or how I time-traveled 12 hours into the future in a matter of seconds

12 Hours. TWELVE. That is a half day to lose myself in a game... and not just lost, I mean I could probably have been declared a missing person by hour 7. I wasn't even taking bathroom breaks. What game could do this to me?

Spore.

It is an odd combination of minor letdowns, and exceeding my expectations all at once. This game really kicked me back to those days of old where you just sit there and time passes in the blink of an eye.

"Hello gaming addiction, it's been awhile."

I was immediately put off by the fact that the cell is pre-designed. I had been expected to be given nothing but a little paramecium blob that could do nothing but consume and reproduce. So instead of starting completely from scratch as I had anticipated, I was given basically what amounts to 'someone else's' critter for which I had to choose a 'herbivore' or 'carnivore' diet, and I could then from that point on develop as I pleased.

That initial hurdle passed, I began swimming about in the water. Clicking about, pecking at things trying to find what's edible, and what sees me as edible. (Turns out a lot of things found me to be tasty, several times.) I noticed as I moved through the levels and as my cell evolved, there were a lot of subtle things going on. Little stuff, environmental effects, dynamic music, and even my cell went from being a transparent cell to more and more solid until eventually it was a 'creature.' I didn't actually notice that until towards the end. I actually wanted to stick around in the tide pool phase, to find the last of 6 parts, but apparently you are limited to collecting 100 'DNA Points' and then you are more or less forced onto land. I could have kept swimming around all day, but since I hit the DNA cap, it didn't seem like there was much point. So I clicked the button and slapped on some legs.

Slightly bummed about the premature landfall, but excited to see the creature stage, I moved on. This is where I really got sucked in. I was a carnivorous... giant... ant-looking... thing. I renamed him from Wigglius Wormus to Whatant. I had all these preconceived notions about what I wanted to evolve my creature into, which went right out the window as soon as I got a good look at my Whatant for the first time. I had always pictured myself evolving this 6 legged beast with 4 hands, 1 eye and a silly hat. I still could or could have done that probably if I kept at it. However, the really cool thing about this part of the game is that you find your own creativity becomes, in a word, unpredictable. You can only evolve the parts you find, so you have to appropriately adapt accordingly. My Whatant ceased to be a... whatever it was, and became something more like a very small Tyrannosaurus with a shark head, and tiny insect wings, that inexplicably gave him a very limited flight ability - which I called 'Archeosaur.' I tried to keep in the middle, making friends with some animals, and just eating the whole population of another. I ended up eating more than friending though. My Archeosaur was a vicious predator and wanted to kill everything in sight. By the end of the creature phase, he stood high on two legs, and looked more like a giant owl/human hybrid with big feathered wings, and angry eyes. As I looked at the final incarnation of my creature I thought to myself "how the hell did I get there?" I named him 'Arch Angel' (given his devilish, evil disposition, I figured I may as well make a pun where I can)

The tribal phase was brought on by a great little video of my creature beating a rock with a stick and deciding it was a good idea. (It's a throwback to an older movie - but I'll let you guys figure it out for yourselves) Again, I'm met with a disappointment of not being able to design my own hut, but it was quickly forgotten, the big thing here is other tribes. I designed the outfits for my creatures, which for some reason I couldn't figure out how to color without changing the color scheme of my creature himself. Which I did NOT want to do, I'm sure I just missed something. I hope. I set a few of them to fish, and took the others hunting. I even domesticated a few of the local wild life, which as far as I could tell did nothing except get me a badge. I put down a few of the available buildings, which made it possible to equip my tribe with axes or diggery doo's. At that point another tribe established itself not far from my own. I then gave everyone an instrument, and went to try to make allies. Once I figured out the mini game, it was simple as could be. I made friends, and all was well. They even brought me food every now and then, which is always nice. My tribe upgraded, I got a bigger hut, and I was on my way. Then 3 or 4 more tribes popped up, and I made every effort to be friendly, but that just didn't happen. They were all bastards and were consequently destroyed.

Civilization was then established; I built my first 'city hall' - a rather hideous first attempt at a building and up popped my first city. I did horribly at this section - by the time I figured out what was going on I had just taken over my first city (by military means, naturally) and I was pretty much bankrupt. Meanwhile, one of the other civilizations had taken over EVERYTHING else, and there was just no way I was going to be able to build a big enough army. So I started trading with them, hoping to get enough money to at least make an attempt. Then the city I was trading with came up for sale, and I bought it. Economic takeover st_yle! Then they offered an alliance, which I took, and then I magically had control of everything. "Of course!" I exclaimed to myself. "That was my strategy all along. It's all part of the master plan you fools! You fell right into my trap!" :roll: I then realized I had completely forgotten about building air vehicles of any type, for which I was awarded the 'Fear of Flying' badge for completing the stage with no air units. Like I said... all part of the master plan.

So it was time to launch my first space ship... which again was absolutely hideous.. It looked like an old shoe that a dog got a hold of. (I upgraded it later to look better)

From there, it's all about upgrading the ship, establishing trade routes, alliances, and taking over EVERYTHING. I'm not too far right now... establishing colonies and getting planets up to a certain point so they can maintain ecosystems is time consuming (and expensive) but I'm getting the hang of it. My creatures aren't starting wars left and right anymore, so it's mostly just about trying to expand..... for now. I haven't really even scratched the surface of the space phase yet, and I could probably play for a month straight and not cover everything just in my own little part of the galaxy. Plus I had to go to the bathroom, and I realized it was almost 2am.

All in all, despite some minor flaws and disappointments, this is still an overall great game - and I have no doubt it will keep me occupied for quite some time to come. By the way, I picked up the Galactic edition, and it comes in a pretty sweet hard case, a nice art book, a 'making of' documentary, and another evolution documentary by NatGeo that apparently features Spore. I also picked up Prima's Limited edition guide, which comes with a really nice hardbound art book that chronicles the literal 'evolution' of the game itself, written by the developers - complete with what stages were before they got to their final incarnation, what got cut, and what never was... as well as a long introduction by Will Wright which is an interesting read. (I didn't finish reading it, because the install completed) :D

Anyways, I have to get back to work and stop thinking about Spore. :cry: