Why such a genial and complex idea has to be brutally trivialized and simplified to such a ridiculous extend? This game bored me really really fast and editing the creature was actually the most enjoyable part of it. The rest is a boring and repeatable game that uses same old rts schemes one can see in so many games, but implemented very poorly and limited to its rudimentary options.

I feel cheated. I was promised a revolutionary, unique game, instead I got sold a child game... Thats what it is. Its basically 5 extremely easy mini games in one, plus this anti-creative "creature creation". Pick 5 random animals that come to your head, then try make them in this creator, you can't, this game only allows you make some unrealistic freaks that all look similiar. This is the biggest disappointment in gaming history, not worst game ever though, if they said it was supposed to be an game for children in the first place, it could aim for best one ever, but it pretends to be what its not. I beated the game in one day, not even a day but few hours, i didnt launch it ever since then. If you want to buy it for your 8 year old kid, go for it, but if youre a gamer and looking for a good game, forget about it.… Expand

Where is the game that Will Wright showed off in the pre-release trailers? It's not what ended up in the final product. The only remaining vestige of the game that we saw in the pre-release trailers is the cell stage- where it actually matters what parts you choose, and where you place them. Beyond that, it's "Oh, let's make my character look pretty". I'm sorry, but that doesn't interest me. Where you place arms, legs, head- it doesn't matter beyond the cell stage. Playing up through the space stage was mildly entertaining the first time through- but that's about all it's worth. I'm giving this a 1 due to the fact I felt like the developers gutted the best portion of this game- evolution. I am deeply disappointed.… Expand

What a fucking dissapointment. They watered the game down like hell just to make it more "accessible" to all the retards with an attention span of 1 nano second, and so they can release 15 expansions for full retail price over the next 5 years or so like they did with the sims 2. Fuck EA. Fuck them up their fucking capitalist asses.

All in all not a BAD game but as many people have said the addons or expectations are what killed it but with the expectations it should be a very good game however i would of liked to see a more auqadic stage i mead you go from a about 10 cellular thing to a little guy with legs in a snap wheres the water stage??? and also they need a water tribal and a warter civ stage (if the user doesn't want to go to land) and maby they could have more than 1 form of intelligent life such as the zindy from startreck enterprise now that would be something to see .… Expand

Spore could have been a great game. It could have been exciting, entertaining, and in-depth. However, EA deliberately dumbed-down the game, hoping to appeal to a wider audience. With the creature creator simplified to nothing more than paper dolls with window dressing, there's really no reason to play Spore. I'm sorry, but I'd rather play any number of free point-and-click flash games than the dumbed-down Pac-Man that's stage 1. I'd rather play any one of the thousands of third-person action games than the oversimplified, dumbed-down 3PA game that's stage 2. I'd rather play any one of the hundreds of great RTS games on the market than the oversimplified, dumbed-down RTS that's stage 3. I'd rather play Civ II, III, or IV than the oversimplified, dumbed-down 4X game that's stage 4. And I'd rather play any number of more-mundane-work-than-fun MMORPG games than the repetitive, cookie-cutter-grind-quest Galaxy stage. Spore is a game for people who don't play games. It's simply uninteresting, uninspired, and clearly aimed at people who are unaware of, unable to, or unwilling to play the hundreds of deeper, more rewarding games that Spore has so clumsily aped for each of its stages.… Expand

I'm rating a 0 because they purposely cut half the game out before release too later include in expansions to collect more cash. Maxis partnered with EA's plan is a marketing plan and distanced itself as a friendly gaming company into how much money can we starve out of this. Unless a service pack comes out for the game that removes DRM, places all the content they took out, fixes all the countless crashes in Space stage, I don't suggest buying it.… Expand

Creators don't redeem it. absolutely terribly frustrating gameplay throughout. Space phase is the greatest letdown in video game history. Constantly being attacked by space pirates and civilizations you didnt do anything to. no way to trade easily. if you're trade "route" is completed with another star system, you're given the option to buy it. if you give them an offer they don't like you cant try again and have to build the trade route again which takes like 30 minutes. DON"T buy this game if you like having fun. play galactic cicilizations it's way better.… Expand

Incredibly disappointing gameplay. 1) Cell Stage - fun for 5 minutes, after that its rather pointless 2) Creature Stage - this is really the meat of spore - your evolutionary choices actually matter here. Unfortunately the gameplay is rather stale. 3) Tribal Stage - one of the worst strategy games I have played - the interface, camera controls, and minimap controls are horrible. Whats worse is that everyone's creatures are pretty much equal - technology may make a difference, but the giant claw creature should have some sort of attacking advantage against the round, fat, weaponless creature. 4) Civ Stage - no citybuilding here. All of your designs and your creature are not purely asethetic. There are some minor vehicle differences, but the gameplay is so simple it doesn't really matter. Spore outdoes itself by providing an even worse strategy experience before. Luckily the game provides an 'i win' button - literally, a button you can push to just win at a certain point. 5) Space Stage - talk about disappointing. Again, all of your design chioces are aesthetic only. You can have a flying cube as your spaceship and still be fine. Want to play around in the 'sandbox' that is supposed to be the spacestage - terraform and such? Well, you can't without money. And to get money you have to play a rather dull risk-esque game. Whats worse is that you have to micromanage everything. For some reason your all-powerful space-faring empire can only field one ship - you. You can't build fleets to take care of pirates, or eco-disasters, or even collect revenue from your planets. Nope - you have to do everything. Trade routes don't even give you money. If you want to actually explore there is no way to do it without constantly losing colonies. Besides the disaster of the gameplay, the DRM is horrible and you cannot install Spore on more than one computer, or have more than one account. So if you want to share it with a family member - too bad. You can't. The only reason this gets 2 stars instead of 1 is because its mildly entertaining to play through once ... Oh - and it will often crash on mac. And, if you want to install it on windows it will require 9 GB of free space, not 4 like the box says (the EA download manager requires an extra 5 GB to install).… Expand

Spore is a brilliant game the first time you play it. Afterwards, its just boring and far, far, far, far, far, far too easy. The game's graphics are extremely childish and unrealistic but that said the concept of the game and its gameplay is really good. Creating a creature is tons of fun and then being able to play as it, be it herbivore, carnivore or omnivore but some of the controls are rather...dogy. The game has a lot of possibilites but had a lot of potential it hasn't met. Its surprising the game is 4 years old already! Its seems like only last year when i bought it for the first time. Its a good game, not brilliant but its creativity and concept do give it some credit. Its a game more for children - EA really has centred on child safety and friendly games, especially on Spore.… Expand

Each evolution stage is like a separate game ranging from simple arcade to simple RTS to simple adventure/quest RPG, some stages are amusing but not great. The game just never excell anywhere. On the plus side, I can run it both my iMac or Windows laptop with crappy hardware and it still looks pretty good.

Horrible. Choices mean nothing in this game. Where is the struggle to evolve versus extinction and the strategies and choices that should be required along the path. This game is so simplistic I can't believe I feel for the hype. Damn it this pisses me off thinking about it. Hell, I can't even see how its possible to stay in a stage like cell stage, the games seems to force you to move on. Why can't I hang around in cell stage and get as big and powerful as all them GD hugh things trying to eat my little larval looking ass? In the creature stage, why am I the only stupid creature in the universe walking around either deciding to eat things or dance with them? If I sit in my nest for months nothing will wander up to me and try to become a ally. Sure, the random creature might wander by that wants to eat you but other then that... my fish tank at home shows way more advanced AI then spore. And once again, cn I hang around creature stage and become 10000 feet tall like those super one hit your dead creatures walking around...I think not. Overall, I have games with far more depth on my iphone then Spore has for PC's. Which reminds me, I bet I have have at least 8 times as much enjoyment and play time on the iphone version of spore then the PC one. But the iphone version is a completely different game.… Expand

Huge promise, Huge disappointment. the creature creator alone deserves a mighty "9", but the game itself is one of the worst letdowns since the beginning of the century. replayability - "0" graphics - "4", gameplay - "0". And the worst part about this game is the score it got from reviews. 86?! How much money did EA pay to get thrice the score the game really deserves?

Well, I'm one of the people who preordered this game before I found out about the DRM. After finding out about the DRM, and what it does, I just went ahead and reformatted the computer, downloaded the pirated version, and now play that. I own the retail copy of Spore, but it just sits in its box on my shelf while I have the pirated version on my computer to play. So, the retail copy of the game gets a big fat 0, and the pirated version gets a 6.5/10. Game is okay, not what I thought it would be though. Too dumbed down for my liking. I can't recommend buying this game until the DRM is removed and the price is lowered to around $20.… Expand

Spore is one of my favorite games.The story was fun,from cell to space.I absolutely love spore.It was a GREAT idea!Good job,EA!

I, having never seen the original E3 trailers for this game, give it a 8/10. The creators were unlike anything I've ever seen, and they eat up hours of your time by themselves. There's always something new you can make, and since getting this game I've probably made hundreds of creatures and vehicles. The story mode itself is also pretty fun, with my favorite being the Civilization stage. The final stage, Space, is a bit of an RPG as well, and you have an entire galaxy to explore. So, without knowledge of what it could have been, I'll say this was a great game.… Expand

Probably the most disappointing game i have ever played. The creature editor is incredible fun, lots of designs, lots of creativity. Too bad 90% of it is purely cosmetic. doesn't matter where you place those horns, you will get +2 attack and so on. Later in the game, the creature's characteristics are funneled tighter again and again until you have been reduced to "warrior" "banker" or "diplomat" essentially. the space phase is incredibly dull once you realize the rest of the experience will be more of the same. go to planet, drop colony, come back later and collect resources. then use resources to do it again someplace else. I pre-ordered this game, Have not pre-ordered a game ever since. I have however visited alot of torrent sites since then… Expand

I like the concept of this game alot. My biggest problem though are the graphics. They seem so childish, and not complex enough. The graphics this game from amazing to average. If the graphics were better and didn't look like a pokemon video it would be much more appealing to older consumers.

A "game" centered around a creature editor. A "game" that is a collection of watered down mini games. A "game" that manages to even screw up those mini games. Good if you like creating creatures but don't think for a moment that a cleverly designed creature will have any impact on the game. It's all bells & whistles and no content.

Playing this game makes me miss Wright's simulationism. Though the creature creator is undeniably slick, its lack of impact on the simulation is appalling. The player exists in a world virtually without consequence, where creatures hang around their nests doing nothing, waiting for you to walk up and either wave hello, or eat them. In the tribal stage this becomes "hold a concert or slaughter them", in the civilization stage it becomes "preach, trade, or slaughter them". The worlds are fundamentally dead and boring past the glitter and sparkle. Their procedural nature fails to include any landmarks or points of interest. It's just a grid of nests, tribes, cities, which do little but wait for you to effortlessly dominate them. This wouldn't be so bad, if the stages didn't overstay their welcome and offered more. Am I seriously expected to play a game of "Simon", that never goes past 3 or 4 elements, over forty times just to continue as a social species? It's clear the designers wanted every creature made to be functional, so there's no element of experimentation when creating a creature. More often than not, a player will choose the interactions they wish to excel at (of which there are maybe a dozen of the canned little things), and splice whatever parts give them the best ability in that area, regardless of aesthetic. And just before the creature stage closes, revert to some more pleasing form. As other reviews have stated: This is a remarkable product. But as an interactive work it lacks consequence, challenge, and meaningful patterns. Spore is light-years behind the sophistication and creative insight of The Sims or Sim City. I would give Spore to a child or novice gamer in a heartbeat. If you have had ANY exposure whatsoever to the RPG or RTS genres though, play a friend's copy first. If you can play through to the galaxy stage, and still find a compelling desire to do it again, this game might be for you. Otherwise, it gets old extremely quickly.… Expand

The "game" segments between editing your creature work as a good pacing device and little else. The Cell stage gives you little creature options, but lets you play and define what you want. The actual gameplay of the cell stage is superior to any of the other stages as interaction is quick, dynamic, and throws new things at you before you can get bored. The Creature stage is where you really define what your creature looks like and does, but unfortunately it has the worst gameplay. The world feels very empty sterile and your only interaction is attack or socialize, and both options result in the same gameplay mechanics and outcomes. The interactions are dreadfully simplistic. It's basically WoW without other players, stores, or exploration. Now comes the civilization stage and all that fine tuning of your creature now makes little difference. Finally there is more to do than just atack/socalize as resource gathering for once comes as a relief. This is probably the part of the game with the deepest gameplay as what you equip different units with affects how they perform. The next stage puts you on the planetary scale and your fighting your own creations. Oddly this stage is much simpler than the tribal stage as unit choices don't seem to mean a damn thing anymore. Simplified resource gathering streamlines your right into the overly simplistic tactical gameplay. You have one type of unit for land, and one type for water. Since there is no more variety or meaningful differences the gameplay degrades into simply sending a swarm of units to attack and little else. Don't tell me religious units perform different than military, a beam of religion seems to blow stuff up all the same. The Civilization stage does however constantly bombard you with the building/vehicle editors which gives you a chance to exercise your creativity, however the choices you make make no difference outside of visuals.… Expand

Such a disappointment... The creature creator is cool but the rest of the game is empty and in each of the categories it tries to cover there are much better games out there. I suspect from the official spore site that the conceptors had great ideas but the EA guys cut everything out for the sake of sim-like playability and audience range. Too bad

This game has tremendous scope, and I tried really hard to like it because of that. Unfortunately this game is like three or four really bad games strung together with some neat editors. It has no substance at best and is totally unbalanced to the point of being unplayable at worst.

Spore doesn't deliver. The first two stages are occasionally entertaining but short and shallow. Tribal & Civ stages are barebone RTS games more fitting to shareware gaming, and space stage is a horribly designed action 4X where opposing empires don't even play by the same rules. Starship combat is among the worst implementations ever seen. The powerful and easy-to-use editors plus community & sharing features score Spore some points, but the impersonality of Tribal & Civ stages and lack of direct interaction between users result in a bad backfire at these otherwise interesting content tools.… Expand

I have no problem with the gameplay itself. If it were playable it would be fun. This game is so full of bugs and glitches that the message boards and forums are full of irate customersmyself included, complaining about how they can't even play the game because it crashes so frequently.

Tries to do everything and ends up doing nothing particularly well. Modifying the creature is academic as the game just glosses over your mods and lumps your creature into its own general categories. The game seems to rush you to the space age, but once you get there the game deteriorates into a frustrating series of zooms in and out of planets and star systems.

So after reading some of the reviews , I realized it wasn't just me. This game actually is flawed. There are some good moments and some fantastic design tools but overall i worked through some less than spectacular game play to get to the "space Age"...only to be given the task of setting up a trade route, then be blown up or attacked at nearly every planet i visited. For 2 hours I basically watched my "space ship" get rebuilt, over and over and over and over and over.......… Expand

The "game" is boring, repetitive and lacking in any real content at all. It requires - nay - completely consists in the latter stages of very simple and repetitive tasks. This tedium is all you have, especially in the Space segment. This game is all style and no substance. It will woo you with the hype and once you are suckered in and lost your money you'll realise all you have is a lemon. DO NOT BUY THIS AWFUL GAME.… Expand

So disappointed by this game as I had been tracking Spore for many months and bought it on the morning of release! It's an interesting concept, but that's as far as it goes. It is poorly let down by it's over simplistic gameplay, clunky game mechanics and dodgy AI. Plus now I can't even sell it, owing to it's DRM (I won't be buying any other product using this). At least now I've learnt my lesson - to wait at least a month after release and make more of an educated guess on whether to shell out for a game or not. Even the major games magazines were blinded by the hype on this one it seems... alot of generous scores out there.… Expand

The early stages are all fun in their own way, but aren't terrible deep. This is ok since their purpose is to prepare you for the last stage. My first few tries at space were terrible. I kept getting attacked and it was not at all what I had expected. I seriously considered putting the game down. The third time I really got it. I understood how relationships worked and really got a handle on it. Now it is great fun. I highly recommend giving it a try and if you don't quite get it giving it another try.… Expand

Fails on a number of levels. The DRM makes the game unplayable for a great deal of paying customers, and once you're in, you're just playing sub-par flash games with spiffy graphics. The game shoves you from era to era, with nothing to do but complete some objective you're given for evolving or expanding, which is just awful if you're trying to create a versatile game engine. If you like flashy graphics and fawning over the creature creator, the creature creator already does that.… Expand

this is a great game and is very fun. The thing that bugs me the most is things like: the nagging by the game, in the creature stage there is like 4 attacks, and that once you beat it you are usually to lazy to start again bcasue its pretty much the same every time.

I was really anticipating this game, and I went out and bought it, before realizing the way overboard restrictions EA put on it. Caps on activation, it's locked to your computer hardware, only one master account through EA, and lastly, I've just about had it with SecuROM crap being installed on my box. Be warned, you are not buying this game, you are renting it. One day, it will cease to work. Suppose you bought the board game Monopoly and you opened it in the kitchen when you got home, only to discover a gadget attached to the board that would from them on only allow you to play the game in the kitchen. And if you tried to play in the living room, or play with more than 4 people, or bring it over to a friends house, or play variations on the set rules, the game would somehow not let you play it. Or if you moved to a different house, you would have to call Parker Brothers and get them to unlock the game before you could play it in your new house. People wouldn't stand for that, so why do people stand for this. I've had sort of a philosophical awakening based on my experience with Spore, and I've pretty much resolved to not buy any games with SecurROM and maybe not EA in general, as tough as that will be. Anyway, the game itself (once I got it running) was alright. I think they removed some things from it, because it didn't seem as in-depth as even the presentation Will Wright did on it. I love the idea, the execution is ok, but the DRM and installation is way over the top.… Expand

Absolutely greatest letdown in gaming history. A mile wide but an inch deep. user content system dosn't save it game it makes you want it to be something it isn't; a compelling and fun game. space phase is absolutely frustrating and not open ended in the least. forced to be a slave to greater empires who spring up immediately and some who hate you instanly for no reason and wont let you do "diplomacy" with them. Add in the terrible DRM called SECUROM and you've got yourself a totally disappointing game the likes of which i've never seen before.… Expand

You spend about 5 hours advancing and evolving your species and then you get to space and it's terrible. Space travel is done by clicking on a bunch of dots that are supposed to be star systems and forget trying to find a specific planet after you've done a lot of traveling. I think the developers put so much time into the beginning of the game that they half-a$$ed the end.

The game s INFECTED WITH DRM SECUROM i NOT interested in it any more these big corporations take the pis STAND UP PEOPLE DONT BUY THIS DRM SH@T FROM EA VOTE WITH YOUR WALLET DONT BUT EA GAMES TILL THEY DITCH DRACOIN DRM AND THIS GAME IS NOTHING LIKE GOOD ITS BORIING THEY HAVE MESSED IT UP SO BAD

This game, though novel, contains a draconian form of DRM that is insulting to game buyers. It does nothing to prevent the unauthorized distribution of the software, and punishes honest gamers by installing ridiculous malware/spyware equivalents just to play. Top that off to limiting the game to only three lifetime installations, and you soon realize you aren't buying the game, you are buying the right to play the game in a very limited framework. No thanks, I'll pass. I don't support the idea that I'm guilty until proven innocent (without even an opportunity to prove innocence). Shame on EA for destroying this game.… Expand

An amazing toy. Anytime your creating creatures or buildings the "game" is fun. The problem is that once you've created something there isn't anything to do thats actually fun. The game minus the creation part is one of the worst I've played. Great Toy Concept now they just need to add the game part.

I refuse to rent this game! I still have old PC games (Command and Conquer, Secret of Monkey Island) that I play to this day. They've probably been reinstalled at least 15 times each due to new PCs, reformatting to fix the innumerable problems with Windows, etc.) I refuse to buy a game I can't play years down the road due to the excessive greed of a megacorp. They've lost yet another customer. Red Alert 3 and The Sims 3 were sure buys for me as well, but I won't buy them with this ridiculous malware attached to them.… Expand

game does not work. You get to the tribe stage then it keeps crashing! No piont buying - Huge disapointment. even if it did work it wouldnt be much fun. The way your creature is made dosnt really matter. All that matters is the parts you put on so if all the parts are in rediculous places it is still a good creature. also 2 leggs is no slower than 4

7/10 for the game itself (and I'm being generous here - it's really more a 6/10) but -3 because it uses draconian DRM making it unbuyable. I collect games but one thing I really can't do, is buy a game that will turn out to no longer work in 5 years.

The aggressive DRM restrictions to this game, that'll allow you to only activate the came 3 times means that I guess I'm done buying EA titles. Take this scenario: Say I want to deinstall the game to get some more free space, then a while later I reinstall the game. Half a year later I could get a virus that force me to reinstall my OS. Now I install spore again... ...For the LAST time, as all my activations has been used! Come on EA! How many gamers dosen't reinstall their OS at least once a year?… Expand

I give this game an 8 out of 10. Jumping into the game through the cell stage was a fun way of giving you a very basic idea of what you're gonna be doing for the rest of the game. Creature is a decent explore game. Tribal is by far the worst part of the game, horribly designed, and that's what gives this game an 8 for me. Civilization is a lot more redeeming when you can design your own buildings and vehicles. Space stage is the most fun for me, huge and fast and full of surprises.… Expand

Worst gameplay ever. Maybe those who said that you have to use your imagination to enjoy this project of a game are right: you have to imagine that it is fun and challenging. Stay away from this release, because it intends to be a 5 in 1 experience but turned out to be five epic fails in one expensive and intrusive package.

I feel like I wasted $70 on this game after all the hype. The first 2 stages were decent but then tribal stage rolled around and completely destroyed what could have been a decent game. If there was any doubt after tribal stage, Civ stage was added in just to put the final nail in the coffin. Even space stage seems cold and lifeless, the creature you lovingly created all but disappears after the creature stage.… Expand

It started out with a bit of promise, but when I realized that your actions don't really correspond to your evolution (you may spend points to whatever you like) and to get these points you have to repeat simple repetitive actions endlessly, the fun slipped away quickly. Compared to the Sims, the user interface is way less intuitive, so one (at least I) can miss certain essential elements of gameplay easily. For example, I upgraded my creature with a ranged attack ability, only to find out it was ranged after a friend told me. During my game, I had no clue as to why it wouldn't work in battles. Maybe I am too stupid for modern games... ;) The creature editor is quite fun to play, but the rest is, in my opinion, a bad implementation of an innovative game idea. Just get the creature editor and don't burden yourself with the repetitive DNA-point scraping to finally get to build the same character in a slower way!… Expand

ok so here is how evelution is supposed to work: Creatures that are ill suited for an environment die off. Creatures that have mutations that help them out in their environment thrive and live on passing on genetic material to furthur mutate. This game does not adhear to this idea at all. In this game no matter what your design is your creature will pretty much servive, because how you build your creature has no effect on how it works. This is very dissapointing. What is the point of creating something if the only thing you can do to it is make it look different. If I do a good job creating a creature I want it to kick ass, if I do a bad job of creawting a creature I want it to die. Thats my first complaint of many about this game. 3 installs is all you get!!! thats shit. After creating your character the gameplay is very very very very shallow. So whatever. This game is stupid we all know that. Now what to do with all of these critics who seem to think that a single good gimic is enough to make antire game good. And why dont they ever talk about how crappy secur rom is and how evasive it is to your computer. Secur ROM completely crashed my computer, and my computer kicks a lot of ass. So just avoid this game get the creature creator online for free, and wait for someone else to take this creature creator idea to the next level.… Expand

This is a wonderful game. It's not totally nihilistic in that you have options for making allies and avoiding conflict. It gives a slight sense of the fun God must have had putting life forms together. You also don't spend all of your time destroying and killing (but you can if you want to). My son loves this as do I. It's neat to try on different roles (eg carnivore/predator/aggressor vs vegetarian/ diplomat) and see how it effects your evolution as a species/lifeform/civilization. Also, alot has been said about EA's "draconian" DRM. I say bollocks! It's no less user unfriendly tha Steam and Their download policy isn't as sucktacular as people let on. Personally, I found EA to be easy to work with.… Expand

The hyper Maxis generated from the game is so astoundingly far-fetched given what the game could have been. It's five masterable flash games masked with an "Evolution Theme" that, if done well and correctly (could I say uniquely, too? come's on, it's MAXIS!!!) could've indeed lived up to the hype it built up over the last three years. If I wanted to play a game of Flow or a no-depth RTS, I would've went to Google and found a flash game site. And what is UP with the DRM? Is every gamer out there a crook? Not the way to treat your customers. The only real 'revolution' here was the creature creator, which should have been the only thing Maxis released. Anyone giving more than a five on their review is either nine years old or has played the game or maybe an hour. It's just disgusting, a few idealists on Spore.com's forum could have created a better game. Too much shitty hardware to talk about. Definately not worth the money.… Expand

The fact that this has a 4.6 shows that most users are mentally challenged. These are the frat boys that Microsoft bribes to play Halo all day to make it seem like people actually like shitty shooters with guns that make no sense. Spore is the greatest game ever, but not for dumbasses. So if you just want to shoot things, gtfo.

To summarize my feelings about the game: it was far too short (from microbe to space in a matter of two hours to three hours), the tribal phase is dull as there are no challenges, and the space stage is so phenomenally irritating. Spice production at first is slow, and so help me if I see another space pirate again I'm tossing the computer out the window. I can't leave my homeworld for thirty seconds without getting an urgent message, "Your homeworld is under attack!" The battles are frustrating as there are always more than one invader, and the one you are fighting will inevitably fly off and heal itself before you can get the deathblow in...all in all, I'll be sticking to the creature creator, the diamond in the rough.… Expand

I was so looking forward to this game. Bwarp. Installed it and 10 hours later gave up on trying to get it to go. All I got was the unhelpful "Cannot Connect to Internet to Verify" message. I completely disabled my security settings, disabled firewall, uninstalled, reinstalled, installed the patch, investigated using FireShark, got some mindless suggestions from support, spent hours searching the internet and tried every other method I could think of. I'm a software engineer, so if I can't get it to go, I don't know what chance most other people have. All I could figure in the end was that it was something to do with my on-board network card. Judging by what I see online, I am not the only one. Not impressed.… Expand

The old bait & switch. Let's show them footage of what they think will be in the game, then completely switch it out at the last minute! This is an unfinished, unpolished, un-fun game. It gimps the gameplay for the first 4 stages, then the AI kicks in and runs you into the ground in Space stage. It's great to look at on moderate systems, for the most part, but loses its luster the more you play it, ironically. Absolute disappointment.… Expand

WTF is this game getitng such good reviews? Man, I bought this expecting it to be at least playable. I can't install it, and the dealer won't take it back. What's up with the copy protection? It tells me I can't istall it because I have some memory problem? Huh?? This stupid game cost me $50 and I still can't get it installed. what is wrong with this pos?? Sheesh

Miserable failure. Cool concept, pretty lame execution. I was bored with the first game, found the 2nd one even worse, 3rd was slightly redeeming, but omg what an unrelated pile of crap these little party games are. This is mario party 1 for one player lol. And the controls are stupid, can't configure the mouse or movement keys. F-

I had to re-install it a few times because my computer is screwed up...now I have to buy a new copy if I want to play it because the DRM prevents me from doing another install! I haven't even gotten to play it yet and I've spent more then $50 !!!

Incredibly over-hyped, very shallow, unoriginal, highly derivative game. For all of its supposed novelty and originality, Spore is nothing more than a very simple RPG/RTS. It really feels like it was made for children, which may be the correct target audience for Spore. I can't imagine that very many people who have played many computer games in the last 10-15 years will find Spore to be a positive experience.… Expand

There comes a time when disappointment reaches a pinnacle when it comes to developers screwing with games. This time they have done it. What happened to the absolutely amazing videos they showed us a year or so ago? The dances based on your creature's design, it actually MATTERED if your creature had thirty legs and one arm. He'd be just a bit faster than the one-legged guy next to you. Now, its all about stats. A glorified RPG. Oh, and don't even get me started on the DRM. I love this game. But I do NOT love what it has become, and what EA has slapped onto it (Read: Draconian DRM)… Expand

Totally crippled under the weight of it's DRM. I have picked up the Galactic Edition several times now, and considered buying this game, only to put it back. EA needs to wake up. DRM does NOTHING to deter real piracy, but punishes legitimate owners. Mass Effect is the last game that I will buy that has onerous DRM. I will happily buy Spore the moment they remove the installed Digital Restrictions Management software from the game.… Expand

First off, this has nothing to do with DRM. Separate issue. This game features five levels, each linked with fun lego and plasticene building fun : Level 1 : Pacman Deluxe. Level 2 : Pacman Deluxe 2008 Winner's XTreme Rage Singing Edition. Level 3 : Age of Empires pre-alpha. Level 4 : RISK for kids. Level 5 : Join-the-Dots Galactic Edition. Now with extra RSI inducing frustration! A game based on evolution that a) ignores sex, b) ignores evolutionary triggers, c) allows you to add and remove chunks at will, ignoring evolutionary stages, d) in fact allows you to create an entirely different creature each time you 'mate' in the creature stage has quite obviously been usurped by the intelligent design crew... who, unfortunately, have the same idea of what makes a good game as a cat that has been deceased for 6 weeks, having been run over by an articulated truck. The good thing is that the game's name is spot on. Spore. A tiny seed from which something beautiful might eventually develop. Unfortunately, this particular spore's development time is going to be in the decades, well after I'm dead. Will Wright... you have betrayed your fans. You stood at the front door waving the golden egg back in 2005, but what we got instead was a tvrd wrapped in gold foil. I and others don't care about what 'camp' you were in - you didn't tell us, after showing us those glories, about Spore's dumbing down and "cute-fication". This could have been the kernel of a future Matrix, a true life sim. Instead we got 4gb of popcap games.… Expand

This game was fun for the first 7 hours of gameplay or so, and the first creature I made I had lots of fun with making and eventually designing the buildings. However after the initial playthrough it does become fairly boring. I do remember however going through the game on my first runthrough and still expecting something more, which never came.

The game its self is ok gets old fast IMHO but others may enjoy it longer. I ratted this game 0 because of the DRM. The 3 activation limit may be an issue for some and my not be for others but the secret installation of SecuROM to ring 0 allowing it to override your control of your hardware is totaly unacceptable!

After waiting for this game for 3 years, I'm extremely disappointed in the final product. The creature creator is simply amazing and the high point of this game. The gameplay is where this game fails. They tried to fit to much in one box and because of that this game falls flat on its face. None of the stages of the game are entertaining, and on top of that this game has a ridiculous DRM which only lets you install the game 3 times before you have to buy another copy.… Expand

Awesome game, too bad EA distributed it. They are ruining all maxis games. That's why I and dozen of people pirated it. Beside that, this is the most impressive peice of programmation I have ever seen. Gameplay is amazing during cell and creature phases. Tribal phase is boring. Macro management is really hard and the gameplay is way too basic. Civilization phase is ok. You can build your own vehicles and buildings, but beside that, it's too long. There are too much cities to ally and/or destroy. Money is also really easy to gain. Then it comes to space phase. Micromanagement kicks back in, the ammount of place you can visit and things you can do is incredible for the actual size of the game. My main complaint about this phase is that attacks and disasters get on your nerves. Spore is an excellent game except for tribal and civilization phase because of aweful controls and boring gameplay. It is technically incredible, and a really fun game for people who like to create stuff. The main flaw of Spore is that EA distributed it.… Expand

The the idea of this games is revolutionary - "create your own game". The dark side is, "create it in programmers limits". The game is for like 10 years max kids. They say it's like Sims - pardon me, but Sims are complex like quantum physics with comparation to this. There are 5 stages of your evolution. The programmers are putting all emphasis on the last space stage, that will take you most time. But the last stage is ironically the most boring. Your looking for useless artifacts, terraforming takes a looong time and gives you nothing, AI is simple, stupid, aggresive and "good-or-bad" like. There are no quests and i actually never finished this game, coz it bored me to death. Very unsatisfactionary. - and did i say the graphics is shameful...… Expand

This game is mediocre at best. Very nice creature editor but bland graphics, shallow and repetitive gameplay. I fail to see how anyone would replay this game except for the space age, which mostly consist in running around like a headless chicken resolving annoying random events anyway. This game is totally overrated and underwhelming. I won't even mention the DRM issue which has been extensively debated all over the web. Please don' buy the hype.… Expand

While at first it appears to have unlimited replayability, the reality is that the different phases quickly become repetitive. The Cell stage is probably the best executed, and it lasts just long enough for you to still have some interest in it. The creature stage is saved by the multitude of different ways your creature can be edited. The tribal and civilization stages are very boring and tedious, and if you ge tthrough them, you'll find th meat of the game in the space stage. The space stage initially appears amazingly good. Once the helpful tutorial ends, zoom out and see how damn big the galaxy really is. Unfortunately there really isn't many ways to progress. All strategies in the end involve conquering and setting up colonies. While this is fun for a while, the pointlessness of this soon fits in and the massive galaxy becomes a burden - not a gift. There are some very annoying moments, particularly fighting your way through an enemy planet, only to get the message that one of your far away allies ecosystems is in danger, and you'd better stop that battle and get to where the real priority is *cough*. Despite this nuisances and problems, Spore is not a bad game. Its just the whole concept while having magnificant potential is not carried out correctly.… Expand

This game's best assets are the online play. Being able 2 share creatures and all other creations is very fun. The creation mode is great, so anyone looking for a creative game to play, this would be your pick. The reason i only Give this game a 7 is because the actual game play of the game is pretty boring. The initial stage has some real cool animations, zooming out as you get larger, but it gets old fast. I would say avoid the game and just create things to share with your friends. Thats where the fun is.… Expand

I refuse to include the DRM in this equation because it has no impact on the actual gameplay experience whatsoever. That said, I like this game because of the sheer amount of possibilities the creators offer, as well as the gameplay which is able to hold its head above the water enough for me. Te Cell stage should incorporate player-generated content, the Creature stage needs an aquatic substage in it for transition, the Tribal stage needs more resource variation, the Civ. stage needs harder AI and more vehicle choices, and the Space Stage needs more multitasking. But all in all, a very good game indeed.… Expand

The game, by itself is great. The composition, the idea, the graphics, but only one thing ruined it. It was too closely connected to the Sims. In a interview with one of the developers of Spore, they said that they would rather have the metascore of Sims, rather then have the Metascore of Half-Life 2. The only question is, why would the game have to look like another game? Why can't the game can't be unique? The second thing that bothers me, and shouldn't be a problem, is that most of the things mentioned at E2008 will not appear: Take for example: building culture underwater, having your creatures live in the sea, having your creatures be airborn... etc etc It is well known that EA and Maxis throw in a lot of expansions just to make money from average people. This is why this game doesn't deserve more than 2.… Expand

When we first saw Spore at the 2005 E3 preview, we were extremely excited about it, we wanted to try everything about the game , later on, the creature creator was released to public, people went INSANE about it and made about millions of creation ! Later on, the date of release was announced, almost everyone pre-ordered it, but then, when everyone tried it, it was crap, big crap, Why you will ask? Because: 1) The gameplay was VERY linear ( ex: you must kill or befriend with other creatures to gain DNA for 15 minutes straight) 2) The game was a home of bugs, Graphical bugs, animation bugs, game play bugs, nearly all type of bugs! 3) What year are we in people?! 2000? Then we will forgive this game, but WE ARE IN 2008!! were is the technology?! (ragdolls, physics, etc) 4) the game feels like a children game, compare it with the 2005 E3 preview, in the one we have, it's like watching a cartoon, in the 2005 one, it's like watching a program in the discovery channel. In the end, the same concept from the sims repeats in spore: Spore will be incomplete until they add expansion packs :(… Expand

Promised so much, delivered far less, and then was not "science" as suggested but just fluff. 10yo and 12yo kids were gone after three days - off they went back to Civ4 Cell stage is the best, then it falls away - bit sad as I bought it for the stages I-IV, not space, then find it is designed to get you to space asap!

Look at the massive disparity between reviewer and user scores. This alone tells you alot about 1. The Game, 2. The Reviewers, 3. EA. Reviewers are all sensationalists, almost any game is good before you play it or for the first 5 minutes. Save your money and your time and look elsewhere for your entertainment.

I, like so many other people have been waiting for spore for a long, long time. I remember saying at one point that I was going to become a hermit for a few months and liviing off tinned food while just absorbing everything the game promised. Well, thank god for my health that it turned out to be an undeniably charming, but ultimately shallow and uninteresting title. You will have the most fun in the first 20 minutes of the game with your cell, and the first hour or two of the space stage. The stages inbetween are poor attempts at tried and tested genre's, but lets cover every stage. Too start you have the cell stage, which is simple fun personified. You use your mouse to swim your little cell around, avoid things bigger and strong then you that will try to eat you, while either eating other smaller, weaker creatures or plant matter. There is not much more to it then that, but it feels very vibrant and alive and I atleast found it the most fun aspect of the entire experience. Next comes the creature phase, and if you've played any MMO's you've played this. Except there is no social aspect of chatting innanely to your friends to relieve tedium, there are no fun abilities and it's generally just incredibly dull. The games most vaunted feature, the creature creator, is stunted by the need to complete repetitive tasks for pieces and the need to equip certain bits so that you can survive and succeed easily and get the drudgery over as soon as you can. Next is the tribal phase, which is a simplistic RTS with a lousey outfit creator, and 'diplomacy' and 'combat' that requires no different playstyles from one another and is thankfully over before you feel the need to inject aresnic into your eyesockets. Up next is the civilization phase, which is very similar to the tribal phase, and is only made slightly more interesting by the vehicle and building designers, which are not stunted by dull seeking mechanics and are genuinely powerful and entertaining distractions from the complete lack of gameplay. But the developers have said the core of the game is really the space stage which is vast and expansive and fun to explore. Yes. Yes. No. For a couple of hours I enjoyed it, flying about trading multi coloured dust, abudticing things, shooting things with lasers...but it quickly grew repetitive. Planet terraforming and populating is uninteresting and really, very very linear. You can unbalance a planet by removing a species, but you can't by adding them, you can't move unadvanced civilisations to an enemies planet to see what happens, ultimate there are infinetly more you can'ts then, you cans and you'll get bored with your limited options. I wanted to like this game. In the end i played to the space stage once, then uninstalled it. Don't waste your money.… Expand

I really think this game is great, mainly because of the gameplay. it can be very challenging, which makes you strive for perfection. the fact that it gets very in depth, and that you can customize your character is great as well. the only one single problem is that its hard to adapt at first (on hard difficulty) due to the opponents having double the health as you.

a total let down. the game is way too short and at the same time is extremely boring. i don't know if its worth the money, since i never paid for it. but, really, it's simply not worth your time of effort. the game consists of several poorly designed mini-game-parodies-of-better-games. well, why pay for crap, when you can buy better original games?

Played it for a few hours. Repetitive and boring. Designing a creature is pointless, it's more like upgrading your creature. Your design has little if any bearing on your success, just slap the highest level parts together and voila! Super easy. Very disappointed for such a long wait. And the DRM sucks! I want to play on a different account than my brother, does that make me a thief??? Lame.… Expand

This game was a major disapointment. They spent 5+ years making this game and they came up with a package for four simple mini games that each stink by themselves, but together they flawless combine to make a cutesy but simple game. If you like to build us creatures, ships, buildings, outfits then you have a creative outlet in Spore. However, your choices won't have any real game impact. In short, this game was overly hyped and it is not worth your time or money.… Expand

This game had the potential to be good and revolutionary. Instead its a over hyped watered down version that quickly lost my interest. After a few hours of playing the game, I began to get a sick feeling in my stomach. I said to myself, "Dont worry, its going to get better." Problem was it didn't get better. Upon reaching the space age I was utterly disgusted with the game. Throw in the DRM that punishes the law abiding gamer and your left with one awful product. I thought about trying the game again a few months down the road, but thought better of it and promptly threw the game in the trash. I think this is the first game I've ever tossed in the garbage so soon after buying it. Avoid this game like the plaque.… Expand

Its just bad versions of 5 mini games (only being better in the graphics, but that doesn't matter to me) and it quickly becomes boring and repetitive, and you'll never get an urge to go back on it, after a very short while. However, the creature and building creators are very interesting to play around with, and its for this reason that i'm going to give the game a 3.

It is difficult to be critical when talking about a game as earnest as Spore. I expect this is why most discussions, particularly reviews, of the game have been mostly positive. Of course, no one pretends its constituent gameplay modes are any good. After all, we cannot fault it for failing to do something it is clearly not attempting. Yet it is a mistake to ignore the gameplay in Spore. (Read more here: http://mikebbetts.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/the-absence-of-context-in-spore/)… Expand

What's with all the hate on this game? A 4.5 averge!? Are you guys serious? Sure it wasn't the "God of all games" most of us have been hoping for...but this truly is a great game, if not a little too simple...I agree that I was slightly disappointed as well, but this game does not deserve anywhere near as much hate as it is getting.

I would compare this game to a multifunction phone that has a camera; GPS and email. It doesnt shine in any segment as such; but has it all built in nevertheless. I found the first stage the most interesting; then subsequent levels less interesting. The space age was really dissappointing since gameplay became too repetitive and uninspiring.

Fantastic addicting game that will eat your time away while your eating other cells or abdupting aliens. This game is great and I would recommend it for ages 8-20. It is very fun, good graphics, and its amazing how you go through different stages and can choose many different paths. Truly a great and my favorite game

Interesting concept and the creature creator can be fun to toy around with, but the game itself is boring and shallow. Space Stage, where the player will spend most of their time, is plagued with excessive micromanagement hell and tedious exercises in mediocrity. Wait for it to find it's way to the bargain bin, and only let your developmentally disabled children play with it. Everyone else will get bored with this really, really fast as none of the stages have virtually any replay value what-so-ever.… Expand

See now, disagree with everyone else who has given spore a low rating. I think it is extremely well done. You get to design your game, you choose the difficlty level and the way you interact with it. You can go for power hungry domination and blow away all other life than yourself to smitherenes or be peacefull and set up trade and make alies with your fellow planets. excellent game, hours of entertainment in the creature creator itself. Major Kudos.… Expand

Like Mirrors Edge, there is some good ideas here. game designers are creating in a sense a literal paradox that will with any luck help drive the next gaming paradigm. Lets face it since E3 we have seen nothing really new or groundbreaking, I pray to the great spotted-red mushroom-in-the-sky that games like Spore will give game designers some decent fucking ideas so they stop tarnishing decent games with half assed buggy sequels and the like. Dont hate, apprieciate. Oh, but dont pay more than 10 bucks for it! Ideas are free so they're lucky to get 10 bucks imo. When they manage to do some more work than fashion a thought, consider giving them more money. Peace!… Expand

This game is not what i thought it would be. Its too simple...everything is! More complexity would be cool for a casual audience! More complexity means more creativity and coolness! Most people who will play this will be 13 and up, so complexity wont be an issue but they made it too simple for us to enjoy...

Spore was awesome... for an hour. Creating my own creature was really cool. The editor is very powerful and easy to use. Unfortunately, I think they forgot to make the rest of the stages fun. As soon as you get to the tribal stage, the game sucks. Hard. It's not hard, it's not anything. The A.I. for for enemies sucks and the pathfinding for your own units suck. Buy the creature creator, you'll have way more fun.… Expand

The biggest disappointment in gaming in a long, long time. Years of development and hype put spore in the spotlight as something to really get excited over. The E3 2005 presentation was mind blowing, it was stunning... And then for 3 years, spore went into hiding as the developers set about refurbishing their creation for what they thought was mass appeal: The realism and science was removed from the game, in favour of kid-friendly cuteness and more simplistic methods of applying stats to the creatures: Gone was the idea of the skeletal structure influencing the movement speed, or of the arm length and positioning being relevant in combat - no, it was watered down to an arbitrary number assosciated with a given type of foot or claw. Watered down is pretty much the story of spore. The game that promised to pull the industry away from catering to the lowest common denominator did just that, with Will Wright's words on the situation being 'We decided that we would rather have the metacritic and sales of the sims, rather than the metacritic and sales of half-life'. It was all about money. But there's a lesson to be learned: Spore has neither the sales, nor the metacritic of halflife OR the sims.… Expand

There is so much to love about Spore; creating, sharing, battling, eating, befriending, and so much more that I can't name it all. With the ability to create a creture, evolve it, and controll it, there's no end to the different paths you can choose from! A must-have for the creative mind.

Loses steam fast, goes nowhere quickly, doesn't expand enough on the individual concepts. EA brought a shotgun into a hungry mob, pretty soon they'll be whishing they'd taken the RPG. it would be fine if the individual stages were GOOD! but they aren't. It would be fine if they made expansions that made each stage better one at a time so you could get more of your favourite but they haven't. Instead they shoved securom down our throats. EA, get some friends.… Expand

Ok, this game is so bad I'm not even going to give it a 1. It's just purely horrendous. There's almost no gameplay, and the gameplay that is there goes against everything the game was hyped for. It's extremely linear, almost no chances for it to be dynamic, and the creations you make are only asthetic, they don't actually serve any purpose! The only part I actually liked was the first stage and creating my creature. So thanks for a $50 minigame and creature creator, EA!… Expand

Electronic Arts is not selling this game. The only thing you get if you pick the game up in a store is the right for three "activations". Which means that if you reinstall the game or if you modify your computer in any way (e.g. by buying a new monitor or by upgrading your operating system), you use on of these activations. Most people who buy the game do not know this, and while it is not a secret, you will find no information about this in any review about this game. There is also no warning on the box that you cannot buy this game, but only rent it. Once your 3 activations are used, you do not have a right to play the game anymore. You are free to make a non-free call to Electronic Arts and beg them that they let you continue playing the game you payed for, but if they do this or not is decided on a "case-by-case" basis. There are some good games out there which cannot be played because they suffer from technical bugs. This great game was crippled by a very bad strategic decision. As someone who replays games many years after the have been released, the decision for a Rental via Securom has made the game useless for me.… Expand

Suffers from extremely bland, unintuitive, repetitive gameplay. All the custom creatures we've been hearing about amount to nothing in this game, does your creature have 4 arms or 2 arms? It literally doesn't change anything in the game. But maybe some people enjoy that? The gameplay is atrocious, if you want to make creatures, no point in getting this over the creature creator.

The draconian DRM makes this game unpurchasable- The best you can manage is to rent it for a little while, before your copy becomes unplayable. That said, I would dearly love to purchase this game, if EA ever takes their head out of the sand.

This Game is like a slice of every Maxis Game yet released and has nor longterm playfun, neither is it hought through. It's just like B&W a victim of i's own hype. In the end you are better off buying the old Maxis Games für 5 Bucks and get alot of them, then you can play spore too.

An amazing game from start to finish. Taking time to create your own world and play in it is a unique experience. This game is not meant to be played from start to finish like a traditional linear game. Spore is a game about creating your own story, your own adventure, and your own goals. After over ten hours of none stop play I can assure you. If you treat this game like a traditional gamer, you will be disappointed. This is coming from an avid gamer since the ATARI 2600. However, creating everything and exploring the world around you is one of the most satisfying experience I have had in gaming history. What are you waiting for, go pick it up.… Expand