Spore

Spore (Electronic Arts) was supposed to be the next great thing. It missed (but not by much). You will see why in a little bit.

Spore is divided in to 5 "stages": the cell stage, the creature stage, the tribal stage, the civilization stage, and the space stage. The cell stage and the space stage got the most attention so, naturally, they were the highlights. The creature, tribal, and civilization stages are all a little repetitive.

Cell: First, you pick your creature type: carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore. Then, you swim around using the mouse or keyboard trying to eat little parts of plants or meat. You also have to avoid being eaten by other creatures that are swimming around in the same space. This stage is a lot like pac-man. Except that there is no maze.

Creature: Up until this point, you have been water bound. Now you grow legs and begin your adventure on land. In this stage you walk around and try to find little dinosaur bones that are on the ground. Getting these gives you more parts that you can use to make your creature stronger. The way you progress is by befriending or hunting other species. This stage is a weak attempt at a third-person adventure game. Although at certain parts of this stage you have access to the creature creator, which I will explain later.

Tribal: This stage does not deserve any attention. But I will give an overview. You are a tribe (as the name suggests). You try to conquer other tribes or make them allies. It goes fast and is repetitive. It's not like anything else in the gaming world, and it will be like nothing to come, it is a failure.

Civilization: During this stage you play a more traditional real time strategy game. You make a base and take over the world, 'nuff said.

Space: And now for the main attraction! The Space stage is the best and most thought through stage in the game. You make a space ship and explore the universe looking for other intelligent life. You have many powers at your disposal. Most of them are used for either destroying other space ships or making colonies. There is a galaxy of stars to explore, all have their own ecosystem and maybe life.

In addition to the game play, Spore also offers a few editors that can be used to edit almost anything in the Spore universe. The most notable is the creature creator. It allows you to make your creature anyway you want. Then after you are done with your creation, it is uploaded to the "Sporepedia" to be used by any who wish to do so.

Overall, Spore is a good buy, even if you don't do any kind of game play, you can still make the game better for everyone else. It will bring years of enjoyment from anyone who explores it's best features. You will probably end up going through the tribal and civilization stages as quickly as possible and just using the rest.

Spore gets a great 8/10

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