So, Spore is out, and I just installed and started playing.
I've finished the molecular evolution stage and am about to embark on the land beyond...

Here's a documentation of my evolution.
The gameplay is very simple. You attack things and eat them if carnivore, or eat plants if herbivore, or eat anything if you have omnivore abilities (mouths or feelers or a toob mouth thing... I was mostly carnivore since I unlocked the herbavore bits later in the evolution)
http://www.team-captin.com/art.php?s=0&c=Spore&a=

Here's my about-to-walk-on-land evolution... Wish me luck!


If you have Spore, post your creations!

I would make a species so amazing they would be the reason Waldo is hiding!

How is the game I'm still unsure as to get it or not. Does it get tiresome after a while or does it live up to seven years of hype?

So far, it lives up to the hype. I probably should have included the information in the topic...

Anyway, the molecular stage plays exactly like flOw for PS3. You just swim around eating things. When you get strong enough, you mate to evolve and add spikes or whatever... Keep eating and you just get bigger and bigger and bigger until you can grow legs. It doesn't take long.

Also, there are 'parts' you can find by killing creatures with them. Like a jet-like squid propulsion system, or fins. Gathering these you can use them during evolution.
When building a creature you're restricted to your evolution points which you get by growing bigger or killing other creatures.

Now that I'm on land, I have to go meet other species to either befriend or obliterate them. To befriend you sing or dance or whatever they do to earn their trust. Or you eat them. Befriending gives you brain power and killing gives you -- I don't know. I killed one race and it gave me Parts. So does befriending. So... Yep.
Too early to explain this area yet. Seems alright. I've found some bird creatures. I'm going to find a way to get wings. My main creature is a centaur... so winged would be pretty damn cool.

this is true. I'm now at a winged wolf human...

Edit...

Uh, so I'm doing my best to stick true to the continual evolution.
However, that means various features get better or worse. Currently it has like these huge arms with spiked crests on the end.

This game was definitely a letdown. Evolution is fun, and seeing what you've created move is entertaining till you realize that there's almost no depth to the gameplay. You're a cell and you eat till you grow, then you're a land animal and you kill or ally with other species till you grow a brain, then you kill or ally with other villages till you grow a space program, then you kill or ally with other planets till forever because thats the entire endgame and there's too many galaxies and planets to have a definite end to the game. Almost makes you want to start another game just to be able to evolve again, but then theres all the boring parts between evolutions...

here's my creation if anyone is interested.

Wow. I was on the final tribe of tribal stage... and stupidly sent my full force at them. Died, and have to do, hours later, the entire tribal stage over again...

dickmonster.png

yeah it's really shallow and kind of boring. really a huge letdown, i've been waiting for this to come out for a few years but it's just not that fun! customizing your buildings/vehicles/spaceships do absolutely nothing, and some stages (tribal, civ) are just hideously boring.

So far, it lives up to the hype.

no it doesn't.

even if you like it, it doesn't. the hype was pretty ridiculous.

no it doesn't.

even if you like it, it doesn't. the hype was pretty ridiculous.

This is absolutely true.  I mean, I've enjoyed it quite a bit, but I'd be a HUGE FUCKING LIAR if I said it lived up to the hype.  I don't think any game is CAPABLE of living up to the hype of Spore.

Will Wright reaction

In an interview published by MTV, Spore designer Will Wright responded to early lukewarm reviews and criticism that the phases of the game had been dumbed-down and so were too simple by explaining:[69]

We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players. “Spore” has more depth than, let’s say, “The Sims” did. But we looked at the Metacritic scores for “Sims 2″, which was around 90, and something like “Half-Life“, which was 97, and we decided — quite a while back — that we would rather have the Metacritic and sales of “Sims 2″ than the Metacritic and sales of “Half-Life.
—Will Wright

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(game)

This really ticked me off. Spore, from the basic premise, should've been more than a "casual" game. it's about evolving an entire fucking civilization, what's casual about that? Leave the casual to the gay Wii/Nintendo DS spinoffs for soccer moms. The dudes who've been following this game for the past HALF DECADE didn't want a casual game, but I guess Wright did. And that's frustrating.

The hype was astounding. Even after watching the ultra simplistic gameplay in the hour long presentation, I still wanted to play it. Now that I realize what I was looking at was THE WHOLE GAME, I feel like my excitement I had for it was all just a waste.

EDIT: I would say sims 2 is more complex than this, and that's not saying a lot. I really think the people who created the game should be forced to play it more than one time through so they realize how horribly boring it is after you get over the initial thrill of evolving.

The difference is, lots of non-gamers and casual gamers know about the Sims.  But I haven't seen many at all that have even heard about Spore.  On the other hand, non-casual gamers were ready to preorder this game the second it was announced.  So how is it going to help his sales if they made a game catering to a crowd that doesn't know it even exists???

what's crazy to me is that the game was in dev for like FIVE YEARS. what was all that time used on!

what's crazy to me is that the game was in dev for like FIVE YEARS. what was all that time used on!

Bugs and perfecting the procedural generation's results, I would think.

Seriously, Halo and TF2 took several years to develop, and it shows in the quality of the product. Over the years, they evolved into completely different games than what they originally were shown as. Spore on the other hand, looks the exact same as when it was first presented. Spore didn't evolve at all, how ironic is that.

Wow. I was on the final tribe of tribal stage... and stupidly sent my full force at them. Died, and have to do, hours later, the entire tribal stage over again...

I can't image that being too much of a problem. You can breeze through tribal in less than an hour.