Overall evaluation of Spore:
It’s a good game, but when Maxis tended for a more simplified gameplay, it missed the “Game of the Decade” title. With deeper simulation, complex resource management, more design effort in each phase, and (especially) multiplayer, this game would kick the ass of the competition.
The opportunity was missed, but there are still the expansions to try to save it a little. So, they should not only bring some new creature parts, but develop each phase to a whole new level.
Being a gameless designer, I was thinking in what the expansions should bring to improve it. Some suggestions are easy to add, and some would change a lot the game mechanics, but all are intended to make the game much better.
General:
• Massive Singleplayer? I would prefer a simple Multiplayer. What Maxis has against people playing together? With Multiplayer, this game would reach a whole new level. Just imagine several creatures, controlled by players, roaming in the same giant world, struggling for survival.
Cell Phase:
• More body parts and body shapes, all with different features.
• The larger is the cell, the slower it is (for balancing).
• The phase should be longer and more complex (with some challenges, like to kill several different giant cells).
• The body parts added to the cell should really affect their development in the future phases.
Creature Phase:
• The AI creatures should eat and hunt by themselves, so there is competition for food and eventual clashes between the species. Alliances would become essential.
• The Epic creatures should be possible to kill (with a lot of effort, though). This would be necessary for defending the nest and guarantee lots of food.
• The more food your nest is eating reflects in the size of the band.
• The friendship system (imitating the other creature) is very silly and boring. Maybe, just spicing it a little with a memory mini-game (instead of just singing, several “notes” that the player need to memorize the sequence and repeat).
Tribal Phase: basically, to approach the game as possible to the Age of Empires I.
• Full resource management. Food (to feed and recruit more units), Stone and Wood (weapons and buildings) and (maybe) Fur/Leather (for clouting).
• More options for clouting (which you could save). The clouting you choose should make the difference as protection, mobility, etc.
• Seasons and weather.
• Much bigger map.
• New buildings, more freedom and slots to build them.
• The player can reclaim a destroyed village or start a new village in specific places.
• Diplomacy management, rudimentary trade.
• Wild animals (the carnivorous ones) that try to kill and eat your tribesmen.
• Communication with the allies: planning raids and acting together.
• Domesticating more docile creatures: for food and to help hunting.
• New building: house (or tent): to increase the tribesman limit.
• Several new tools and new weapons, some of them better versions of the existing ones.
• Suggestions for Weapons:
o Sling - weaker ranged weapon. Based on stone.
o Bow – advanced ranged weapon. Based on wood/stone
o Spear – average melee and ranged weapon. Based on wood/stone.
o Club – weaker melee weapon. Based on wood.
o Axe – advanced melee weapon. Based on stone/wood.
• Suggestions for Tools:
o Gather staff - no change.
o Farming tools (advanced) – for growing up a farm.
o Healing staff - no change.
o Sheppard staff – to help domesticating wild creatures.
o Pick – for collecting stone.
o Fishing rod - now the basic fishing tool.
o Fishing net – improved fishing tool.
Civilization Phase:
• You could build more than one option (for instance: light, medium and heavy vehicles) for each vehicle category (land, naval and air). The price of the vehicle is compatible with what it has.
• The different weapons you add to a vehicle should work different. Not just the same effect we see now in game, but weapons like anti-aircraft, artillery, anti-tank, etc (emulating the rock-scissors-and-paper dynamics).
Space Phase:
• The mission management needs lots of improvements to easy the players’ life. More than 3 missions should be “active”, for instance.
• It’s hard and confusing to find the system you want (all explored systems should have their name appearing). There should be a better HUD with information about the status of the ship, the empire, etc.
• Exploring: the player should find some dangerous and mysterious (but rewarding) places to explore. Just have in mind some episodes of the classic Startrek series or the Indie game Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space…
And, of course, for the Spore 2, Maxis should think in a Massive Multiplayer game. If you are playing in the creature phase, you can eventually be hunted by a tribesman (controlled by other player) who can be, in his turn, abducted by an OVNI of a different player. So, the Galaxy is the same for EVERY player! Evolving to the Space Phase is a matter of surviving and making the difference.
BTW, an aussie friend showed me this Spore review. This Yahtzee guy has a machinegun mouth. :P
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