Spore Post #1 – Cell Stage

Sorry I haven’t posted since forever (why do I always start off a post like this?). My internet was down for about a week and then I just never got around to posting till now. I’m starting my ‘Spore Project’ now, because everything else I could’ve posted about is now partially or completely over.

Ok, Cell Stage is probably my favourite stage. Sadly, it’s very short, and the cells that appear in it (other than the one you’re playing as) are all made by Maxis. It’s very easy to control your cell, and navigation is even easier, as it’s in a 2-D environment and the only thing you’re looking for is food.

You start off watching a meteor tumble through Space. It crashes towards a distant planet, narrowly avoiding a flare off the sun the planet is orbiting. The meteor makes impact, sending meteorite fragments flying across the planet. Luckily for you, the one you’re hitch-hiking in lands in the sea. As it tumbles through a prehistoric whirlpool, the meteorite brakes open, revealing a very basic single-celled organism, no bigger than a piece of zoo plankton. Your cell has an eye for seeing (without one your line of vision is significantly shortened), a flagella for moving about, and either a filter mouth or a jaw (depending on what diet you chose for your cell at the beginning of the game).

There are 5 levels of cell stage in all.  Halfway through a level or after you reach a new one, your cell has a growth spurt. To evolve your cell you need to:

1. Get DNA points by eating.
2. Unlock new parts by defeating cells with the part you want, or by finding them in meteorite fragments.

There are 12 parts altogether (though I believe there used to be 24, but they were cut from the game):

Beady eye: A type of eye. Enables sight.

Button eye: Another type of eye.

Stalk eye: The worst kind of eye. (Nothing different about the sight, but it takes up space on the outer part of your cell, which could’ve been used for more useful body parts.)

Spike: An all-purpose tool. It deflects attacks, it can be used as an attack, and it can brake barriers like giant bubbles and stuff.

Flagellum: A basic propulsion part. It doesn’t do anything special other than move your cell around.

Cilia: These fin-like parts help you turn quickly in the water. When you unlock them you should immediately replace all your flagella with them, as they’re the same price, even though the cilia is superior.

Jet: Jets are the pinnacle of propulsion evolution. They’re not as smooth as the other two, but thy deliver bursts of speed, which helps you catch (or run away from) other cells.

Poison sack: Don’t add more than one of these things. They’re great at killing stuff, but your game will start to get laggy if you have too many of them.

Electric: These deliver a shock to a nearby cell when they’re fully charged. The more you have, the quicker the charge-up is.

Jaw: A carnivorous mouth. The only mouth that looks normal-ish when you walk out of the sea. (I’ve never seen an animal with enlarged micro-organism parts in real life before, have you?) It can be used as a weapon and it eats meat chunks.

Proboscis: This is an omnivore mouth. It can suck blood out of other cells and it can drink the juices from seaweedm but it can’t eat meat chunks. I guess you could use it as a weapon, as it drains cells’  health bar too.

Filter mouth: This mouth sucks in seaweed or plant particles.

Tip: To get double the food, equip a proboscis and a jaw. First, suck a cell dry. Then use a spike or your jaw to break up the corpse. Then eat the meat chunks with your jaw!

Levels:

Level 1: After emerging from your meteorite, you are surrounded by microscopic plant particles and chunks of meat. You will also come across some Minnos. If you’re a herbivore, these are competition (they eat your plant particles). If you’re a carnivore, these are lunch.

Level 1.5: After eating enough, you grow bigger. You now encounter Pokies and Goldies. If you don’t kill a Pokey, a giant Chomper will come along and do it for you. Go collect the Spike part, but watch out the Chompy doesn’t go after you! If you want to earn the Omnivorous trat in this stage, I recommend saving up DNA points to buy either a filter mouth of a jaw (depending on which one you don’t have). That way, you can stay in the blue section until you unlock a proboscis.

Level 2: Lots more cells appear. Watch out for giant Boosters! (Unless you’re gonna try your luck to unlock the jet part from one).

Level 2.5: Bigger plant particles have started to appear. You can eat the smaller parts off the outside of them. But watch out for predators! Unless, of course, you are one, in which case these things are great hunting grounds.

Level 3: Your cell is now probably around the same size as a sea monkey. Buzzies start appearing, and with them so does the Electric part. You now can eat all the outside of a large plant particle. The smaller cells won’t thank you for eating their entire food supply in one bite, though. 😉

Level 3.5: You can now eat entire large plant particle in one bite now. Seaweed has started to appear. You are able to eat the seeds on them (which are just plant particles before they are released from the seaweed). Needle Buzzies have started to appear. These guys are twice as dangerous as the Buzzies. They charge up their electric way quicker, they’re hostile towards you, and they have a spike growing out of their mouths.

Level 4: You can eat a whole section of seeds off seaweed now. Giant bubble clusters (which are actually eggs) have started to appear. I wouldn’t hang around them – who knows what might hatch out of them.

Level 4.5: The background has turned to sand. You now encounter Maa, Paa, and the things that hatch from the eggs, Junior. If you kill a Maa, three Junior eggs appear with the meat chunks. If you don’t eat the meat, the Juniors will start feasting on their mother’s remains. Kinda creepy…

Level 5: Success! You’ve eaten enough food to grow a pea-sized brain! Your cell is now around the size of a small fish. When you’re ready to leave the water (awwww!)  and became a hideous monster with giant cell parts (don’t worry, you can get rid of them soon), click the evolve button.

Hope you enjoyed that. The Spore reviews will get more interesting as I get deeper into the gameplay, trust me.

-legoless

Edit: Oh yeah, woof wanted me to put this in the post:

Dunno why. 😕