Non-l337 Gamer: SPORE

Sunday, October 12, 2008

SPORE

To be honest, I don’t really have much to say about Spore.

I think the downward spiral of the game, for me, began right in the beginning when the game wouldn’t see my internet connection. After much frustration I eventually clicked cancel, and the game launched. No, I have no idea what happened either.

The game, visually, is very entry-level (on my pc, of course). Although, I do think that the EA took the whole ‘minimum spec requirements’ to the extreme. My pc just meets the specification requirements, except for my graphics card, which is slightly better. The graphics quality, although adequate, leaves much to be desired.

The concept of the game is good. Create a creature and evolve it. The execution of that concept is not good. Yes, you create a creature and evolve it, but I find myself asking where the finesse is? Where is the part where I can turn my creature from a ghastly looking alien into a cool human (or at the very least, humanoid type creature)? Why can’t I get the eyes to look the way I want, and what the heck is up with the mouth?

Once I’d gotten through the cell stage and was onto the creature stage the game became repetitive quickly. Initially I started out creating an herbivore. This lasted all of 2 hours. I then scrapped my creature and started again as a carnivore. It would seem that survival of the fittest is the way to go. Perhaps it’s my personality, or perhaps it’s just the way the Spore universe works, but my anti-social, kill everything in my path attitude seemed to be effective and after repeatedly performing the same actions (charm, spit, attack, bite, etc…) I got to the tribal phase.

Defending my meat was the end of the game for me. I switched it off and went back to playing Bratz. Although, I have to say, watching paint dry would also have topped the excitement factor of the game.

I keep asking myself, were my expectations of the game too high? Was I expecting it to be on the same level as The Sims2, of which I am an ultimate fan? I don’t know the answers to those questions. What I do know is that Spore did not ‘wow’ me in a way that I thought it would.