Just got spore

[Angst]

To be fair, there is some charm in the goal of simplicity they chased: They allowed for much sillier creatures to compete gameplaywisely and then increased the sandboxiness. Many of the designs that came out of Spore wouldn't really be if they had went the simulationist direction. Spore's creative tool is actually quite groundbreaking for what it's worth. It's just that the game part of the game is really dull and shallow.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The creature creator was fantastic, no doubt and that kind of approach has been (and hopefully will be) copied in other games such as Kerbal Space Program.

The charm was only skin deep though; for one thing, there were too much Sporn to take most of the creatures seriously. For another, 'silly' creatures were essentially the same as 'serious' creatures. They may look different on the outside, but since there was no limits on what body parts could be placed and where they were placed (aside from stupid 'DNA limits' ), your silly creature could do the exact same things as someone else serious creature.

The difference is how they look, not how they act or function.


They did do a great job for the most part of making the animating engine robust enough to handle all kinds of body shapes, sizes and layouts though.

 

[Daftpanzer]

Agree with most of the posts here!

I don't know if anyone else had this experience, but for me it wasn't until my 3rd game that it really sunk in, 90% of what you do is cosmetic / makes no difference.

My first game, I really roleplayed the rise of cow-like bipeds. I remember fully exploring the continent in the creature phase, going for wanders in the tribal phase with my shaman, and enjoying seeing the same landmarks in the civ and space phase - 'that's where my shaman stood thousands of years ago, in the shadow of giant fossil bones'. Little things like that. I took some lovely screenshots of that game. I made some beautiful cities in the civ stage and just flew around my home planet in my first spaceship. Found the space stage tedious, didn't progress far:

Spoiler :

My 2nd game, I made a flying creature which was kinda fun. Didn't bother progressing to the tribal stage.

My 3rd game, I didn't bother progressing much from the tidepool.

After that, I only really played around with the editors. It sat on my HD for another two years before finally being uninstalled, yet to be re-installed.

 

[Angst]

I personally found the tidepool stage the most fun of all.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I personally found the tidepool stage the most fun of all.

It would have been for me as well if it hadn't been limited to what, six body parts? It could have been awesome but it ended up feeling like a $2 iPhone game after the 5th time playing it and probably took the developers as much effort to make as a $2 iPhone game to boot.

Agree with most of the posts here!

I don't know if anyone else had this experience, but for me it wasn't until my 3rd game that it really sunk in, 90% of what you do is cosmetic / makes no difference.

My first game, I really roleplayed the rise of cow-like bipeds. I remember fully exploring the continent in the creature phase, going for wanders in the tribal phase with my shaman, and enjoying seeing the same landmarks in the civ and space phase - 'that's where my shaman stood thousands of years ago, in the shadow of giant fossil bones'. Little things like that. I took some lovely screenshots of that game. I made some beautiful cities in the civ stage and just flew around my home planet in my first spaceship. Found the space stage tedious, didn't progress far:

Spoiler :

My 2nd game, I made a flying creature which was kinda fun. Didn't bother progressing to the tribal stage.

My 3rd game, I didn't bother progressing much from the tidepool.

After that, I only really played around with the editors. It sat on my HD for another two years before finally being uninstalled, yet to be re-installed.

By flying, you mean long hopping, because you can't actually fly (picking on the game here, not you or your choice of words).

Yup, you pretty much summed up my experience, though after I recently re-installed after multiple years not playing it, I had a blast until the Space Stage. I enjoyed that Stage for maybe the first 10 hours and then I just rushed to the end so I wouldn't feel like I had wasted my life. Haven't touched it since and I probably never will again - it despite the variety, every run through amounts to playing essentially the same game in ways that even Civ manages to avoid.

In Civ, basic choices you make really affect the kind of game you'll be playing over the course of it. In Spore, it doesn't actually matter because, sure you make some choices, but they matter not beyond some very trivial differences.