SPORE™ Collection

Spore is an admirable proof of concept for implementing the idea of evolution across our reachable universe into a game. The gameplay is discretized into several stages, beginning with the player's species as a wiggling protoplasm and ending with its galaxy-wide omnipotence. To be succinct, the 'cell' stage is an enjoyable survival mini-game, the 'creature' stage is a boring scavenger hunt, the 'tribal' stage is an oversimplified strategy game, the 'civilization' stage is a less overly-simplified strategy game, and the 'space' stage is a relatively comprehensive space simulation. There is also the 'adventures' add-on, which is an underwhelming attempt to incorporate role-playing elements to the space stage. Given this wide of a scope, the game sadly does not deliver a consistently entertaining experience. However, Spore does provide an interesting challenge to the player by granting them several options to survive and thrive in the ever-changing environment. Nearly all actions have consequence, which sets up the space stage rather well. The fact that decisions made as a single cell impact the species' subsequent galactic conquest is remarkable and unique to the game. The graphics maintain a cohesive sense of well-polished quirkiness. The generative aspect of its art assets, the many model creation systems, and player-made content sharing features remain innovative to this day. Spore's music is wonderful, relaxing, and very on-theme as it has its own generative nature. It often provokes the right feelings of exploration, discovery, and adaptation throughout the game. The narrative provides a somewhat educational tale of how science has interpreted our creation and potential future, with an abundance of simplifications and science-fiction tropes thrown in. While the experience is not quite greater than the sum of its parts, Spore is recommended to anyone who wants to have some fun playing with the basic notions of evolutionary biology and space simulation.

A nice game. Still stands unparalleled even 10 years after its launch. Can become a bit boring if you find little or zero fun in customization. Personally, I am glad for having bought it in a discount sale after many years of waiting.

Spore is an oddity. Despite being creatively original, mechanically unique, and immensely popular in its day, it somehow managed to escape being the inspiration for a thousand cash-grabbing copycats. This means that, nearly two decades later, Spore is still a one-of-a-kind classic that retains its novelty for any modern-day gamer just now deciding to give it a go. To start off, the scope of this game is absolutely, absurdly massive. I mean that thematically AND mechanically. Each savegame spans billions of years. Your perspective starts with a single-celled organism and gradually zooms out, so to speak, to encompass an entire galaxy. To illustrate this huge amount of time and evolution, the game actually *changes genres* no fewer than four times. And we're not splitting hairs here, either - the game literally goes from "flOw" to RPG to RTS to a hybrid space-trading god-sim. You will go from putting eyes on an ameoba to putting sails on a ship to putting genetically engineered lifeforms on any planet you wish. Just the fact that all of this is present in a single game is insane and beautiful. So why didn't its novelty and popularity spawn a host of lifeless Spore clones? Because it's not actually a very good game. Spore quickly becomes butter spread over too much bread. Each of its many states of being is a shallow gameplay experience that, because they are all only vaguely interrelated, fails to lend depth to any of the others. You will always come away from it feeling that something was missing - that perhaps you had just played a feature-stripped open beta. Then you remember that it was 2008, and this was just how it shipped. But with all of that said, there's still something wonderful about it. You need an imagination to fill in the gaps, but I enjoy that. Do try it out. You will either find it charming and come back to it every now and again (as I do), or you will be bored and never come back. Either way, it's a rarity you've got to experience at least once.

It is awesome because of the customization and inovation. You develop the cell, the creature, the tribe, the civilization and the vehicles. I am to see a game so inovative. Be warned, the gameplay may be not the best part of the game, but I played it a lot and restarted 3 times, so it was a masterpiece on my opinion. I think it is hard to accompany the customization in game mechanics, and they did a great work, as the customization is absurd and would be hard to follow with a exponencial possibilities opening.

I was primed to love this game so my disappointment was even greater. I hoped it would be the evolution simulator it promised but instead it was a mediocre creature builder. Fundamental decisions you made about your creature's morphology (body plan) could be overturned between levels. Basically you earn points to buy upgrades. In the main screen the creatures all behave the same. Sing the same songs, do the same dances. The distinctions are minor and arbitrary. There is never a sense of there being an ecosystem. And then a giant monster appears..... Not worth full price by any stretch.