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Creatures Docking Station (CDS) is the latest Creatures revival from Creature Labs. CDS is basically an online version of Creatures, where you can nurture your Creatures in your world and can then warp them to other worlds (other users of CDS) to continue to grow, procreate and interact with new Norms and species.

CDS though, has one feature that sets it aside from the rest of the Creatures series. It is free! Creatures Docking Station can be downloaded from the CDS Homepage, where you then register your world and username and you can get started. So, start downloading it while you read this review...

Gameplay

You could probably leave your world unattended for quite some time and the Norns would continue to mate, feed and grow, keeping the population cycle going. This means you can concentrate on the online aspects of CDS more - which is a good thing. The CDS website has a huge amount of information on your Creatures - anytime a Creature passes through "warp" (sent to another user), all it's information on the server is updated. This information doesn't just consist of where it is, and how old it is; it consists of who it has mated with, that names of it's offspring, brothers, sisters, parents, and links to all the worlds it has visited and for how long. The entire site is hyperlinked making it very easy to look up just about anything about your Norns. There is even a Norn graveyard, where you can check on your Norns that have died. See the first screenshot in the "More Screenshots" section below for a sample.

You can also concentrate on your own personal goals: perhaps you want to create a certain "breed" of Norns (they all have different traits such as colours), or you want to make your world a habitat for sick or old Norns. You can post information on the CDS site asking people to send you their various Norns that fit your criteria.

Getting into specifics, this is how the warp system works. You lead one (or more) of your Norns into the containment chamber, and shut it. The containment chamber can do a bunch of things aside from warping Norns; such as checking for toxins and sexual drives. You then select a user (or a random user) from your list of contacts, press Send and off they go! Conversely, when you receive a Norn, you are given a warning. You can then go check the Norn to see if you want to keep it. All Norns have to go through "immigration" - you must accept a Norn into the world before the containment chamber opens. This avoids infecting your Norns with any germs the warped Norn may have.

Overall, the gameplay in CDS is nothing short of original, addictive and fun! The only complaint I'd have is that the world is very small, consisting of only 4 rooms. This is probably the point though, since CDS is supposed to be a scaled-down version of Creatures 3.

Graphics

Really, that is all that there is to say about the graphics, since it is the gameplay and the artificial intelligence (well, Artificial Life) that stands Creatures out from other games.

Artificial Intelligence

The technology is all hidden behind the rather cutesy and fluffy interface that the Creatures series seems to give. Indeed, I remember when the original Creatures came out, the local elementary school loved it. Little did they know, they were playing with the most advanced artificial life environment of it's time!

In Creatures 3 for example, there are 213 different chemicals that affect the way your Norns behave. Some are made up, but real compounds such as starch, protein, urea and oxygen all exist and affect your Norn. In CDS, what you do to your Norn as it grows up affects what it becomes in later life. You can reinforce and discourage various actions by smacking or tickling the Norn when a certain action is performed.

You can also speak to your Norns; teaching them new words and associations. An adult Norn will be able to tell you what it wants quite reasonably, such as "need a lot of protein" or something to that effect. You can turn your Norn into a sociopath by telling him to "hit" just about anything, and he'll start to do it on his/her own accord! You can ask older Norns to express themselves, see if they feeling sleepy, crowded or hungry.

Do you have to teach all Norns? Definitely not, Norns will talk to each other as well, and can use the "Holistic Learning Machine" to learn how to talk as well. This means that their development can be done "hands-off" too, again, leaving you to concentrate on the online aspects.

The world does not just consist of Norns, but also of little plants and bugs that support and feed the Norn world. These also operate on relatively realistic parameters, growing and dying according to the world conditions. Creatures 3 takes this to another level, by having 5 different worlds with different climates and surroundings.

Conclusion

	8.1
	Platform: PC Liked: The price, Creatures, original idea, great web features. Disliked: Small world.