Playing God (or Darwin)
It's finally here...well, almost. After many years of waiting, Spore fans can finally tinker around with the creature creator. Those running the free version have 25% of the features, but it's still more than enough to have fun with. But do both versions live up to expectations? Here's what we thought? And seeing as we are all artistic here, we thought we (i.e. me) would show you what we came up with (please shield your eyes if you cringe easily). But of course, we want your input too. Your thoughts and comments on the creature creator, and any pictures of your little darlings which you can post at Spore Heaven
Versions- Free Version
- Paid Version
Free Version
This version was leaked early, but I resisted temptation to get it. The day it was released it was downloaded on to my PC and booted up. Installation was fine and the file size was small. Had no errors loading up and booting the game. Spinning the universe, on the main menu was also fun. Getting into the bulk of the game, the actual editor, it could be seen straight away that there were a lot of parts for the creatures, and I had initially feared that the 25% that were provided would be inadequate. I was totally wrong (a rarity). The number of combinations that were possible and the creatures that were made, were surprising diverse. Even with this limited inventory, I was making loads of creatures which broadly differed from one another. If this kind of variety could be found in only 25% of the full version, then the full game could truly be limitless. I was never affected by the DNA points, so I assumed that the more expensive parts were not included in this version of the game, though I was hit by the complexity meter a view times. Looking at videos of the CC and playing with the CC are two different things.
At first the spine (which controls length and girth) was a mystery to me, but like any good computer person, I clicked everything and eventually figured it out. One of the most amusing things is flirting expression of my creature, and also the babies, which mimic you. I had expected to see either some variation in the young creatures or a lack of developed physical features, but this was not to be. In any case, the free version was incredibly fun to play, and the limitations weren't really noticed. There were a few problems, but I'll discuss that below.
Paid Version
The paid version has a delayed released compared to the free version. After my order was processed, I had to wait 23 hours for the full version to finally come my way on the release date. On top of that, I was forced to use the horrible download manager that EA insisted upon. After the game did download and installed, it complained that I didn't have the right version of DirectX, so I promptly downloaded the right version. Installation was brief and I eagerly clicked the icon with bated breath. Even on my fairly old system it booted up quickly and I was greeted by the site of the first logo screen. Then the creator quit. After tinkering about with many settings, it was the EA download manager just shutting the game down, so I uninstalled, and the game worked. After the logos, I was treated to a registration dialogue box, which I ignored for the moment as I had more important things to do. Going straight into create a new creature, I licked my lips (stop thinking that!!) and watched as I was greeted with a jungle environment, a blob and lots of body parts. The first thing I noticed was how easy and intuitve the controls were. Just a few clicks here and there and I had already got the creature I wanted. With a bigger range of body parts then the free version, I could immediately see more interesting designs and combinations of creatures than I had thought possible. The number of DNA points and complexity hasn't changed, so this time it was slightly more of a challenge to not go overboard. That said, once the creature had been made, the animation of my creations was flawless. No matter what kind of legs I had place, the creature still walked, the physics and biology seeming to blend together to make the experience natural. I was slightly annoyed by the fact that my creature good dance better than I, but such is life. It was also interesting to note that you could put two heads (in different places) on the creature, however the creator didn't let you distinguish between which was the primary head. EA was also a bit mean spirited with their backgrounds, only three.
Painting the creatures was also rather fun, and the range of colours available (think custom colours in word with the target) was large, and the game had no problem rendering them. It would have been nice to manually paint the creature, or add distinguishing features (a la Black and White) but perhaps this would be too complicated in terms of inheritance and genetics. It was also a bit disappointing that in the test mode, that you could not see (via pictures/interactions or otherwise) the evolution of you creature. Whilst I'm sure they want to keep some of this udner wraps, the first few stages of evolution (even as pictures) would have been cool. Saving is easy, and most importantly small, and Maxis have made it easy to make pictures/video/avatars of your creations. Saving also allows you to submit to central servers so that your creature can be shared worldwide. Here's the second and third bugs encountered: your cretures don't all submit, and sometimes they vanish. Clearly, these issues need to be sorted ASAP. In all, I think the £4.99 price tag is justified, and I've also been made aware that it is going to be reimbursed when I buy the full game (its subtracted from the retail price....how awesome is that)
There are hours of fun that can be had with either version. It's easy to use, it's intuitive and most of all it's adaptive. I can't wait for the game to be out, and though this is the only demo we'll get (aside from the tantalising glimpses we get from the prototypes), it's sure to keep everyone entertained. After all, its simply lets the player choose; Darwin or God. How exciting!
