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[PC] - Spore - Vincent-V

Discussion in 'Game Reviews' started by kanwarrulz_123, Jul 12, 2011.

  1. kanwarrulz_123

    kanwarrulz_123 Well-Known Member

    [PC] – Spore

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    Developer(s)-Maxis
    Publisher(s)-Electronic Arts
    Designer(s)-Will Wright
    Composer(s)-Brian Eno

    Platform(s)-
    Microsoft Windows
    Mac OS X
    iPhone

    Release date(s)-

    AUS: September 4, 2008
    JP: September 5, 2008
    EU: September 5, 2008
    NA: September 7, 2008

    Genre(s)-God game, Life simulation, Real-time strategy

    Mode(s)-Single-player

    Rating(s)-

    BBFC: PG (Galactic edition)
    CERO: A
    ESRB:E10+
    OFLC: PG
    PEGI: 12+

    Media/distribution-DVD-RW​

    System requirements

    PC: Vista, 2.0 GHz P4 processor or eq., 512 MB RAM (768 for Vista), 128 MB video card (Pixel Shader 2.0 support), 6 GB HDD. Internet connection. (For computers using built-in graphics chipsets: Intel Integrated Chipset 945GM, 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, 768 MB RAM)

    Mac: Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard, Intel Core Duo, 1024 MB RAM, 4.7 GB of hard drive space, plus additional space for creations

    This review kinda basic in touch but seeing the current conditions of the review section this is a waking up call... :)

    Spore is yet another game from the ground-breaking game director Will Wright whose name has also been credited as the developer of lovable series The Sims. Spore is easily one of those games that have a unique aura and unending charm to it that is difficult to resist. It is eventually a game that promises to fulfil your expectation of it. Apart from being a run-of-the-mill game, Spore has been moulded perfectly with great innovation and creativity. The game’s iridescent design never ceases to amuse you. The game let’s you create your own creature (which is fun...) and allows you to guide it through its evolutionary stages. However, as you progress through different stages of your own creature you notice several jumps in the gameplay and creative design that may have varying effects that may please or disappoint you.

    The game’s creativity lies truly in its Creature Creator mode (which was also released as an expansion pack for the original game with additional parts) which is also the game’s greatest asset. At first, the creatures that you create look damn ugly and monstrous but it is also this creature that you develop a rare form of affection as and when you progress through the sprawling journey. Also, you don’t need to be so seriously creative and an imaginative person to draw out a wonderful creature but just randomly placing different parts will also allow you to create beautiful yet wakeful creatures. This mode makes you feel like a redeemed artist or an animator of a cartoon feature. Moreover, the expansions allow merging parts to construct completely different parts and some other cool stuff that you probably would never have thought of.

    The game requires serious user effort of every strand of the game. So, you have to be a wee bit creative. But, even if you aren’t interested in building creatures, city halls, and houses for your generations Maxis offers some great pre-made stuff that you can load to your own game and play. Even, if you aren’t impressed by the variety of pre-made creatures you can download loads of other creatures online, that is shared content of Spore users. Another asset of the game is that Spore utilizes online community involvement to the maximum, which not only helps you ponder on wondrous creations of other players but it also increases the amount of replayability. In fact, to enjoy the game you should be online to get access to the Sporepedia making the entire Spore experience memorable.
    Spore has picked up tits and bits from various other titles such as Sid Meier’s Civilization and Flow and used all their interesting features to their advantage by modifying them slightly to help them fit into their game. The game lets your own creature to evolve through five stages of life with each stage having its own blend of charm, innovation and creativity. The first stage or the cell stage helps your creature to evolve from a single celled creature to a multicellular creature. Here, the game gets a little similar to Flow on PSP or PS3, you have to move your creature either using a mouse or keyboard to eat (the game also allows you to choose the option of food diet -> herbivore or carnivore or even both) or eat more or collect different parts for creature modification. You will have to collect various body parts such as spikes and flagella which are used for protection from other species. Indirectly, you have range out superior of all the creatures and develop feet to move onto land for the next stage.

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    The Creature stage... hmmm! this what we call the act of mating!!

    However you can either choose to progress through various stages from the beginning or you can also choose to skip other stages and start from a particular of the five stages (only when starting a new game). The second stage or the creature stage allows leaving the treacherous seas and entering land where you’ll find new creatures to fight with and skeletal remains with new parts for your creature. However, this stage is really boring with only exploring, talking and fighting with other creaturesto do but it is also ironically one of the most important stages from the creature point of view because in this stage you have to develop your creature with more complexity and advantage because all this matters in the next stage. You can also teach your creature many new techniques of attacking and interacting with other creatures from the parts you collect. This is also the final stage where you can alter the body parts of your creature. You will have to complete certain random tasks when you encounter new creatures based on either of your stances that are social stance or combat stance. Completing such tasks will earn you DNA that will moreover increase your progress bar that allows you to progress to other stages. The progress bar is pretty much an essential part of the game because you encounter it in every other coming stages with the pretty basic rule of filling it up until full to progress to upcoming stages.
    The creature stage maybe simple, but it’s also here where you notice the very small detailing of the game that makes it so alluring. The gimmicking creatures and the RPG – type fighting are all the features of this stage. The game is like a compilation of various small features of different games through history into one game with a sift.

    The next stage, tribal stage is yet another part where the gameplay stances and creativity design changes. Now, you’ll control an entire tribe instead of an individual and now the game starts to look often more like a strategy game of prehistoric ages. This stage is much more similar to the previous stage you can either become allies with competing tribes or destroy them to fill up your progress bar. This stage allows you to domesticate creatures even one of your own species, resource gathering depending on your food diet (herbivore or carnivore), gifting your allies and interacting with other tribes which is pretty easy on any difficulty level. There is nothing so special in this stage except some great tribal musicals.

    Next, civilization stage is again very much like the tribal stage. From now onwards, you’ll no longer be controlling your creatures instead you’ll be controlling mechanised vehicles or flying your own spaceship. Yet again the game changes it gameplay stance and slowly starts to look more like Civilization. Here, you get a chance to be little architectural ‘cause you can design your own city halls, factories and houses which is very interesting if you have an interest for it though ... even if you don’t you can always get pre-made ones. In this stage, you have to progress in much more of the same way as in the tribal stage- conquer or make allies. You can conquer opponent cities in three different ways – by military, religiously or economically. The gameplay is very limited in this stage and loose because it is very easy to conquer all the cities even at the highest difficulty level. Besides from creating your own creatures and buildings you can also get a chance to design your own vehicles at this level.

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    The Sporepedia with a vast selection of pre-made creatures,buildings and other stuff

    Finally, the space stage which is my favourite stage of the game and most probably the highlight of the whole game. The final transformation makes you feel like playing the Sins of a Solar Empire on PC though it doesn’t exactly play like a space strategy game but it sure adds a unique and a visual charm to this part of the game. The gameplay here becomes a little more controlled and balanced from the previous stages. There are exactly many things to do in this stage apart from conquering and making allies. You can travel in your spaceship and explore your galaxy, establish colonies and expand your galactic empire, collect various historic relics, sell off important commodities such as spice to earn sporebucks (the currency in the game), you can even do missions for your allies, terraform planets to make the conditions for a colony more hospitable and what not. The problem of difficulty curve here is fixed... everything from establishing colonies to doing missions for your allies all require some or the other efforts. It’s not only the gameplay that shines at this point of the game but also the visual design, planets look beautiful and every galaxy has a different visual pattern. This stage offers much more variety than the other parts in the game. At times, you get to see even Star Wars in the making with engaging in some awesome battles with hostile empires with your own spaceship. Spore takes away valuable points only from this stage which makes up for weaker gameplay in the previous stages.

    What Spore also does best is that it keeps you engaged in the pretty stylised and charming visual design of the game. Animation is stand out- from creature customization to planets; the visuals are unique and alluring. Its graphics and technical aren’t that powerful with standards of the time still with basic animation made wonderful the game’s creative design is powerful. The game runs smoothly even with decent graphic cards on highest settings with marginal crash issues.

    Spore’s sound is yet another strong point where creativity and some sense have worked out pretty well within the game. From tribal sounds to great squeaks and snarls of creatures. What’s more is that during the civilization stage the game even allows you to make a national anthem for your country with some basic sets of notes.

    Spore allows instinctive approach towards each stage with a pinch of creativity. Although the game’s replayabilty is matter of question but with marvellous customization tools and decent gameplay it’s no harm to try out new and different tactics at different stages of the game again even though their isn’t going to be much change in the gameplay. Overall, Spore is a good game with decent gameplay (yet at times boring), great sound and visual design, and a mix of great creativity and a positive online community.

    Presentation – 9/10- It is the presentation of the game that makes you snatch up the game from shelves into your carts. The charm and uniqueness of the game is what lures you into its trap.

    Gameplay – 7/10 – As said, with stage progression the game’s gameplay stance fluctuates drastically along with loose difficulty curve and struggles with not-much-to-do situation.

    Graphics-8/10- Beautiful animation and blend of great innovative features and charm makes it an eye candy though not technically being a powerhouse and a little crash issues bring it a little down.

    Sound-8/10- From sounds of creatures to the sound laser beams buzzing in the sky all have been brought with intricate clarity and beauty.

    Replayabilty-7/10- Again, it depends on the interest of the person whether the game can be played again or not...

    Overall -39/50- If you are a die-hard Maxis or Sims fan or just hysterically creative then this game is just like heaven for you...

    Hey guys! There maybe serious grammar issues and typos because I didn't get time to edit it that much. So, If their is anything wrong please notify me...


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    Yuck!! It's hideous.. Idk why I am playing this game.

    Information courtesy - Wikipedia.org
    Images courtesy - IGN.com