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Spore
- July 05, 2006 15:03 PM PST
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Dig into Will Wright's new masterwork in progress as we take a first look at the Sims creator's latest batch of creativity
The Will Wright moniker carries significant weight thanks to seminal titles like SimCity and The Sims. Rather than rest on best-selling laurels, his team at Maxis is whipping up an ambitious new game that'll take players from single-celled simplicity to imperialistic galactic colonization, with tongue planted firmly in cheek for the duration.
Mr. Potato Head Evolved
Life begins in a murky brew, with simple forms competing for survival. Simple battles are waged as you consume opponents, thus tweaking your appearance and abilities. From the humble origins of this contentious microbial soup, you'll evolve your chosen species' bits and pieces in as outlandish a fashion as you please with the editor, set some vital personality traits, and explore your dry new domain. All animation is generated dynamically, so the visual permutations of the offbeat and cartoony world could be virtually endless.
Spore can produce some truly amazing and unique creatures.
Manifest Destiny
There's strength inherent in numbers; before long a sort of hunter-gatherer tribal outlook develops, and you'll help your creatures learn to improve their primitive existence using various tools. Individual members fall in love and breed, while others tend the land. Sometimes this sort of homogeny breeds xenophobia, but the intentions of your commune are entirely up to you. Position your simulated cities, exist to encourage peaceful unification, or expand your civilization's dominion by brute force alone.
Whatever your methods, the nomadic urges that crept these outlandish creatures out of the tidal muck will lead them to take their first baby steps into a larger galaxy, to colonize and dominate the worlds developed by other players via Spore's centralized server system.
Every Spore world is incredibly unique depending on how you craft it.
Strange New Worlds
Think of it as a new take on the empire-building genre, but with a uniquely humorous and evolutionary real-time action slant. A prototypical spaceship with abduction and laser beams serves as your emissary to alien races, while a Sporepedia keeps track of the menagerie you'll inevitably encounter.
The distinct gameplay phases seem designed to evolve the experience at your behest, not lingering on any one mechanic long enough for ennui to set in, and yet allowing for nearly limitless replayability. Judging from the spikes of early buzz the E3 demo generated, Spore's brand of emergent gaming could be just the seed the PC gaming world needs.
