|
|
PC: Spore Review
Will Wright. For those who dont know him hes that guy who created a ton of titles with the word Sim in it. Most notably, The Sims which managed to change the way gamers looked at god games. Well, Mr. Wright is back, and this time hes combining his love of simulations, an out-of-this-world creation tool, and a handful of different genres to create a game worthy of his reputation. What emerged from this technological primordial soup can be described simply, in a single word Spore.
Spore is, at its core, a god game. Youll be guiding your species through its existence as you attempt to become a shining example of Darwins motto, Survival of the Fittest. How you perform this task is where this game gets its charm.
You begin life as a tiny cell, swimming about, looking for sustenance in either meat or vegetable products using controls that resemble more Pac-Man than state-of-the-art PC technology. As you eat in your liquid habitat, youll notice that youre gaining DNA. These building blocks of life work like money when it comes time to evolve your critter into something a bit more powerful than a single-celled, single-eyed blob. Evolve enough and youll spring from the water, sprout legs, and take the adventure to the land.
In the creature stage youll wander the countryside in search of food, a mate and a warm nest to call your own. Much like the cell stage, youll gain DNA to evolve while avoiding the larger, more aggressive beasties that share your living space. When fighting isnt an option, you can always turn on the charm and attempt to become friends with the nere-do-wells that could easily squish you. As you reach various evolutionary stages, youll notice that your once pea-sized brain is growing right along with you. Get enough smarts and youll make a fire, build a hut and begin the tribe stage.
Tribal life resembles more of a real-time strategy than the more action oriented environment of the past. Youll be responsible for gathering food and building structures, all in an effort to become the best village on the block. Creating new buildings is a must as they allow you to develop and use new weaponry and items to either destroy or woo your opponents.
Much like every civilization from our past, despite how archaic they may be, technology always improves and society becomes much more organized as time progresses. This leads us to our final two stages, civilization and space. Its hard to imagine that our tiny, one-celled spec is now part of a fully-functioning city where youll now be able to convert and conquer other species in order to rule the globe. Once your world conquest is complete and your technology is at a peak, build a flying saucer, explore other planets, and test your species might against the galaxy.
When alls said and done, Spore brings god game to a whole new level. With its unbelievably deep design tools, multiple genre gameplay, and hours upon hours of family-friendly fun, Will Wright has truly proven himself worthy of his legendary status.
About the Author
Ryan Clouse writes for a syndicated newspaper column as well as UGT-Servers. To get more game reviews, and outstanding deals on ventrilo servers, please visit UGT.servers.com.
See Also:


Posted
on
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 11:00 am under

