unnecessary learning curve after each phase. The movement also lags at times, although this side effect will vary according to computer specifications.
In addition, the game lacks the much-needed play time for it to be a success: The first, third and fourth stages last only about 10 minutes long. However, players can spend hours creating monsters, buildings, cars, airplanes and boats to customize their universe.
Spore also comes for the iPod Touch and the Nintendo DS. On the iPod platform, gameplay is limited to the water stage and operates on two modes: survival and evolution. Survival mode sends endless waves of creatures to attack the player’s monster while evolution mode takes the monster to different environments through a story line. On the DS, however, the creatures are two-dimensional in a three-dimensional world, fighting or making friends with other organisms.
I recommend this game for players who like to use their imagination to create their own game worlds. Spore costs $49.95 and can be purchased at Best Buy, Target, GameStop or Wal-Mart.
For more video game reviews, visit the Jan. 21 article, LittleBigPlanet boasts open-ended universe.