It definitely doesn't meet expectations, yet there is still a somewhat enjoyable game here. Except its plagued with DRM
STORY:
Simply put there is none. A comet hits a planet and starts life you customize this lifeform and help and watch it evolve from a small single cell to a creature that can go out and explore space.
GAMEPLAY:
The game has 5 stages and I am going to break them up for clarity and make this a bit easier to review.
Cell Stage:
The cell stage is simply a arcade game. You pick if you want to be a herbivore or a carnivore or a omnivore (yet I legit don't know how to pick omnivore) So what you do is eat things that are smaller than you and run away from things bigger than you and repeat. basically you played this game before from a XBL arcade title called "hungry fish" or "Feed the fish" I don't know something like that. basically this game you have played before as a flash game or something its nothing special.
Creature Stage:
This stage is most likely the worst stage ever. Its a horrible horrible RPG like game where you finally have legs and move out of the water and make a nest with more creatures looking like you. You then explore this new world and you have to survive and level up to win this stage. Basically if you are a carnivore kill everything weaker than you upgrade your creature so it can take on bigger and better monsters rinse and repeat. If you are a herbivore I feel so sorry for you. You have to befriend these creatures by singing and dancing and matching what the creature does. So for example a monster dances you have to match their dance. Yet they could have level 3 dancing you only have level 2 sorry not good enough. The biggest problem with this stage is its just boring. It literally took me 3 days to beat this stage because I was so bored.
Tribal Stage:
Congrats you just go through the worst part of the game so here is the tribal stage. This one is a bit better its a very simple RTS game. You need to form a tribe build the right buildings, collect enough food, and have enough defenses for rival tribes. Once again if you are a carnivore just attack everything. There are 3-5 tribes and just attack one at a time and you get upgrades either a bigger tribal area or new buildings that contain better weapons or instruments. Sadly if you are a herbivore you need to befriend the tribes by having certain musical instruments, but how do you get them? You need to befriend tribe until they like you and they gift you these new things instead of just pure warfare.
Civilization Stage:
I actually enjoyed this stage a lot more than I should have. Its a bit more advanced RTS where now your world is split into cities and 3-4 factions. You can now customize almost everything from tanks, jets, boats, buildings, and even your national theme. Once again the biggest jerk wins this RTS. Build the right amount of buildings in your cities that produce people, happiness, money etc etc and just attack and defend until you are the ruler of the whole "world." Its really not rocket science I love RTS games and this was extremely easy. Oh and I gave up on the herbivores at this stage I love designing my war tanks too much to make peace.
Space Stage:
This is it..this was what made the game so popular the space stage. Now I will be honest the hype got one thing right the sheer size of the galaxy is staggering. It can take you months..no years to explore each and every galaxy it makes other space sims weep. Well it would if it wasn't so meh. See the space stage is fun and its not. Yes you have a LOT to explore but everything is kinda the same. Some planets have advanced forms of life and ask you to do missions for them. Others have primitive life and you can pick them up and throw them into the water or lava and just wreck havoc on their primitive lives. You need to plop colonies down on planets and this is where the problems begin. You need a lot of money for colonies and your rare export to the universe is usually spice. You need to find buyers for the spice and then do more missions, but then your colony is in trouble blah blah.
Don't get me wrong the space stage is fun its just you seem to do EVERYTHING. Its like it would be nice to see another civ come to me and ask for trades here and then.
A cool thing about the game though is the community. The game has a amazing sharing system. While whatever stage is loading they will show you what you will encounter and some of the creatures are user created and will have the user's name on it. Hell there are some planets in the space stage that will have a ton of user created primitive creatures. Almost every stage has some sort of user created creature or building on it and I really like it.
Yet the game has problems the biggest flaw is the DRM. You can only install this game 3 times and then your license expires. No I am not joking you then have to call EA to get a new one after the 3rd install. Another thing is all 4 stages (not including the space stage) feel very bland and rushed. You can tell they put a boatload of effort into the space stage like the other 4 stages are merely tutorials or time killers to lengthen the game. Also it favors carnivores a LOT more than herbivores.
Graphics:
I have to say I am impressed. The creatures for some reason no matter how you make them move realistically. Sure there are some clipping issues, but honestly I am impressed.
Audio:
Its not bad some meh creature sounds. Really nothing noticeable or anything bad about it.
Pro's
Amazing user created sharing concept, the space stage has a staggering amount of planets, creatures move realistically even when you purposely design them horribly, can customize almost everything, not going to lie seeing your creature that you customized from a cell to a space age thing is pretty cool, seeing your own custom made army decimating another city is pretty cool.
Con's
Doesn't meet the hype, every stage before the space stage feels very shallow, the horrible DRM, even though you can customize your own army they have the same attacks as everyone else basically all you do is change their attack power and defense and skin, space stage can get a little boring with boring missions or exploration, the creature stage, playing as a herbivore isn't as much fun and much more difficult, for some odd reason the price is still a bit high for this game.
Overall:
Overall the game isn't as bad as others say. It just needed to work on some things especially the creature stage and remove the AWFUL DRM and it would have probably gotten a bit better reviews.