“Spore,” the new game from Electronic Arts Inc., offers players the chance to intelligently design their own creatures through various stages of development. In the cell stage, the first of five, gamers pilot a simple creature through a primordial soup, eating bits of mulch and smaller creatures while running from larger, more advanced creatures. Think a beautiful, complex version of “Pac-Man.” As the creature eats and finds advancements, it can add on new adaptations: eyes, flagella or poison glands, for
example.
Eventually, once your creature dominates the primordial ooze, it is time to move to land. This next phase is the creature phase and additional complexity is added to the game. Interactions with other creatures go beyond eating or running, and creature adaptations become more elaborate. The next developmental epoch is the tribal phase, followed by the civilization phase and finally ending in space. Each phase adds different goals and more sophistication.
The game is attractive and engaging. The creatures are cute and ugly in the way pugs are cute and ugly. Adapting your creatures and guiding them on their fight for survival makes it all the more devastating when a rival tribe wipes it out.
The early levels of the game are much like first-person shooters (eaters?), but later, the game becomes a real-time strategy game like “World of Warcraft.”
It is not clear if adaptations from earlier in the game play a role later. Does it matter in the tribal stage that I added a spike to my cell level creature? Beyond merely helping the creatures survive the early levels, the spike doesn’t seem to have any bearing later in the game.
The variety of creatures is seemingly endless. The number of adaptations is vast and each level of functional customization (e.g. extra legs) comes with options to design completely new looks for your perfect little monster.
Each game in “Spore” takes place on a planet in a galaxy. Eventually, players can take their creation to conquer other planets in the galaxy, testing their collection of adaptations against the adaptations of others.
For anyone who ever wished that their game of “Civilization” would grow into a real war for galactic conquest, “Spore” is for you. The complexity and beauty of “Spore” promises lasting entertainment. Time to go teach that Epic Golgersch not to mess with my tribe of Eye Monkeys.
