The Final Frontier
We didn't want our hands-on time to end before exploring the limitless reaches of outer space, so we started up a new game and launched right to the space exploration phase. For our race we chose the orange space-cat we'd edited -- those little guys were ready to rock. We also chose a very special space vehicle.
The vehicle editor shares the same mechanics as all the other editors, except now instead of adding limbs or clothes, you're adding and tweaking vehicle parts like wings, turrets, wheels, treads, cockpits, balloons, windows, and more. The possibilities seemed nearly limitless; We can't wait 'til the Internet at large gets these tools into its hands.
We noticed that some clown at Maxis had created a spaceship that looked like an ordinary yellow school bus. Just to mix things up, we chose this as our vehicle. The cut-scene began: Our orange goggled space-cats danced and cheered as a huge missile tower rolled onto the scene and cracked open. Smoke poured out. To tumultuous applause (and the giggling of nearby videogame editors), a bright yellow school bus emerged from the tower and rocketed into the heavens. This was to be the chariot with which our cats would spread their culture to the cosmos!
Earlier we'd expressed some concern that the space game would be unwieldy. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it played like a kind of free-form space RPG, with discoveries to be made at every turn. In earlier phases of the game you struggled to find DNA to upgrade your creature, but in space your spaceship is your character, and you search for tools to upgrade your spaceship. Your basic warp drive can only jump as far as a handful of nearby stars and planets. Your default weapons are... nonexistent. It's up to you to improve your ship's speed, handling, weapons, terraforming tools, cargo capacity and more.
In addition to your need to upgrade your ship, you'll also get missions from your home planet (themed around what kind of civilization you've developed). Our communications channel opened up and we received some words of advice from an orange cat on our viewscreen. It felt like we'd just stepped into our own episode of "Star Trek."
We warped to the closest start system and started tooling around the planets. A huge blue-green gas giant with a ring system was too dangerous to approach. A small rocky planet yielded an amazing find: a crashed spaceship with photon torpedo technology aboard. There were no survivors, just a couple ominous skeletons near the wreckage.
Next stop? A strange rocky world where we found something horrific. This planet was covered in craters and the destroyed ruins of cities. Blackened girders and shattered stone were all that remained of a once proud civilization. We scanned the ruins but couldn't learn anything -- instead we triggered off automated defenses that attacked us with drones, thinking we were an alien race. The drones were no match for our school bus armed with photon torpedoes. School's out, chumps! Robots should know not to mess with school bus space cats. But we certainly learned that space can be a dangerous place.
Vu told us that he expects that the space game will last around 15-20 hours. The object is to reach the center of the galaxy, where Vu promises your race will discover "the truth." Whatever that is. The origin of your species? The ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything? We'll have to wait for the game to come out to discover that for ourselves.
The wait is almost over. Spore is slated for a September 7th release date (September 5th in Europe), and the game looks to be nearly finished. Vu told us that the game is in a very late beta phase and all that remains is more polishing. From what we've seen, it looks to deliver on the hype. Nine out of 10 jetpack-wearing school bus space cats agree.
