reatures is more like a computer creche than a computer game. It's a virtual world mainly populated by two sorts of creatures: cute, intelligent Norns, and dangerous Grendels. It's the Norns that are the focus of the virtual experience, and it's the responsibility of players to nurture them from birth through death. This is not as easy as it sounds, for although Norns can learn and respond to praise, punishment and a limited number of commands, they also face plenty of challenges: maintaining good health, finding enough to eat, developing a vocabulary, and avoiding the hungry Grendels.
Each Creatures CD-ROM comes with just six eggs, three female and three male. Caretakers first place an egg in the incubator, and after a few moments a Norn emerges, extremely cute and very active. Norns can be taught about 40 words (including their names) and trained -- and the responsibility of
teaching the young Norn is an important one. If a Norn hasn't learned how to take care of itself, it will die prematurely. If
caretakers have been good mentors, their Norns will flourish and reproduce, swapping virtual DNA and evolving in unpredictable ways.
While the front-end graphics may look like a toddler's cartoon, the
back-end programming is quite sophisticated. Each Norn has its own
distinct physiology, with complex levels of hormones and biochemicals. Caretakers will need to use tools such as the Health Kit and the Breeder's Kit to monitor the needs of their Norns. And since this is an open-ended system, successive generations of Norns can evolve in ways unforeseen by the programmers.
More sophisticated than meets the eye
As computer innovations go, Creatures is a really neat one because it's designed to evolve beyond its original parameters. The developers state there is no way of knowing what kind of traits will evolve after 100 or so Norn generations, making this a program that aspires to create artificial life, rather than one that mimics it. Another interesting feature is that Norn caretakers can trade eggs and Norns across the Internet, increasing the unpredictability of what might be produced by mated pairs. But be careful. Supposedly unorthodox breeders have found a way to mate Grendels with Norns, so there's no telling what kind of behaviors caretakers will download.
Although the graphics seem suited to a more juvenile taste, most adults will feel a definite thrill witnessing the first egg hatch and teaching the newborn Norn vocabulary and survival skills. However, some of this thrill diminishes through repetition. In order to raise a
well-socialized Norn, the caretaker must, with each Norn, repeat the
same lesson drills and words. After the 50th or so Norn, this may
become monotonous.
Additionally, the world of the Norn -- Albion -- is a bit small and limited, and while it will hold the attention of the Norns, it might not do the same for caretakers. To remedy this, Mindscape plans expansion modules. However, the true reward for patience is the unexpected scenerio, the spontaneous emergence of behaviors, and the rearing of unlimited generations of creatures. Creatures is inventive, ambitious and fun, and that's surely enough to make it the next big thing.
