Spore | a Review
originally published on 22/11/2021;
Hello everyone, I am the multi-cellular organism, simultaneously with that the ultimate single cell organism, G.E.M.Simov, a goon of unbelievably immaculate biological properties, and today I will mention Spore… In detail.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Also, I am a gameplay designer and a writer so I got the credentials to talk shit.
Gameplay
Spore is an intriguing game that possesses not one, not two, but five genres, and dedicated time and resources to each one of them.
The game is split into five stages - the Cell stage, the Creature stage, the Tribal stage, the Civilization stage and the Space stage. I will have to take a look at all five of them, as all five of them are, technically, different games, in and of themselves.
First, the player starts off in the Cell Stage. Their character is a Cell, and the player can pick whether their Cell is a Herbivore or a Carnivore. That defines the playstyle for the Cell stage, and then the game begins. A top down perspective, on a plane that has an X and Y axis, but no Z.
The player takes up the middle of the screen, and moves either by clicking with the mouse or pressing the WASD buttons. It is, fundamentally, a bit similar to an ARPG. The player's goal is to eat - plant matter or meat, based on what they chose - and survive. There are plentiful options to die - boredom, if the player has picked a Herbivore and cannot find food, which is very common, or other cells.
Whenever the player consumes a piece of food, they receive a DNA point. Upon receiving a number of DNA points, the player gets urged to mate. When the player mates, that's when the fun part begins - creature creation! The player might have unlocked extra 'parts' during their wanderings as a cell, and in the creature creation screens, they can use the DNA points they have accrued to add new parts to their Cell. Not going fast enough? Add Flagellas for speed. Not feeling safe enough? Add spikes. Not feeling the Herbivore playstyle anymore(believe me, you aren't)? Swap to Carnivore, or, better yet, Omnivore.
As the player accumulates DNA points, their cell grows 'bigger', starting to encounter other cells, and having the smaller ones totally disappear. It is kill or be killed, so the player needs to either become proficient in running away and maneuvering fast enough, or they will need to develop defenses that help them withstand attacks. Lastly, they could decide to be very deadly themselves, and kill everything in sight.
Fortunately, that is all there is to the Cell Stage. Just eat, grow bigger, until, one day, the player's character develops a fifth of a brain. That's when it's time to slap a pair of legs onto the creature and set out for the next stage.
But, first, I need to mention that the Cell stage is strangely quick. In fact, it is so fast that it can be completed in a miniscule ten minutes. Naturally, there are very few means of improvement, as there are a total of six things that can be meaningfully changed to make the player's Cell stronger, in some sense, and then another two changes that can take the player out of the fun place, Carnivorousness, or throw them in the no-fun zone, the Herbivore zone.
I should focus on that a bit more. The way the player gets food, as a Carnivore, is simple - either find bits of meat floating about, or kill other Cells and eat them. Fortunately, there are ALWAYS other Cells around. There is no moment when the player cannot find another Cell to assail, kill and eat.
The way the player gets food, as a Herbivore… Well, as folks would say, GIT GU– lucky. Get lucky. The player can either opt to be very fast, and have no defences, so they can outswim other Cells and get the bits of plant matter that are resting there. More than three thirds of the time, the other herbivore cells will outswim the player and get to eat the plant before the player. That creates long swathes of time spent by the player just swimming around, looking for food, exposed to danger. If the player gets lucky, they can find a large plant thing that has MANY bits of food on it, which will, most often, get the player to a new size by themselves. But the long periods of just swimming around, looking for food, being exposed to great danger, are just… Lame.
In addition to that, the fact that there's very little variety, and the speed at which the Cell stage passes, leaves me a bit unsatisfied. It is a bit of a shame, as it seemed as though it had loads of potential, but, upon thinking about it… It is exactly what it needs to be. An introductory sequence to what Spore is - an evolution simulation for a species created by the player.
Well, that's the Cell stage. It is fun. It could be a lot better. Next up, however, is, frankly, the reason why people play Spore. Creature stage.
After putting on a pair of legs, the player gains access to the third dimension - the X and Y axis now have a buddy - the Z axis. The game becomes, from a top down ARPG, a bit in the vein of Diablo, a third person RPG, a bit in the vein of the MMORPG, born by World of Warcraft.
The player gains access to many new skills and abilities, they gain access to movement options such as sprinting, jumping, gliding, sneaking, swimming, and just walking around. They gain access to grasping things with their hands. They can utilize different parts to give themselves Social or Combat skills, which they then use in interactions with other species.
The game becomes a large, open world sandbox which features one task - go out there and get more DNA. How can the player get DNA? Well, by interacting with other species.
Combat features the interaction of TOTAL ANNIHILATION and irreversible extinction. The player is 'tasked', or, rather, presented with the option to exterminate a species. After killing a number of creatures from that species, each kill netting the player a bit of DNA, a large amount of DNA is provided, the species in question gets KOd, and they all… Disappear.
Be it through charging at them and stunning the viciously, be it through striking at them with sharp claws or other bludgeoning implements, be it through spitting poisonous projectiles at the target, or just old fashioned biting, the player can queue commands, much like they can do so in an MMO, by which will lead into them performing the action, while standing and waiting for the cool down period to go off, so that they can then do it again. Hopefully, the enemy's health bar expires before yours!
Social features the interaction of forging an alliance with other species. This one is a bit more interesting, conceptually. The player is 'tasked', or, rather, given the option to, befriend another species. Walking up to a member, in the social stance, and screeching at them, initiates a game of Simon Says. The player observes what the other creature does, repeats that, and hopes that the level of their social abilities is as high as, or higher than, the other creature's own social abilities. There is a bar that gets filled in accordance with how well the player does the Simon Says minigame.
Doing that minigame will have the player dancing enthusiastically, singing in a manner so ludicrous it is comedic, charming the other creature by being charming… And then also posing triumphantly. After impressing three members of a certain species, the player gets a bit of DNA for each of them, and then a large amount of DNA as a result of completing the alliance.
This is where the balancing issues appear. Some species can only be exterminated. Exterminating a species nets the player many times MORE DNA points.
Sometimes, an aggressive species will attack the player, while the player is trying to do the Simon Says game with them, and make that species either lead into the player's death, or lead into the player retaliating, which leads into them becoming exclusively exterminate-able.
These are 'little' things, but they really add up. Fortunately, there are other little things that make the whole thing more… Tasty. Introducing Rogue creatures - Goons that have five times more health than the strongest ordinary creature, who are very hard to kill or ally with, and who are the pinnacle of gaming. Killing one, or becoming their ally, nets the player a whopping 100 DNA. In the case of allying with them, there's the added bonus of being able to add that Rogue creature to one's pack.
What is the pack? Well, let me dial it back down a bit. As the player gains DNA, their brain is going to grow. There are three stages of brain growth, and then a last one that renders the player stronger than any creature, other than Rogues. Whenever the player reaches a stage of brain growth, they get a 'pack slot', which allows them to do the Simon Says game with one of their allied species, and, after doing so successfully, that creature will join the pack, and will run around with the player, helping them fight or socialize with other creatures.
So, having creatures in one's pack helps a lot, as the bigger the brain, the harder it is to socialize with or kill another creature. Having help is just… Reasonable. Getting back to Rogue creatures, them being hard to ally with, or kill, means that having one join the player's pack is kinda like cheating, because the player gets an insanely strong buddy that makes almost everything easier.
Lastly, in the Creature stage, there's one very important aspect. The accumulation of parts has been boosted by… I don't know how many times, but there are at least a hundred of them, whereas in the Cell stage, the player only had… Twelve. Whenever the player goes ahead and has their creature mate, they enter the Creature creator, and that's when they can do the fun having of Spore. Anything the player can imagine, as a creature… They can do it. Make a big fat ball that flies around on tiny wings? Done. Make a lanky, giraffe-esque bird? Done. Make a worm with a beak? Done. Make something? Yeah, you can do that.
The Creature creator, being the most amazing thing in Spore, really makes it easy to see why the Creature stage is the best part of the game, even when not looking at it Gameplay-wise. Being able to create a wildly fantastic creature, and then play AS it, is incredibly entertaining. And, when one takes into account the fact that the sheer means of walking about and doing things in this stage is relatively fun… Well, it is a winning combination.
Then, when the brain is as big as it's gonna get, the player can move on to the Tribal stage. The species discovers fire, and they then build a house. Tribe time.
The Tribal stage features… Wait for it… RTS elements, but mixed in with colony management. Gather food, feed your tribe, and then also go ahead to interact with other tribes - much like the Creature stage, the options are: Murder or Friend!
But what is the goal? Either befriend or kill the other tribes. Do whatever you want, frankly. For the tools, the player gets to use tools, such as ones that increase food production, ones that make being social possible, and ones that make murder easier. To get any tools, though, the player needs to build a building in their tribe, and that requires food. So, send out the tribesmen - whose diet is affected by previous stages, and some only eat meat, some only eat fruits, and some eat whatever - have them collect that food, but careful! Other tribes, who dislike the player, might come to steal your stuff. Or some wild animal can decide to do it as well. It is what it is. Well, let's get back to what happens.
Friend or Murder?
Befriending a tribe involves equipping a number of the player's own tribe with musical instruments, walking the whole tribe, or a large number of it, over to another tribe, and doing… Simon Says, but different. The other tribe will look on in confusion as the player's tribesmen file in, get into position, and then… They play some music. The other tribe says: "Gib didgeridoo!" And the player, in their wisdom, gives them didgeridoo. Do that a few more times, and they are now friendly. Do the whole minigame again, and succeed - Allies.
Then there's murder. Simply select the entirety of the tribe, find the other tribe, and right click. Observe as your goons murder the other goons, and then make them kill the babies, so that no other tribesmen of opposing inclinations can be born, and then destroy their big hut. That is that.
Murdering a tribe, or allying oneself with them, nets the player a totem. At different intervals, getting X number of totems, increases the size of the tribe's village and makes it possible to field more tribesmen at a time.
And… That's about it. Everything, almost, carries over from the previous stages, but I will talk about that later, so consider it. The important thing here is that… Well, it is very easy, once you know how to do it. If someone does not like the player tribe, give them a gift. Send the tribesmen to gather food, get around fifty, or a hundred, then do whatever. Murder or Friend, it is about as easy in both cases. This stage is, much like Cell stage… Lacking. The aspect of managing the tribe, taking care of their hunger, is quite interesting, but the whole thing is very bare-bones. It could have easily been better, but it is not. It is also very important to move fast in this one - at least, that is my perception, so that's that. I don't really like going all that fast in strategy games.
After Tribe stage comes the Civilization stage. The tribe becomes a civilization, and builds a bigger house. It also builds a CAR. That's where Spore's other creators come in. Design a vehicle. It can be as impractical and stupid as desired, it still works. Build a house. It can be a big ball for all I care, just build it. There is an insane amount of stuff the player can do with these Creators, but they are limited by the lack of a grid or a means to keep symmetry. Stuff only sticks to other stuff of certain types, and it is a bit hectic. Other than that, though, it is all good fun.
Civilization stage… That is when the game becomes a true RTS. Very slight presence of some diplomacy exists - telling the other civilizations that they have nice lands, or giving them money to make them like the player more - are, frankly, the only way of diplomacy. But, everyone will just dislike everybody else, because… Well, international relations, amirite?
Much like the Tribe stage, Civilization stage has a strategy. Design a vehicle that goes as fast as possible. Only speed. 100% speed. Then, in the half of a second that the player is the only civ(civilization) on the map, pause the game, buy as many vehicles as possible, and ride out to capture all available spice geysers.
Yes, the currency becomes spice, rather than food. Yes, it is gathered from geysers, which the player takes control of by applying a spice derrick. Yes, the tribesmen are no longer what the player has control over, but, rather, a city and some vehicles. Changes, so on and so forth. Based on what the player controls - at the start, spice derricks, later on, mostly cities - the player generates spice over time.
How do cities generate spice? Well, there is an interesting minigame… Is it a minigame? Well, whatever it is, there's a small layout… Puzzle, I figure, that can be utilized to build a city up and make it produce spice. There are three buildings - Entertainment, Housing and Factories. Place them so and so, making sure that there is enough happiness - generated by Entertainment and drained by Factories - but also enough profit - generated by Factories. And so that's that. Happiness comes into play later.
So the strategy is to design the fastest vehicle, grab all derricks available on the continent, then, when that is done, actually design vehicles that can take a hit and maybe dish out some damage. Prior to that, though, let me tell you, dear reader, that something interesting happens here. There are three means of approaching the situation.
The player can either perform a military takeover, a religious takeover, or, through financial means, can buy another city. There are three, not two, and, thus, there is an opportunity for GAMING. Naturally, they all play in almost the same way. When it comes to religious and military, it is literally the same approach, and it is only thematically different. Purchasing is more intriguing, but let's get to it.
Military - build up a bunch of vehicles. Ride on over to the city of choice. Select all the army, right click on the city, and wait. When the victory is yours, congratulations, you have captured a city. Military tends to be the best at fighting other vehicles and is also quite decent at taking out cities.
Religious - build up a bunch of vehicles. Ride on over to the city of choice - preferably one that is not happy, as that means less vehicles will be damaged/lost, and it will be taken over faster. Right click. Observe the fireworks and the big, holographic projection of your creature. It is a bit weird. See, Religious civs take over cities by m doing up their sources of happiness and disabling their turrets. The religiously attacking vehicles take damage as they battle, but, otherwise, how does one deal with religious pressure? Who knows. Either way, religion wins against unhappy cities, unless, of course, the player/AI does not have too many cities, in which case they can just throw out a thousand units and ruin one's religious attempts. They really have the capacity to take cities super quickly, although they aren't all that good against other vehicles… or so it seems.
Commerce, Purchase, Economics - No fighting for you. Establish trade route. Make money. Offer to buy. Buy. Repeat until you buy everything. Commerce vehicles can make trade routes which generate extra spice, but can't fight anything. The only defense here are the turrets that can be peppered around a city. This is a really neat means of dealing with the situation.
At the halfway point, after taking control of four cities, the player gains access to THE AIRPLANE, which is just another excuse to design a vehicle, gain air superiority and win more. When every city is under the player's control, that is when the next, and last stage, begins.
But, first, Civilization stage. Is it fun? Well, not really. The AI cheats - and it is incredibly egregious, but that seems to be the only way most designers have been able to do difficulty in strategy games - the AI just cheats - so I guess it is par for the course. There is only one strategy, and that is to be in an overwhelming hurry. Utilize the fact the game allows you to swap vehicle design while you have vehicles out and about. Swap to SPEED, get on location, and then swap back to POWER. It's… it is near that one can do that, but it is also somewhat wacky. Again, it could have had more…
The last stage. The Space stage. Enter the weird world of 4X-esque strategy that is thinly veiled trading simulation. Procure different colors of spice. Fly from system to system. Find the good price. Sell for a profit. Repeat.
Grind infinitely, as the galaxy is so stupendously vast, you probably will never be able to take over all of it. Become bored by repetitive gameplay that is interrupted by loading screens every few seconds, after thirty minutes, and become dejected.
So, what's up with the space stage? The player gets to design a spaceship, then goes out into space. The goal? Do missions for a bit, then reach the center of the Galaxy. It is very far away, and you're not ready yet, so calm down.
First, click on the star systems. Travel. Observe energy and health. Then, enter orbit. Fly around. It's… Weird. It is both a third person flight game, but then it is also a top down 4X empire management game. And both lack lots of stuff.
In short, the interesting things - the player can enter a planet's orbit. They can use their alien abduction beam and abduct trees, bushes and grass, as well as animals. Maybe some artifacts. The player can terraform a planet. They can make an unlovable volcanic rock into paradise. They can change the color of the skies. They can really go ham with terraforming. It is fun, kinda. Find the cube worlds. Admire them. Then leave.
Fund purple, green and pink spice planets. Colonize. Behold profits of millions per sale.
Find a planet with a tribe on it. Slap down a Monolith. Enjoy 2001, a Space Odyssey, in crisp video game visuals. Come back later and be friends with the space faring civilization that sprouts, as a result of you uplifting them.
Paint the map in your color. Then, zoom out and realize the map is just too big. So big, in fact, that you can't SEE your color. Establish trade routes. Only five, for some reason, even though there are, literally, tens of thousands of star systems.
Create a zoo planet. Fuck with the natives by making crop circles. Perform the happy ray. Make a creature BIG. Destroy a planet, violating the Galactic Code you knew nothing about.
There seems to be a lot of stuff to do, but note how I failed to mention 'have oodles of fun' or 'combat'? That's because those don't come into the picture.
Space stage combat is simply atrocious. The player gets to control a stinky little ship, while the AI, somehow, controls an insane number of ships that also have fighter jets. Your options, player? Laser them, missile them, or just leave. Use the mouse to aim, by the way. It is very janky, and it is not fun.
The player can make allies and have friendly ships flying around with them - much like the pack from creature stage - but all those allied ships suck egg. They die, far too fast. And then people get mad at you for being unable to pilot their own ships. It's… Wild.
Sadly, the Space stage suffers from an unbelievable slew of inconveniences. Why does it not feature those quality of life features that I need? Why does it have to be SO big? It becomes empty at one point, even if it seems so cluttered. Why do the enemies need to have 2x as much health as you? Why do they need to be so hard to kill, and why do they need to be so difficult to ally with? By the enemy, I am visualizing one certain empire. If you know, you know.
Otherwise, consider this. The space stage is fun for the first thirty minutes to four hours, when everything still seems somewhat new and interesting. Then, everything becomes staler than stale bread - and that is very stale.
Did I mention that the bigger your empire, the more often you will need to go back to your colonies to deal with eco disasters or pirate raids, which cannot be prevented, even at the total endgame? And, if your empire is small, but you have allies, well, those allies will cry for help with eco disasters and assailing baddies. It is… Grating.
In short, Spore is five games in one, but all four of them kinda suck. They could have been better done.
One thing. I mentioned that the means of completion from the preceding stages affect the following. If the player decides to be a Herbivore in the Cell stage, they end up being a Herbivore henceforth. Not only that, but it also provides them with an ability they can make use of - in the case of the Herbivore, it is a song that pacifies all nearby creatures - except Epic ones, which are just big killing machines that should be avoided at all costs. In the next stage, after the Creature stage, depending on that choice to be a Herbivore in the Cell stage, in the Tribal, Civilization and even Space stage, the player gets some kind of ability as a consequence of making the choices they made in the previous stages.
This is a very fascinating approach, and it creates an impressively replayable game, on paper. However, due to the issues I pointed out in the previous paragraphs, the game tends to be un-fun to play through in a certain manner, especially more than once. So the replayability, which is fantastic on paper, is not that good in actuality.
Lastly, an issue. This game has always on DRM - which is a big problem, because it does not work. It requires that the player keeps logging in even after having logged in once, to be able to access online features… Such as achievements. Now, achievements are all well and good, but the true reason one might find for going online, is the fact that Spore automatically, with no means of disabling that functionality, downloads creatures off the internet. And it isn't just any creatures - it's the newest ones, and there is no quality control. Thus, well…
Stuff is bound to appear all over. Stuff that looks weird. Stuff that looks decent. Stuff. But the lack of management - because the game does not let the player to properly manage this stuff - really dampens the whole thing.
There is also Galactic Adventures, but it is just jank. Pure, unadulterated jank. Interesting as a concept, not that intriguing in practice.
Overall, well, I say it is quite nice. But not nice enough. 2/3
Presentation
Spore is ugly. That is a reality, not an opinion. The game has some issues with its graphical properties, and the worst of it comes down to the best feature of it. The creature creator can make some really interesting looking creatures, but it is definitely not something that spits out incredible sights and immaculately crafted beings.
In fact, so rare is it to see something good looking, that I am left thinking that the chance if finding a nice creature is less than 1 in 1000. That's all whatever, but the fact that some of the creatures built into Spore, by the proper creators, are also butt-ugly, just indicates that there's a great variety. Some things are just going to be ugly.
What makes stuff, the creatures, uglier, though, is the fact that everything somehow fails to fit together. There's a multitude of parts, as you might have noticed, ladies and gentlemen, but a large number of those just look ugly. They don't get painted right. They stick out and don't seem to fit. They clip through.
The game, itself, has a far lesser graphical fidelity than what other games of the time have, because of the fact that this one needs to manage an intense number of models, all different, and then also needs to simulate them moving about. Similarly to a shitty console (like every console) there are, actually, limitations, ones that needed to be worked around, as Spore came long before its time… Even if Spore's time can never come in the current climate of gaming.
Back on topic, the way the game looks feels dated, and, with the only exception being, maybe, the Cell and Space stages, everything else suffers from looking samey. Everything, other than the Cell stage, suffers from lackluster camera, the UI is sometimes wildly silly, and it just keeps going.
The game sounds interesting. The introductory sequence is very nice, the intro to Spore, itself, is really interesting, but, then, everything else is a bit… Wacky. The music tracks do not sound bad, but they are not all that inspired. Some sound effects are really neat, others are really stupid and annoying. In the Space stage, the great majority of empires sound so bad it is actually painful to the ears to listen to them screech. It is a mixed bag.
As a mixed bag, I will take some liberties and give it a bit of a boost. Frankly, it was neither a three nor a one, but then it also was not a two. It's very unique, in a sense, but I never found myself looking at it and thinking: That's pretty. The same is true for the opposite, I was never taken aback by the unsightliness of things, overall. Thus… 2/3
Story
Spore, much like Banished, has an insane capacity to create emergent storytelling. After all, the player keeps track of a whole species as it evolves from a single cell organism into a Galactic empire. What could be more interesting than a story about that?
However, unlike Banished, this game has a slight issue. It has a bit of story to it, and that story is just… Wild. So, slight spoilers, but not really:
There is a big empire in the center of the Galaxy. They are weird, because they're, essentially, the villains, they hate everybody and consider them lesser. The player ends up having the quest to ponder what is the reasoning behind that, but, apart from a teeny tiny bit of conversation with representatives, via diplomacy, or some other, less-than-satisfactory tidbits of information from relics, there is nothing. In addition, when the player reaches the center of the Galaxy, something overwhelmingly disappointing happens.
The story is so unsatisfying, so unexpectedly meh, or even inappropriate, that I was left LESS satisfied than I would have been if there had been no story. The insane potential for emergent stories is astounding, truly, but the conclusion to them all is so uninspiring that I am left baffled. Still, I quite like the part that comes from me, and the fact that there is something that can come on its own, through me and the game itself, so I am not thoroughly going to bash its head in. 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time?
Does this game, having come so, so far before its time, having dared to attempt an intense, insane, even, concept, and handle it so impressively, albeit mediocre-ly, get the point? Does this pinnacle of self expression, in a most intriguing capacity, deserve the point I give for things that enchant me? Definitely, this game is a resounding YES.
Remember, ladies and gentlemen. There is no other game like Spore, and there will be no other game like Spore. Cherish it, but know it is going to remain a piece of gaming history. A good part of that history. 1/1
Conclusion
6/10. Spore is slightly above average. It is such because of EA. It is also such because of its great ambition. The former, fouling it, the latter enhancing it. If only there had been more time and more in the way of resources for its development… I tremble at the suppositions of what it could have been.
I would say this game is a game everyone should play, even if it has as many issues as it does. I'd say it is such an unique experience that I cannot say that someone might fail to enjoy it. After all, it is five games in one.
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display. It is so, so magnificent, and glows with its own, weird light...