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The most helpful favorable review
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The most helpful critical review
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164 of 228 people found the following review helpful:
Very fun game! Agressive DRM needs to be removed!!
About a week prior to Spore's release, I obtained a pirated copy from a friend (who had downloaded it). The game was so fun and addictive, I had to pre-order it. I eagerly awaited the day when I could unlock Spore's true potential by experiencing user-generated content.
The first thing I noticed after I installed my real, uncracked copy of Spore was that it...
Published 2 months ago by Blair Sherman
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7,591 of 8,214 people found the following review helpful:
Dumbed down experience and draconian DRM
See those older 5-star reviews from 2006 (two years before the game was released)? Well, they had a reason to be excited. Spore was supposed to be a revolutionary experience, combining multiple genres while concentrating on evolution and genetics.
Fast forward two years and here we have the finished product, ready to be installed on our hard drives...
Published 2 months ago by Erich Maria Remarque
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7,591 of 8,214 people found the following review helpful:
Dumbed down experience and draconian DRM, September 7, 2008
Fun:
See those older 5-star reviews from 2006 (two years before the game was released)? Well, they had a reason to be excited. Spore was supposed to be a revolutionary experience, combining multiple genres while concentrating on evolution and genetics.
Fast forward two years and here we have the finished product, ready to be installed on our hard drives.
First of all, the game incorporates a draconian DRM system that requires you to activate over the internet, and limits you to a grand total of 3 activations. If you reach that limit, then you'll have to call EA in order to add one extra activation. That's not as simple as it sounds, since when you reach that point EA will assume that you, the paying customer, are a filthy pirating thief. You will need to provide proof of purchase, reasons why the limit was reached, etc, etc (it has all happened before with another recent EA product, Mass Effect). EA, of course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even provide that service. In a couple of years they might very well even shut down the general activation servers, because "it's not financially feasible" to keep them running. What you will be left with is a nice, colorful $50 coaster. And you will be required to pay for another copy/license if you want to continue playing.
This basically means that you are actually RENTING the game, instead of owning it. The game WILL stop to function in the future. That's inevitable, because even if EA keeps the activation servers going, there IS going to be a time when EA will simply cease to exist because of financial issues or federal laws (like most businesses eventually do).
Second, the game was dumbed down to oblivion. Evolution doesn't even matter anymore. For example, you can add as many legs to a creature as you want, but the multi-legged creature won't be any faster than a single-legged one with higher leg stats. This gameplay element makes "creating" your creatures entirely pointless (cosmetic only, because everything is based on stats), and brings you about the same amount of excitement as dressing up a plastic doll.
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634 of 686 people found the following review helpful:
I don't understand magazine reviews giving this game high marks, September 9, 2008
Fun:
This game has some revolutionary concepts, such as automatically shared user content and amazing design tools (that were already introducted and perfected, and some would say superior by Galactic Civilizations 2 years ago).
However, there is no 'game' here. As some people put, the 'game' amounts to over simplified tasks that are monotonous and repetitive. The creature stage isn't as fun as you would imagine, as not all the parts are available, and even if they were, you are encouraged to use the 'highest stat' part effectively limiting you to maybe 6-10 parts to place onto your creature.
Why would you use a cool looking mouth with a social rating of '1' if that means that you can't befriend the other tribes and hence progress in the game?? Basically, many of the parts become useless, no matter how good they look. Furthermore, other creature nests (only one nest per species) are arranged with weak creatures immediately around you, and progressively higher level creatures at increasing distances. How predictable. Basically, its designed so that you only explore or run around your immediate nest. I always imagined finding random creatures walking around, hunting, eating, grazing, finding mates, etc. Nope. All creatures basically hang around IN or NEXT TO their nest. How lame. So basically there is no mixing of the creatures. Creatures dont wander around the world as you would think. They are all found in clumps and really only have limited interactions with each other (limited since they only interact [partially] with surrounding nests, as they dont wander around the world)
The civilization stage is HORRIBLE. Basically it amounts to the most simplified and boring RTS I have ever played. Quickly grab a few resources, and then keep clicking on 'create vehicle' and send it to the enemy city. Repeat the last 2 steps endlessly and you have the game. No strategy, no thinking, no variety. You might as well have a script do this for you.
Then there's the DRM. Let me just clarify what people are saying by adding, it not only counts installations, but changes to your hardware ! Upgrade a system component (memory, CPU, vid card) and you are out an installation. Not that it matters because its really a pretty bad game (except for the creation tools) Nice job. Basically I just paid $50 for a coaster.
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1,071 of 1,191 people found the following review helpful:
Returning the game..., September 7, 2008
Fun:
I played with the creature creator a bit and had a good time. I long ago pre-ordered Spore and have not had time to look further into the game as it approaches release. When I finally did, a few days ago, I discovered that they are implementing the absurd SecuROM DRM.
I have no interest in paying full price for a game that I will be severely restricted from being able to play at a later point. Presuming installation is flawless, the current restriction to "three installs" is something any user will exceed long before their interest in the game does.
In my situation, I would be installing it on my desktop and my laptop. I would only ever be playing one of these systems at a time so there would be no violation of the ridiculous EULA most products have. Only one instance would ever be operated simultaneously and only by me, the owner (well, renter as EA and SecuROM would have it). This would mean that as soon as I ever had to reinstall an OS on my desktop or laptop, I'd be screwed out of the game unless I wanted to buy it again for full price (and what happens if you want to enjoy the game a few years down the road and re-install it)?
Think about that for a minute. Even if you never upgrade your hardware or buy a new computer or use a different computer -- how often (presuming you're using Windows of course) do you reinstall your operating system? And each time, you have to reinstall the game. If you're an XP user, you'll probably install the game. Then you'll upgrade to Vista. That'll be another install. Two down; one to go. Then you may need to re-install vista from scratch for any number of miserable reasons. And that will be your third strike. You better hope that you never *ever* need to change or adjust that system for any reason if you like Spore.
Imagine applying this to other products. What if you could only watch purchased DVDs on one specific DVD player and once you've played it on that system, you could never play them on another one. No lending them to your friends. No buying a new player. No watching it on your payer in different rooms. No selling your used DVDs. And if your player dies and you buy a new one, you'll have to re-purchase the movie. Wouldn't that be silly? Perfectly good content that you have physically sitting in your hand that you paid handily for and have every right to own and use... only... you don't own it and can't use it.
I only wish I had known this sooner. It is already in the process of being shipped so I can't cancel the order. Once it arrives, you better believe I'm going to hand it right back to the UPS driver and tell him I refuse to accept delivery.
This is truly unfortunate. I'm a fan of Will Wright, even if some of his more recent games have not been geared toward the traditional simulation or Sim City fan and have been aimed more at the "decorate a bedroom and play house" crowd. I'd love to give Wright my support. But EA is making that impossible with this ridiculous scheme. I'm not a thief. Don't treat me like one.
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156 of 169 people found the following review helpful:
I Really, Really Want to Love This Game., September 11, 2008
Fun:
It was supposed to change the way games are played, it was supposed to be ground breaking. It had been dubbed "Sim-Everything"
Expectations for this game were high... I knew better, having been a veteran of games such as Black & White. Nonetheless, I was determined that I would enjoy this game, that I would love it. And I tried very hard to see the good in it, but after around a week of time spent with it... I have to say that my interest is wearing thin. I've already exhausted all novelty that this game has to offer, and there is very little in the way of depth to keep me interested. The Cell Game is probably the most excited you will ever be when you play this game.
The most important and touted aspect of this game- the creature evolution, is simplified to such a degree that the game affords virtually nothing like evolution, its more like.. A very simple and shortened Action/Adventure type game that only takes 1-2 hours to play from beginning to end. It also distinctly lacks variety in gameplay, despite the virtually unlimited amount of user-created content available. While this content does number in the hundreds, and will likely soon be in the thousands, of millions of different things, it is generally amateurish and uninteresting to most people. Also unpleasant shapes and/or names for user created objects are not uncommon.
The space game does get interesting for awhile. Mostly due to the on-the-surface vastness it possibly offers... and it does for awhile. The power to destroy a planet offers significant appeal to ones geeky megalomaniacal side and its "Star Wars" flashbacks. (You may fire when ready!) But only so much of this may truly keep one's interest for any length of time, and when that is exhausted (all too soon!) there is sadly little to bring a person back to this game again.
All of that is really not so bad. It is a great game for young children, it is (generally) family friendly, and light easy gaming fun. Not for hardcore gamers, but this has been known since early development of the game. Its gameplay depth is in the vein of "The Sims". Which Is a game I thoroughly enjoyed.
No, all that considered would still have made me give this game 3-4 stars, as the game itself does deserve a lot of credit for doing what it tried to do as well as it does. No other game designer on Earth is capable of doing this like Will Wright has.
What makes this game one star is the police-state nature of its copy protection. Three installs, and then you are out of luck. EA claims that this can be rectified for those with legitimate reasons, but of course, this is an exaggeration on their part- they will make you pay for more installs of this game. The DRM has already failed to prevent cracking and piracy of this game. So now, it only punishes legitimate users who properly paid for copies of their game. The only practical purpose of the DRM, therefore, is forcing honest people to pay for the game again if they decide to upgrade their hardware, or get a new computer, more than twice.
EA really should be ashamed of itself for this despicable business practice. Treating their customers like criminals, and then providing absolutely abominable customer service to the people who have allowed EA to become the massive corporation that it is.
Its rather likely, that this will be the final game I purchase from that publisher, if they feel that they are able to treat their customers in this way, than I don't wish to be one. My software purchases only amount to several hundred dollars a year, but its several hundred that they won't be seeing again; and they could have, if only they demonstrated that they truly wished to have my business.
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54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
A game of endless boredom., September 13, 2008
Fun:
Spore is game about creating and evolving life through several different stages beginning with Cell Stage and ending with Space Stage. I guess ending is not the right choice of word since Spore is suppose to be infinite. Nevertheless, most will become bored with the game long before "infinite" ever comes into the picture. Let me first say that I feel somewhat disappointed by the game's 2-star rating....I wait a long time for this game to come out and when I finally got my hands on a working copy, I felt awash with disappointment. Let us start from the beginning:
The first stage of the game is the Cell Stage. This is where you decide which planet and what type of organism you wish to create. From here on the game becomes "repetitive" while you wait, you eat, and you unlock various aspects that will evolve your newly created life form. The goal of this stage is to eventually develop a brain so you can progress to the next stage: Creature Stage.
In the second stage you've lost your sea legs and you'll never get them back. You are land bound from this point forward. The key word for this stage is "tedious" The goal is to be either social or aggressive to other forms of life to unlock new attributes to evolve your species.....but you can also unlock those rewards for finding bone bits, so the whole process seems.....hmmmm......Tedious. Anyway, the goal in this stage is to gain DNA so you can advance to the next stage: Tribal Stage.
In the third stage, the game begins to mimic most real time strategies but on a simplistic scale. The key word for stage three is "Annoying" The goal here is to socialize with the surrounding tribes by either becoming friendly, or the more fun choice, aggressive. That pretty much sums up this chapter as there isn't much to unlock....ie..clothing, buildings, weapons. Once you progress to stage four, most of your previous choices get tossed and you feel as all you've done thus far was for naught.
Let's move on to the Civilization Stage: This is the stage that most gamers will recognize as a typical RTS. Your goal is to either unite the world or conquer it, but conquering isn't much fun since the other cities are incredibly weak in comparison that this stage's key word is "effortless" Just design some buildings, vehicles, and the land, conquer the world and move on to stage five: Space Stage.
You've finally reached the point where your creation can navigate the vacuum of space.....what is your reward? Some of the worst missions ever in any game, period. A planet is under siege and on the brink of extinction because of a global outbreak. Your mission is to eliminate a few animals to end the plague and save the world. You are not permitted to invade any other planet....the game has missed on all fronts, why put something fun in at this point? That game is open-ended, but all that means is more repetitiveness of the same tedious goals. The only positives I have for the game is the graphics and sound which were splendid, but with low replay value and a hype machine that was in full force, only to let us down, I can't rate it higher than a two.
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606 of 674 people found the following review helpful:
Fun but no multi-login!, September 7, 2008
Fun:
With 1 computer we were planning on playing Spore with our seperate logons the same way we play other games. But that's a big no go! EA has seen fit to not allow multiple logons ON THE SAME COMPUTER!! So we have to settle for limiting ourselves with sharing the universe. This would be OK if it were just the 2 of us but I'd like to let my son play too. But with 3 of us we're limited to 2 planets per and will end up unlocking things that the other 2 haven't earned yet etc...
This user limitation is just dumb. Does EA expect families to have 1 computer per family member?!? I'd love that but can't afford it.
I will be attempting to return the game. Maybe later on we can buy it again when EA fixes this issue.
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