Spore

16.10.2008
 is the new life simulator from game designer Will Wright, creator of the popular and . Spore boldly strives to allow the player to mold not only a creature's appearance, but its evolution from a single-celled organism to a intelligent being conquering the galaxy. Unfortunately, while plenty ambitious and one of the most original titles in the last five years, the shallow gameplay in the early stages prevent Spore from achieving its potential.

When you first start Spore, you're greeted with a simple welcome screen with three options: Play, Create and Share. Spore is, by far, at its best in Create mode, where you have the ability to mold your alien species to your liking. The tools in the Create feature are intuitive and easy to use, making it a breeze to create everything from flagellates to spaceships. In Share mode, you can share your creations online in the , a world-wide catalog of creations by Spore players. For example, you can share your blue duck-billed alien with a friend and download the sleek spaceship she created and use it in your own game.

Choose the Play mode and you enter the game. Your journey begins in a tidal pool as a celled organism that must eat in order to survive and avoid being eaten at the same time. Seeing your creature grow and evolve is a real thrill, especially after you complete the stage, move into Creature stage, and take your first awkward steps on land. The Creature stage is also extremely simple, but by now you have more freedom to alter your creation as you see fit. As you discover new pieces in the skeletons of other species and interact with your fellow evolved brethren, you'll gain new abilities and accessories.

Once your creature has grown a big enough brain, it discovers the use of tools (triggering a cutscene lampooning 2001: A Space Odyssey) and forms a tribe, which starts the Tribal stage. The gameplay expands to interacting with other computer-controlled tribes and deciding if your species will invest in stone axes and spears or musical instruments and diplomacy. Do you kill off the other species or ally with them via a Simon Says-like social mini-game? Some basic resource gathering and comical costume discovery also highlights this stage.

After you've placated or obliterated other species, you move onto the Civilization stage and your quest for world domination. Based on your previous choices, you'll either be a Religious, Militaristic, or Economic city. In order to win this stage, you must conquer other cities by employing resource gathering, using vehicles, setting up trade routes, converting others to your religion, or using warfare. One of my favorite moments in the game was setting up a trade route with a city, buying it, and then using its military to conquer the rest of that continent.

Finally, with the world all united under your rule, you enter the Space stage, where you launch a space program and take your first steps into the galactic community. You must contact other aliens (both friendly and hostile), set up trade routes, forge alliances, create fleets, terraform planets to make them hospitable for life, colonize barren worlds, and expand your empire throughout the galaxy. The sheer scale of this last stage makes actual galactic domination nearly impossible; there are thousands of planets, but you earn merit badges for your efforts. Abducting aliens from one planet to transport to another can earn you a delivery badge, for example, and these open up new tools, options, and weapons.