A collection of somewhat lobotomized minigames with cute graphics.
The game sounds truly epic - bring up a single celled organism to be the ruler of the universe through evolution. But, what you get is a series of separate minigames which by themselves are quite uninteresting. Sadly, for every minigame Spore offers, you can find much better versions of that game elsewhere.
The various stages are:
* Microbial Stage - Simple action game, swim around and eat stuff smaller than you. I think I enjoyed this game the most, which says it all about the rest.
* Creature Stage - You got legs! Use them to run around and eat others or dance and sing to amuse them with your talents to rule.
* Tribal Stage - A very simple RTS game, with emphasis on SIMPLE. Find food and rule over others by entertainment or weapons.
* City Stage - Build your own city.
* Civilization Stage. A more complex RTS.
* Spacefaring Stage - Discover space and colonize other planets.
* Galactic Stage - Rule the universe? Did not reach this yet.
I was mostly disappointed in how abruptly the game transits from one stage in the evolution to another. I was imagining a more gradual transition, but in fact you only play each stage for a short time then the next stage will appear from nowhere and dramatically change the gameplay rules and how evolved your creatures are, giving you no control of what happens in between. You basically go from being a primitive caveman to a city planner envisioning nuclear power in a short step.
You will not carry over anything from your accomplishments in your past, except from the dreadful looks you most likely ended up with for your creature during the early stages of the game. To survive early on you need to focus on building body parts that just do not belong on any highly evolved creature in the later stages, like a pair of gigantic jaws on the top of your forehead or huge spit cannons on your cheeks.
Then there's a big focus on internet and community stuff that can be tied up to the game, like posting your creature online and what not. Well, that might have been interesting if the game truly was epic like everyone thought, but for a set of minigames like these..?
I grew bored of Spore quite quickly. I wanted to like the game, and was amused somewhat by the originality of the concept. But, it just does not click together well, and each minigame overlasts its potential, making you feel bored, with the only thing driving you forward being the curiosity of what minigame comes next.
Is having seven heavily advertised fast food meals better than having one really luxurious and satisfying meal in a great restaurant? I guess it all boils down to this question.