With a fiery crash, a giant meteor explodes into the atmosphere of a strange planet, sending hundreds of fragments into the depths of a primordial ocean. One of the fragments breaks apart and a small cell emerges. This epic introduction marks the beginning of Spore, an ambitious game spanning billions of years and thousands of galaxies.
Although presented as a Darwinesque evolution sim, Spore is much more about creation. Throughout the game, players have the ability to create and alter cells, creatures, clothing, vehicles, buildings and eventually entire planets. Spore’s creation tools are accessible and astounding, allowing for near limitless possibilities when it comes to playing God. Player created assets are used in the five stages of Spore: cell, creature, tribal, civilization, and space. All five are completely different experiences, ranging from the simple "eat or be eaten" cell stage to the complex universe-spanning space stage.
"Although presented as a Darwinesque evolution sim, Spore is much more about creation."
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The cell stage begins your organism’s evolutionary journey. Its tiny length is a plus because the simple gameplay consists mainly of consuming and evading goggle-eyed enemies inhabiting the ocean. Players navigate through perilous waters, growing larger and more capable as they unlock new body parts, each named for their capability. Some parts, like "poison" or "electric", enhance your cell’s offensive capabilities, while others, such as "jets" or "spikes", improve maneuverability and defense. The aquatic environment also evolves as you progress, from a plain blue sea to an animated ocean in which giant sea dwellers can be glimpsed among multicolored flora in the distance.
After growing to be the most formidable being in the ocean (by cellular standards, at least), your cell is able to grow legs. Taking the journey ashore marks the beginning of the creature stage. Your intrepid cell is not alone in its pilgrimage to dry land; many other bizarre creatures have also taken up residence on your planet. Interaction with these species is limited to either hunting them with your newly unlocked offensive appendages or befriending them through social interaction. This basic gameplay doesn’t evolve very much throughout this stage, but meteor showers, alien abductions and random attacks by colossal, "epic" versions of creatures shake things up. The ambient music, written in part by famed producer/composer Brian Eno, is immersive and dynamic, growing fiercer for carnivores or more soothing for herbivores.
Once your creature’s brain grows large enough to become sentient, the tribal stage begins. The tribal stage is essentially a pared down RTS game. Food is the only resource to collect, and is accumulated by hunting non-sentient creatures, fishing or by picking fruit from trees and bushes. Food is used to add units to your tribe and to construct buildings. Buildings, in turn, provide tribal members with necessary equipment, ranging from musical instruments to stone weapons. The goal in this stage is to either conquer or team up with the other tribes that populating your planet. There is unfortunately little creation in this stage to break up the monotonous gameplay besides dressing your creatures in tribal garb, making this the least fun section of the game.
After becoming the most dominant tribe on the planet, players move on to the civilization stage. Although played in real-time, this stage is very similar to a Sid Meyer’s Civilization game, though much more rudimentary. Players can now view the entirety of the world they explored in previous stages. Exploits that were once arduous tasks, such as journeying to the far reaches of the map, are rendered much easier through the use of player-designed vehicles and buildings. The vehicles can be constructed in a variety of ways. Giant land cars that walk on robotic limbs, boats with automated paddles and planes that take off through the use of bulbous balloons are all potential means of transportation. These buildings and vehicles can be used to conquer other nations through military, religious or economical means. Once you control the entire planet, you have the ability to journey into space.
"The simple game mechanics inevitably become repetitive."
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The space stage is the most complete game out of all five stages, which is good, because most of your time will be spent on this level. Players now control a single spacecraft which can be outfitted with numerous weapons and futuristic gadgets, provided you have the necessary "Sporebucks." Sporebucks can be earned by completing various missions for other galactic empires. Missions range from capturing a citizen from a neighboring planet with your abduction beam to searching the cosmos for rare artifacts. Although missions may be the primary way of obtaining currency, there are plenty of other engaging activities that benefit you financially, including waging intergalactic war, colonizing and terraforming planets and preventing ecodisasters on your own planets. The scope of the space stage is impressive. Players can zoom all the way down to a planet’s surface and wreak havoc on its primitive inhabitants or zoom all the way out to a view of the entire universe in order to plot a course to its center.
Although each stage is completely different from the rest, all five are plagued by the same problems. The simple game mechanics inevitably become repetitive. Some of the activities are fun the first few times you perform them, like conducting concerts to befriend other tribes in the tribal stage, but they become relatively boring toward the end of the stage. Players will be yearning for the next stage to begin before the current stage ends. Also, the forgiving nature of the game means one can just brute force their way through each stage without giving much thought to strategy or tactics. Most of the battles fought in both the tribal and civilization stages are wars of attrition, decided almost entirely by whoever has the most units. The space stage is initially more complex and by extension, more fun. But ultimately, it too becomes stale. Every mission is basically just a fetch quest, and having to constantly return to your colonies to ward off pirates or prevent ecodisasters gets to be annoying. Echoing the repetitious gameplay, the sound design in the space stage is aggravating. Players are required to converse with aliens and the alien’s limited voice samples are recycled repeatedly.
Although the gameplay of Spore can be downright mediocre at times, the creation aspect of the game never gets old. Whether they’re making alien spacecraft, buildings, or creatures, players will likely spend hours fooling around with the various creators. The creature creator is the best of the bunch. Being able to make the most absurd of creatures -- monstrosities with mouths on their butts or arms coming out of their face -- is amazing in itself. But Spore is more than just a static art game. Having creatures appear flawlessly animated in the game world, makes players feel as though they’ve brought life to an evolutionary oddity.
"Being able to make the most absurd of creatures -- monstrosities with mouths on their butts or arms coming out of their face -- is amazing in itself."
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Once players create a bizarre alien in Spore, they have the option of uploading it to the internet where it has the opportunity to be downloaded and placed into the game world of other Spore players. You can also subscribe to other player’s Sporecasts. This allows players to have their game automatically seeded with their favorite creator’s handiwork. This personal touch alleviates some of the more boring aspects of the game. For example, the combat in the creature stage can become a chore quickly but it’s much more thrilling to eradicate a species designed by a friend or sibling.
The creation and community tools are what elevate Spore above its shortcomings. Despite the shallow gameplay, it’s hard to imagine anyone getting tired of designing outlandish organisms and then sending them to their friends. Hopefully, expansion packs, like the Cute and Creepy Parts Pack, will increase Spore’s longevity by adding new parts and functionality. Although it may not be the most compelling videogame in terms of gameplay, Spore is definitely an attractive purchase for the creatively inclined.
