Read ahead, then come back here and fix your darn score!
Up to that point I considered Spore as some childish Sims-like painting and building game; very fun to go through once, but nothing challenging or worth remembering.
All the stages were too easy to even bother going into the details (if there are any), so I was expecting to go over the Space stage in the same manner and call it a day.
Yes, but no. When I was wiped out by another race I was like "What the heck? How this could happen, I created such a beautiful buildings and even painted them! And my creatures had all the eyes and legs put in the right places! What's wrong with you, game?"
The thing is, that when you reach the Space age, you start a totally new game, and a darn good one! This stage is a mixture of some strategic elements from Civilization with the great feeling of freedom of Homeworld.
It turned out that all other stages were only a warm-up for what was meant to be the real game - the last stage!
I am not going to go into details about the Space stage, as I am not going to do your work of finding out how deep, diverse and addictive this game is. But let me tell you that: if you did played the game, but didn't get to the Space age or haven't played at least 1/3 of it (and by looking at the community score I bet half of you guys haven't), and you think "OK, I gave this one a chance", then think again! You actually haven't played the game, not even a small bit of it.
If that's the case with you - give it a try again and this time - give it some time. You can even unlock the Space age with some cheats and play it straight ahead. Then come back here and fix your darn score! :)