I've gone into the Space stage in Spore but rather than the game opening up for epic exploration and discovery, I find instead that it has constricted the game mechanics until the endless repetition of frustrating busy-work is almost the antithesis of fun.
I imagined the Space stage to be the embodiment of Star Trek's "to boldly go" axiom but, unfortunately, this impulse is aggressively thwarted by a system of inter-galactic politics and bureaucratic hand-holding.
The first issue is money. Spice is the only commodity in the Spore universe. It must be harvested then sold for money. This, in itself, is not an issue. The issue is that the spice economy must be manually supervised. There is no automation. I have to go from planet to planet, picking up spice, then going from planet to planet, selling it for the highest price I can find. I can set up trading routes between star systems but this, oddly enough, does not automate this system. It's only use is to fill a meter that, when filled, will let me buy the star system.
Now I am busy with economic pursuits but still I have time to reach out into the void and explore. Exploring inevitably leads to contact with other space faring races. For some reason, a good number of these hate me on first contact. Before I know it, my homeworld or one of my colonies is calling me to defend them from hostile attack. Some are only pirates but most are from these mysteriously hateful, aggressive empires. Sometimes you can pay them off but often I didn't have enough money. The attacks begin. Once they begin, they don't seem to let up. Ever.
So, instead of working my way towards towards the galactic core, I find myself fighting the same tired battles over and over again, building and rebuilding my beaten down colonies, and then trying to build my bank roll back up before the next, inevitable attack.
I suppose I could go and destroy the empires attacking me. I could but that isn't what I want to do. In a game that implies so many choices, why do I feel like I'm railroaded down a single path? Still, if that's the only way to get some breathing room, I guess I'll have to do it. I'll do it. But I won't call it fun. Because it's not. I just have no other choice.
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