Spore Not So Epic As I Thought It Would Be

Spore finally released this September after several years of development, and has been highly anticipated by myself and other simulation type fans. If you can remember back when Spore first emerged in the spotlight, you probably saw this video demonstration of the game in 2005:

One thing you will notice is the game in 2005 is remarkably different then it is today. It is as if they had already developed the game to the point where it was fairly close to completion and decided to start all over again. And as you know, it took nearly three years after this video before the game was finally released.

The one thing I think about is what happened from 2005 to 2008? It seems as if they decided to build an entirely new game for some reason. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is EA. In my mind, if Maxis had complete control of Spore it would have been released as you saw it in the 2005 video demonstration.

Instead what we got was a cartoonized version of the game to appeal to the “masses”. No blood, no complex thinking like you might see in a Sim City game. I have played through all five phases of the game, and have come to the conclusion that this game isn’t at all what I expected it to be.

The cell phase was fairly fun to start off with, creature phase incredibly boring, tribal phase too easy, civilization phase not so great, space phase pretty boring. The steps to reach the space phase seem like they are rushed, and don’t really take much effort to complete. I started the game out playing in hard mode, and admit I had to eventually start over after the civilization phase because for some reason you can’t restart a phase. The only reason is because I had no idea what was really going on when I started, ended up making enemies with everyone, and eventually got destroyed without any options other than deleting my save games. A little explanation during the civilization game would have helped.

Everything seems to quickly lead up to the space phase. It is definitely the more complex of the phases, and requires a bit more planning. But, the space phase seems a little tedious. The amount of traveling back in forth between star systems just to gather a few spices is a bit ridiculous. They should have just made the game so that your income would increase without having to go to each star system to collect your spices. You would think intelligent creatures that travel through space could develop an intergallactical bank of some sort that would automatically update based on your trade routes.

Overall, I don’t think Spore should have taken as long as it did to finally release. The customizable creatures, buildings, and vehicles is impressive, but I think the developers should have stuck with the original concept that was presented in the video we saw in 2005. The only thing that comes to mind is EA wanting to maximzie the amount of sales of Spore by releasing a game that would appeal to the general population. I feel like Spore could have been a game that would have truly defined a new step in simulation gaming, but in the end it did not live up to my expectations.

Bookmark to: