What did you guys think of Spore?

[Plucky]

the build up made the game look like some sort of amazing Dungeon Keeper/Age of Empires-like game, but the game had such long delays that by the time the game came out, it just wasn't impressive. think my brothers wasted 1 install on a dinosaur of a PC whilst another one somehow used up a few of them on a laptop. i went in blind and got from tidepool to tribal stage in a few hours. it just failed to support the hype, at least Smash Bros Brawl kept up a substantial amount of hype and tided people over with daily updates.

Kind of a shame that EA/Maxis tried to make Spore into the new Sims but boiled down entirely, except for possibly Darkspore; purely on the fact that its more darker than the bright kiddy look that original Spore has.

 

[Thomas Barnsley]

I didn't like that you could just choose whatever random shit you wanted between generation, cuz evolution should really be far more structured. Like, really it doesn't make sense for the player to have any input in the design itself since the selection is no longer natural, but that wouldn't have made for a very fun game. I still think a LITTLE more restriction on what you could do wouldn't hurt.

On the other hand, less restriction in the biological niches would've been really cool! Would've been so cool if we were able to create small organisms like insects, or aquatic fish, or even birds. Some food sources other than random fruit and other animals would've been nice too.

Long and short, I agree with some of the other people here: they should've focused on the first and second stage, to give them more realism and diversity.

Edit: ohohohoh also biomes! Proper biomes which restrict the expansion of species due to lack of adaption.

 

[Ugicywapih]

As many folks mentioned, the first stage was simple and fun, although I'd think the fondness here is at least in part owed to the fact it was short too - it could have well overstayed its welcome if they tried to make a full game out of that alone (or maybe not, Bubble Tanks is still pretty damn popular and the formula is kinda similar). Besides that, it was tons upon tons of wasted ideas sprinkled with disappointment caused by overstretched hype, heaped over flat and bland gameplay and suffused with intrusive DRM. Calling it "meh" would be doing it a favor - the creature forge they've shipped as a demo of sorts actually had far more interesting creature creation mechanics than the full game IIRC, no idea why they've scrapped it, maybe it wasn't bland and shallow enough to mesh well with the rest of the game.

I felt my first unease in an early demo where one of the creatures picked up a spear. At the time, I remember thinking, "Why does it have to be a spear? Wouldn't it be far more interesting to see what sort of tools, vehicles, or weapons a creature that didn't have a hominid physiology might devise?"

Actually, I'm getting a little nitpicky here, but spear does make sense. It's basically a shaft with a stabbing point, meaning you get to keep your distance from the enemy while stabbing them with something quite likely better suited for the job than your appendages (unless you have very stabby appendages, I guess, then spears could be obsolete).

Anyway, from what I hear, now the realm has been abandoned and reclaimed by enlightened civilizations of dick-people who strive to achieve dick-transcendence, or somesuch.

 

[HavoK 09]

The gameplay was so shallow that people found more joy on the creature creator.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I played six hours of it and I had a reasonable amount of fun in those six hours. But after that I was honestly just through with it, I didn't know what to do next so I uninstalled and haven't played again since.

 

[Silvanus]

The first two development stages in Spore were pretty fun (though the first was merely a mini-game, the second had a reasonable level of depth). After that point, I thought the game went swiftly downhill, and I had very little motivation to see it through.

 

[EOTD]

I had somehow completely missed the hype for the game and only became aware of it when my girlfriend asked me if I knew if it was any good? I thought it was "ok". Very shallow during the build up to the space exploration section. I finished the game wishing for something a little more. Then I looked into the history of the game, I was annoyed with what we got to what was set out at the beginning.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Thinking about Spore makes me wail in agony. It was the first game I ever got really hyped about, and boy that got heavy when it was one of the few points of light in 5 years of misery.

And then it came out, a digital Mr. Potatohead with gameplay the depth of a tide pool. What a pile of wasted potential that game was. God what a shame. What made it worse is that you could see the potential, you could see where it was going. But what we actually got... Nope.

 

[Pseudonym]

It was extremely shallow for 10 hours and then the game crashed and I hadn't saved for the last 7 hours. So I called it quits after that. Wasn't impressed and wasn't willing to start a new game. I did the first fase a bit because I found it somewhat enjoyable and I screwed around in the editor for a while.

 

[Denamic]

I wanted to like it. Every part of it had so much potential, but none of it was implemented well. Every stage could have been interesting, but instead, they were short and uninspired. As if it was designed as padding you're just supposed to trudge through for 15 minutes each on your way to the space stage. And then the space stage isn't even good. It's just the same uninspired grind over and over, getting upgrades to your gear that makes you able to do more of the same.

Such a cool idea just wasted.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

It was fun for a while. The space part eventually got boring long before I conquered the galaxy, though...

 

[CaitSeith]

I never played it, but I heard from some people who enjoyed it that the space part is the real good part.

 

[Scarim Coral]

It was a good creator (creator, buidling, vehicle and spaceship) and that pretty much it.

All of the other gameplay like the statergy and space exploration was thin and lackluster at best.

Heck there wasn't even a real story in the game other than keep evolving your creature into space. Heck I feel that movie Futurama: Into the Green Yonder (the part about the two races that keep evolving to fight each other and one became good in that it preserve all races including extinct ones and the other evil for wanting to end all life) was a misoppertunity for Spore!

 

[Politrukk]

I actually enjoyed this game. But some people really did not like it. What do you guys think?

It was entertaining in the beginning then it became a dredgefest.

I think the developers either promised too much or people expected too much.

 

[Xeros]

It was a schizophrenic mess. It had no idea what it wanted to be, so it poorly emulated everything else and fell short in every area. I spent the entire game wanting to go back into the ocean.

 

[Recusant]

The problem wasn't that the game was overhyped; the problem was that the game was awful. Gameplay was horrifically shallow at each stage, and while you could customize the appearance of a great many things, appearance was all that changed- nothing you did had any game effect. They managed to set up a graphic system where legs would move in a way that would actually let a bizarrely structured create walk (well, mostly, anyway), so (credit where it's due), that was kind of impressive, but that was the only praiseworthy part. There was more depth- and a lot more fun- to be had in SimLife, and that came out in 1992. And was from Will Wright, no less; you'd think the guy would've wanted to make something better after sixteen years. The game was terribly overhyped, but that was just the icing on the cake. No, wait; the crippling DRM and limited installations were the icing on the cake; the hype was the icing on the icing. Plus, you couldn't customize the controls. On a game released in 2008. There's no excuse for that. None.

I still have my copy, sitting in its box on a bookshelf, as a reminder never to trust EA.


And speaking of "credit where it's due":

I love the concept. The problem is, everything felt so shallow, like a demo of a much better game or a reminder that I could be playing Civilization or Master of Orion or any of the games Spore was trying to be.

I believe this is the first time I've ever heard Spore and Master of Orion mentioned in the same sentence without making me want to punch whoever said it. Well done, Dalisclock!

 

[Dalisclock]

There was more depth- and a lot more fun- to be had in SimLife, and that came out in 1992. And was from Will Wright, no less; you'd think the guy would've wanted to make something better after sixteen years.

I still have my copy, sitting in its box on a bookshelf, as a reminder never to trust EA.

And speaking of "credit where it's due":

I love the concept. The problem is, everything felt so shallow, like a demo of a much better game or a reminder that I could be playing Civilization or Master of Orion or any of the games Spore was trying to be.

I believe this is the first time I've ever heard Spore and Master of Orion mentioned in the same sentence without making me want to punch whoever said it. Well done, Dalisclock!

Thanks. Appreciated. And you reminded me of something else I meant to say in my original post. I'd played SimEarth back in the day and really liked it. I think when heard about Spore, deep down I wanted an updated version of SimEarth that eventually turned into Civilzation and then MoO. Instead, well, we know what we got....

 

[sagitel]

I haven't played it. My wife has it, and my daughter has played it on her computer- she wishes it was possible to stay in the "creature" phase rather than going on to the later tribal/civilization stages.

it is possible. when a stage is ready to be completed a button in the bottom right glows. if you dont press it you wont go to the next stage.

OT: the game had a lot of potential. it could be really really good but it didnt happen. the first stage was nice but got boring quickly, the creature phase was repetitive, the tribal stage and modern stage were absolute garbage. (i liked designing my warmachines though)
but the space stage could be really good and you saw glimpes of it. the trading, fighting, terrafroming could redeem the entire game if it was done right with right amount of complexity. but that didnt happen either. the game had potential. it could be something revolutionary and great but it fell on his face and drowned in a puddle ( a shallow one) of his own tears

 

[Joccaren]

It was entertaining for a short while, but there was no depth to the gameplay and it quickly became tedious and repetitive.

Largely this.
The most fun part was the progression from cell to space, which you could go through a few times and have some fun.
Once you got to space though, there was a LOT of content... but all of it was as deep as a single sheet of graphene - aka: 1 atom thick.

Overall, I found it far better than most who didn't like it did. I didn't mind the not really realistic evolution, lack of water stage, or cutesy art style.

The lack of depth to the space stage though was a nail in the coffin of the game. For one, it at least needed to simulate an economy of some sort for the trading. As it was, it was completely random as to what the price of everything was, and that made trading just... pathetic.
Combat there wasn't a ton you could do with the style of the game I guess. However having enemies have different weapons other than just "Quick fire laser" and "Always misses missile", and each weapon having a tactical purpose that they would use it for, would be great. Same goes for a lot of your weapons. A lot of them just become obsolete rather quickly.
It also needed some sort of over-arching story or goal for the game in the space stage IMO. Getting to Steve was kind of... slowly... by requiring you to grind for a bunch of badges you really shouldn't have had to [Empire size would have been a better measurement of progress], but once you got to him... Nothing. Get 42 staves of light, and... that's it. Go off and do your own thing.
An interesting thing would be requiring cross-save gameplay in order to achieve the final goal, but it was overall just a let down with little payoff in the end. No story started or ended. You were no further after you'd met Steve than you were before. Nothing had changed. Made any motivation to actually play the space stage hard to come by.
Galactic Adventures also should have been in the base game. The ability to actually do things as a captain was sorely needed.
And the missions really needed work. Helping a race should actually have an affect on them, rather than do nothing. Sometimes it did - when a warrior race asked you to kill their enemies, or you came to defend one of your allies - but by and large it'd be "Find some rare items", and then nothing...

Probably the biggest thing would have been to keep unlocking meaningful abilities as the game went on. Expanding your empire would allow you to research in one area, and you'd get a bonus to research in your chosen archetype's field. Technology you hadn't researched you could trade for, but it became prohibitively expensive the higher up the tech tree you went, and you couldn't buy the tech - just the items.
So warriors would naturally keep unlocking weapons. Start off with your basic laser, move on to missiles, bombs, autocannons, shields - ect. Only, actually give each of them a purpose.
Ecologists would get a lot of terraforming technology, whoever the really peaceful people were would get a lot of social techs, and traders would get production ones.
That would have made the space stage a bit more interesting at least, and given you a reason to keep playing - unlock all the technologies, so you'd be able to do actually cool things - as opposed to a lot of the gear that was in the space stage that did bugger all a lot of the time.

But yeah, overall it was enjoyable at the start, but quickly became just a grind. I still enjoy it sometimes though.

 

[chimeracreator]

It was a bold idea, but it reached too far and ended up not focusing enough of the core mechanics of each stage to really make them shine. Only the cell and creature stage really stand out as well done in my opinion with the tribal and city stages being an example of bad design at best. Finally the space stage was somewhat interesting, but the combat was poorly done and trading was tedious at best. After enough tools were unlocked even terraforming lost its appeal as it became far too easy.