This is nothing like Sims, Sim City, Civilization, or even Warcraft. This game is not very well made. I remember attempting to play Populous and Black&White a long time ago. Those games were horrible. B&W was very suped up in technology, but did not deliver very poorly in game play. I got into it to some extent, but it never made any sense. Lots of times, I was just creating massive populations that didn't do anything.
With Spore, I play in normal mode. I have made it to the space stage with no trouble. But each bloody stage is a complete set of controls and rules. It sucks. I can understand gaining new and interesting abilities as a game progresses, but this is just nonsensical. Yes if I get a spaceship, I really should indeed have a whole new set of abilities, but they just pile everything on top of you at once. I forsee myself beating the space stage, and probably not continue playing.
This game took that long to make for an outcome of mediocre wackness. It is actually not actually falwed, so not that bad. It's fun to an extent. But games I've played games full of flaws such as Populous which was total crap from what I remember. B&W had so many flaws in gameplay as well as I mentioned earlier.
The thing with Diablo2 is that game play veries very little as you progress. While it is a decent play, all you do is get more power, and face more powerful monsters anyway.
I remember playing Zeus, and I think Pharoah which were actually pretty damn fun despite their simplicity.