'Spore': Create, Explore and Dominate in New Computer Game

Sept. 16, 2008 — -- If you've ever been to a zoo, looked at a giraffe and wondered, "What was God thinking?" then "Spore," the latest video game creation from the minds behind "SimCity" and "The Sims," is your chance to force Mother Nature to bow to your will and right her wrongs.

"Spore," a new PC game from EA and Maxis, puts the omnipotent power of creation in the hands of players as they develop and nurture their own unique life-form from a single-celled organism struggling to survive in the primordial soup, to a technologically advanced space-faring society exploring the universe.

More of a series of five individual games than one cohesive experience, "Spore" promises much but fails to deliver on engaging game play. But the game's elaborate creature creation system and an equally intricate building and vehicle creation system are jaw-dropping and offer players almost limitless possibilities.

While not a game that's played online, "Spore" also features a unique social networking system that allows player-created content, like creatures and space ships, to appear in other players' games. Though the game itself populates the universe with all kinds of strangeness, nothing compares to the oddities generated by other players, and their incorporation into the game means no two games are the same.

At the beginning of "Spore," your little organism is not much more than a small blob with perhaps an eye or two and a mouth. Players choose whether they want to be herbivores or carnivores and swim around in a tidal pool searching for food while avoiding predators.

As they progress, the life-form mates and players are introduced to a rudimentary version of the creature creator, where they can alter the creature by adding or taking away parts like spikes, fins, mouths or poison spitting nodes.

After devouring enough meat or veggies, it's time to evolve. This is where players get their all powerful mitts on the more robust creature creator and get to work on their new species.