Spore is a computer game designed by Will Wright that simulates the complete history and future of life. We could start with some quirky little line about the theory of evolution, but we won’t. Instead we will simply let you know this is one of the most anticipated titles of the year and the ultimate life form simulation of all time if it can deliver what the demos have shown us it can it a beta state.
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The games creature editor is one of the shining points of this title. All the magic happens after laying an egg and having the ability to play god in the ultimate way. You start with a blob with a spine. The first order of business is to sculpt out the body type you would like your creature to posses. After choosing this you can equip them with arms, legs, mouths, noses, hands, feet, eyes, horns, tails and more to advance your race. Want a species with six legs and twelve feet? No problem.
Based on all the objects you apply to your creature in this weird mix of Operation and Mr. Potato Head your new species will come to life. You can simply drag and drop various items any where on the body and watch as you develop into a lean mean surviving machine. After all the overall goal is to survive the test of time and the various limbs and body parts you apply all have statistics of their own that will help determine how successful your creature can become.
Spore is much more then a creature editor though. While hours of time will be wasted making the perfect species, much of your time will be spent watching it evolve. The game will determine your wacky excuse for life’s posture and movement based on how you equip your creature.
It all begins in the tide pool though. Fight with other creatures and consume them to adjust the form and abilities of your creature. It’s survival of the fittest at the most microscopic level. This will be the foundation that is set for your species and the beginning of its battle for survival. Your basic goal at the early stages will be to hunt for food and begin to sculpt the type of race you are trying to develop.
Soon after you will gain the ability to venture onto land and help your creature learn and evolve with forays away from your nest. The only way to grow is by taking chances! In the demo we saw Will Wright is hunting with his small creature and eventually a much larger creature looks at him as a good snack. After evading the predator he resumes his own hunting.
Now while running around to feed you is fun, the goal of your creature’s life is to reproduce. In the demo we see Will Wright let out a mating cry and listen back for a potential booty call. Shortly after he finds a suitable young mate and lets out another mating call. The mate seems to approve and next thing we know the creator of the Sims series is watching his two creatures bump uglies with Ron Jeremy music in the background.
Now that the magic is over it’s time to care for your tribe you just created. Instead of controlling an individual creature, you are now caring for an entire tribe. Give them tools and guide their interactions as you upgrade their state of existence. Will Wright showed us an example where he dropped a rack of spears into his village. After emitting out some fierce screams they gathered around the rack to inspect what their god had gave them. After a short period of investigating they picked up the spears and realized they were weapons. Within minutes Wright had placed fire and drums and his small tribe was dancing around the flames. It was really quite amazing to watch.
Though living the tribal life looked relaxing it was time to kick it up a notch. By building up the technology, architecture, and infrastructure of their city you can watch your race evolve yet again. With each upgrade your city will continue to become more and more civilized. Just as with the creature editor, there is a building editor as well. This makes it possible to build a peaceful colorful city or an industrial grimy looking city. Your god, the choice is up to you.
Once your city is established, your creatures begin seeking out and interacting with other cultures. Make contact with an olive branch or a war cry. The goal for your creatures is to conquer the planet.
The most exciting time of Spore though would have to be the end game. Though making the cities and creatures looks like fun, taking over the galaxy sounds better.
The time has come to move on to other worlds in your solar system. Make contact, colonize, or terraform, then venture further to find other solar systems. A ‘mission’ structure provides new goals in your quest for galactic dominance.
Basically as you advance your species you will earn money you can use on different items. The spears and fire that we discussed earlier, Will Wright was able to buy from his god command interface. Also available for purchase are various limb upgrades and the ability to advance your brain. Once you advance far enough you will be able to build your first UFO and from there can invest upgrades into the UFO’s abilities.
To demonstrate the UFO Will Wright flew into space, back down to his planet and found a tribe of another species. After abducting one (using the classic beam of light technique) he fly back into space and headed to another planet to investigate and do an experiment. After dropping the creature off it instantly explodes.
After realizing the planet has no atmosphere Will Wright is able to do one of two things. The player can either build a bubble colony to inhabit this planet or they can use their UFO to terraform the planet and aid it in developing an atmosphere so the planet can sustain life.
This opens a tremendous ability for the player to spread throughout the galaxy. Spore allows you to explore more then just the Milky Way. From the demo we saw Will Wright used his UFO to pick up radio waves from other planets in space to detect life. After checking several he finally found one with an alien race. Sending his UFO there and to what looked like a major city his UFO hovered above and in a Close Encounters style showdown played some goofy music and awaited a reaction. Suddenly missiles started to fire from the city aimed at the UFO. Will Wright quickly pulled back out into space upon realizing he had not met a friendly race and used his UFO to send a blast down to the planet that not only wiped out the attacking city, but destroyed the whole planet.
Will Wright is a game god. With such massive hits from the Sims universe if anyone would understand how to make an addictive simulation title he’s your man. When Will Wright makes the game he has wanted to play for years and only able to make now you know this will be something special.
In a day that we see nothing but clones of blockbuster titles and more of the same it is exciting to see Will Wright creating something so massive and so unique it may take over the galaxy.
While World of Warcraft addiction still runs strong in many veins it seems a new fix is on the way. Spore provides limitless possibilities and will soon lead to every Treky and Star Wars nut into their ultimate universe. One that they will be able to create, manipulate and conquer. This may be the ultimate god simulation ever made.
For a demo of the game in action check out this YouTube video. It's a bit long but well worth watching to see what this game has to offer. Also be sure to check out Spore Central more more on the Will Wright series of Sim games.