Maxis has developed a game with no cohesive gameplay elements. Extremely boring. Play Ages of Empires series instead if you desire a good RTS game.

A decent game is completely crippled by DRM issues. I initially installed it on a system that met the requirments, however the game would not play on it. When it didn't work, I reinstalled it, still to no avail. When I finally installed it on my laptop it worked, but I am now unable to install the game on my desktop PC because of their arcane DRM scheme. This is completely unacceptable, and punishes legitimate customers who actually purchased the game, while allowing those who pirate it to have a more functional copy of the game. This DRM is wholly unacceptable.… Expand

The lack of depth + drm issues makes me wish I had pirated this game.

This game simply does not live up to the hype. For serious gamers Spore just does not deliver. Each of the mini secions feels shallow and incomplete. This would have been forgivable because it is important to bring new gamers into the genre. The DRM however only punishes legitamate copies of the game. Save yourself the hassle and download a liberated version.

I can't express more disappointment. Not only is the game over priced. It is terrible as well.

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

Constant attacking by pirates, micro management in space (spice pick up/delivery), useless allies, watered down version of game. Definately wait till a serious patch comes out!

So much they could have done, so little they actually accomplished. The very first stage is probably the only one that actually works. Creature stage is O.K nothing exceedingly good but no game killers either. Tribal stage is just akward, like a poorly programmed RTS game. Civilization phase has a few game killers for me. Namelly that you can't modify cars to be different. As soon as you modify one they all change. No recon or tank vehicles unless you want ALL of them that way. Space is so full of bugs and poorly designed game elements that it hurts just thinking about it. Who honestly thought giving your civilization 1 ship period while all your enemies seem to have 20 at their disposal at any given time was a good idea. Having to zoom in to talk to people gets very tedius. Overall I think the second version of this game will be excellent. This feels too much like a failed beta… Expand

Very simplistic, not nearly the level of detail I was hoping for, game play is linear, no complexity at all to the game.

The visuals were nice, that's the only positive thing I can say. The DRM restrictions, in my opinion, should be illegal. I returned my copy for a refund immediately upon learning of this. I upgrade my gaming PC 2 or more times a year including a fresh Windows install, 3 installs gives me an 18-month rental? I think not. I downloaded Spore for free off of Usenet. Is that any less illegal than what EA is doing? I think not. After an hour of play my opinion is the game play is very underwhelming, the game does not live up to its hype, and I've since deleted my free copy.… Expand

This game is horribly oversimplified. The creature creator is good, but none of the choices you make actually matter in the end. Yawn.

DRM is all I can say. Game seemed ok, but I'm forced to return it to the store.

fundamentally disappointing! 5 shallow mini-games threaded together.... Poor and simplistic game play. Not what one would expect from the legend that is Will Wright

When does the other half of the game come out, the game they showed of 2 years ago looked interesting. This is spore for idiots.

When you compare the final product to the 2005 demo video which sparked so much interest, Spore is a massive let-down. It has been dumbed down and cartooned up to the point where body parts in creature stage have no stacking effect and weapons in vehicle and ship design produce the same effect in game. One spike is the same as 1,000 and rockets, lasers, and guns all appear to be slow moving ugly tracers. Just one of the myriad of examples. The stages are boring and repetitive, zero replay value. The editors are the only fun part, yet the lack of real, substantive impact on your design decisions on the gameplay gives the game an empty feeling. After eagerly waiting for Spore, i'm sad to suggest you save your money, its not worth the purchase.… Expand

I've played flash games that are better than this disappointment, seriously. The game is lacking in all aspects.

this "game" is more of a toybox than actual game...it is basically a mash-up of 5 free flash games being sold in one box for an exorbitant price

DRM need i say more? oh and the game is nothing like Will showed us 2 years ago.

This game sucks the big one, and you KNOW which big one I mean. 5 different games that are no fun and hard to control (no modifiable controls and no invert mouse) and wassup with this DRM? Ugh! Gag me with the big one, I'm spitting this one out. Shame on you Maxis. Lost my faith.

Very disappointing gameplay. Creature design is purely cosmetically and has no effect on the game. The different stages feel like each of them was developed by a completely different team and the teams had no idea what the other teams were doing. The game feels like a compilation of five disappointing minigames, each of them gets boring after 10 minutes. I don

Sorry Maxis, your marketing appealed to me. So much that I went out and bought the game. After two nights of playing I feel as though I am finished. Where is the gameplay? This game is so simple it plays as if it was designed for 6-10 year olds. What makes matters worse is that I cannot sell the game now on the second hand market because it is locked to me. The game lacks depth with very little options to choose. The game is basically minigames badly strung together that you would never play on their own as they are so bad. I believe the game feels like this as a lot of content was probbaly cut to be included in an expansion pack at a later date. How these game review sites are giving it 9/10 is beyond me. I would give it a max 4/10 but with the 3 installs only it drops to a 2. An expensive mistake, stay away from spore if you are having any dobts. Spore good for a 6 year old or if you know anyone who has the mental age of a 6 year old.… Expand

Boring, Boring, Boring. Its B&W again - over hyped, no gameplay or fun and full of DRM. Give this a miss.

Fun and interesting--for about 4 hours. After the initial "wow, look at all the customization!" phase, the rest of the game is shallow and repetitive. As cool a it is to build your own unique little organism, the much-hyped "evolution" aspect of the game is little more than a joke. A creature with 4 long, athletic legs runs just as fast as a creature with a single, chubby stump. It all just depends on the predetermined stats of the appendage. The different stages of the game seem incredibly disjointed too, like they should all actually be their own game, but they got accidentally thrown into the same trash compactor. In any case, don't waste $50 on a game that's going to disappoint you and that you'll lose interest in very quickly. Play it at a friend's house, or see if you can score a copy off someone else who is already bored with it.… Expand

From the sinister DRM, to the dummed down gameplay, it just sucks. It had so much potential but turned out as a paper doll like simulator.

Biggest letdown since years. Playing games since C64. But Spore is only a combination of 5 simple minigames.

Boring, repetitive, like a collection of mini-games. There's no gameplay depth here, editing shit is totally pointless to the gameplay, it's like an introductory RTS for girls. And the questionable copy protection rewards the people that pirate instead of paying for the game. This was pretty much the most overhyped piece of crap ever.

$40 to RENT a game? That seems a bit steep, and with the malware they ship with it too. Yeah, right, I'll just pay you $40 for that keylogger and willingly install it.

Repetitive and boring.

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

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

I really really tried to like this game, but it plays like a couple of flash games put together. I'm truly disappointed and can't understand the reviews from some sites which gave it a 9/10...this is just ridiculous.

This is basically a rehash of many of the reviews given already. - Game is like 5 mini games, loosely tied together. - Low replay-ablility, just not that engaging gameplay. - Sure it's interesting to put together creatures, but beyond that, there's not much to hold your interest. - This game is perhaps better for the under 12 crowd. Graphic and game play sophistications are simple. - I tried to get a refund after 4 days of play, couldn't get one. - Way over hyped, don't fall for it! Last EA game I'll ever purchase. Just not worth the money when there's so much other stuff out there.… Expand

I had a lot of problems with the game and now it is worthless because of the 3 install limit. Waste of money, I have a expensive coaster now, thanks EA.... you suck!!!!

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

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

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

EA as completely insulted honest customers. Its a so-so game, but the DRM makes it completely and totally not worth it. I would not recommend this game to anyone due to its DRM being of the verge of tyranny.

AAAAAAARGH!!! I wish I had read some reviews before buying this sordid lump of whale faeces, but my girlish enthusiasm got the better of me - I have been waiting for this game to come out for 3 years, after all. I was expecting depth, innovation, and complete immersion. Instead, the game is about as immersive as having a squirrel pee on your face (and I know which one I would prefer to endure, too - at least squirrel pee is free). The DRM stuff is just the final twist of the testicle clamps if you ask me - installing malware onto your hard drive without your explicit consent is just bad, and shouldn't be tolerated by the gaming community. I had to scrub my hard drive very carefully to get rid of that evil SecuROM thing. Out, out, damn rootkit! Seriously, it looks like the original version of the game, the one that got me interested to begin with, was destined to be an utter failure to begin with because it was just too complex to implement. Talk about biting off more than you can chew. Will was probably able to hide in his ivory tower for some time while the project foundered and wallowed in its own filth, but eventually the truth of the project would have become too much to ignore even for the starry-eyed EA execs who had backed everything so far, and as one reviewer so aptly mentioned, they would have marched in and laid down the law, in order to commercially salvage what they could of the sinking behemoth. But you know what? I would rather play a glorious failure that had depth and conviction regarding its original goals, than this fake, airbrushed, used tampon of a game. However, watching the "Spornographic" creatures on YouTube was certainly very entertaining, although I doubt it was part of Mr Wright's original vision.… Expand

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.

SecuROM DRM uses unlawful practices to hide on your computer system and limit the game to 3 activations. Product labeling fails to make this clear. Consumers are being cheated.

Pretty, but ultimately shallow and not very fun unless you like to grind out levels a la WoW. Most of the cool things shown/announced long ago never made it into the game or were removed. Overall a pretty big disappointment.

Nice looking game with extremely primitive and easy gameplay. Game is worth playing for 2-3 days.

The precursor stages lack any sort of depth or actual gameplay and as such every gamer will simply skip to the space stage on their second go. As bread an butter of the game, the space stage suffers from horrible controls, insane amounts of micromanagement and game mechanics which will invariably see you quit every game after 3 or so hours of getting precisely nowhere.

Horrible game, I don't think it can get anymore casual. Not to mention that it speaks volumes about EA and Maxis on how they sell out, when the 2005 demo of the game looked far better than the 2008 version.

A unique concept, but precious little depth. In all, it's rather dull to play.

- online activation only - three activations only (on 3 separate computers OR one computer w/configuration changes, which are not disclosed by EA - activations are NOT revoked upon uninstallation - exceeding the 3rd activation and needing another requires approval from EA - for some disks will be unreadable by their DVD drives due to Securom manufacturing process - already longstanding problems resulting from Securom conflicts w/other programs still occur - resale is virtually killed due to activation limits - no refunds are given for downloaded games - games purchased via EA Download Manager require additional payment for access to them after 2 years - EA Download Manager installation required for patches - Securom does not uninstall when the game is uninstalled - Securom transmits unknown iinformation over the internet without user's knowledge or consent - Securom accesses Ring0 to detect emulation software - Securom installs hidden files/folders/registry entries upon execution of the game - Securom is made by SonyDADC, with whom purchasers have no contract when they buy an EA game - Securom is not named or identified in any EA eula - activation limits are not disclosed to the purchaser in any packaging or documentation prior to purchase - toll free EA support phone numbers are not available outside of the US - Securom is well known to cause conflicts w/factory installed emulation utilities, older versions of itself, optical drive software, antivirus software, and other peripheral software None of the above is conveyed by EA to any purchaser until after purchase...nor in any of the quoted reviews listed in this aggregate. This metacritic rating therefore means nothing.… Expand

Very pretty, about 1 hour of intense play -- followed by boring repetition. Maybe I'm missing something? Oh, and the copy protection scheme used will make uninstalling a nightmare. Thanks EA, for another marginal product with ugly strings.

Really Dumbed down game, the revolutionary idea of including five game types into one has just resulted in five abysmally simple, broken and repetitive minigames. combined with DRM which means you are essentially renting a game for $50 gets it a big big thumbs down from me. cell mode is so simple to finish youll have a hard time starving yourself long enough to pick up all the parts you need, creature mode involves choosing between killing a new creature or dancing for hiim. and then you must repeat this some 200 times to advance. in tribal stage the lack of ai begins to really show, computer players do not interact with each other, and barely with you other than to respond to attacks with small raiding party's. civilisation mode again is painfully simple, you can destroy every other group on the map before they expand beyond one city with ease, nobody chalenges you for your resources or threatens your cities. and finally space mode involves suddenly expanding to a word with literally hundreds of thousands of new systems, and a thousand new civilisations, all of whom have the power to warp fleets of 20 ships to your home world from the other end of the galaxy. which they will do incessantly. and there is no trade automation meaning you will spend 60 % of your time collecting and selling resources, and 39% defending your planets against random attacks. leaving you 1% to realise how dull all the hundreds of unlocks are.… Expand

Game is boring, oversimplified, uninvolved and your actions have little meaning. However the real problem here is DRM. I'm NOT OK with having a hard-set 3 install limit and then having to plead my case to EA to install it further. No thank you, I will be telling everybody I know not to buy spore. At this point, pirating it is easier.

I'm without Internet this week due to the fact that I'm up at camp. This game doesn't want to work unless I authenticate!

Nothing but problems with the DRM. I feel ripped off.

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

Once I got passed the issues getting this game to actually start on my PC (I had to install it 4 times before I could launch the game) it was fun at first as I found each stage rich in innovation but thin on gameplay, making this something I will only play for a short time then never pick up again. If I could log into the EA server to experience other users creations this might have more replay value but sadly this feature seems very broken at the moment and there is no indication of when it will be fixed. No doubt it will be at the point where I've forgotten it ever existed.… Expand

The DRM this game uses makes the game worthless to me. I can only install on 3 machines for the whole life of the game. If i make a call to EA I will have to provide proof of purchase to get another activation after 3. Ridiculous.

Finding out about the Drm and only getting 3 installs after I paid for the game killed any fun I could have had with it. I think I'll go reinstall Warcraft3 for the 100th time and play that. Good story. Good Graphics. and worth the money I paid for it.

A game 4 years in the making should have a little more than some fancy programming. Not only does it lack a good AI engine, but the entire game can be "beaten" in two good days of playing. Of course the game can't really be beaten. One of the features of the game is the thousands and thousands of star systems you can visit. However the space stage lacks the UI to make it plesant. As a space game I would much prefer "Sins of a Solar Empire." A game with an innovative UI and enough gameplay to keep you busy. So even if you like the creature, tribal, or civ stages of spore, you get less than about 8 hours of total gameplay for those stages all together. you CAN keep playing those stages before choosing to evolve. BUT the game doesn't make it rewarding enough to spend any more time than you have to. I could keep going. But I'm sad I waited so long for this. I'm gonna per-order that new star wars game though. At least that has the Euphoria engine.… Expand

An all around disappointment. the core of the game is the editor where you design things, instead of actually playing the game.

Fun for couple hours, okay for a couple more, then tedium.

Unimaginably horrible. With a DRM scheme that limits you to three activations. Stupid, repetitive and simplistic gameplay reminiscent of Black & White. What is there to like? What a load of crap. Very disappointed, I expected so much more.

If you like sub-bar succession of pac-man, 3rd person shooter, RTS and space exloration game, youre in for a treat.

Beautiful editors that have almost zero impact on the simplistic and shallow gameplay.

Great game, horrible DRM, do not buy this game! if you wish to play it, pirate it and send Will Wright your money directly, thus bypassing the big brother software EA will be putting on your computer.

This is not very deep as far as a game goes. It may be fun for pre-teens and maybe even teens but any adult gamer will lose interest fast. I also disliked the DRM which prevents more than 3 installs...ever. I am tired of paying customers being treated like criminals.

The DRM is terrible and the game a sprawling bore. Several distinct game modes but all but the last one are utterly uninteresting.

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

I have no beef with DRM or EA and my score simply reflects the poorness of the game. However, EA should be ashamed of itself with the hype attached presale. Even some of the "official critics" right here suggesting the game rates akin to Sims obviously did not play it very long! Had the critique been realistic I would not have bought this game in 1m years. I found myself looking for some depth 1 hour into the galactic phase. While the GFX and creatures might be cute, the AI is non-existent and the options are far too shallow. The interface is inconsistent pre-galactic while the galactic stage is tedious to endure. Having to roll the mouse wheel backwards and forwards over and over to pick up spice from each system is poor design. A quick double click would have made all the difference. Even simple auto trading vessels would have been nice so that you would not have to travel to every system personally and collect the spice while repeatedly chasing your tail against nuisance value missions. (Having to constantly fight pirates, aliens and be an Eco-hero fixing extinctions requires anger management classes when you get beyond about 7 star systems.) What about when you're on the other side of the galaxy and get lost travelling through mindless blackholes with no clue as to their destination! And then some species wants ever-increasing amounts of graft repeatedly so they don't become annoying and start bombing your planets simply because you wouldn't pay the bribes. What the heck! I could go on but I need some time now to find a game that will provide enjoyment beyond a single day! I paid A$80 for this and it's worth no more than about $20.… Expand

This game was hyped as 'Sim Everything'. All the pre-game marketing, screens, previews, led us to believe it would be awesome, and I believe it was intended to be by it's creator, Will Wright. Now that EA is releasing additions to the game it seems to me that greed at EA must have been the issue here. I suspect that the game was 'minimized' and a lot of good content was saved for later release as an addon, like 'Galactic Adventures'. It seems that the addons have a lot of things that were hinted at prior to the games original release. Thanks a lot EA!! You turned an awesome vision into 2 weeks of disappointment. If you had just released it all as one game it would have been the greatest game of all time!! Instead it has turned into a flop!!! Based on the number of bad reviews I have seen I would guess most other people agree. I am not sure if I will buy any of the new content... depends on how bored I get I guess... Regards, Former Spore Fan.… Expand

I tried to vote on this disregarding the hype that surrounded the game, however, it is still a low score... simple mini games bundled together... The strategic part of it is laughable... The creature creator, albeit fun, has nearly no influence on how your creature will perform. Will not last you more than a couple of days and then you'll be looking for other games.

Extremly poorly designed space age gets boring very fast. Fun for about 4 hours.

Fun for one playthrough, but lacking real re-play value and the five stages is far from deep enough to provide a solid gameplay. The galaxystage is endless and make sure you notice that the first 10 minutes of it.

I am rarely speechless but after 3 tries at installing this piece of dung on my machine, I gave up and tried installing it on my daughter's machine. I "played" it for about 2 hours before I realized that there is no game. Boring as hell. Can't believe it's a technological mess, a crappy game, and so popular? What's up with the press score? Pre-release versions?

Un-freaking-believabale. Non configurable controls, no evolution to speak of, disjointed gameplay, and crummy DRM to boot. Why bother?

Man, I played this lousy game and thought there must be something wrong with me if all the critics like it as much as they do and i hate it. Then I saw the meta user scores. LOL do I hear you all.

A truly exciting concept, dumbed down and made into an overly-simplistic game, lacking any real challenges. I've heard the argument that each part of this game could be a game in its own right. Well, they'd be terribly dull games in their own right. Spore is of such a quality that playing four Flash games in a row would be both more fun and better value for money.

The creature creator is the only interesting part of this game. The gameplay itself is incredibly bland, unbelievably easy and there is absolutely no replay value whatsoever.

Spore gets real boring, real quick. Sure it's fun creating a few creatures, eating some others, blah blah blah... then you get to the space stage and it is soooo incredibly repetitive. Find a plant, develop it, sell the spice it produces, win the game. It's so easy, so repetitive, it's horrid. This is coming from someone who has played games like simcity, civilization, etc, to death a million times and loved it. Spore is just too simple to be either challenging or interesting. Booo!… Expand

Massively overrated. Absent the massive hysteria before the launch, this game would be a 5 or 6 out of 10. But the massive media propaganda for this (give me a break, Robin Williams advertising Spore??) makes this a bomb. The multi-stage nature of the game forces each stage to be very simplistic, but gains continuity and the feeling that you have created your creature from a single cell to a galactic civilization. The problem is that the creature design, as graphically impressive as it is, HAS NOT IMPACT ON GAMEPLAY. Or rather, it has a very simplistic impact (do you want to add a +2 attack beak or a +2 health claw?). This doesn't come even close in complexity to the simplest Civilization-like games. The actual graphical design of your creature is a waste of time and the novelty quickly wears off. The simplest change that could have made this game much more interesting is to have the physical structure of your creature (not simply the mere enumeration of features) meaningfully impact its effectiveness - since that is were most of the time is spent by the user and since that is what makes the game really unique.… Expand

I bought this game thinking it was going to revolutionize game play. The whole experience is very shallow and simplistic. Once I got to the space age I just didn't care anymore. The oppressive DRM certainly didn't help any. I think I played this game for a few days...now its collecting dust.

Far too simple to be enjoyable longer than a week at most. The gameplay is too shallow to be enjoyable for more than one play-through. Spore doesn't live up to the hype of many different demonstrations in the past. In fact, its most interesting features were stripped away, leaving a hollow shell of what could have been a very deep game.

Spore is a little difficult to rate because there are so many good things about it and also so many bad things. Creating your creature can be very fun. Customization of my creature was great, as I was able to change its body and add pre-made parts however I wanted to. The bad? Each part I added had a certain amount of skill: social, fight, defense, etc. Despite how many times I put the same part on my creature, it didn't increase that particular skill. i.e. If you put a mouth with a biting force of +4, putting a 2nd or 3rd mouth will still leave it at a +4 rating. Each stage is fun at the beginning, but it gets very repetitive very quickly. I focused on bettering my creature in every stage only to find out that in the next stage, what I did to it did not matter anymore. I feel the cell and creature stage went by way too quickly, and I was rushed on to the next stages. In the creature stage, the other creatures in the surrounding vicinity were all within my strength range, so they were easy to defeat or ally. There was no challenge because the developers placed everything in conveniently strategic places. The space stage is, by far, my favorite stage because I liked exploring the other planets and changing its climate. But, that also became repetitive. There are (what seems like) a gajillion galaxies and exploring them all is very tedious. Colonizing and terra-forming the planets became tedious as well after a while. Anyway, I could go on but you see my point. I was very excited about this game when it was first introduced by Will Wright. It seemed innovative, creative, and revolutionary... Wright got the idea down right but it failed in execution. Oh, and there is the now infamous SecuRom DRM that came hidden with the Spore software. EA, in its effort to combat piracy, just ticked off the consumers... HONEST consumers, might I add. Now I have this darn DRM stuck on my computer, and it won't uninstall when I uninstall Spore... great.… Expand

Spore is one of the biggest disappointments I've had in years for the PC. Ever since I first heard of it in 2004, I've waited impatiently for it to come out. When it finally did, it came with that draconian DRM and it RUINED the game. I've already used the three allowed installs, and I've had this game for only two months. That means that I effectvely lost my money already, and I am not too savvy on buying my own game again. Do not buy this game. It is a mistake, and a big one, even if the core concept is one of the best I've ever seen.… Expand

It was decent the first time through, I will say that. However, I don't think it was really worth $50 for 3 hours of enjoyment... It was not what they advertised. They said, "The universe will be completely random, it will be so large that you could never explore the entirety of the galaxy." First of all, it's not random. If you notice, one of the achievements is to "find Earth." You can google a map of the galaxy and find the location of Earth from any of the 8 or so preset starting planets. They said that you would always find creatures you had never seen before created by other users. In all my adventuring in space, I never found one non-Maxis creation. The dialogues between other space civilizations was interesting the at first, until you start seeing repeats of personalities, at which point they all say the same thing. When you tell your allies to attack a planet, it would be fun to help them in the siege, but why bother? They can't lose, and if you help them, it's extremely easy to accidentally shoot your allies and your fleet will continue to attack until you fly away from the planet, the same happens when you are defending their planet from pirates. Space to planet transitions are too choppy for me, detracting from smooth gameplay. Aside from the pointlessness of colonizing a 21st planet when your first 5 give you enough money to fund your space ship indefinitely and still have a surplus, it's also more difficult each time, as you will have "ecological crises" every minute by that point. The game is also not "sandbox" like they said it would be. Another limitation is that you cannot have two civilizations on the same planet after you reach the space age. Is there some sort of gravitational limitation to putting a space colony on a planet with a tribe? Additionally, you can never fully abduct a city, because when you abduct one, another citizen spawns from nowhere (baby factory?). Then, once you abduct about 30 of your enemies and terraform a planet for them, expecting that they will form a tribe or something on the planet, you put them down, wait, then watch them randomly die together. Notice, also, that if you use a tool such as tentacle plateau, take off to space, then come back, the plateau is either submerged in water or gone. The planet will change in about 5 minutes of game time, but not in the eons that take place in the creature stage. Why does no other creature evolve intelligence on your homeland? I expected - and they advertised - something other than a Civilization IV game on Epic "Extended time" mode.… Expand

This game tries to do everything, and does none of it well. The only part of the game that was more fun than a chore was the editors: creating creatures, buildings and vehicles was fun. Otherwise, it's like incredibly dumbed-down versions of other games - the cell stage is mildly entertaining, but the rest are dull. The creature stage is like World of Warcraft, but single-player and with a total of 3 spells. The tribal stage is like Age of Empires, but with a total of 3 different units, and a single base. The civilsation stage bares a vague resemblance to the game of the same name - however, the simplistic resource management, combined with (you guessed it) a total of 3 different units makes it a matter of building up an army, then clicking on the city you want to capture. Even if you decide to take the peaceful path through religion, the gameplay mechanic is identical - build "religious" units and tell them to "attack" the city. The space stage is like nothing I've ever seen before - it attempts to be a galactic 4X game (though a very dumbed down one) at the same time as requiring you to fly everywhere and do everything from your single ship. There's a reason I've never seen anything like it before - it's rubbish. I played the space stage for about an hour before stopping out of sheer boredom - having to visit each planet and manually harvest the spice for selling is a chore. I don't see how this game is getting such good reviews - I got a total of 4 hours playtime out of it, and have no desire to go back. Those 4 hours weren't even particularly entertaining.… Expand

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.

An excellent design concept - 10 for the ideas, graphics and style. As far as gameplay is concerned - this is just 5 repetitive simplistic arcade games bundled together. And in fact they are much worse than the shareware arcades that don't pretend to be anything more than a simple fun arcade. While Spore was advertised as nex-gen, epic-scale, revolutionary masterpiece of gameplay - in fact it is not. It is still just 5 simplistic arcade games. Final score: I give it a 5 just for the average gameplay with nice graphics -3 goes for false promises and over advertising -2 goes for draconian DRM. Just so silly it was on torrents the other day after the release - now we know for sure that DRM is aimed not against pirates, but against the law abiding and paying consumers to make their life more miserable. I hope the consumers all over the world would get the message. Final score therefore is 0. Regretfully. Don't buy this game.… Expand

Having used this game since it's launch, on my roomates account, I can say that the game itself is not half bad. It isn't what it could have been, and it sure isn't worth 50 $ but it's fun enough to keep me interested for a couple weeks. At least it would be if we were able to play it anymore. The absolute crap DRM bundled with the game has meant that we are now waiting on EA to give him more activations. He put it on his laptop, and it looked horrible and recommended he update his video drivers for his onboard graphics.... which we did. It still only looked so/so, thus we put it on my computer, no problem. He had ordered a new PC before the game came out, and I had piggy backed my new monitor on his order, they arrived yesterday. First thing on, spore... which now tells him it has reached the install limit ! I tried to put it on mine, with my shiny new 22" LCD. Same thing. Presumably I have a "new" computer since I changed my monitor, and he got a " new " laptop when he updated his video drivers. Now we have to either phone EA at 1.99$ a minute and beg for another activation, or email them which I am led to understand takes months. This is pathetic for something that he paid 50$ for. I might even have bought the damn thing if I had worked out... Next time I'll be more likely to listen to the online crowd rather than put my trust in EA... scratch that, there won't be a 'next time'. I think I will be putting on an eye patch in the future, Yarr!… Expand

Spore is one of those "meh" games, overhyped and underperforming. I'm pretty sure there's way more content Will Wright created then what EA actually put in, saving it for an "expansion" aka "the EA strategy" of sucking as much money out of gamers as they can. Each stage of development feels like an underdeveloped version of a modern game, tied together a cuteness maybe a 6 year old would enjoy. Combine it with its 3 activation limit DRM scheme, which means you basically rent the game, not purchase it, and this is a title which unfortunately, and to my biggest dismay, is a pass. @EA Draconian DRM is not the answer, people will try to get something for free. If you attempted not to suck us dry and force SecuROM down our throats your products would be 100% better.… Expand

This game was ruined by the DRM. I feel so stupid for buying this when people who download it illegally don't even have to worry about the DRM.

... 4 years of waiting, 59.95

Great simulator. Okay game. Horrible DRM. Lack of challenge and consequence in the beginning, and the computer nagging you at the end (which is most of the game)... if those issues could be addressed, this may be a 10. Despite my game play complaints, this game's potential lies in its longevity. While you won't play it for weeks on end (like Oblivion), the endless replay value makes this game an 8 to me. But, considering how I won't be allowed to play this game in about a year, maybe less, that replay value is gone. Thank you EA for DRM-ing this game beyond usefulness. I'll be nice and assume I'll almost get to play this game almost half as much as I'd like, so my 8 becomes a 3 (very tempted to give a 0 just to spite EA). As is, I'd recommend waiting for a price drop, hoping EA drops the DRM, or wait for other games to take after Spore's style (and do a better job of the sub-genres). If you are sure you are fine with the 3-install limit, and have no issues with secuROM, then it is a good game. Just be sure to get the most out of those 3 installs (or 4 if you can get one).… Expand

Lets review here: This is a game for casual gamers, yet requires a pretty decent computer that casual gamers wouldn't have. Its gameplay is simple and introductory, the kind of game to introduce you to other genres (so in other words, seems geared towards kids), yet you have to be 13 and older to use the online content (the whole point of the game really) and thanks to the penis creatures and filthy named creatures you may come across, its not suitable for kids. Additionally, the explanation for the stages I found to be insufficient for casual gamers (i.e. my girlfriend), and the fact you only get one game save means that it is indeed possible to save the game at the verge of destruction and be forced to start over from scratch. Thats not very casual friendly. Once you buy the game and realize that there isn't much to it at all, you'll probably want to sell it. Then something starts to make sense. You cannot return this game. You cannot give it to someone else (it's tied to your EA account), and you can only install it 3 times, with uninstalling it NOT giving you back an install. Honestly, who wants to join me in a class action lawsuit, no where on this box does it state that limitation.… Expand

This game was fun for the first 10 minutes, before my guy became a tribe. Upon further recollection, the fact that once you collect so many pieces of meat or green whatevers you can't add more DNA points is pretty annoying. When you get to the creature stage, all you can do is run around killing or singing/dancing/shaking your behind/whatever and going back to the nest to have another generation. It gets really repetitive and boring very quickly. There seemed to be a lot of replayability, but in reality, it's just the same thing over and over again. At least with SimCity, you could build your city in different ways, but there is only one path in this game, really... eat plants or meat, kill or impress other creatures, play music for or kill other tribes, etc. I can't believe how much the critics are wrong on this issue. It is obvious they are bought off by EA. My 6 year old nephew who has been playing Age of Empires (the original!) got bored with how easy SPORE was. That's how incredibly worthless this game is... a 10 year old game is more challenging than Spore is. Simply a waste.… Expand

*yawn* Most boring piece of crap I've ever played. I have nothing constructive to say other than don't play this. EA Fails once again.

The game is childish and uninteresting after small quantities of gameplay. I was really hoping for something better, wow.

The Space age is poorly designed your either paying ridiculous sums of money to keep out of war or constantly running all over to protect yourself

5 mini games with shortcomings, all glued togheter poorly by a creature tool creator, and fake online capabilities. The digital rights management is a joke -and illegal in certain states in the USA- Believe most of us here, and don't buy this title, don't waste your hard earned money.