Excellent and honest review. I would have been a little less charitable, but only a little bit.
First the obligatory comment on DRM:
For me, the DRM alone was a deal killer. Because sucky games can not be returned, I feel forced to use torrents to test games out; the exception is when there is a fully working, but time limited, demo. If I like it I buy it. If I do not, I delete it. I buy roughly 90% of those I am interested enough in to DL (50+ titles thus far). I will never buy a game with SecuROM, but that is just me. I just do not see the point, the theoretical purpose is to limit piracy, but it does not do this. It was on torrents on the same day it was released. Do a little research on where SecuROM and how SecuROM does its thing. I am not advocating piracy. I think Piracy is just plain bad, but so is screwing up your customers PCs. I own every game I play which does not include a rootkit. I would strongly encourage everyone to continue to strongely object to this form of copy protection. Instead treat those who are willing to buy your product as valued customers. Consider that "Sins of the Solar Empire" sells well without any DRM; it has copy protection, but it is simple and easy to live with for those of us that paid for it. EA's goal should not be to STOP piracy, but to sell the most games possible. And, to treat your customers in a way so that they are likely to come back again and again. Copy protection should be used. But, no copy protection should be tolerated which in any way changes a customer system. No copy protection should be considered which is not uninstalled with the game.
Second the game itself: (assuming you use the latest patch (v1.01, reduce all scores by 10%+ for the original version)
The game itself (excluding the aweful space stage) is simply but fun. The creator aspects are the most fun through out the game. The exception being space. I loved making little creatures, tanks, and so on... The later stages in paricular were increasingly easy and short lived. But, still enjoyable in a very simple way that even kids could enjoy.
The amoeba stage was limited, but "ok". The only reason this was "ok" was because it was just the entry point in to a theoretically better game.
Grade: C- (5 of 10)
The creature stage is the first of the land stages and are probably the most fun. There is the hunt for genetic material. The evolution and design of your creature.
Grade: A (9.5 of 10)
The tribe stage and The civilization stage are more or less the same. You no longer control an individual but a group. First tribe members and later vehicles. Not as much fun. Not as long lasting and very very easy. It took me less than an hour to do both.
Grade: B- (7 of 10)
The space stage is so broken that it is hard to believe the same people are responsible for it and the rest. It is ultimately boring, tedious and very frustrating. It should be possible to establish infrastructure which does not require you to to be both explorer and bulk transport. Similarly, there is only 1 ship. And, the AI attacks several worlds at once fairly often. For 2 hours or so it attacked roughtly every 2-3 minutes. The AI was willing to take 20-30 times the amount of money I had as a bribe before they attacked. But, that was the only option. There was no way to scale this down. There was no way to make colonies that could defend themselves from even the mildest incursion.
Even the building / design which was occasionally fun in the previous versions is no pointless. You design your singular (and only) space ship, but the design has nothing to do with function. You would do just as well with a box. I could go on with other flaws, but enough said I think.
Grade: F (1.5 of 10) (If this stage were a stand alone game, it would be the worst in many years)
Overall grade: c- (6 of 10) (with a very bitter taste since the final version is SO very bad)
If they fix the space game to be a bit more like Elite, Master of Orion, or some other semi-fun game and remove SecureROM I would buy this game. But with the DRM, no buy not at any price. Even with NO DRM (not the same as no copy protection), but a the space portion still as broken as in the latest patch (v.1.01) I would not buy it or reccomend it. It would honestly be better to have an option for the game to just have a big party celebrating your victory at the end of the civilization phase.
First the obligatory comment on DRM:
For me, the DRM alone was a deal killer. Because sucky games can not be returned, I feel forced to use torrents to test games out; the exception is when there is a fully working, but time limited, demo. If I like it I buy it. If I do not, I delete it. I buy roughly 90% of those I am interested enough in to DL (50+ titles thus far). I will never buy a game with SecuROM, but that is just me. I just do not see the point, the theoretical purpose is to limit piracy, but it does not do this. It was on torrents on the same day it was released. Do a little research on where SecuROM and how SecuROM does its thing. I am not advocating piracy. I think Piracy is just plain bad, but so is screwing up your customers PCs. I own every game I play which does not include a rootkit. I would strongly encourage everyone to continue to strongely object to this form of copy protection. Instead treat those who are willing to buy your product as valued customers. Consider that "Sins of the Solar Empire" sells well without any DRM; it has copy protection, but it is simple and easy to live with for those of us that paid for it. EA's goal should not be to STOP piracy, but to sell the most games possible. And, to treat your customers in a way so that they are likely to come back again and again. Copy protection should be used. But, no copy protection should be tolerated which in any way changes a customer system. No copy protection should be considered which is not uninstalled with the game.
Second the game itself: (assuming you use the latest patch (v1.01, reduce all scores by 10%+ for the original version)
The game itself (excluding the aweful space stage) is simply but fun. The creator aspects are the most fun through out the game. The exception being space. I loved making little creatures, tanks, and so on... The later stages in paricular were increasingly easy and short lived. But, still enjoyable in a very simple way that even kids could enjoy.
The amoeba stage was limited, but "ok". The only reason this was "ok" was because it was just the entry point in to a theoretically better game.
Grade: C- (5 of 10)
The creature stage is the first of the land stages and are probably the most fun. There is the hunt for genetic material. The evolution and design of your creature.
Grade: A (9.5 of 10)
The tribe stage and The civilization stage are more or less the same. You no longer control an individual but a group. First tribe members and later vehicles. Not as much fun. Not as long lasting and very very easy. It took me less than an hour to do both.
Grade: B- (7 of 10)
The space stage is so broken that it is hard to believe the same people are responsible for it and the rest. It is ultimately boring, tedious and very frustrating. It should be possible to establish infrastructure which does not require you to to be both explorer and bulk transport. Similarly, there is only 1 ship. And, the AI attacks several worlds at once fairly often. For 2 hours or so it attacked roughtly every 2-3 minutes. The AI was willing to take 20-30 times the amount of money I had as a bribe before they attacked. But, that was the only option. There was no way to scale this down. There was no way to make colonies that could defend themselves from even the mildest incursion.
Even the building / design which was occasionally fun in the previous versions is no pointless. You design your singular (and only) space ship, but the design has nothing to do with function. You would do just as well with a box. I could go on with other flaws, but enough said I think.
Grade: F (1.5 of 10) (If this stage were a stand alone game, it would be the worst in many years)
Overall grade: c- (6 of 10) (with a very bitter taste since the final version is SO very bad)
If they fix the space game to be a bit more like Elite, Master of Orion, or some other semi-fun game and remove SecureROM I would buy this game. But with the DRM, no buy not at any price. Even with NO DRM (not the same as no copy protection), but a the space portion still as broken as in the latest patch (v.1.01) I would not buy it or reccomend it. It would honestly be better to have an option for the game to just have a big party celebrating your victory at the end of the civilization phase.
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