First Impressions

[Ambler]

Due to EB stores around Australia being given incomplete information (no street date from EA), myself and a number of other Spore enthusiasts I know got very little sleep last night while enjoying this game. My boss is very lucky I didn't call in sick this morning, although I did bring the manual in with me to read if I get the chance.

First impressions:

• In-game movies look very good! All done in-engine, and seem to run fast and smooth
• I love the sense of scale and changing scales when an amoeba. Also love that tidal forces become more of an issue as you scale up. Also love that the food is a little fractal - you nibble the edges of food you can devour as a larger creature
• Feeding frenzies surprised me - multiple predators taking down herds of herbivores, and groups of herbivores grazing on larger food pieces
• Moments of panic being chased by giant carnivores caused me to install a defensive electric shot organ at the back of my creature - very effective!
• I thought I would have some trouble maintaining a consistent 'feel' to my creature as he grew (I tend to min-max a little) but I found that I had an attachment/affinity for the little guy so he grew in natural progressions while keeping the same overall feel
• At no stage of the game did I find myself running short of DNA/SporeBucks to perform the customisations I wanted, nor did I hit the complexity cap although my creature was fairly conservative
• The ability to use a randomly-generated name for any creature/vehicle/building is a godsend when your attention is on some other part of the game
• A pack can be very useful, however I had to dump a couple of creatures as they didn't have interactions I needed to impress other creatures in order to form alliances
• Creatures I was trying to impress scattered, and when I looked up an alien spaceship was swooping around abducting things - I took lots of photos
• It took me a while to figure out exactly how the band works (in tribal phase) to play music, but after that I had fun with this feature!
• When another tribe sends you a give, one of your creatures has to fetch it and put it in the food stash
• You can domesticate multiple species (but only one of each), and they will lay eggs as a renewable resource
• Mech legs on vehicles don't have quite the motion I was hoping for - it's too smooth
• For some reason cockpits don't 'attach' to vehicle bodies - they remain independent when you move the body unlike other parts
• All three city takeover options in the Civilisation phase are cool - I loved my aerial trade fleets!
• It's nice to be able to use pre-made vehicles when you are in a hurry to finish the Civ phase to move onto space
• The first few space missions are pretty cool, but by this stage I needed sleep!
• It's nice that it lists a big chunk of the achievements that I haven't achieved, as it gives me something to work towards
• I added a couple of people I know as buddies, and was able to auto-download all their creatures to populate my worlds
• I did have some issues with logging on in-game, as well as when launching the game (running Vista 64), but I noticed similar launch issues with the Red Alert 3 Beta. Running in XP SP2 compatibility mode with Administrator privileges is a bit brute-force, but seemed to work the best

I can't think of anything more right now, but let me say the charm and humour of this game and its creatures has suckered me right in. Anyone else lucky enough to get their copy yet care to share some thoughts?

[King of Town]

Sweet i was hoping other civs could be at a more advanced stage than you, I love it.

[Ambler]

Originally Posted by King of Town

Sweet i was hoping other civs could be at a more advanced stage than you, I love it.

It's different in different phases. As an amoeba, you grow through different size stages with different size creatures in them, as well as small growth when you eat within each size stage. Creatures you encounter have slight size variations too. When you move to creature, there are nests of other creatures around as well (seemed to be between 5-10 creatures per nest). Some are inherently hostile, and some can be 'impressed' and allied. You get a DNA reward for allying or annihilating them. There are also 'epic' creatures (on my world it was a giant brain with 1,000hp, when my creatures had around 40!)

When you move to tribal, yours is the dominant species so all tribes are made up of your creature (just with different colours), and there are domesticable creatures (presumably the ones that didn't achieve sentience). There are epic creatures at this phase, and the civilisation phase too. Your tribe spreads across the globe, so all cities are also made up of your creature although they have different architecture and vehicles than you.

[Lord_Iggy]

Oh, I thought that the tribal phase had multiple intelligent species.

[Ambler]

Originally Posted by Lord_Iggy

Oh, I thought that the tribal phase had multiple intelligent species.

Wait, did it? Oh, you're right, it did! It's not until the Civ phase that your species dominates. Sorry, my bad! The hours, they ran together for me until early in the morning. :-P

[King of Town]

Creatures I was trying to impress scattered, and when I looked up an alien spaceship was swooping around abducting things - I took lots of photos

So was this during your own space phase or earlier?

[flamin]

Stupid me I've only just found out the game has been here since Monday. Will have to get it tomorrow morning.

[TyranusBonehead]

Nice post Ambler

[salty mud]

Thanks for sharing! If you can post more, I would be grateful. Some have to wait until Friday, you know.

[Lord_Iggy]

And some until Sunday.

[salty mud]

Originally Posted by Lord_Iggy

And some until Sunday.

Your kind don't matter.

But yeah, more cool Spore features plzkthxbai.

[Lord_Iggy]

Enough of your silly arrogance- he who laughs last laughs best, and I shall laugh most heartily as I open my copy of Spore much later than you.

[salty mud]

Originally Posted by Lord_Iggy

Enough of your silly arrogance- he who laughs last laughs best, and I shall laugh most heartily as I open my copy of Spore much later than you.

Why? Because I have a two day head start over you?

But seriously, if it makes you feel better, I will post a review of the game if you would like, and maybe post pics etc. Just ask.

[Lord_Iggy]

An AAR would be lovely.

[salty mud]

Originally Posted by Lord_Iggy

An AAR would be lovely.

Am I correct in assuming that I can use the 'print screen' button to collect a lot of images in one go? I don't want to have to leave the game everytime I take an image!

[Lord_Iggy]

I'm not sure, depends on your program.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by salty mud

Am I correct in assuming that I can use the 'print screen' button to collect a lot of images in one go? I don't want to have to leave the game everytime I take an image!

To do my screenshots I played in windowed mode (change to it in graphics settings) then used ALT+PRTSC and pasted in my image program. Easy.

Even easier if you use GIMP as you can just paste as new each time and rack up heaps of images ready to save out.

[Ambler]

Originally Posted by King of Town

Creatures I was trying to impress scattered, and when I looked up an alien spaceship was swooping around abducting things - I took lots of photos

So was this during your own space phase or earlier?

This was during Creature phase - I was being scouted (and saw creatures being 'abducted' in front of my eyes).

[Loppan Torkel]

Eurogamer gave it a solid 9 out of 10.

[SpurnSpore]

Originally Posted by Loppan Torkel

Eurogamer gave it a solid 9 out of 10.

Hell wow! I cant wait to play it, I can look at the box/CD new Pc on the way
4 days time....
Here is the link for another review also 9/10 (PDF)
http://www.xspore.com/news/646_first_review.html