| Spore (Mac/PC DVD) |  | From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games
List Price: £39.99
Buy New: £26.82
You Save: £13.17 (33%)
New (11) Used (7) from £22.50
Rating:  556 reviews
Sales Rank: 108
Platforms: Windows Xp, Windows Vista
Genre: life-simulation-games
Media: Video Game
Age: 11 - 18 years
Operating System: Mac OS X
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5030930057060
ASIN: B000FN7K2S
Release Date: September 5, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: brand new/sealed/uk
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Preview
From the creator of The Sims comes the most ambitious video game ever made: here you don't just control a single family or city but control an entire species from a single cell organism to a galactic conqueror. As impossibly complex as that might sound, the most impressive thing about Spore is just how accessible and fun it all is. The game is split into six evolutionary phases, starting with almost action-style gameplay at the microscopic level. From there you move to the creature phase on dry land, before going on to the tribal phase and the beginnings of society and technology. From there it's onto the city phase, which plays a bit like SimCity, and from there to the Civilisation phase which plays something like, you guessed it, Civilization. The final phase takes part in outer space where by hook or by crock your species must reign triumphant.Each phase has its own editing tools associated with it for things like vehicles and buildings. By far the most fun though is the creature tool, which allows you to create your own fully animated lifeform from scratch using a huge range of limbs, facial features and colourings. What's also interesting is that the other planets in the galaxy aren't all pre-populated by the game. Instead, by connecting online you can upload your races, and download those from other people, to fill the galaxy with civilizations from other players around the world. Any one of the six phases would normally be enough for any one game on its own, but this looks like it's going to turn out to be the world's first everything simulator.
HARRISON DENT
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| Customer Reviews: Read 551 more reviews...
 All the grind of a MMORPG without the social reward or variety. November 21, 2008
This was one of the most hyped games for about the past 3 years. Great things were made of the procedurally generated graphics and creature customisation. If what you want are toys that let you build the freaky alien of your choice I can recommend no better solution.
Unfortunately, I was expecting a *game* and what game there is in this product is seriously flawed. Overall the game is mind-numbingly repetetive. The cell stage is well executed and fun. You rapidly form an attachment to your blob of goo and rejoice as he eats things and grows strong. Exactly where his spikes are is something you get excited about as this can make all the difference to fending off other blobs or being lunch.
Unfortunately, the game doesn't get much more complicated. The creature stage is a dumbed down 3rd person action-adventure affair with your attributes determined by the parts on your creature. The interest is damaged as you are forced to change parts for better ones regardless of the aesthetics. There is little variation - you either kill or befriend other species until you suddely go tribal.
The tribal stage and civilisation stages are like dumbed down RTS games with few units (one land, one sea, one air) in the civilisation stage and little thought required. You can trade people to death (buy them), preach at them until they convert to your religion or attack them until you win. The latter two options are near identical.
Once you have your planet under control you reach the space stage. This is a little more interesting but not much. Your ship appears to contain the only brain in the galaxy. You can set up trade routes but they function only as a trojan horse to let you buy the other party's planet eventually. To actually get money you have to cart stuff round yourself or do missions. The missions are basic (fetch 3 of these, kill 5 of those) and ultimately dull. You get attacked on a semi-regular basis and have to hurtle back home to defend your planet (annoying). The diplomacy is feeble.
Apparently the 'story' element involving the Grox (baddies) is worth following and getting to the end is a big surprise and rewards the effort. I no longer care.
The final kick in the teeth comes now when they release details of the expansions which contain features that were announced for the main game months before release but apparently cut so they could sell the expansions. Imagine how impressed I am by this.
Oh, and the DRM policy sucks, but if this were actually a good game I would ignore it as a downside. As it is there is very little chance I will want to reinstall it ever anyway.
 SPORE SPORE SPORE! November 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This game is like freaking AMAZING!
i'm having so much fun.
firstly you start at Cell stage...and i was actually scaried...but the graphis are so brilliant! and then once you produce a brain you can then go onto Creature stage....so amazing...its really a good way of understanding evolution..its so cool! Anyway...depending on what you done at each stage decides what sort of creature you are on the other stages...once you;ve completed creature stage by either making friends enemies, ruling the world..you then go to tribal stage where you live and rule all the tribes...once you;ve done that you go onto civilisation stage where other civilations of your creature become your enemies or friends and once you have ruled the world by converting, battling etc you go to SPACE STAGE. which is AMAZING GOOD. graphics again are great and your within the galaxy...yay!
you basically makes friends or you attack star system whilst trying to help your allies star system and build your economy by selling spice, completing missons and so forth...i've actually gone to the centre of the galaxy...and i beleive the object is to get as far in the galaxy as possibly...whilst battling and making friends....
IT REALLY GOOD FUN!
I've feel like i've achieved so much with my creatures...(who i named after my sister. hehe)and you can be really creative and make any creature you want...making them look cute, or tough...and there is SO much to explore.
so buy it and try it :D
Balls November 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
DRM or not, this game is boring. Boring at the start, moving on slightly to annoying. Well, at least there's a bit of variation!
It has all been said before - annoying DRM, gameplay too basic. Honestly, this game should've been marketed as a kid's game. As it was not, we'll assume EA/Will Wright prefer to insult their customers' intelligence.
Waste of money November 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was really disappointed with this game. The game-play is very repetitive and whilst the creature creation mechanics are fun for a while, you quickly realise that the design of your creature has little impact on your species' success or failure.
It's nothing like the innovative game I thought it would be.
Worst of all, having played it through and decided I won't be playing it again, I can't sell it second hand because of EA's restrictive DRM. So all in all a complete and utter waste of money which has left me vowing never to buy another game with DRM.
 SPORE - Please give me more! November 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the most hyped up games of the year has now been released, and I have finally resurfaced to tell you about it. Made by the creator of the SIMS, SPORE was never going to be a disappointment. There are some pretty obvious similarities, like the graphics, SPORE has the same simple futuristic 3D animations and idiot proof options tabs, and just like the SIMS I did feel a bit like God on a power trip. But this is where the similarities end, SIMS fans be warned. You are now in control of evolution. Life for you starts out as a single Spore in a tide pool; you must fight your way through life, evolving and reproducing until you can walk on land and create a future for your species in space. Travel through six evolutionary phases by making friends and killing your enemies, whilst all the time moulding your creatures for their survival. As exciting as this sounds, at times the game does become a little tedious and almost too easy; this may have been because I played it on `easy', but still, it is a shadow of what it could have been. Despite these flaws I did admittedly become quite addicted, and found letting my peculiar and ugly featured aliens go, extremely hard. Overall I would say it is definitely worth a bit of your gaming time, but do not expect the epic adventure we were all led to believe SPORE would be.
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