Creatures 3
by Mindscape
Our Price: $54.95
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: MindscapeFormat: CD-ROM
Platform: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me
Model: 54831
Publisher: Mindscape
Accessories:
Video Game Reviews of Creatures 3
Customer Review: Mind numbing and frustrating
Summary: 2 Stars
I really wanted to like this game. I've owned it for several years (and never played it) and with the upcoming Spore, I really wanted to sate my need for some fun AI entertainment. Sadly, this simply was not it.
The premise for a great game is here. This is a game that takes a lot of patience. And I mean a LOT.
Starting out - if you plan to use the native interface rather than a cheat code to teach your Norns how to speak, be prepared for a lot of clicking on everything on the screen, over and over and over for each norn.
Now onto the "game" part. Scattered around the ship are various power-ups that you'll need your creatures to retrieve. Spend a bit of time getting these gathered up and... now what?
From here, it becomes an exercise in tedium. Because ultimately, this is a game that has no real goal. You'll have to set the goal yourself from a limited number of options.
Your creatures do think, but their needs are similar to those of a two-year-old. If you have a custom agent that produces food, 90% of your creatures will live directly next to this agent for the duration of the game, stuffing their faces and chittering constantly.
In the end, I could not even complete my own goal without extreme frustration. All I wanted was for my creatures to mate and have lots of babies. But making this happen seemed like an exercise in futility. I spent hours trying to find the perfect mating conditions. I dropped my 10 norns in a big norn orgy and encouraged them to kiss each other. I moved two norns out by themselves to a secluded island retreat and encouraged them to kiss each other. I moved small groups of female and a male norns out, fed them fertility potions every minute, and encouraged some group smooching. I spent hours trying to turn my norns into breeding machines, but they are stubborn little buggers. I only squeezed out a few measly pregnancies after hours of efforts.
Finally, I was very frustrated at the overall lack of information. Far too often, a creature just up and dies. Well, once it's dead, it's too late to glean any information about WHY. Did it starve? Was it cold? Did it catch bacteria? Who knows - it's dead, and there's no autopsy. Before it dies, you'll just have to hope that you can magically tell that its sick. Sometimes the norn will tell you it's ill - otherwise you'll just have to read its limited facial expression, or spend a lot of time zooming over it with the Medical reader to see if you need to send it to the sick bay. That's not really very difficult to do, but I prefer a bit more explicit emoting when a creature is not well, instead of having to guess. And when a seemingly well creature simply dies, it's very frustrating to not know why it happened.
In summary, I had the following issues:
1) Unclear information about my norn's inner workings
2) Limited actions/intelligence in the AI
3) Lack of goals (which is fine if you love a completely open sandbox game)
Description of Creatures 3
Welcome to Creatures 3 where the Creatures roaming about are the NornsGrendels and Ettins of Albia past. Full of the knowledge of the Shee eachCreature has its own distinct personality Digital DNA and greater intelligencethan ever before! You'll expPC Games
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