Casual games are fun, especially when they’re set in a humorous, pretty world full of visually fascinating, often giggle-inspiring creatures. Genius Comedy Central Guest: mini-games are fun. But here’s the thing-and I bet you saw this coming, Mr. I’ll be honest, Will: given that Spore is the most anticipated game of the last however-many years, the sheer simplicity of these play modes was very unexpected. Even Space phase (which is my favorite, for reasons I’ll explain in a minute) is, at its core, MMO-lite: missions amount to killing five meanies in a set amount of time, fetching a prize in classic FedEx style, or hunting for loot to collect or sell. ![]() Civilization phase amounts to an Age of Empires tutorial (although apparently, experienced strategy gamers are having a hard time with some of it -Dan Stapleton wrote you a little note about it at the end of this review). Creature and Tribe phases are Simon Says with hotkeys to ally with other creatures or tribes (by hitting the right keys at the right time) and “RTS for Dummies” to conquer them (right-click to target and attack). The Cell phase is basically Pac-Man without walls: steer your creature around obstacles toward power-ups. Because let’s be honest with each other, Will-you and I both know that Spore’s actual gameplay mechanics are elementary, and that for anyone with a modicum of videogame-playing experience, they’ll get very repetitive very quickly. You’re probably wincing when I tell you that I approached the Play phases-the actual “game,” so to speak-expecting gameplay that matches the depth of Spore’s evolution concept. Kids don’t consider the “right way” to play with a toy-they just amuse themselves with it.Ībove: The Sporepedia lets you browse your own saved creations, or those others have uploaded. Was I putting too many claws and not enough big guns on my Backgrabber spaceship? Was Peek, my L-shaped stripy creature with a vertical row of eyeballs and a jaunty three-cornered hat, well-equipped for survival in a religious civilization? Why is the Sporepedia already filled with creations that look like crafted works of art while mine look like I failed LEGOs in kindergarten? Where is a tutorial telling me the “right” way to do this?Īnd then I realized: games have tutorials. Every creator and sub-creator offers different parts to work with, and because I knew I’d be using my creations when I did eventually play the game-or that someone else could import them into their games-I was concerned about whether I was building “useful” items, whether I needed to be aware of how different parts affected my creations’ in-game effectiveness. Even in the Create section (which is where I decided to start before tackling the Play section), I felt overwhelmed at first. And when I didn’t initially find that in Spore…well, I felt kinda lost. And heck, who knew that I did? But it turns out that I’m used to a game telling me what to do-where things are, how things work, what order to do things in, how doing something will affect something else. I can see you’ve never suffered from options paralysis, Will. Or you can play without ever creating anything, instead importing what other people have created and playing with that (although you don’t ever play with other people-their work populates your game world if you turn that feature on, but the server just sucks that info down and then leaves you in peace). Or you can just play with the “Create” tools (creatures buildings air, land, and sea vehicles of military, economic, or religious varieties spaceships) and then “Share” what you’ve made in the Sporepedia, so other people can import it into their game. Or you can play them all repeatedly, but in different ways. Or you can play some over and over and never play others. ![]() After the first time you “Play” through the five more-or-less linear game phases in order (Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, Space), you never need to play them again. I mean, just consider Spore’s opening screen, where three ostensibly simple verbs-Play, Create, Share-are doorways to a dizzying array of 30-plus options ranging from playing the game to adding specific accessories to creatures. That’s not to say that I think you made something overly simplistic.
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