The Spore: Origins review I didn't post on iTunes

Posted: 2008-09-29

Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars

Like many others, I had been following Spore: Origins (or Spore, for short) ever since it was announced at the first iPhone Developers meeting. Well, it finally arrived, and after many days of mixed feelings and fence-sitting, I can finally sum up my feelings about Spore as such:

Spore reminds me of what it was like to be a kid again. Now, allow me to quantify my feelings by stating that although that was a magical time for myself and others like me filled with wonderful gaming moments, I went through a few "portable game consoles" back then.

You see, Spore has that great hook and brilliant execution that makes iPhone users proud of their platform of choice. When I first purchased the game, I walked around and showed it off to everyone who hadn't gotten it yet, whether by not owning an iPhone or by not wanting to spend the money for an app. Spore has beautiful graphics, unique gameplay elements that'll tickle Darwinists in just the right way, and a great presentation that draws the player in and makes them want to tap that Spore icon whenever they have a few minutes to bang out another level. It's the kind of uncomplicated and fun game that many, including myself, grew up with. Many of the reviews in the iTunes App Store sing its praises for many of the same reasons I mention here and award it five stars. So why only three stars in this review?

Well, what I'm absolutely positive of is that most of those people told everyone what they thought of Spore well before they finished the game's main "Evolution" mode. For all the glowing praise I just heaped on this game, there are a few reasons why it almost made me want to shot-put my iPhone into the nearest unforgiving surface, circa 1990-style.

For starters, the first 28 levels are deceptively easy. The general rule of thumb is this: If it's bigger than you, avoid it. If it's smaller than you and isn't spiky, eat it. Rinse and repeat. To mix things up, roughly every three to four levels, you'll get what are called "Evolution Points", which allow you to add new parts onto your creature or upgrade the parts you've already added. These fall into four categories: speed, attack, defense, and sight with each advancement making the ultimate goal of eating things that are smaller than you easier to achieve. So far, so good right?

Unfortunately, just when you think you've adjusted to the natural order of things and the end is in sight (there are 30 levels), the game's difficulty skyrockets so suddenly it's like smacking into a brick wall whilst running at full tilt. One level in particular, Level 29, hits you like a large, extremely frustrating and obnoxious slap to the face. It's safe to say that the average player will have to search for alternate strategies to advance since the game's "hint system" proposes the most ridiculous method for beating the level. On top of that, none- I repeat- NONE of the enhancements you make to your creature between levels 4 and 28 will help you beat Level 29; it just feels completely alien to the game you've been playing for the last 28 stages and at least made me wonder what the heck the developers were thinking by including it in the main game. The player must rely on shoddy, unpredictable AI, strange gameplay mechanics, ungodly patience and reflexes, and weird physics to beat the level and advance to the much easier, if not a bit boring, last level. This one level was almost enough to make me delete the game and forget how great it had been until then. If you buy this game, be aware of this.

Aside from the monstrous ridiculousness that is Level 29, a few issues here and there detracted from the overall experience, such as the game not recognizing that your creature had died and allowing you to roam around the level while clipping into everything. It was odd, but only occurred once so I'll let it go. Unfortunately, there's one more problem with the game that can't be so easily dismissed: coral issues.

Your creature absorbs a seemingly arbitrary amount of health by running into green coral scattered around some levels. That's a simple enough game mechanic. Unfortunately, I found that my creature could not absorb health from more than one coral within a roughly 30 second period. Perhaps the developers thought this was a way to detract the player from trying to boost up their health and making the game easier. That's perfectly understandable except for the fact that the game will register that you used the second coral, animate the effect of it giving you health and thus resetting the wait counter for that coral to give you health again (by the way, you can only use a coral a few times before it disappears), but not actually award your creature the health. There are no warnings or notices that this should happen and triggered the "untied loose end" alarm in my head. It wasn't a fluke either; it's easily reproduced and becomes a glaring problem when you're going through your 200th run of Level 29.

So in conclusion, the potential buyer only has to ask his or herself one question: does a massive amount of frustration balance out 28 levels of fun, a Survival game mode that makes standing in lines at the DMV bearable and endless customizability? I ultimately answered “yes”, but some might not be so forgiving of the major flaws in this game. If you think you’re one of those people, do not buy Spore: Origins. For the rest of you, game on.