Immediately, I was hooked. Designing my little critters in my own image, they started as vegetarian (which received many laughs from the peanut gallery, running defenseless from giant things that I could barely see with dreamy Brian Eno music playing in the background). Like, here:
Which is beautiful and fun (but really stressful), but then the fun began. I ate enough of something and killed enough of something else that my tiny little cells turned into brains and I got to walk onto land. And I looked like this:
Those things on my butt? Apparently, they are for speed. So I evolved a bit and changed, got myself a family, and went about my herbivore lifestyle. It was entirely engrossing. I was getting my arse handed to me by those who chose to give themselves fangs and a taste of blood (because the Spore database draws from other users creations - I've heard my little guy has since been seen in space in other people's games).
Openly, admittedly, my goal was to create the cutest frakking thing you have ever seen. I wanted to literally melt the heart of my enemies. So I became a pig/bird:
Gosh thats adorable. I had horns for fighting, arse wings for speed, and HUGE cat ears (we all know huge ears = dangerously cute). What you have to do is run around this little world, befriending other creatures by doing a dance for them and singing (or making them extinct by chowing down on them) and then you gain a bit of power - another trait, more DNA points to purchase an upgrade. Well, being as cute as I was, I had all the charm in the world, so I quickly became this:
This is not my cutest development - but as someone pointed out - hands are necessary. Though, I am a fan of those toes and tail combo. I had great flying skills. Anyway, I was having a blast - tweaking my nose, dancing for six armed bird-men, singing songs and making friends and using my wings to sneak into carnivores homes and stealing traits. And then, BAM - I had to evolve.
I mean, Will Wright (aka the Sims Daddy) didnt' really think this evolution thing through enough. Its great that I can control almost every aspect of my body. It's wonderful that I am not locked into any type of quadra/bi-pedal tradition here, but what if I don't want to evolve? What if I want to run around as a duck/deer all day? But alas, there was nothing more I could do. No more points to score. No many steps up. I had to end up like this:
And then, to my dismay, like this:
As soon as I hit the tribal stage, the stage that Will envisions our human traits begin to emerge, that our ability to interact on a social level develops, I totally lose interest. You literally have a choice between conquering, or befriending. Not developing weapons. Not exploration. Not farming or planting.
(Note: The above is not nearly cute enough, much to my dismay)That's it. Diplomacy or war-making. This dichotomy is disturbing to me as an observer of social behavior, and boring to me as a game player.
Granted, I just hit civilization and I'm hoping things pick up here. I made a building bit Spore quit on me and it wasn't saved. It was a cute building - I'm still trying to charm myself out of any sort of confrontation. But the "if you can't eat em, join em" mentality is a little dismaying, especially from someone as enlightened as Mr. Wright. I was really hoping to have an open ended, super intuitive and intertwined experience - not a guy that directs me to my destiny: be a war lord or cute pig/cat-winged thing who dances for acceptance.
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