In regards to my earlier comment, the game's been a lot cuter since 06, I don't see a problem with removing blood since Maxis has always been more of a family operation, and yes, while there WERE stages, they don't really look like they would've beem better than what the game got. City mode looked like what would've amounted to Another Lite-version RTS. Underwater mode looks like it would've played the same as the creature mode.
And there was never, from what I can tell, any actually biological simulation going on.
Underwater mode would have been the stage between cell stage and creature stage. It didn't strike you as a bit ridiculous that your cellular creature all of a sudden evolves a pair of legs and can live on land, despite having not changed in any other way? If the underwater stage just leads to underwater civs than that's GREAT too. I would kill for underwater civs in the release version.
And as for biological simulation, what about the fact that in the 2005 demo, how you built your creature beyond just sticking on "feet of swift movement +5" determined how fast it moved, or how it attacked, or how it
mated and danced? It mattered whether or not your creature had 4 legs or just one.
In the release version I can make a one eyed, one legged, one armed giant balloon animal and so long as I put the +5 feet, hands, mouth, etc on it it will be faster, stronger, and tougher than the most excellently designed apex predator that only has the +3 feet, hands et al. In the 2005 demo version, that mono-monstrosity would never make it out of the water, because the stats were procedurally generated, and mimicked actual biology quite well, based on
how you evolved your creature, not
what you put on it.
I always see people blaming development companies for their crappy games. It's not really the developers with the problem, it's the publishers. The developers have their hands tied behind their backs.
Don't get me wrong, I don't blame Will for this. EA is notorious for pushing games out as fast as possible to make money, and for destroying unique ideas to appeal to huge audiences. I'm certian this was 95% EA's fault in the end.