Thoughts on Spore
September 22nd, 2008 |
So, Spore has been out for a while, and we have been able to finally play this enormous game we have been waiting for for years. Game critics has recieved the game with high scores, and we have had some controversy about spore piracy. But what do you think about the game? Here are some of my thoughts.
The phases of Spore
The big challenge was to make the phases of Spore stand out and make an incredible experience. I think they have done this, but it is clearly some improvements that could make the game a lot better. The challenge with making Spore is that you need five different games, meaning you need to use five times the resources of a normal game. Spore clearly haven’t reached up to the big games if you look at one phase alone, like the civilization phase. If you are really into realtime strategy, you have a lot of games that do this better than spore. Many phases lack the depth of a full game, and it seems like the early phases are just a journey you have to take to reach the space age.
And I think this is what makes Spore great. The individual phases don’t have the depth, but if you put them together, and follow your little creature from the tidal pool all the way up to the space age, you have a journey other games can’t match.
We have written about all the phases, if you are interested in what these phases involve:
Spore is not suited for hardcore gamers?
This is a statement I would make about Spore. It is not a hardcore game, just like The Sims wasn’t a hardcore game. A RTS-fan will not get the depth (s)he wants in the tribal or civilization phase, and hardcore gamers will have no problem completing the first four phases without problems every time. But a novice gamer (noob is you want) that doesn’t have these expectations about RTS, RPG and so on will enjoy the journey and not worry about story line (is there any in The Sims?). It think Spore will be a great introduction to unexperienced gamers to the joy of games, just like The Sims did it a few years ago.
Evolution or creationism?
I would argue that Spore is not evolution, but creationism. Your spore creature doesn’t evolve in any natural fashion. Instead there is a creator (you) who decide how the creature should “evolve”. Thinking of Spore as a simulator for evolution should stop. Spore is an arcade creationism simulator.
I will provde more thoughts later, but feel free to share your thougts. If you have much to say, you can also be a guest poster on the blog if you want.
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