Spore - PC

Spore - PC (Released 2008)



General Info

Spore is a multi genre game which allows the player to evolve its species from a single celled organism to a dominating specie on the planet and the galaxy. It is a game where you shape your own world, you choose which species will evolve and which will extinct. There are 3 types of creatures, herbivores which eat only fruit, carnivores which eat meat and omnivores with eat both fruit and meat. There are 5 evolution phases, Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization and Space phase, to evolve into the next phase a player needs to collect DNA points and make their specie more complicated and clever by adding various elements to your specie such as weapons, feet, hands etc. As you earn more and more evolution points you get smarter and new game options are added, such as for example picking up objects once you added hands to your specie. In first three phases you control and play with a member/s of your specie and in 4th and 5th you control vehicles, boats, airplanes and spaceships which you can design yourself or choose from the list of maxis designs (It is also possible to download designs made by other players from the Spore official site). Throughout the first 2 phases you can design and shape your specie in any way you wish, you can add elements by your own choice but once phase 2 is completed your specie will forever be how it was than, in phase 3, 4 and 5 you can however add clothing and similar objects. There are a couple of planets where a new game can be started, once a certain stage is reached for the first time, it is possible to start from that stage on another without needing to repeat the whole evolution process from the Cell phase. In Cell and Creature phase, whenever needed a player and mate with another unit of its specie in order to add weapons, limbs etc. Each time this is done, a new generation is born.

Gameplay - 9/10

Since every phase of this game is pretty much a game for itself i will review each phase individually.
Cell phase: Moving is done by simply clicking left or right mouse buttons, Camera is bird perspective and as you evolve the terrain that the camera covers expands. Cell stage is extremely basic and all that is needed to do is move around and eat other organisms, when defeating stronger and more evolved species than yourself as a reward you unlock new weapons and tools which you can add to your specie, there are 6 unlockable elements in the Cell stage, an important element in this stage is that for your specie to become an omnivore it is needed to unlock all 6 unlockables which is quite challenging.
Creature phase: Stretch your legs and get out of the sea! In Creature phase, everything changes, moving is done by left mouse button while the right mouse button is now used for adjusting the camera which is now 3D, in this phase your goal is to defeat or befriend other species and as you do that you become smarter and your brain grows, however each time your brain grows, other species brains grow even more for a bigger challenge. There are much more unlocks in this phase, over a 100 to be exact and in this phase theres an option of creating a pack, that is, each time your brain grows you can add 1 more creature to your pack to follow you wherever you go. There are 4 types of friendly and 4 types of hostile moves, with 1-5 levels.
Tribal phase: Congratulations, you are now as smart as your ever gonna be, you just haven't figured it out yet. In this phase you no longer unlock weapons, limbs etc. you now unlock buildings and clothing, - how? Well, by conquering or befriending other tribes. Movement is still done by left mouse button, at first your tribe can have 6 members but as you unlock other buildings you can also have more members and you can select and dance around with as many as you want. The key to evolving trough this phase is food, at first you collect it from trees or by killing animals, depending on the fact are you a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore and later as you unlock the fishing hut you can fish! Food is used for everything, constructing buildings, making babies and of course feeding your tribe. There are 3 types of social buildings which give your tribe tools for befriending a tribe and 3 types of hostile buildings which makes weapon. This is in my opinion the best phase.

Civilization phase: No more playing with your species, the time of technology has come! In this phase you play with vehicles, boats and airplanes and your mission is to conquer the planet! No more befriending, just kill em all. However the whole planet is your species but separated just as in the real world. There are 3 types of towns, religious, economic and military. Religious towns build religious units which are used to conquer towns with low happiness (this is increased by building entertainment buildings in your towns and decreased by building factory's), economic city's are used to buy towns with which you have trade paths and finally, military units are used to destroy and conquer enemy towns. As other nation grows you can contact them and if in good relationships you can ask them for help with conquering other nations, for a price, ofcourse. (relationship is increased by bribery and conquering their enemies). Movement is done by left mouse button, right is for the camera once again. Money is gained by either building factory's or by conquering oil wells.
Space phase: Build your spaceship and visit distant galaxies! This phase is so long and complicated it could easily stand as a game by itself. In this phase controls are very tricky, moving is done by both left and right mouse buttons and leaving/entering your planet and galaxy is done with the mouse wheel. There are many galaxies and planets to visit, many items and weapons top find and buy and this is the first phase with a true story of its own, i wont give out much, lets just say your on a quest to find new species but you keep finding destroyed spaceships and towns. What could be happening? This stage is also called sandbox stage by some because you are pretty much invulnerable and it is extremely easy, all you do is travel which is of course very repetitive and after some time, extremely boring.



Graphics - 9,5/10

The best word for graphics would be - cartoonish, however, that makes Spore adequate for players of all ages. The graphics is truly great, every detail is taken concern of, every limb, weapon, tool is detailed to perfection, even the movie clips between phases and when creating new generations display even items that are there by accident. For example, you bumped an egg while mating, in the movie clip, eggs will be out of place. I am taking 0,5 points out of the score because when zoomed in maximally errors in design and construction are slightly visible.

Music & Sounds - 9/10

The music varies depending on which limbs, weapons etc. are placed on your specie, every feet for example has its own sound. It is also possible to create music in the form of anthems in the Tribal, Civilization and Space stages. Although the music is very well handled there are still some problems, like unusual accent of your specie when in space stage.

Pros- Graphics- Sounds- Creature generator
[SIZE="4"]Overall rating: 9/10[/SIZE]

Written by Reviewer

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