Okay, I haven’t written in a while. It’s a blog. I’m lazy. Work it out.
Anyway, I picked up the new long-awaited EA/Maxis title “Spore” today. I don’t normally get games the day they come out, but this one has been on my list for a long time.
What to say about this game? It’s certainly unlike any game I’ve ever played. Which is going to sound strange, given that my next statement is that it’s exactly like a lot of games I’ve played previously (and loved). How to reconcile this apparent contradiction? The key lies in the fact that Spore is not really one game. It’s five games.
Five games? How could one game be five games? Well, it’s how Maxis has broken down the gameplay that does it.
The premise is that you are mimicking the development of life from the earliest moments of cell development clear through to a sentient space-faring species capable of interstellar travel. Ambitious, eh?
You go through five distinct stages of development. Each stage is basically its own Mini-Game within the larger context of the development. The stages are:
1. Cell stage - You pilot a single-celled organism through an ocean teaming with other critters. Many far larger than you. This is a very simple game, basically swim and eat, attackand run away. As you grow, you have the option of outfitting your cell with extra flippers, spines, acid spitters, etc. This stage is actually pretty fun to play, since there’s not a lot of strategy involved, and thankfully it moves along pretty quickly. The stage ends by you evolving legs and moving onto dry land.
2. Creature Stage - Basically, you’re in a nest with others of your species. You must seek out other groups of critters and either attack, or make friends with them. Along the way, you must eat, and discover bonuses that let you evolve your critter further. (Add spines, arms, hands, opposable digits, horns, etc.) This stage drags on a little, but this is the stage where your critter really starts to take shape, so the various interactions you’re performing are really more to just show off what your creature has added through development. The stage ends as your critter’s brain expands to the point they discover fire. You then move to…
3. Tribe Stage - Now, I was frankly dreading tribe stage, based on some early reports of friends who played the game. But I have to say, this isn’t really bad at all. Your critter is finally fully evolved, and now you’re out against other criters at a similar level of development. (Think early homonids. Homo Erectus vs Neanderthals vs Homo Sapiens… Except the other species you’re encountering may or may not be even remotely humanoid.) Your goal here is to attack or befriend (or perhaps a little of both) 5 other tribes. Here is where RTS strategy first comes into play. Though it’s a lot more primitive than most RTS games you’ll get today. There’s military, diplomacy, resource gathering, etc, but on a fairly small scale, and your technological tree is really bare-bones. I suppose this is by necessity, otherwise tribe stage would be a game into itself. Which it really could be. I wouldn’t mind. I think the complaints are from people who are dissapointed with it because it a) is not enough like a “real” RTS game, or b) is TOO MUCH like an RTS game, without the depth they’ve gotten used to. Playing titles like Warcraft II, Age of Empires, Starcraft, C&C, etc you expect a lof more than this stage offers. Once you’re either friends with, or have wiped out, the other tribes, you enter…
4. Civilization Stage - This is even more like an RTS you may be used to than the Tribe Mode is. Here you have buildings, unit support, sea units, land units, defensive emplacements, limited resource points, the works. Again, very slimmed down compared to a modern RTS. The advantage here is you get to design the buildings, the vehicles, everything. Really, throughout the game, the focus is almost more on designing unique things than it is on gameplay. Eventually, you must capture, purchase, or persude all the other cities on the map (planet) to join your cause to proceed to the final stage…
5. Space Stage - Woh. Suddenly, you go from being one petty little species, master of your planet to having spaceflight. Not just spaceflight, but interplanetary, heck, interstellar spaceflight. Soon you’re contacting alien space -empires, setting up trade routes, conducting diplomacy, all on a very similar scale to Side Meier’s Civ games–only in space. (I’m sure there’s other space-trading games out there that would compare better, but I actually haven’t played many of these.)
Further notes: Really, this game is far more than the sum of its parts. The thing that is woven throughout the entire game that is truly groundbreaking, and likely will be the reason this game is remembered as a pivotal moment in gaming history, is the fact that the game content is shared. What does this mean? Let me explain.
When you create and play through Spore (on any one of the 5 levels) your species (if you so choose) gets uploaded to the online Spore server. At the same time, the other species you encounter from the game are gathered from the same online database. Basically, you’re playing against critters, vehicles, spacecraft etc that OTHER USERS have created, not the game designers. This is a big reason why so much of the game hinges on design. The epic scale required for this game basically caused the Spore designers to realize that there was no way they could make enough content to populate the Spore universe. So they made the users do it. Laziness? Or genius? Perhaps both. Whatever the motivation, the outcome is that the depth of design in the game is literally inexhaustable. You will never EVER have the same game experience twice, no matter how hard you try.
As to the game itsef… I’m not entirely sure yet. It seems fun, so far. The Space mode seems to be incredibly more sophisticated than everything else leading up to it, and I’ve really only touched the surface of that so far. I may come back with an assessment of that in a few days.
I must say, that if you’re coming into Spore expecting a single tightly-knit gameplay experience, you’re in for dissapointment. This game is really all over the map. The flip side of that, however, is that once you play each mode ONCE, you can then choose to start at any mode you prefer for future play. You also have the ability to go back into your personal library and reuse your vehicle/building/spacecraft designs if you get tired of designing things.
The plus on this game is really what it’s going to do for future gaming. The ability to share game elements bewteen online users the way this system does–well, let’s just say there’s a LOT of potential there.
Game may be worth checking out just for that, despite being a little schizophrenic otherwise.
