SPORE™ Collection

This game really gives users full immersion. Although the the stages from Cell to Civilization are rather simple in terms of gameplay (it doesn't means they are hard, though), every time I started a new game on a new planet, I had that pleasurable feeling about my creature conquering the galaxy.

Spore is an evolution-coated monster-maker game. It's hard to point to one thing and say "that's where it all went wrong!" I remember seeing concept videos of Spore when it was less cartoonish, and it was awesome. We know EA pushed for unrealistic deadlines, which is what they do best. This resulted in a buggy and unfinished mess of a product, as such behavior always does. But Will Wright was still responsible for the cartoonish design and overly simple, shallow, and unengaging gameplay. But the biggest crime was the DRM. Not only did the DRM cause performance issues, but it limited the number of times you could install the game. Then it became a dead CD. This directly caused Spore to being one of the most pirated video games in history... Spore proved DRM doesn't work and the industry's response was "we need more DRM!" And that is why you should never buy Spore. It's not even that great of a game, and there's the principal which must be enforced.

The Creature Creator is awesome -you get a lot of control on how your creature looks, and just for that the game is worth buying on sale. Sadly, the rest is unremarkable. You use DNA points (obtaining by meeting goals like eating at first, hunting/befriending species later) to attach body parts to your body; each part grants levels to some of you 4 attacks and 4 comunication skills, sometimes bonuses to your health too. Their appearance is mostly cosmetic, but editing that gives your creature its individuality. The editor is incredibily intuitive and powerful for something that's controlled using only your mouse, and your creature gets all kind of animations. But that's the highlight of the game: the first stage, from tiny multicellular organism to fish, and the second, land creature working in packs, is where the charms wears off. It's no coincidence all reviews like the first two stages and ignore the rest -you just don't care. Customizing your guy is cool at first; later, when you're a land creature, should be even better, with all the appendages you can add, but the editor hides the levels affected by each part -you must click on every available part to see what you get out of it. Worse yet -clicking on your existing parts, which after all that customizing can be hard to match with the listing, doesn't tell which part it actually is nor its levels, so improving yourself by swapping in better parts is an exercise in frustration, and after a while you just don't care -you need to improve your stats, but knowing which parts will do it within your budget is too time-consuming, and looking good just won't cut it in this game. On startup if offered to create an EA account, which I skipped; seems the only effect is you won't be able to play online and upload/download player creations. The Creature Creator is an amazing technical achievement, but that's it. Get it on sale -you'll get a few hours' fun from the first 2 stages and the creature creator, but no more.

its fun