Spore: A Failure?

[Dale]

There are many disappointments with Spore
Space the bad.
-No way to save when you even get a hint of impending attacks or be able to start a new game until you finish the whole space game itself.

Press ESC to bring up the main menu and click SAVE GAME.

And you can start a new game whenever you want. Just click on a new planet in the main screen.

 

[SpurnSpore]

Well I tried options -main menu and the save part is blanked out, until after battle or you are restarted.
-from the main menu to start a new game on a new planet= CIV and Space are blanked out(even though I completed CIV?) will try the ESC key and see if that is different.

 

[Chieftess]

The creature stage felt like a collection of mini games. I wanted it to be a tale of survival, I wanted to be thrown into the wild and hunt or be hunted. Instead what I got was a stage where I was essentially forced to dance and sing my way through...

DANCE FOR YOUR MICROSCOPIC LIFE!!!

(just a little play on phrase of what someone said during a live video feed of the cell phase, except it was run instead of dance).

I cannot see why Spore didn't stick to a realistic simulation of a creature.and evolution traits and actions that mattered. It would have been more rewarding even for children
to go back and think what their creatures needed to be stronger and survive.
The Spore we got is bubblegum, The spore that was envisioned and hinted at could have been awesome.

I agree. 3 1/2 years ago, I would've rated this game a 10 in terms of how much I want it. It's been decreasing steadily (about 1 point a year) since. Anyway, from what I've seen in live video feeds of the game (I've watched maybe 10+ hours total)...

Cell - Seems to be the most fun stage for some reason. Although, I wouldn't have put a limitation on carnivore/omnivore/herbivore. For me, that really takes out 2/3rds of the experimentation in creature (i.e., switching from carnivore to herbivore - and being an omnivore at first doesn't count).

Creature - It just doesn't quite seem like what Wil showed us. Playing peaceful seems a bit boring (I think I was starting to fall asleep watching someone play peacefully by charming and dancing). If it were me, I would have kept in how creature size and limb placement affect the creature. I was hoping this would be included for experimentation. Now, a top-heavy 1-legged creature does just as well as a normal 4 legged creature. I don't think scaled mouths, limbs, wings, etc. do anything special, either. (i.e., a small carnivore mouth should not be as powerful as the same mouth that's scaled to the max). Creatures with 1 wing shouldn't even be able to fly, either.

Tribe/Civ - The two almost seemed similar in a way (I didn't get to see much of Tribal). I think it this could have been better had it been a bit more like Starcraft instead of Civ - rather, more Starcraft elements. Starcraft does well on having the player collect things (gas, basic mineral) on a small scale.

Space - I was really hoping this would be a sandbox more than it seemed like a Galatic Trade Wars game. Maybe I was hoping for the days of SimLife, SimEarth, and even SimCity. It seems Maxis has gone the path of simplicity with Sims. Now, instead of experimenting with creatures on a new planet, a planet feels more like walking through a zoo. There's no fun or challenge seeing if my top-heavy herbivore creature (maybe with some defensive weaponry) can outrun a small, sleak carnivore.

I just wished that I could play SimLife and SimEarth on a WinXP system (and have them use the several gigs of RAM max -- which would make the Desert to Jungle scenario (mainly, the seasonal timer) in SimEarth go really fast! ).

 

[cubsfan6506]

It can be much, much more. It WAS much, much more in 2005.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372603330420559198&ei=QBvNSN6FGoLOrgLDv-jXAg&q=Spore

Obviously two things have happened; both of which EA has admitted to doing on purpose.

1) The game was very purposely dumbed down. Really, really dumbed down. Remark from Will Wright specifically stated they rather sell more copies than make a lasting, challenging experience that might not appeal to everyone.

2) The game was sectioned off for expansion packs. A lot of expansion packs.

Think for a minute about the evolution present in game. The placement of the legs, arms, mouths, don't mean anything. Since all the parts were given numbered traits, they all have the same effect once placed somewhere on the body. That's completely against any type of thought and made that way so anyone without a brain in their skull could make a creature. It used to be, as shown in those videos, that the placement and body structure mattered and you would have to adapt your creature to its changing surroundings.

News-Flash- There are no changes in surroundings and your creature becomes COMPLETELY irrelevant only 40 % into the game. How is that supposed to be fun or rewarding?

That was a pre rendered video. And duh will would like to sell more copies, people are so evil when they do their job. If you don't like it become a critically acclaimed glme creator and make what you like.

 

[SpurnSpore]

Maybe W.W will make a Sim life/earth and everything- S.L.E one day.
Editors with place mountain,volcano, river, storm, clouds and swamp etc
planet size topography climate .
Creatures with brain size agility etc
I reckon he would be kind of feeling he has been stifled by EA.

 

[Sub]

That was a pre rendered video. And duh will would like to sell more copies, people are so evil when they do their job. If you don't like it become a critically acclaimed glme creator and make what you like.

The GDC 2005 video wasn't prerendered...

 

[SpurnSpore]

Well Spore has really failed on me now.
I tried to play space stage "friendly" and strayed on to just one wrong world (because I could not build up colonies or make spice or find spice for enough profit to terraform or build colony's .oe even outfit the 1 colony I had, couldn't add factories or even turrets to it? Got to commodore level.
Gained a couple of "finds" which did little good fought off a couple of home planet attacks which then became more ferocious, fought them off got blown up respawned 10x fought them off even gained "you can now build another ship" but no where in home planet to be able to make/buy or find this extra ship.
I thought well hey I earned it where is this extra ship to fend off 6 or more attackers all the time?
So I cheated -"moremoney "that didn't allow to buy another ship or anything.
So I tried to start a new space game -nope all blanked out except CELL Creature or tribe only options. So I then deleted my space stage and my planet blew up! Gone!

Can only start from cell and go through all again? well no, The sing/ dance/ Disney stuff has become old.I don't feel like going through all the stages to gain parts
at the moment. This time starting creature as an omnivore it can only sing not even pose or dance, huh?

 

[Endwar 005]

There are many disappointments with Spore
Space the bad.
-No way to save when you even get a hint of impending attacks or be able to start a new game until you finish the whole space game itself.
-Judging the height and level of your ship to attack other ships
-3 or more ships on 1 (when you haven't had time to build strength or more ships)
-the annoying "alien simish" you have a universal translator but that doesn't help we the players
-The colonies should be automatic.
Space the good
Its enormous and looks great.
some of the gadgets and finds along the way are charming.
In some way it reminds me of a semi 3d galaxion/asteriods and the game Sid Miers Pirates.
Anyway, yes I am annoyed and the let down by the lack of depth it could easily have been.and feel conned, glad I payed a lot cheaper than it was, even then it isn't worth that kind of money (as it is) shouldn't need expansions to get more parts or depths.
Glad I have a new whiz bang machine, but I could have battled on with the old one for a bit longer- but to play spore I needed heaps more power in CPU and graphics.
which is wrong for families having to spend the same $500 -$900.
Still I have enjoyed the simple play through of the game until space.and the creative self made parts.
Where I wanted depth but the freedom to do what I want without being hammered.
The space stage will not appeal to casual players the way it is.
I cannot see why Spore didn't stick to a realistic simulation of a creature.and evolution traits and actions that mattered. It would have been more rewarding even for children
to go back and think what their creatures needed to be stronger and survive.
The Spore we got is bubblegum, The spore that was envisioned and hinted at could have been awesome.

That's why they're adding expansion packs

But yeah, I see your point. I watched some of the 05 demos, and it felt a lot more like what Spore could've been.

 

[Ball Lightning]

I haven't actually played yet, but what I find most apealing about spore is the user content sharing, which so far I haven't heard any complaints about.

This is one thing they did really well.

 

[GVBN]

I want to pose a simple question. Did Spore achieve what it set out to?

You mean "teh best game evar"?
Nope. It's not good and I'd hesitate to call it 'above average'. The game is about as fun, deep and replayable as a coloring book. I guess you could enjoy it if you're 6 years old

 

[Truronian]

It's gonna be a massive success, in that it will sell like hotcakes. It's just a shame that the game has so many flaws...

 

[cephalo]

The only reason Spore will be successful is because it's the only game in town right now. There hasn't been anything new on the store shelves PC wise for a while. Four years ago it would have sunk under the competition.

I think spore is O.K. but they really missed an opportunity to make it a great first experience. I don't see myself bothering with expansions because I've lost faith in the process. It's too late to make this 'the best game ever' in my opinion. You really only get one shot at that.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

I've played Spore for a full week now, I didn't come to it with a ton of expections as I only jumped on the bandwagon a few months before release. I think the game is good, but definitely not for the hardcore gamer, this is for casual play. It's dumbed down, at times frustrating (I'm in space stage, constantly having to go back to home planet to defend against attacks), but it's a good game. Just keep in mind that it's for casual play.

I agree with cephalo in that I probably will not bother with expansions.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Well, I've had the game for 3 days now, and it's still very engrossing. I enjoy it massively if I treat it more like a story and less like a game, which is how I usually play.

BTW, I'm planning to start an AAR at some point.

Anyway, I would say that Spore, while not all it could be, is still an amazing game.

 

[Macha]

I said in another thread a few days ago that when the "new game" feel wears off, I'd be able to give a proper opinion. The "new game" feel has now worn off and the review is not good.

The spore that we got is the same to what spore should have been the same as simcity societies is to a proper simcity game. It's been dumbed down to attract the casual gamer.

This kind of thing is one of the main drawbacks of Nintendo's successes with the Wii and DS. As a result of them, it is not the same world as far as gaming is concerned that it was in 2005 when Spore was announced.

The variety of gamers has changed so much that 99% of people who were gamers before the Wii and DS are now categorised (rightfully or wrongfully)as "hardcore" gamers even those who would have considered themselves casual in 2005.

Similarily anyone who goes onto forums to discuss games (i.e. everyone here) is included (again rightfully or wrongfully) under the umbrella of "hardcore" gamers by marketing divisions everywhere.

The one thing that they got right is that we want:

• Games that are long enough to play for a while
• Good graphics
• Interesting Storylines
• Interesting Decisions
• Variety within the game
• Online Multiplayer

However we are now far outnumbered by the new casual gamer who want:

• Something that is cheap
• Something that can be left under the telly
• Something that can be played 30 minutes at a time.
• 4+ multiplayer at the same place

In fact we are so much in the miniority that we are often completely ignored. Spore was changed from targeting us (in 2005, the only market) to targeting casual gamers (now a much larger market than us) because EA values money and a new market more than the old market.

Apart from its dumbing down, my other major problem with Spore is the DRM. It is not okay to allow 3 installs only. Again this affects us (more likely to buy a computer every 2 years and probably have more than one anyway) more compared to casual gamers who buy a new computer when the old one breaks.
However because we all went out and bought Spore, EA will think that people don't care about the 3 installs limit and will keep using it in newer games.

I was so disappointed by Spore that I went out and bought myself a proper game, by finally replacing my broken Simcity 4 disc (it's broken 2 years at this stage) so that I'd have something I didn't have last week that's good to play.

A final comment:
Every stage has a game that does it better than Spore:

Cell - flow
Creature - The Sims?
Tribal - Populus
Civilization - Simcity/Civilization/Pick a RTS
Space - GalCiv

 

[Murky]

The more I see of Spore the more I think there's a lot of unrealized potential there. They need to completely do away with SecuRom and open up the game to a deeper level of modding so that you can drastically change the experience like how you can with CIV.

The reasoning behind getting rid of SecuRom is simple, it produces "bad vibes" and distracts developers from making a better game. Instead of worrying about piracy be more concerned about wowing your customers so much they're glad to pay you.

Open the game up to modding so that users can not only produce content but alter how the game plays. Unleash the creativity to the point where it has no restrictions.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Regarding Tonyf12's post. It's kind of scary. I hope you're not entirely right. I mean, before 2000-2003 or so, people who played games were all "hardcore gamers" by the modern definition, as you say so well. I hope that rising popularity in video games doesn't mean that people who have been playing them forever will have less and less quality products coming out, especially by the big companies. Sure, there will always be a company like Stardocks or I dunno what, catering to us, but we need big productions of quality, no? ...

 

[Dale]

I said in another thread a few days ago that when the "new game" feel wears off, I'd be able to give a proper opinion. The "new game" feel has now worn off and the review is not good.
...SNIP....

Excellent review, and largely how I feel about the game.

I however enjoyed cell phase quite a bit and love the simple "eat or be eaten" nature of the phase. And creature has a lot of charm but yes, could've been expanded in certain areas. But tribal, civ and space are just downright SH$T!

 

[Rub'Rum]

Was reading the "development of Spore" article on Wikipedia and found this:

"According to Wright, the Spore development team was broken into two camps, the "Cute" camp that wanted to skew the game's focus towards a The Sims-type of game, and the "Science" camp that wanted to keep the game as realistic as possible. The final version was more or less a compromise between the two; Wright stated, "We ended up with a very nice balance of the two factors.""

I'm pretty sure I disagree with Will Wright on the "nice balance".

Also, you probably know that "Spore" was the working title for the game and that it was supposed to be called "Sim Everything". Well I'm glad it's not called "Sim Everything" 'cause I can't think of very many things that feel like simulation in Spore.

 

[Dale]

A more appropriate title would be:

Sim Everything!
Well not really everything, only the linear evolution of the physical components of land animals disregarding intelligence, technology, chaos theorims, scatter algorithms, "survival of the fitest", and the Westernised representation of the last 100 years of human evolution disregarding ~10,000 years between simple hunter/gatherer tribes and modernisation, as well as the complete lack of any form of intelligence in the game whether it be as a model within the game or intelligence in the form of NPC actions.

But then I assume the box wouldn't be big enough to hold that.