Spore: PC Game Review

Spore got me hooked!

Spore is a PC game from EA and was developed by Maxis, the same people who brought us The Sims. It's a very unique evolution type of game that is quite addicting as The Sims.

First you start off as a creature on the cellular level that can either be a herbivore or carnivore. Once you go around eating smaller organisms, you will earn DNA (sort of like the currency in the game) to upgrade your creature. You can choose to buy defensive parts like flagella to quickly avoid bigger organisms or more mouths to dish out greater damage.

Once you acquire enough DNA, you can then evolve to a land-type creature. This is where the fun starts. Here you have more parts options like better mouths, arms, legs, horns and more abilities like charge, strike, dance, sing. You can ally with creatures by singing with them and have them join your pack. Or you can choose to attack and make them extinct which I'm doing. Hehehe. That is just what I've discovered so far after playing for a couple of hours.

Creature customization gives you endless possibilities. For each creature part there are numerous styles with each giving a different bonus to attributes. You can add multiples of these parts and adjust its size, position and angle. For me, I'm trying to create something like a manticore with narwhal horns. Each version of your creature will be saved in your history so you can look back on how your creature evolved.

There's also a way to connect online and visit your buddies' worlds where you can wreak havoc with your creature or attempt to breed with other creatures there.

Most users might give it a bad press due to its DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection but once you get past that, the experience will be quite enjoyable.

I'm just starting out so I couldn't comment on other advanced features (vehicles, technology?) but it's a pretty cool game that can make your kids forget about homework and other important stuff such as goals and aspirations.