William BagleySpore Review - Creature Stage
September 7th 2008 12:03
Continuing with the Spore review (yes it's been a few days, yes I have been hungover), I've decided to keep reviewing the game segment by segment. Today's section is..
The end of the Cell stage sees your intrepid creation acquire some legs, some brains and some buddies as you haul yourself onto dry land, and into the very different world of Creature. With your new legs comes a new style of gameplay. Whereas Cell had some very flOw-esque qualities to it, Creature comes across as your more standard RPG. Your goal however is still pretty simple - develop your creature as it reaches the next level of sentience.
To be honest I expected a lot out of this stage, since the editor for this phase had been crammed down our throats ever since the middle of June and it's been one of the most heavily-featured stages of Spore during its long germination. While I enjoyed the editor immensely, playing through Creature left me feeling a little hollow compared to Cell.. The stage educates you well enough on how to make it through the level, but there appears to only be one level of depth: eat, or socialise. If you fail to charm a creature successfully, you simply find a creature of lesser "quality" (that is, its stats aren't as high, which you can identify by looking at your Sporepedia), or you walk around until you find a part which will give you better stats. Then the process repeats.
While the idea behind this is great, as it shows what all good little creatures would've had to go through to reach some vague kind of intelligence (hurrah for trial and error), as well as the lesson it teaches about evolving to adapt to your surroundings, playing through the level very quickly becomes repetitive due to this lack of depth. After about ten minutes in the stage, I was worried that I had done everything there was to do. I had. Then I realised I had to do it again, and again.. the novelty started to wear out a little too quickly for my liking.
That's not to say the level is without its good bits. The usual Maxis charm and subtle humour is present throughout, from the random appearances of meteor showers which send creatures scurrying, to the UFO which appears out of nowhere and abducts the Epic creature which was about to crush you. (I will admit the last one was amazing because the Epic creature was one that I had made using the Editor months before). Let's also not forget what happens once you hit the water. But I'll let you figure that one out.
Throughout the level you sit back and marvel at the way that Maxis have achieved the level of user content integration that is part of the reason Spore has achieved so much coverage by the games industry. It's one thing for me to sit here and complain about the gameplay depth, but I truly admire this game for what it's trying to do. The load times are minimal at worst, and it's a very different feeling to be walking amongst not only creatures that others have created, but every now and then you spot one of your own creations. It's a great new way to try and suck players into the environment they find themselves in, and it bodes well for what future games may bring.
Another excellent tool Spore provides to players is the History graph which can be accessed at any time. This is a fantastic way to keep track of the evolution of your species as well as all the events that have occurred along the way. Want your creature to be industrious instead of aggressive? Spot the events which result in your creature's evolution graph heading upwards. Want to remember how the hell that leaf ended up on your creature's head? You can find out here. It's another way that Maxis have created a new way to immerse yourself in the development of your creature, and it's a very welcome companion to the Sporepedia.
As you progress through the level, you are rewarded with the ability to recruit an increasing number of your clan members or your allies (assuming you haven't killed them all), to join you on your adventures. They follow you, they eat when you eat, kill when you kill, pose when you pose. These extra creatures can come in very handy when you reach the latter parts of the stage. By that time you have followed your clan on a migratory path which results in a bigger nest as well as harder opponents to kill or woo.
After you have killed or charmed enough creature nests, your brain has grown enough that someone decides it'd be a really nice idea to set fire to part of your own nest. Ironically enough that results in obtaining sentience for your species, and marks the end of physical changes to your creature (noo!) and the start of the Tribal phase.
Tune in tomorrow for more waffling on about Spore!
CREATURE STAGE
"Just chillin'.. charmin'.."
The end of the Cell stage sees your intrepid creation acquire some legs, some brains and some buddies as you haul yourself onto dry land, and into the very different world of Creature. With your new legs comes a new style of gameplay. Whereas Cell had some very flOw-esque qualities to it, Creature comes across as your more standard RPG. Your goal however is still pretty simple - develop your creature as it reaches the next level of sentience.
To be honest I expected a lot out of this stage, since the editor for this phase had been crammed down our throats ever since the middle of June and it's been one of the most heavily-featured stages of Spore during its long germination. While I enjoyed the editor immensely, playing through Creature left me feeling a little hollow compared to Cell.. The stage educates you well enough on how to make it through the level, but there appears to only be one level of depth: eat, or socialise. If you fail to charm a creature successfully, you simply find a creature of lesser "quality" (that is, its stats aren't as high, which you can identify by looking at your Sporepedia), or you walk around until you find a part which will give you better stats. Then the process repeats.
While the idea behind this is great, as it shows what all good little creatures would've had to go through to reach some vague kind of intelligence (hurrah for trial and error), as well as the lesson it teaches about evolving to adapt to your surroundings, playing through the level very quickly becomes repetitive due to this lack of depth. After about ten minutes in the stage, I was worried that I had done everything there was to do. I had. Then I realised I had to do it again, and again.. the novelty started to wear out a little too quickly for my liking.
That's not to say the level is without its good bits. The usual Maxis charm and subtle humour is present throughout, from the random appearances of meteor showers which send creatures scurrying, to the UFO which appears out of nowhere and abducts the Epic creature which was about to crush you. (I will admit the last one was amazing because the Epic creature was one that I had made using the Editor months before). Let's also not forget what happens once you hit the water. But I'll let you figure that one out.
Throughout the level you sit back and marvel at the way that Maxis have achieved the level of user content integration that is part of the reason Spore has achieved so much coverage by the games industry. It's one thing for me to sit here and complain about the gameplay depth, but I truly admire this game for what it's trying to do. The load times are minimal at worst, and it's a very different feeling to be walking amongst not only creatures that others have created, but every now and then you spot one of your own creations. It's a great new way to try and suck players into the environment they find themselves in, and it bodes well for what future games may bring.
Another excellent tool Spore provides to players is the History graph which can be accessed at any time. This is a fantastic way to keep track of the evolution of your species as well as all the events that have occurred along the way. Want your creature to be industrious instead of aggressive? Spot the events which result in your creature's evolution graph heading upwards. Want to remember how the hell that leaf ended up on your creature's head? You can find out here. It's another way that Maxis have created a new way to immerse yourself in the development of your creature, and it's a very welcome companion to the Sporepedia.
As you progress through the level, you are rewarded with the ability to recruit an increasing number of your clan members or your allies (assuming you haven't killed them all), to join you on your adventures. They follow you, they eat when you eat, kill when you kill, pose when you pose. These extra creatures can come in very handy when you reach the latter parts of the stage. By that time you have followed your clan on a migratory path which results in a bigger nest as well as harder opponents to kill or woo.
After you have killed or charmed enough creature nests, your brain has grown enough that someone decides it'd be a really nice idea to set fire to part of your own nest. Ironically enough that results in obtaining sentience for your species, and marks the end of physical changes to your creature (noo!) and the start of the Tribal phase.
Tune in tomorrow for more waffling on about Spore!
| 56 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
