damp

Given all the hype surrounding Spore it was always going to struggle to live up to expectations, there is a difference between failing to meet expectations and missing them entirely however. As a game it is really nothing more than a collection of simple mini games with very little tying them together, for the most part choices in one game have little to no actual impact in subsequent games other than aesthetic (and even that isn't always maintained). The initial cell game is quite entertaining and shows promise (although there are free flash games that pre-date spore that do it better), unfortunately this is probably the highpoint of the entire game. The creature stage was initially entertaining as you wander around however it quickly becomes repetitive. Evolution is no more than finding upgrades, the higher the number the better the upgrade; there is no downside to any of them, no trade offs or limitations - better numbers = better creature = quite dull really. The actual design of the creature - size, number and position of limbs etc has absolutely no impact whatsoever. Survival at this stage is a choice between the two well know evolutionary choices - kill opponents or dance and sing. The tribal stage is a very mediocre RTS game, the "opponents" never really put up a fight and are soon defeated, not much else to say about this stage. The Civ stage gives you a city and you build units that are either military, religious or economic and you send these to other cities to conquer them. Regardless of the units the result is pretty much the same. Best described as another very mediocre RTS. The previous four stages lead up to the Galactic stage. You have a planet and a spaceship and as such you can travel to other planets to terraform them or trade. The main problem with this stage is hidden in the previous sentence - *YOU* have a spaceship, nobody else on your starting planet does, no planet you claim ever gets them. This means you spend your entire time responding to every single tiny detail or alert or attack or request or discovery or trade opportunity yourself. The larger the mapped area is, the more time you spend not exploring but constantly dealing with mundane trivia. To add insult to injury when you make allies who *do* posses spaceships they not only don't give you help but then expect you to drop anything and everything when *they* have any problem at all! I know you are fighting a war to defend your planets on the far reaches of the galaxy and also trying to single handedly ferry spice everywhere but we have knocked over a glass of milk and it is imperative that you, and only you in the entirety of creation, rush to our aid right now! Overall a very disappointing and mediocre game.

The tutorial looks pretty and happily gets you to use a couple of hacking tools (click firewall button to hack firewall, click emp button to take remote control of a satellite and make it slowly rotate in space and click again to deliver an emp pulse of such precision that is barely noticed by the target machine and the DOS button which involves moving 5 sliders). The tutorial finishes by getting you to watch a remote AI attack your server without explaining what is needed to protect yourself against it. The second level has you attempting to break into a bank to obtain funds. You do this through the same tools as before and a new voice print tool (exactly like to DOS tool but only four sliders). This also reveals why the tutorial doesn't tell you how to protect against AI attacks - you can't; they simply keep chipping away at your system until either they are destroyed or you destroy them (hope you didn't need them later on the mission). The AI opponents are a joke - things that normally make a hacking game fun such as breaking a system, logging out before a trace etc don't apply to them. The moment you even go near their system (directly or via a bounced link) they know exactly who you are and will start attacking. You don't get to cover your tracks, you don't even get to make it harder for them - they are omniscient). Upgrading your system is a simple spend $5,000 to buy a +1 to either firewall, cpu or integrity no decisions or choices. Even transferring money is a joke, quick question in real life a person needs $4,000 you have an account balance of $25,000 so how much would you transfer to them? If you answered $25,000 then welcome to the world of Hacker Evolution : Duality. This game has reduced hacking to a couple of overly simple mini-games that require a couple of mouse clicks (or none in the case of the firewall hacking - other than the click to select the firewall button that is) with long waits in between while things recharge or satellites spin to the correct angle (they only spin clockwise as well so you just have to hope they weren't just past the required angle...) Very frustrating, very difficult and without any time to think or plan or even try your own approaches, if the mission was expecting you to go for an AI controlled system then that is what is required, don't consider avoiding it (which quite frankly I would say is the reasonable option - given a choice between a slow hack against a dumb, unresponsive system or angering an all knowing AI opponent) The only redeeming thing about this game is the fact I only wasted £5 on it in a steam sale.