Review

There is no way that The Sims should have worked; after all, here was a game that revelled in the mundane. Yet there was something strangely addictive about watching your little alter ego cook meals, watch telly, sleep and go to the toilet. Hours, days and weeks disappeared far too easily and a gaming phenomenon was born. Nobody would have blamed Will Wright far just sitting back, smiling and watching the money roll in but instead he has created Spore, another game about creating life but this time from the absolute beginning as a single-cell organism.

I think it’s safe to say that the first 20 minutes you’ll spend playing Spore you’ll be a little baffled. The opening minutes are spent doing nothing more than swimming around trying to gather food and grow. You’ll get to name your species, (I called mine Blinky) choose their colour and decide whether they are a veggie or a meat-eater. This section does get a little tedious but fortunately it doesn’t really last that long but it’s an odd way to start such a highly anticipated game.

As you grow you get to spend DNA points and develop larger teeth, bigger tentacles so you can swim faster or spikes to defend yourself against the various other creatures. Some of them are massive too and should definitely be avoided! Eventually, you’ll be able to grow legs, move onto dry land and into the creature stage, where instead of swimming around for food you now walk and your can start learning how to hunt and make friends.

Just like The Sims before it, Spore is incredibly easy to play. A few mouse clicks is all that’s required to perform any action in the game. The simplicity serves to make it accessible to just about anyone, it also masks a much deeper and complex game than is initially apparent. As you’d expect, there’s a delicate balancing act to everything – hunt too many smaller creatures and pretty soon you’ll become the hunted yourself.

Creating and designing your creature is all part of the fun and the Creature Creator is wonderfully easy to use that doing so is never a chore. Every appendage you add to your creature enhances its abilities in different areas. It’s not all about combat either, some increase you charm which allows you to makes friends and alliances with other species. By the time you progress to the Tribal and Civilisation stages you’ll also be able to use the creator to design clothing, vehicles, buildings and weaponry.

Play the game online and all of your creations begin to mingle with those of Spore players from all over the globe. Being able to use other players blueprints and incorporate them into your designs means that eventually I may even meet up with Blinky’s long-lost cousin if I play for long enough!

There’s every chance that in five or six years time, we’ll be tired of Spore and its endless supply of add-ons and spin-offs, just like we are with The Sims. Right now though, this is one of the most enjoyable and entertaining PC titles of the year.

About the Review

Platform

PC

Developer

Maxis

Publisher

Electronic Arts

Released

7th September 2008