Spore: A game about evolution that needs more intelligent design
Playing "Spore" reminds me a bit of the Bush presidency -- it starts off fine but gets worse and worse as it goes along until you eventually realize you're stuck in something that's no good at all and questioning your judgment that led you to start the damned thing in the first place.
Character creator? Awesomely intuitive, giving even the most non-artistic people the tools to create something that's functional and feels like it's unique and came right out of their imagination. Finding 
other people's creations as you wander around your primordial ooze / continent / planet / galaxy? Very cool, especially since the uniqueness of everything you find gives you the feeling of exploration and discovery that the game is meant to provoke. You really are finding new forms of life for the first time.
But the gameplay... Oh lord, the gameplay. It starts off derivative (the cell stage is remarkably similar to "flOw") and then becomes both derivative and dull. The tribe and civilization stages are mediocre versions of "Civilization" and other RTS games, while the final stage, space, is just a terrible sandbox/strategy game with only a few things to do and constant interruptions (space raiders stealing your spice!) whenever you do find something interesting.
Fundamentally, inserting all this structured gameplay just feels like a big mistake. The creature creator is a purely artistic exercise with no restrictions. So why not make the game a much looser, free form experience with mechanics for evolution built in that players can take advantage of if/when they are ready? I know it's easier for me to say than anybody to do, but goal-free (or goal-lite) gameplay certainly worked well for "The Sims" and "SimCity," so I don't see why it couldn't work in "Spore." Instead, you've got five very structued games with very shallow mechanics and very little freedom in how you play.
Sure, to take one example, you can conquer other nations in the civilization stage through military, economic, or religious means, but the only difference is whether your vehicles are toting guns, goods to trade, or weird projections that apparently are supposed to represent deities and and are effective in converting unhappy people to your faith. For anyone who's interested in how real processes of evolution, be they biological or cultural, take place, it's ridiculously shallow and sometimes even insulting (especially that religion part. yeesh.).
For more, you can read my official Variety review. Here's an excerpt:
No game could truly capture the intricacies of evolution, of course, but "Spore" rarely comes close. In the creature stage, players can mix and match parts at multiple points, rather than watching their species evolve in a natural way. Whether one is trading, attacking, or converting other nations, the focus in the civilization stage is on taking over the world, not on how a society becomes intensely devout or jingoistic and what the ramifications are.
Chris Morris reports on the business and culture of video games and offers analysis of recent events and industry trends.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
This is an absolutely accurate assessment of the game. I applaud your honesty, as so many other stooges connected to the game biz, including many game reviewers, have failed to do. I was completely shocked at how bad Spore was. I kept on wondering, "No, this CAN'T be the game."... *looks for other CDs in box to see if something wasn't installed (no lie)*
... and then, "Oh my God, it IS the game."
What a gigantic opportunity fumbled, and fumbled so terribly. And I am pretty much the sort of person that would have forgiven this game almost anything, had it lived up to even 10% of its promises and hype. Even my 8 year old daughter, after playing through the cell stage and the creature stage, said "Dad, I think you made a mistake. This is a game for really, really young kids."
That about says it all. And it's listed as "10 to Adult".
However, I do think that the comparison to the Bush Administration is a bit harsh. At least G. W. Bush had people believing him when he said to the world: "Mission Accomplished."
Posted by: Howard C. | September 20, 2008 at 08:17 PM
It's no where as bad as the iPhone game I downloaded! What the heck was I thinking? I should have know that was going to be pointless. Makes flow look like a piece of art (which it is I guess).
Posted by: Christian Calson | September 16, 2008 at 01:48 PM
I pretty much agree with all points. The cell and creature -stages are the most fun since you can see your creature up close and see how he moves an performs, which is dependant on how you create him. The other stages are just way too shallow and the core gameplay is very flimsy at best.
Creating the buildings and ships becomes a distraction since you don't really see them up close anyway (or there's really no point to see them). The space stage gets a bit back, you have one craft, you design it yourself and you'll be with it all the time. Too bad the first mission there is bugged for me and I can't proceed past it :/
It definitely feels like it has been dumbed down at some point. It doesn't matter if your creature has 6 legs or 2, it's still moves with the same speed. The whole evolution aspect doesn't even enter the game at any point since technically, you can reduce the whole visual clutter into various statistics that you choose over others. No matter how many hands you have, you still strike at the same strength and fashion. Height and reach don't play any part anywhere. If you don't have arms, there's no way you can thrive at tribal stage in a military fashion (since you can't wield weapons and that's the only way to deal additional damage)
So in the end, the whole thing is really about human evolution, but it's just masked behind these weird creatures. At the moment I'm just playing the cell and creature -stages of the game and forgetting the rest.
Posted by: Frank | September 11, 2008 at 11:32 PM