Play.tm: Spore Galactic Adventures review

Executive producer Morgan Roarty is here to take us around the add-on to EA’s PC hit, and talk of piracy and hardcore dissatisfaction is rapidly side-stepped as we pile into chatter on Spore’s mainstream success. The numbers make good reading, the Creature Creator having been downloaded over 6 million times, with 3 million copies of Spore sold, and over 64 million creatures invented.

Roarty begins our demonstration by presenting us with a planet-wide view of a world under our control, multiple variables are on offer, and it is this world we’ll be honing before putting together a story. A set of terra-forming style features allows us to muster a realistic planet, and a habitat for our creatures. Once a landscape has been made you begin to assign attributes; requirements, the applying of which forms the structure of the adventure itself. Go here, do this, discover that, the options are rudimentary, but the sheer freedom and quantity should allow determined player to create diverse, multi-layered experiences for sharing.

‘Goals’ are key - tasks for creatures to complete, and these can be racked-up in succession in true sandbox style, allowing players to probe the limits of the game itself; the platform Maxis are offering us. If nothing more, Galactic Adventures’ toolset should be a sturdy test of just how robust the Spore game engine really is, and the quality and depth of the options Maxis offer us will be key. Of course, the entire world of Spore is available to play with - Roarty noting that over 64 million items have been created to date, and this rich palette should go a long way to making the experience work.

Whether the linking-in with the Space stage of Spore works remains to be seen - and opinions on this portion of the game are as mixed as they are frequent. What players do will prove instrumental then, but with vehicles and more available there is much to be said for EA’s ambitious scope. The strength of the content rating system, for example, will prove crucial in helping players find the kind of adventures they want to play - and Maxis seem well aware of this.

Read the full article here. Executive producer Morgan Roarty is here to take us around the add-on to EA’s PC hit, and talk

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