The Final Frontier

Space... Never ending. Whisps of stars flying though my hair.. or something like that.

In Spore, the reward (in my case) is space. Everything else has limits to how far you can progress. You can only get so big in cell stage. Only eat so many species in animal stage. Conquer so many tribes and civilizations in those stages. In space,
oh in space, there are literally thousands, if not millions, of stars systems to explore and live in. There are countless amounts of civilizations to interact with, positively or negatively. Your choice of how you want to live is completely up to you. Of course I conquer and destroy.

Living in space is really divided into three things. War, Trading, and caring for you planets and allies.

War is very simple, but surprisingly hard. This being that you will get destroyed if you think you can take out a civilization with your puny starting ship. Not much strategy is required to take out said species. You can of course bring allies, but they tend to be useless. You can go in a series of bombardments to make them eventually bow to you. You can get an ally to destroy them for you. Maybe you bought the planet buster and just want to blow them up. Whichever way you choose is fine. It is simple, but hard to do until you have access to these options. Before hand, your pee shooter can't do too much.

You of course can make plenty money off of trade. You are still trading spice, but now there are many different types of spices rather than the one generic one you get on your first planet. There are automatic trades and manual trades. Automatic trades are just the basic exchange of the goods rather than getting any money. This only happens between two start systems. Manual is something you follow up the automatic with, or just do normally. It requires you to go to all your spice producing planets and pick up all the spices. After this you should find a species that has a planet that does not produce that spice. Better yet, find a species that does not produce it on any of their planets. One more perk of trade. If you have a trade route with a species for a long enough time, eventually it opens up the option to buy their system. Some food for thought if your a wussy pacifist.

Third. Frequently plants call out for your help. I guess you are the only person in the whole system with a heart. Any ally or planet of your own my call out for some... deed that needs doing. This is optional of course, but its recommended that you do it. When you help out, it keeps relationships from going down the drain, keeps planets producing spices and it "levels" you up.

Oh leveling up. It's what keeps me going. Everytime you do something... out of the ordinary. Whether it be trading, helping planets, building ecosystems, discovering rare star formations... whatever. You gain some points for earning a badge in that area of... "expertise". When you gain badges it eventually adds up to gain you a new title, which in turn lets you have more ships in your fleet. I don't care about fleets though. What I care about are those badges. Normally when you gain a badge, you are allowed to purchase new upgrades for your ship, making the game take new twists and turns on how you can interact with it. Buy a new cargo hold, A bigger laser, Different tools to warp planets to your liking. Tools to warp species to your liking. Tools to let you fly farther and through warp holes. And so on.

This game gives you the ability to keep flying and keep enjoying just... creating. Even when you are way past done making your own species. Space is nothing more than everything you could hope for in this game. Space is all the other stages combined, and then some.

If you love Sims, Rpgs, Rts, MMOs, Creating art... whatever. Play Spore. If nothing more because I said so...

Because I did say so.

Always Watching,

-Travis