When I first decided to play the game Spore, I did so because I had heard about it dozens of times from friends and online websites over the course of a few months. The previews were all the same: Spore would revolutionize the face of gaming with its enormous scope, complexity, and level of user freedom. Needless to say, the hype alone caused me to join the ranks of the millions of other gamers (and potential gamers) who were anxiously awaiting the release of Sproe. I was able to have a taste of what the game would be like when the Creature Creator became available online in June. The main thing I was impressed with at this point was the creative potential of the game. I was able to alter practically every minute detail of my creature to fit my wants and needs. Whether this involved making a creature with arms on its head, six legs, and a mouth on its stomache, or one resembling my cat, I had free reign over its complete design. This brought my level of excitement for the full game up another notch.
When Spore was officially released in September, I immediately started playing and anxiously waited for the positive reviews to start rolling in. The results were slightly surprising. After my first sitting, I had already finished the first two stages. The first stage alone took me 30 minutes to complete, and this was on Normal mode. The ease with which I was able to complete these stages was definitely unexpected. Where was the complexity I had heard so much about in the previews? One answer to this is that I probably could have spent a lot more time on each of these stages, had I not been so anxious to see what was coming up next. I'm already planning on playing the game slower, with more attention to detail the second time around. Regardless of how fast the game passed by, I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. The previews didn't get it wrong when they raved about the scope and user freedom. I think the fact that every creation made in this game can be shared with millions of people via the Spore server is very impressive. The sheer magnitude of this concept absolutely blew me away. As for user freedom, it was as I had experienced it in the Creature Creator, but taken to a much higher level.
Many reviewers did not share my point-of-view. The common reviews from gamers on websites such as Gamespot.com share a similar complaint: The depth of the gameplay is shallow and simple. As I mentioned earlier, this was also a concern I had, but I easily got past this and enjoyed the game for what it was. The best review of Spore I've read thus far came in the 180th issue of PC Gamer. In a massive seven-page review, the author (Kristen Salvatore) makes a very important point: Once gamers get past the simplicity of the play modes, it's easy to see that this casual game can still be extremely fun; it isn't a game that rewards you for your ability to beat a game, but rather one that rewards you just for playing.
Play a game just for fun? Really? In this day and age of competitive gaming, many gamers would read these last few sentences and laugh. However, it's completely true. When you first start playing a game, it's important to be able to set aside the previews, reviews and expectations because if you don't, that's all you'll be able to focus on and the game won't be enjoyable. So, even if Spore doesn't quite live up fully to it's massive expectations, it's still a game that I love playing.
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4 comments:
So Yahtzee doesn't agree that the game is very fun. i would love to hear your critique of his critique. And if nothing else your critique of a critique might make an awesome new blog post :D
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/218-Spore
That is a really good idea. I'll read the review and write a post this week. Thanks!
Now that you have gotten further into the game, are the levels still very shallow and simple? Or have you discovered many more complex activities in those levels? (I am not very familiar with Spore or anything like it) How do you think a gamer that is more focused on competition or completion could get into Spore?
Right now I'm in the tribal (3rd) stage of the game. I'm finding that the game is getting to be continually more complex as I continue playing. With the tribal phase, Spore is becoming more like a strategy/civilization game. This adds a nice change to the game, which I'm enjoying because I really like civilization games for PC.
When it comes to competitive gamers playing a game like Spore, I really believe that the key to enjoying it is to set aside preconceived notions of what the game should be like, and focus instead on playing the game for the sake of play. The great thing about Spore is that you have the ability to blast through it or spend endless hours playing it. The choice depends on what you want to get out of the game. I'm enjoying the creative aspect as well as the new challenges I'm coming across, so the game is a lot of fun for me!
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