So it’s been about a month since the release of Spore and I’ve had the privilege of playing the game quite a bit since its debut. My first impressions of the game were obviously quite excited as the game was one of the most anticipated games of the past several years. The game was supposed to be a bunch of game genres wrapped into one game package — strategy, action, adventure, simulation. It had all of these and was set on becoming as infamous as Will Wright’s other game, The Sims.

Unfortunately, the game release was plagued by bad customer reactions towards the game’s digital rights management (DRM), which put in strict and ridiculous requirements that angered many gamers that were looking forward on buying the game and playing it. Maybe you heard about the backlash against the game…

Anyway, DRM issues aside, my first impressions of the game were quite good. It was fun to play and interesting to learn and figure out the strategies in order to advance my character/race. But after nearly 1 month of gameplay, this is what I think of the game: It’s not that great.

My excitement for the game dropped steeply after about a week or so of playing because, well, the game just doesn’t do a good job of keeping me interested. The game quickly became repetitive in a way that is very different than the repetitiveness of The Sims. In The Sims I was doing a lot of the same thing to different characters, but the fact that my characters freely connected themselves with the world around them was one significant difference between that game and Spore. Somehow, the AI of The Sims missed the Spore boat. Game play just feels downright stupid in Spore compared to the livelihood of The Sims. The thing that made The Sims so fun to just sit back and watch is what’s missing in Spore. Simply stated, Spore is not fun to watch (I know it’s a game, but it’s also supposed to be entertaining).

So as much as I wanted to love Spore, I just cannot. It’s certainly exciting as a new game genre, but that excitement quickly fades away. I really don’t see myself recommending the game to a friend (I do, however, see myself showing the game off to a friend). The sad part of it all is that I actually thought the Spore Creature Creator was more fun than the actual Spore game. If that doesn’t tell you something, then I don’t know what else to say to finish this review off.