Ok, in Tribal phase now... and wow. What a disappointment. After I got past the glossy part where I felt a huge hook with creature creation...
Nothing I do in previous stages relates to future stages. This bothers me. I spent gads of time being Miss Social in the Creature phase to affect my relationships with the Tribal phase, and previous allies are now enemies. They did boast everything you do has an outcome to the evolution of your race, that boast was false. Once you get past the cutesy fun creation portion, it's very basic if not kiddie. You have very few functions/feats and have to repeat the same 4 things. Four.
I heard no depth, but boy it really has no depth. I had thought something like CIV but CIV if you start off at a cell stage and progress. True evolution from cell to space. HA HA HA no.
The cell stage is also very STUPID. The creature phase is cute, but the charming my ass off got boring fast. Only 4 moves... you migrate to a new nest but you don't actually select or do anything to claim the nest, you just walk to it? Oh boy, and where do I begin on the Tribal phase. And the deeper I get, the clunkier the controls and worse the bugs. The game was not what was sold/hyped over the last 4 years during it's creation. They wasted too much time with cutesy graphics and not NEARLY enough on content.
Character Creation 9.5
Graphics Creature 9
Graphics Environment 6
Game play Cellular phase 2
Game play Creature phase 7
Game play Tribal phase 5
Technical (Bugs and Clunk factor) 6.5
My Score: 6.4
Did I have fun? Ya. At first... felt a bit of a hook especially with the creation stuff. Was it worth the hype, the $50 bucks, and did it stack up to Sims or CIV? Absolutely not. Will add more as I finish and evolve into other phases, if I bother. I'm pretty annoyed, I have waited this game's release for SO long.