| System: PC | Review Rating Legend | |
| Dev: Maxis | 1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid | 4.0 - 4.4 = Great |
| Pub: Electronic Arts | 2.0 - 2.4 = Poor | 4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy |
| Release: June 23, 2009 | 2.5 - 2.9 = Average | 5.0 = The Best |
| Players: 1 | 3.0 - 3.4 = Fair | |
| ESRB Rating: Teen | 3.5 - 3.9 = Good | |
Another wacky mission tasks you with scouring a massive library to hunt down books for patrons with different tastes in literature in order to finally obtain a library card of your own. Then there's Maxis' How a Bill Becomes a Law adventure that walks you through the legislative process of attempting to pass a bill to save the Spoffits by slaying the opposition and coercing other naysayers.
As fun as the pre-made missions are, it's the ability to play adventures made by other users and create your own that greatly extends the value of Galactic Adventures. You can import all manner of creatures, buildings, vehicles, items, and other elements from the Sporepedia into the adventure creator and assign different behaviors, actions, and events to them. In addition to the new ability to terraform the planet surface and customize its appearance in a tremendous number of ways, you can easily throw weather effects, lighting, music, scenery elements, and even give dialogue bubbles to creatures to enhance your custom story interactions. Much like other elements in Spore, the adventures you create also have a complexity meter that limits how involved and lengthy they can be, but there's still a lot of freedom to put together multi-tiered missions with story elements. The adventure creator is certainly more complicated than the previous toolsets you're given to make other things in the game, and there's definitely a moderate learning curve.
The slick additions Galactic Adventures brings to Spore's main game are all elements that should have been there in the first place. It's hard to shake the feeling that these adventures are a crucial piece of the puzzle that was missing on launch day. Regardless, they're a pleasant addition that injects another dimension of fun into the space stage.
By
Nathan Meunier
CCC Staff Contributor
Game Features:
