Exploring the evolution of your own creature should be more engaging.
At the beginning you choose the basic attributes of your creature. For example you get to choose if it is a herbivore or carnivore, and you also choose different body parts which grant different abilities whilst playing and these can range from protective spikes to fins which allows you to traverse through water much quicker. After successfully choosing your desired attributes and body parts you are thrown into the first phase which is "the cell phase". Here you'll experience the term "survival of the fittest" at first hand as other lifeforms will attack you and vice versa.
The cell phase is also where your creature start to develop new attributes by eating the right type of food (which depends on your earlier choices) and picking up bonus items that unlock new body parts. This phase is very easy and dull as it's basically just "point and click" until you are ready to find a mate and move further in the ladder of evolution. As time passes and you successfully gather food your creature grows bigger, you are also allowed to change its appearance by either altering its abilities or adding entirely new ones. For example you could make your creature spit acid or produce electricity to fend off other creatures. This phase goes on and on at a pace mostly set by how fast the player finds food, and should you happen to die you will respawn right back with no penalties. After reaching a certain size you will be given the choice to develop legs and proceed to the next phase which is where you will roam a rather wide landscape and you continue developing in different ways.
When playing Spore, you might be conditioned to think that the next coming phase is where the game picks up and starts to show its true potential. Instead it comes to a halt simply because of the sub-par game mechanics and the game does little to nothing to make you want to play any further. The next stages takes you out from the water and on to dry land. You still continue to collect body parts found lying under piles of bones scattered around the map and this of course allows you to change the same way as before. You are pretty much doing the same thing but with different controls and a new setting although this time around you can actually try to communicate with the different species by singing to them or making different high pitched noises just hoping they will understand. This also grants you points so those that don't wish to fight can yet again avoid it – this is an appreciated feature as it lets you choose your play style. Despite what you choose expect to be spending quite some time doing the exact same thing over and over before actually making progress towards the next phase.
Despite all this it is the "creator tool" that makes the game slightly enjoyable, but it does get a little tedious when you are trying to puzzle together some kind of creature that actually makes sense with reality as I found that to be the most interesting part of the game.
Throughout the entire game the graphics are "different" as certain phases have slightly better graphics since the amount of details needed increases, but even so the graphics always remain dull and bland. Since the game is not at all graphically demanding it's perfect for casual players out for a laugh because that is all you will get from the various goofy animations of the creatures not to mention the sound effects.
As you progress through the control schemes are changed and the game switches between how it's played. It feels like many unfinished games instead of one solid game. This is most unfortunate as this could have been a great but most of all a fun game. Instead we got this weird mixture of game styles with in lack of better explaining words lousy graphics. The game does have an online feature where you can upload your creations to others, and thus show your creatures to the world, and you can of course also see other player's creations likewise. This might be entertaining for a couple of minutes but this is nothing that'll will keep you glued to the seat.
So after doing various violations against mother nature you are left with an empty feeling as the game leaves you with nothing but this monstrosity of a game on your hard drive.