I played it a bit at the girlfriend's place. She has it, I don't, and I probably won't get it - I'm planning on spending time with warhammer, and there are only so many hours of gaming time to go around, aye?

Anyway, I got my critters just barely into space. My initial impression is that the game is fun and creative, but it's the sort of thing I'll get tired of within a month. The cell phase was okay but quite short. The creature phase was a lot of fun. The tribal and civilization stages felt like they were afterthoughts - add-ons that didn't play terribly well and were just added in order to provide a link between the creature and space stages.

I have read that the game really is all about the space stage, so it probably isn't fair to judge Spore as a whole until I've spent much more time exploring that. Perhaps someone else can fill you in on the space stuff, I've only gone through a couple tutorial-type missions there.

Judging from the first four stages, the game is targeted more at creative types than at hardcore strategists (like me). It does have arcade-type action, but it's pretty simplistic, and there's no penalty at all for dying. It's impossible to lose, which (to my mind) means that "victory" is pretty meaningless too. However, it's a fun ride while it lasts, and I've enjoyed playing it so far.