SPORE™ Collection

The controls are slopppy at every stasge of the game. So the more complex it becomes, the worse it feels. Unfortunately "bad game" does not seem to be a refund reason. It's an EA title, i should have known better. So no more EA games even on GoG.

As other reviewers noted, there are different stages that your creature will go through starting from the cell all the way through to a space-faring civilization. The first 4 stages (Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization) are fun, but to me, they're more like an "introductory" phase of the game. For those who have played the oldest Elder Scrolls game, I compare it with the "Answer these questions to determine what kind of Galactic Empire you will create" sort of thing. Basically, the real game doesn't start until you hit the space stage in my opinion. Don't get me wrong! The earlier stages are FUN, truly, because of my next point: The customization! There is very little left desired with the customization available to you in creating your creature, and later you can even build structures to your liking, designing entire cities (with their own anthem, I may add!) and what's more: you can do this on EVERY planet you control. The customization is wonderful. Now I stated in the title that this game will attract a broad audience, but it will only really hit that perfect sweet spot with a few people. The longest portion of the game is the space stage, and that seems to be a hit or miss with most people. I loved it. *Spoilers in next section, but not big ones!* Basically, you're the "Captain" of your own spaceship with a mission from your space empire to... Well, do whatever you want. Do you want to follow the story and reach the galactic core to find out what is going on with the mysterious Grox? Or do you want to wage war on your neighbors, destroying all traces of your enemies and becoming the sole galactic superpower? Or perhaps you'd rather live peacefully trading and making alliances with those around you, living peacefully while you expand and get wealthy? This last part of the game is where it wins my five-star rating. It may or may not be the perfect blend for you, but it was for me. Regardless, it's definitely a title you should play through a couple of times!

OK, so Spore wasn't exactly the most well received game even at the time of its launch. That being said the game did manage to grab a piece of our collective conciousness, mostly on the strength of the creature creator and the player creativity it showcased. But going back to play the game and it is clear that the creature creator was the only redeeming part of this game. The idea of following a creature from the cellular stage to the civilization stage and beyond was well beyond the grasp of the game's creator. In fact an SNES game, E.V.O. Search for Eden, did a similar concept much better than Maxis! If you want to have fun with the creature creator go download that. Don't spend money on this half-baked game. I only give it two stars instead of one for the creature creator aspect.

This was a great game, had loads of fun playing it as a kid. As a result, I spent a few extra bucks getting a copy for the game, installing it via Origin. Now it is worse than ever before. I started by playing as a carnivore, eating and evolving, growing legs and arms, becoming the Apex predator. It was a good reminiscence from the good ole days. Saved, and logged off. Everything is working. The next day, I started again as a Herbivore, set out to conquer the galaxy with love and zealous religion. Right before moving onto tribal stage, I decided to try and befriend an epic... even though it is impossible. I found a nice big ole' epic, got killed.... and that's where the game lost all of its quality. Like in the good old days, it crashed, fine. The save should still be current as I saved upon exiting the nest editor. But NOPE! it instead deleted the entire save. Frustrated, I try fixing the issue, but it resulted in loosing my last carnivourus save. I tried troubleshooting it, and restarting and creating a new game as another herbivore. Upon reaching creature stage, I design my creature, evolve it... this time better than any of my other creatures. Only, I tried saving before it crashes and destroys my file. Instead the game crashes and destroys my file. Even more frustrated at spend several hours playing the same startup again and again. I create a new game, starting in the creature stage, and saving, only to find the game crash and deleting the save. Meaning that this game just simply does not let you save... AT ALL!!! I tried contacting ea support, and every time, they tell me to reinstall the game, do this, do that, restart the computer, try to see if the game is still broken. Rather than sticking in with it, and waiting until the issue is fixed, they send me a list of instructions expecting it to work, just to end the conversation. All it has come down to is that they will allow you to buy the game for the latest computer, but won't even support it!

The concept behind this game is really good, the creature building functions by themselves are highly amusing, and the initial stages of play are a lot of fun, if a bit shallow, but it gets more generic and tedious as it goes, especially after you've played a couple of the relatively short games. Basically, it turns into just another mediocre RTS game, and there's no shortage of those. I've put one full evening into it (one of those sessions where you look up a the clock and it's 2am), and a couple hours here and there, and I think I've already seen the majority of what's there. Still, I have to admit that I enjoyed the early half of the game a lot. The latter half feels rushed, as if the developers ran out of time/money/ideas or something, and had to push it out the door as-is. I would consider it overpriced at the normal retail figure, but it's well worth it for the under $10 price that GOG has it on sale for.