Spore

by Nic Evans
10.08 V1.3

Spore (PC)
Score: 7

The long-awaited and much-hyped Will Wright game, originally titled SimEverything, is finally here. Spore, takes you on an all-encompassing journey of evolution from a tiny organism floating in the primordial soup to a sentient being capable of terra forming planets. This is a lot to accomplish in a single game which is probably why Spore is really five games in one. The stages are Microbial , Creature, Tribal, Civilization and Space. These are distinct because the gameplay changes at each level.

The Microbial Stage is a simple process of swimming around eating plant life and other organisms. Some of these give you upgrades allowing new adaptations by mating. It could be a new tail to make you swim faster or some spikes to protect you from predators. Once you grow enough your creation crawls onto land and establishes a nest.

In the Creature Stage you can choose to co-exist with other creatures or drive them to extinction while acquiring new adaptations and methods of survival.

After your creature learns to use tools you enter the Tribal Stage. At this point, when you conquer another tribe by force or social means you will gain access to their technology allowing your population to grow.

In the Civilization Stage you compete with other nations on a planetary scale. After dominating the planet you build a spaceship and explore other worlds in the Space Stage.

Spore is easy to play. If you like creating things, the in-game editors will allow you to customize and build a large variety of creatures, buildings, and vehicles. You can also upload your creations and swap them with others.

There has been some controversy about the DRM copy protection that installs itself with the game. It limits you to three installations and requires online activation. Many people have complained that you are essentially just "renting" the game. Which is why it's being pirated so heavily on torrent sites. Obtaining a pirated copy will install the game without the DRM but you will not be able to access the online network.

Another complaint is you are only allowed one account to host your creations. So if more than one person in your household plays you will have to share an account or buy another copy.

There will likely be console versions and the game engine is being considered for use by other developers as a platform.

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