Maxis Spore: From Creature Creation to Evolution
A Look into the Future of Gaming
Sep 15, 2008 Phillip Taylor Hart
Spore is the phenomenal release from Maxis and Will Wright giving gamers a chance to play something quite revolutionary. The creators of Spore spared no creative expense when designing the game, which is built around the evolution/society building of your particular organism.
It is then developed by the player through 5 different levels of advancement, from a single celled organism all the way to a galaxy exploring species.
The player is given a game in which, as later stages become open, virtually all buildings, vehicles, and so on are able to be designed uniquely by the player. This provides a strong artistic side to a game that already has so much. Added to this is the option for going online and downloading other players' created content to your own game. There is a ranking systems which shows which player's content is being accessed and how many times, which adds a little pride aspect to the game.
Replayability in Spore
One factor to determine when judging the quality of a game is its replay value. The great thing about Spore is that the player can go back and play each one of the 5 parts without having to start from the first part as when the game is played through for the first time.
The way it works is that once the player has played through each stage at least once, then that stage is open at any time in the future if they were to start a new game. This makes for some very interesting replay options. As all of the 5 stages are fun to play there is no hesitation about starting back from the beginning.
Granted, the first two levels are much more simply constructed as far as gameplay as compared to the three later levels; but the creature creation process that takes place during these levels makes up for any lack of real time strategy.
Another factor which makes Spore a likely candidate for replay is the aforementioned artisitc side. With players being able to not only build whatever creature they want but also design vehicles, buildings and entire civilizations, the possibilities are virutally endless for a new and exciting evolution process each time you play. And Maxis' feature of the uploading of players creative content makes this part all the more exciting. There is a possibility that players might spend a bit more time with their designs knowing that they have the likelihood of being viewed and maybe even downloaded by others playing the game.
The Future of Games
The multiple factors which go together to make Spore the game it is are really quite fascinating.
With Spore being so revolutionary a game it will be interesting to see if other companies follow suit and begin releasing games built on a similar platform. The freedom of choice between color and look of your organism up to whether or not to conquor the galaxy really does push the envelope for video game design and it will take a lot to top what Spore can do as a game.
The only real draw back is the lack of muliplayer capabilites, which is a small draw back indeed compared with the single player value. But this leaves room for a possible expansion or at the very least something for a competing game company to pick up on.
Spore
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