SPORE™ Collection

So this is the game that officially caused me to switch from Steam to GoG. I purchased it for $30 US two years ago on Steam, downloaded it, installed it, and tried to play it. Was told *after* game launch via prompt that to play I was first *required* to register on the Spore developer's website. I tried to, and found the website was down and had been for some time. I filled out a Trouble Ticket on Steam, the sole means of contact that company has, and after a week of no response, contacted my bank. *My bank* tried to contact Steam, and after a week of no response, gave me a full refund, deeming the charge fraudulent. After this, Steam contacts me - one "Robbie" from Tech Support. Robbie informs me that Steam doesn't offer refunds, and told me to work things out with the game designers. I told Robbie that I'd already received a refund from my bank, and would he please remove Spore from my Steam library as I couldn't play it, didn't want it, and had my money back. Robbie locked my Steam account, at the time worth $550 US in games. I had an ongoing dialogue with Robbie following this, gave Steam an F review on the Better Business Bureau (they're an F-rated company), and reported them to the US Department of Justice for fraud. Steam's current User Agreement prohibits class action lawsuits using a US loophole where local arbitration is an option, so I told Robbie I'd see Steam's representative in my local Magistrate Court. Magically, my Steam account was unlocked. I've not made another purchase on it since, and I never will again. So, about Spore itself, what is there to say? It was the most pirated game in history when it first launched, because the DRM was so draconian that people who purchased the game couldn't play it, and had to download the pirated copy which pulled the DRM out. Purchase -> Pirate -> Play. GoG is known for pulling that crap out, and has an excellent refund policy. Game's a little better than No Man's Sky. Try if extremely bored.

8 years later, Spore is officially DRM free! Though the game is more interesting in the early stages, there are a lot of customization options, unfortunately for me the gameplay later on lacks a certain something, I cannot pinpoint exactly what it is. The later stages of the game feel rushed and the whole game leaves me with a sense of uneven, unbalanced gameplay evolution. But maybe that's just me.

Spore is no Sim Universe, but it is still a very enjoyable sim game that really shines once you reach past a certain point. Your goal in Spore is to raise an alien race from single-cell organism all the way to galactic empire. This is achieved in the different phases: the Pac-man like Cell phase, the third-person RPG inspired Creature phase, the mini-RTS Tribal stage, the full-blown RTS Civilization stage, and the heavily Starflight and Star Control inspired Space stage. You flesh out your creatures appearance in the Creature stages while fleshing their mentality and behavior through all stages. Sadly the Space stage is the only phase you will normally come back to, as satisfying it is to go through all stages it can also be tedious. That said the Space phase is the closest part of the game that lives up to the original hype, there is a lot to do and there are literally thousands of worlds to visit as well as thousands of aliens to meet made by other players. Galactic Adventures enhances the game further with its in-depth adventure creator and solid gameplay that builds on the creature's phases mechanics. The game's biggest strength is its creators, its flexibility is currently unmatched and its easy to lose yourself making hundreds of aliens, vehicles, buildings, and adventures without even playing anything else in the game. Despite the two having very different gameplay, Spore is very much a precursor to No Man's Sky: both are sci-fi themed games with elements of simulation and exploration with the promises of nearly infinite gameplay. To say these games didn't deliver is an understatement; however, there is one huge difference between these two games: Spore is actually fun.

This is the kind of game that is only as good as you are at it. If you have an imagination and you're good at very basic 3d modeling Spore will offer you a lot of replay value. The strength of this game isn't the actual game rather than tools that allow you to be creative with the game to make your own galaxy of creatures and civilizations. If you don't have much of an imagination nor the patience/ability to work with very basic 3d modeling, you're going to hate this game because that's really the majority of what it offers.