Since I was able to get an early release off of the internet, I bring you my Spore review. I decided that the best structure for this review would be to chronicle my creature's journey.
EDIT: To be clear, Play.com has had it in stock and ready to ship since at least Tuesday September 2 when I placed my order. If I ever get the chance to buy another game before street date, I will be more clear about how I got it so that everyone doesn't have to scream piracy. My thread previously got locked before I could defend myself from the comments. Sorry for the confusion.

It all began with a random cell in the primordial soup of life. I knew way ahead of time that I wanted a race of destructive and murderous beasts, and so they began to take shape. As I swam around eating bits of meat, killing enemies my size, and running from things many times greater than myself, I gained DNA and began to evolve. Before long, my creature was a single cell killing machine, equipped with spikes and jets to speed him up. I started eating the creatures that were previously much larger than me. My time in the ooze was brief, chaotic, and brutal. Soon, though, I gained a tiny brain.

With brain in skull, my creatures crawled on the land. Despite having very few parts, I was able to give my creatures legs and spikes. We established a nest, and being a race of violent creatures, it was then my goal to drive nearby species to extinction. In MMO fashion, I began to run one of my creatures around with a few abilities, wiping out everything I could. As I eliminated opponents, I gained new parts. Slowly, my creatures became more and more capable of genocidal hunting. My creatures migrated to a new nest, and I gained the capabilities to bring some other creatures along with the one I controlled. Nothing could stand in the way of our growing power and minds. Before I knew it, I had eliminated enough species to dominate the area.

Then the tribal stage sets in. The view changes, now looking and playing more like an RTS, my tribe begins its journey. I selected several units and learned how to kill creatures to feed my tribe. The game allowed me to customize my creatures outfits, making them even more suited to combat, and establish buildings or make more creatures using food. I built an axe hut, which were effective at killing enemy units, and equipped my units with the axes. No sooner did another tribe appear nearby. I had the choice to ally with them or kill them, and I chose to destroy them. I lead my small force of savages over to the camp and began the slaughter. With a triumphant victory under my belt, I felt confident in my destructive prowess. Suddenly, many other camps popped up around the continent. One by one, I wiped out each camp, gaining new technology like spears and torches and new outfit pieces each time. When I was the last remaining tribe, the age of civilization set in.

It was in full RTS mode now. By this point, the game also knew that I was raising a species of murderous monsters. To show its understanding, I was building military land vehicles instead of ones to spread religion. It also begins the time of full customization. Aside from all my vehicles, I was able to design my buildings to look as evil as possible. My new goal was to collect Spice (Dune anyone?) and use it to grow stronger. Other civilizations began to show up, and I immediately realized my new goal: destroy everything. I amassed a group of tanks and rolled towards the nearest enemy city, for the bastard had the nerve to take my Spice vent. Unprepared for my onslaught, the city's people scream with terror as it was razed. As more cities fell, I gained more technology. Boats allowed me to gain Spice vents in the water. Once I had unlocked planes, nobody stood a chance. I built as many houses as possible to maximize the amount of planes at my disposal. With a squadron of fighters in hand, the rest of the planet was only a formality to dominate. As I became the dictator of my homeworld, space set in. Everything changed.

After designing my space faring vessel, I learned to fly using my keyboard and mouse. It gives a great feeling to fly around the planets in my spacecraft. The planets are pretty big, but they still maintain the feeling that you're circling the globe while flying. Not long after I learned to pilot my ship, I was searching around other star systems. As I encountered other species, my first thought was, "Can I kill them?" The answer at the time was no. I learned that my newly space adapted race didn't have the technology to fight these advanced creatures head-on. I begrudgingly subjugated myself to grunt work to earn money and power. Their assignments ranged from collecting (abducting) samples of creatures and plants to killing infected creatures with my laser to investing strange signals. I learned the ways of space, gained allies, and established trade routes. I gained the knowledge of how to stabilize a planets atmosphere and establish new colonies. As my empire grew, so did my power. I began to employ the force I had so long desired to use. Entire planets bowed before my might. The space section was the deepest, most complicated, and also most rewarding section of the game.

Conclusion: If you go into Spore expecting it to revolutionize everything that is gaming, you may find yourself somewhat disappointed. Getting past the hype, Spore is an ever changing game with a large amount of depth and replayability.

And so I'm off to conquer once again.

This isn't a review, it's a story.

Chimp:
This isn't a review, it's a story.

What he said
The only part that was really a review was the conclusion

true but cha gotta admit spores gona kicksum ass XD i get my copy sunday and i cant wait!

Got my copy the second it was released (I had the thing preloaded) and so far I'm thoroughly enjoying it. The different stages on their own arent much especially the ones at the start but its the sum of it all that makes Spore a bloody decent game.

Spartan Bannana:

Chimp:
This isn't a review, it's a story.

What he said
The only part that was really a review was the conclusion

The point of a review is to give other people an idea of you thought of a game. I tried to show the different stages of the game and how much I enjoyed them. No, it is not a typical review, but I think I got the message across that I enjoyed the game. I didn't think that a typical review would be able to explain the different gameplay stages.

Still doesn't change that it wasn't a review, or at the very least not a good one.

It's basically saying "This game is fun!" and telling a story of how great you are at it. I could tell a story of how I beat the crap out of an engineer with my bat on Team Fortress 2, but it wouldn't explain why the game is fun or anything that would convince somebody to buy (or stay away) from the game, unless they have a "beating Texan PHD holders to death with bats" fetish (Rule 36 says somebody must, after all.)

Basically, you put a "this game is fun" message into a report of how your game went, and that isn't exactly a good way to do a review. Besides being terribly unimaginative, I didn't gain any knowledge on Spore from this review.

milskidasith:
Still doesn't change that it wasn't a review, or at the very least not a good one.

Basically, you put a "this game is fun" message into a report of how your game went, and that isn't exactly a good way to do a review. Besides being terribly unimaginative, I didn't gain any knowledge on Spore from this review.

There are no forum guidelines pertaining to the format of the review, if the user wants to post his homo-erotic spore fan-fiction review then more power to him. As long as he remains in the realm of persuasive writing, and good taste, he's more than welcome to write anything he likes.

Fine, no more alternative writing styles. If I write another review, I'll do it in 100% standardized generic format like my other reviews.

I'm not saying it shouldn't be in the forum, I'm just saying it doesn't feel as good or like a review as a more standard review. It might have been better if he actually pointed out the good and bad as he went along, but for the most part it didn't feel like I was learning any of the goods or bads of buying spore.

milskidasith:
I'm not saying it shouldn't be in the forum, I'm just saying it doesn't feel as good or like a review as a more standard review. It might have been better if he actually pointed out the good and bad as he went along, but for the most part it didn't feel like I was learning any of the goods or bads of buying spore.

Inquiry: Do you like Yahtzee's reviews? They point out nothing good as well. Nor are they a "standard" review.

Wow. I was expecting more of a review than a story, but that does sound pretty exciting!

I've been hearing a lot that the game was a bit overhyped - kind of reminds me of Fable. I liked Fable, but it didn't include everything people expected. I still think I am going to have a lot of fun with these game, and there will inevitably be expansion packs that add a lot to it.

I had preordered it, but it was going to take a month or 2 to arrive. Hopefully the base store has it in stock...

Although this isn't really being received well, I chose this method for a couple reasons.

The first reason is that many people don't yet know how Spore is actually played. All we had really heard before was "evolution simulator." I felt it was important to give people an idea of what each of the stages felt and played like.

The second reason is that people might have gotten the wrong impression of how I felt while playing Spore if I used the standard Preface, Story, Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Notable Elements, Conclusion layout. To be clear, I thoroughly enjoy playing Spore, but I would have had to cover a lot of things I chose not to mention but will now anyway.

1) Spore's been in development for way too long, and it shows. Despite the high level of customization available, the game does not look remotely as detailed as many other games on the market. It overcompensates for this lack of visual detail with extremely bright colors.

2) The sound design falls right on in with The Sims. Early on in the game, you don't notice too much repetition. By the time you reach the space stage, though, it becomes terrible. The voices all of the creatures use, including your own since you don't have control over it, in space are repetitive and extremely grating and annoying, especially since they use "Sim Speak" instead of real words.

3) Ship combat needs to be reworked. The camera maintains a very close overhead view of your ship at almost all times. You move with WSAD, aim with your mouse, and use the mouse wheel to raise or lower the ship. Since you have no way to zoom the camera out from your ship, it's extremely difficult to keep an enemy on screen, hit with your weapons, and still maintain any kind of evasive maneuvers.

4) The space map is poorly organized. There is a very large number of star systems to explore, but no catalog layout of them, and missions are very poorly labeled. Sometimes I can't find where to go even with all star paths and overlays turned off aside from missions. Despite having a menu available for everything else in the game, there is no way to select a star system from a list, even ones you've already been to. You have to hunt for the proper star system, and it ultimately comes down to memorization. Should you decide to play another race in the space stage, everything will be completely different. You can guess how that is both great and terrible.

Had I done a "standardized" review, I would have had to mention all of these points. Although these points make Spore sound awful, I still really enjoy playing it. But there you go, that's what I left out from my review.

BleachedBlind:
I didn't think that a typical review would be able to explain the different gameplay stages.

Sounds like a challenge, that does.

Tough audience.

Rooster Cogburn:
Tough audience.

Hmm...

Threaten to blow them up if they don't laugh.

Ivoryagent:

Threaten to blow them up if they don't laugh.

Tried that before on another forum, and it didn't work. Threatening to smack them with the banhammer works, but only if you have mod powers to back it up.

How do people already have the game? I'm so confused =(

I've been playing Spore since Wednesday (just prior to it's official release, gotta love Game ^_^)

Although it gives you the ability to play any stage of evolution: Tidlepool, Creature, Tribe, Civilisation and finally Space Age. Really you get far more enjoyment playing from the start to get to the final stage where the game starts to really come in to it's own.

Main reason I say this is because once you hit Tribal, you can no longer evolve. Sort of a shame as I would've still liked to tweak my creature until I hit Civilisation stage. Even if it was little things like getting rid of the useless aspects. For example once I hit trible the poison spitter I put on their chest became useless, and once I hit Space Age their wings again became useless. I think the game should have a system that realises this and gives you the option to either remove useless apendages or like with real life creatures they slowly get smaller over time due to less useage.

Still that's only a minor niggle, and the gameplay styles of each stage really work better when played through as it feels like a more complete game. Especially as not sure about anyone else, but I made it to Space Age in little over 4hours (about an hour per stage adveragely, in-fact I got achievements from each stage for that).

Realistically, everything does lead up to the Space Age though. It's obviously what they expect people to play the most as it has the most to really do... and OMG it never gives you a break for a second unless you've forced everyone to submission, trade agreements and alliances. Right now my civilisation is roughly where Alpha Centuri is in our Galaxy and we have a huge 120 parsec empire, that unfortunately was discovered by the Grox (who you DONT wanna ever meet)

I do have some issues with the space age though, because while yeah they certainly expanded what you can do; it still doesn't feel quite polished enough. One major irritation I have is the sheer lag moving from Galactic View to Planet View. Every stage uptil then I had the graphics maxed out, but I think I need to seriously expand the amount of RAM I have for the lag not to be an issue. Cause I've had to put Planets and Textures to low for the lag not to be an issue. It still is but mainly when you enter somewhere that is either highly built-up or where a battle is going on... here'in is my main issue tbh, because until my spaceship was upgraded enough this lag often meant before the game would even run quick enough to respond to commands again I'd already be owned by whoever was on the planet loosing my ship.

Combat also feels quite hit'n'miss as well, because the range of your weaponry compared to that of other races just seems really off. There's no indication of what weapon has what sort of effect past a small power bar, and while on mine I have an extremely powerful beam laser all of my allies seem to have high-repeating pulse lasers that just cut down enemies in no time.

Targeting as well if the range wasn't bad enough, using the laser has become a lesson in small bursts before hitting the "AOE Repair" as I'll often catch friendlies in the cross-fire. As such I've upgraded my missiles at the first oppurtunity and started using them as they have a longer range and I can hold my mouse down once locked and it'll keep firing at the same target provided they're not too quick.

Enemies always have the same tactics to fighting too, which is a bit disappointing. They will always have 4 smaller ships and a large one (similar to your own). The large one will slowly move around and persistantly shoot you or your cities, where as the smaller ones will gang up on you at first chance; but the instant they get the chance with little health run off and heal (with no limitation on this aparently). Those who build smaller ships, I honestly feel sorry as this will mean combat certainly isn't for you!

Trading also is very hit'n'miss again. While yeah you can have trade routes, they don't actually seem to add to your own wealth; and you can only ever have 3. I mean right now I'm at "The Reveared" rank, and still only 3 trade routes. Feels extremely limiting, especially as the only way to seaver a trade route to someone will annoy them making them think of you as "cheap"; particularly when you have the "purchase system" option.

Single ownership over a system also feels a bit limiting. Although I guess not too bad... I also felt that the terraforming aspect isn't really explorered very much, or rather not explained well enough. I've spent close to 3-4million sporebucks trying to figure out how the hell it works with very very limited success. So decided to leave it until it becomes something I can afford to do as a hobby once the cluster I'm in is completely mine.

The game as a whole is awesome, and a good laugh to play. Really is extremely replayable as no two game experiences are the same and with multiple paths and rewards from each, just adds to this. Still I think that there needed to be less focus on trying to be unique, and a little more on what makes the game enjoyable along with some game balancing.

This is one of the first Maxis titles where real-time action (especially with the pause button litterally stopping the action with no way to micromanage only view from a distance) is the foremost. It's a good first step, but I hope they listen to their gamers over the coming months and adapt the game to a far more pleasent experiencing.

Really I have no real bitches to make over the first few stages of development apart from perhaps, they feel a little limiting at times. Really it's only the Space Age I feel needed more work and attention really. Especially the difficulty... it's tough to get anywhere, especially with races being extremely quick to want to kill you for no reason.

Right now I have 3 races at war with me. With all of them there are no possible diplomatic solutions to these wars without paying out ALOT of money, which irritates me given they claim my biggest crime is destroying their ships; but each time they attack my homeworld, just means they hate me more and more. Seems really retarded to me.
Something else that annoys me about that mind is they can have fleets of upto 5 ships, all from their home territory. You as the player however cannot build more defensive units on your worlds (only turrets), you can only have a single fleet... and it MUST be made up of ally ships as you can only have a single ship. Other races also never ask you for peace, ask for trade agreements, or purchasing your systems, etc.

I mean these are annoyances, they're not aspects that'll stop me playing; but they do get me really pissed off after some race has just attacked one of my outer colonies for the umpteenth time with 2-3 fleets, while my entire space force consists of me and two friendly nations ships. Both of which MUST be different races btw. Again it seems just stupid to me.

I know it's probably done that way to force you to make friends, but realistically to gain any sort of reasonable income you have to make friends; especially in times of need. They need to do some major tweaking imo

Still it is a good game, that I'm gonna end up playing alot of for a while. Hell it's finally got me off Halo 3 all the time.

^ Did I just have an auxiliary review posted in my review thread?

But I do agree with a few of his points.

I don't really understand parts of it, my home planet's cities are all producing like 3 spice per hour, and when I put a colony on some shithole planet with no atmosphere I got to put new kinds of buildings on it and they're making closer to 100 spice/hour, is there a way to put those buildings on my home world?

Inquiry: Do you like Yahtzee's reviews? They point out nothing good as well. Nor are they a "standard" review.

First off: Yahtzee does point out the good and bad in a game. He focuses on the negative a lot, but he will always at least give a nod to the good parts of the game. Second of all, his reviews are pretty normal. Besides being hilarious, vulgar, and set too pictures, if you just read the script with the jokes cut out you would have a somewhat incomprehensive but still readable review.

And I don't like Yahtzees reviews so much for the "review" part as for the "insanly funny" part. But let's not derail this topic further, 'kay? If you want to argue about whether Yahtzee's reviews are standard, let's do it by PM.

Hey Leyvin, you should just post your opinion as another review, you'll get it read more thoroughly.

On another note, thought the game didn't have any real challenges until the space stage, and the fish stage (I call it that because you don't start out amoeba-like at all) needed to be a ton more in depth and longer. There's been a bunch of games out already that are just like that, many of which are more complex.

Edit: @ Leyvin - the trade routes aren't there for any reason but to conquer other planets financially, they gain you nothing in sporebucks...

wilsonscrazybed:

milskidasith:
Still doesn't change that it wasn't a review, or at the very least not a good one.

Basically, you put a "this game is fun" message into a report of how your game went, and that isn't exactly a good way to do a review. Besides being terribly unimaginative, I didn't gain any knowledge on Spore from this review.

There are no forum guidelines pertaining to the format of the review, if the user wants to post his homo-erotic spore fan-fiction review then more power to him. As long as he remains in the realm of persuasive writing, and good taste, he's more than welcome to write anything he likes.

Thank you for saying this. It irks me to no end how people in the review forums critique the review itself rather than the thing being reviewed.

Anyway, I think Spore looks pretty cool. If they ever make a 360 version I'll probably check it out.

Anyone figured out whats at the centre of the universe (Spore-wise)? I'm betting on a giant Will Wright head. Or llamas.

ThaBenMan:

Thank you for saying this. It irks me to no end how people in the review forums critique the review itself rather than the thing being reviewed.

I believe you have misunderstood me. In no way was I trying to say that people shouldn't critique other users work. I believe an outside voice can help a lot with creative things like music or writing. The person critiquing the piece should remain constructive, negative commentary without context are egotism at its ugliest.

What I was trying to say, is that we don't want to limit your creative input to typical 'gameplay, graphics, sound' reviews. Those sorts of 'regular' reviews are always welcome, but we don't want to artificially stifle creativity on the forums with arbitrary rules about what constitutes a review.

Forum guidelines and the unspoken rule of 'don't be a dick' apply here too. We give a lot more leeway to would be review critiques in hope that they will provide quality feedback.

not really a review
just like a glimpse of what u can do
and what ur gonna see

It doesn't seem like this is a discussion about Spore anymore. More accurately, this has become more of a debate about what actually constitutes a review.

Nah, I'd rather not make a review as such; just wanted to put out some thoughts out there.
Totally agree though, I think some stages could've easily been given more depth.

In-fact if Spore does have a real downside, it's the sheer simplicity of it all. I know Will Wright wanted to make it "easy to pick up and play", but I can't help but feel they're ignoring the MicroManagement aspect in their current generation games.

Sim Societies for example was the first SimCity I actually was able to do well without putting in literally hundreds of hours trying to figure out how to do everything; in-fact it seemed almost impossible to do badly at the game. That to me is a shame, as I though the whole point in the word "Sim" was a form of Simulation... While I don't like Micromanagement on say the scale of what colour post-its my civilisation has, I would've prefered a bit more especially something that might enhance the gameplay.

For example creating additional fleets, so that they can defend worlds while you're away from them because... let's say you've decided to head towards the middle of the Galaxy to find the Grox. It was a little annoying to leave with 32 systems under my control, only to return to find that two races had realised I was away in what has become a truely ridiculously powerful craft; and nicked all but 4 of them.

It's just the little things that got to me, that could be solved by Maxis taking a look at similar games and seeing what worked and what was still fun. Best game I ever played where you had a Galactic conquest via Money, Diplomacy and War was Imperium Galactica 2... It's a shame even Digital Reality screwed it up by selling the rights to another company who buggered up the whole concept of the game. It was a lot of fun multiplayer as well, with players able to jump in/out as they pleased with upto 8 other players. Made it a good laugh.