Looking For Informed Opinions on Spore

[Amoreyna]

Let me begin by saying I hope this is the right area for this thread - if not mods please feel free to move.

So, someone close to my heart has been deployed and is seeking interesting games to be able to play in his scant off time to help relieve the stress and tension from his job. He does have an internet connection but unfortunately one not good enough to allow him to play his first love World of Warcraft (scary, I know ). So he's been looking at other gaming options and Spore has caught his attention.

I've seen professional reviews ranging from high praise to calling it scum with everything in between. It barely has 1.5 stars on Amazon and has amassed 2,000+ 1 star reviews, but many people seem to be bemoaning the security software when you really start sorting through them. Some gamers seem to believe it's up there with the second coming while others think it is the spawn of Satan himself.

So, what I'm looking for are people who would like to share their actual game play experience with Spore. Or if you know someone who has played the game and can tell me why they love/hate it. I'm looking for personal experiences that go beyond saying 'it sucks'. I don't need a novella, just let me know what you liked or didn't about it and whether you thought it was a worth while use of your money.

If there is another game you liked/wish you had instead, then let me know also.

Why am I asking? Because sending something to deployed troops is a pain in the neck and takes forever. I want to at least try to send a game he'll like, not have him wait forever and then be horribly disappointed.

Thanks in advance to all those who take the time to reply.

 

[Dogstile]

well, most people won't install the game more than once because its been dumbed down into minigames

that said, spore is worth playing through once for the experience, and is casual, but if your looking to send him something deep, i don't think spore is your best choice

 

[SharPhoe]

Portal isn't the end-all-be-all of god games like it would have you believe, but no game ever gully lives up to its hype. That said, it's still fully competent in its stages and quite the distraction from every day life, especially if you like to be creative.

 

[yankeefan19]

I've played it twice and it was really fun! Granted I haven't made it past tribal yet, but cell and creature stages are very fun. I very much approve Spore.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

It's a very good game. Sure, the game turns into a total grindfest near the end (I'm sure your WOW veteran friend would be used to that), but the endless number of creatures you can create makes it worth getting.

You can make some really fascinating animals; that, or you could just do what I did and make a **** with hooves.

[small]...trust me, nothing is more hilarious than seeing a giant purple **** galloping across a field...[/small]

 

[ProfessorLayton]

GAYEST GAME EVARR.

I bought the big Galactic Edition when it came out and it was a huge mistake. You start out making your little guy and slowly build up to a lifetime of depressing monotony. You can either kill people or make friends with them. Killing people is the easy choice so I just went with that. You walk around looking for body parts and things to murder and this takes a very long time and is not enjoyable at all. You then go to a semi-RTS style game that is really simple and repetitive. After you spend time on that you go to the Civilization stage where you build things and try not to be overrun by the other people which is more boring than it sounds. Then comes the space stage where you do move an impossible to control spaceship around planets and start messing with things. Really this game is not what we were told it was going to be and got old really fast.

Steer clear, my friend, and buy Fallout 3 instead.

 

[ghalkhsdkssakgh]

The creators are fun, the game itself is meh, the DRM is the spawn of Satan and the game was unfortunately hyped too much and dumbed down too much.

 

[grimsprice]

I have played the game into the dust. and i think its great if you don't mind confusing changes in game play mechanics. absurdly generalized alien societies. a complete lack of closure. and an un-finishable goal. oh and don't play to much at a time because EVERYTHING in the game is controlled using a mouse and your fingers get sore after a while. other than that it is an interesting departure from gaming norms. this is not a sarcastic bash on it. i actually liked it. but those are some of the reasons why people don't like it.

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

creatures are fun to make,but it gets kinda borish after creature stage,heard galactic thingy supposed to give you back your creature,still,makin the creature is the fun.otherwise just go watch zero puncuation

 

[Internet Kraken]

Spore is the biggest disappointment of my life. I followed this game since it was announced, sunk hours into the cr4eature creator, and pre-ordered the huge Galactic edition believing that the game would be everything they promised it to be. It was not.

I have to admit, the creation aspect of the game is create. The tools are easy to use yet they can produce complex creatures, vehicles, ect. I'll admit, it would have been fun to fly around in a sandvich spaceship blasting space invaders, but that's the problem. While the creators are good, the game play is awful. You create all these awesome things, but the game play is so boring and dull that there's little to do with them.

Overall, Spore would have been the best game ever if the game play was drastically improved. But as it stands now it's just a hollow shell of what it could have been. My favorite stage is the cell stage, because the game play is so simple they didn't have much room to screw it up. And that's kinda sad, because they didn't advertise the tiny cell stage. They advertised the epic Space stage, which was just incredibly dull.