Spore: great aesthetics, gameplay lacking

Concept and ambition: A. Design aesthetics: A+. Gameplay: C-.  Four mini-games and a shallow end game do not a great game make.

Don’t get me wrong. Spore is not a bad game. It is polished and a mish-mash of some really interesting concepts. But in no way does this make Spore a good game, and it feels like a tiny sandbox with very little room for folks to play in.

In Spore, who was designed by famed game designer Will Wright,  (co-founder of Maxis and creator of unique sandbox games like SimCity and The Sims), one gets to play life through five stages: from a small amoeba object, to an evolved creature, followed by a tribal, then civilized, and finally space-faring stage.

For me Spore really only shines — and briefly — during the space stage. Everything else is padding and would do well as separate small mini-games, but in no way would they all constitute as a fully flesh-out game.

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