So SPORE has been out about a week now, and there is plenty of buzz about the game. Unfortunatly, most of this is due to the DRM. The game can only be installed on 3 PCs. Now I am no fan of DRM, but that did not sway me not to purchase this game. I have installed it on my desktop and my laptop. I do not know what else I would install it on. With all the buzz I am positive that EA will rid of the DRM in time.
All of this talk of DRM has had quite a negative impact on the game without even touching on the actual gameplay. Let me be the first to say that the actual game is incredible. I was able to reach the 5th stage rather easily (thats not to say i never died) in about 10 hours. Granted half of this was spent tweeking my creature’s design. Then came stage 5, the space stage. I was surprised by the difficulty of this stage. This is not a critique, but a praise. After basically breezing through the game on Normal difficulty, i was finally faced with quite a big challange.
Overall, the game is amazing. When you actually stop to think of how they made it so that any design of creature each has their own emotions and movements, it becomes even more amazing. What initially turned me on to this game was 1) the sound track is by Brian Eno, and 2) a seminar I viewed at the Long Now with Brian Eno and Will Wright.
Despite the negativity surrounding the DRM, I think that this game is epic and everyone blasting the DRM are probably just hoping to pirate the game so they dont have to cough up $50. In the end, it’s thier loss!