XXXXXX

A concept with a huge potential, an incredible underlying technology but a game let down by dumbed down mechanics

User Rating: 6 | Spore PC

By anacardo | Review Date: September 8, 2008

Spore might be one of the major disappointments of 2008, a game which promised a lot and delivered very little. Don't get me wrong, the game looks great, works like a charm and it's incredibly easy to grasp and play. Still the game is plagued by an issue which derive from an incredible but deliberate choice. This game is dumbed down to the point that a 10 years old kid would find it unchallenging. Let me give an example: let's say that you build a creature and you fill it with eyes, 6 legs and arms, you make it strong and full-featured. In a complex game, your creature would probably ended up needing more food in order to keep its multitude of organs up and running. At the same time you would expect that equipping 6 eyes to your new creature would probably move the field of vision a little further enabling you to see more of the world. Or that a 4 legs lightweight creature would outrun anything it encounters. Sadly, apart from a few characteristics that are very little influenced by how you build your creature, nothing of this is present in the game. The more you go on, the more you'll come to realize that no matter how you design your pet creatures, the outcomes would simply be equally the same. Therefore... why bother? But if this seemed already a small let down considering what this game might actually have been, when you reach the civilization stage everything falls apart. You get the opportunity to build three types of vehicles: land, sea and air. The first striking "feature" is that you can have only on vehicle per kind chosen. This means that if you have built some tanks in order to conquer a city and now you want to build some lighter but faster vehicles, you're out of luck: every land vehicle in your arsenal will be immediately converted to the new kind. Yes that's right: just one vehicle model per each kind at any given time. Of course you might argue: "but this would be a major exploit! I'll just build bikes for hours, then switch and have free tanks at a fraction of the cost!!" Yes of course, provided that a bike would have cost less than a tank which, in spore, is definitely not the case. Are you beginning to see the point? Apart from the variation in land, sea and air vehicles, every vehicle costs the same, no matter how complex, heavy or powerful it might be. You create an F16 replica with missiles and guns? that would be 3000K. A flying monstrosity made only of guns, armor and bombs that would shred the F-16 to pieces? same 3000K. An armless flying triangle? same 3000k. Can you see the point? No matter how customizable this game might be, there's really little point in working on the editors if it makes really no difference in the game. And you'll end up loosing interest in other players creatures as well. No matter how clever a designer might be, in the end the only difference in a creature from another will be the appearance. But I'm afraid we just scratched the surface. How can you take over the world when you made a mistake and you'll turn out being outnumbered, decimated, conquered and technologically inferior to the other nations you're battling with? You should be dead, right? Wrong. Because Spore wants you to go on, to play more, it simply lets you win. IN the end you'll reach space age in no time, and really start to wonder if all the previous stages were just a tutorial and when this game is trying to lead you to.
Summarizing: with a more mature gameplay, spore could have been a great game, if not THE GREAT game. But as it is, it's just a collage of an incredible technology, some outstanding content, and a few minigames and editors which are too easy and dumb to play and definitely not challenging.

Spore

A concept with a huge potential, an incredible underlying technology but a game let down by dumbed down mechanics

Over hyped, way to simple. Feels like a giant tutorial.

Did hype ruined the game?