The Sims 2 review

The Sims has been a huge success ever since the original came out early in 2000 and the trend continues with the release of The Sims 2. There has been no pause in production with an expansion or cross-platform release coming out seemingly every few months. The latest numbers indicate that The Sims 2 has sold a whopping 1 million copies in 10 days at retail stores and it looks like history will repeat itself for this game with future expansions.

Purchasing The Sims 2 is a pretty low-risk venture for anyone who enjoys computer games. However if you are for some reason hesitant, for example because you’ve played through every expansion of the original Sims or because you’ve been collecting rock samples on the Moon and missed out on the Sims craze, then read on.

Same but different

The Sims 2 has basically the same gameplay as before, but with added features and improvements. It’s essentially a simulation (or caricature) of real life and you control little computer people appropriately named ‘sims’ through their everyday activities. The terms ‘simulation’ and ‘real life’ take on a different meaning when talking about Sims 2. While it’s hard to simulate every thing that happens in daily life this game uses a mix of everyday moments (eating, doing the dishes, paying the bills, using the toilet etc.) with the big memorable events (weddings, births, deaths, promotions etc.). It’s difficult to classify a game like The Sims 2 because it mixes game genres; it’s part simulation, part God game, part RPG and so on.

How you play is up to you because it’s so open-ended, but the most standard game progression is by getting your sims promoted within their selected work fields, thus getting more money and having more options. Building up your work-related skills is needed for this; for example a politician needs to practise in front of a mirror to improve charisma and a cook needs to cook (duh), read cooking books or watch culinary shows on TV.

Some of those skills are not only helpful for work promotion but also handy around the house such as learning mechanics for repairing household items. Working your way up until you reach the top of your career is only a part of the game just as work is just a part of life.

Again The Sims 2 is very open-ended and you can choose what kind of live your sims lead. You can for example build the completely dysfunctional family with the parents cheating on each other, nobody cleaning up and the toilet starting to bobble with green primordial ooze, the children arguing all the time (just be mindful of the fact that the social worker will pay you a visit if you’re too harmful towards your kids) and you can even go as far as killing your sims by for example starving them. However, Most people will have more fun in the long run by keeping their sims happy; focusing on their jobs, building relationships, having fun and don’t forget: A clean sim is a happy sim!

New features

The difference from the original Sims and this game is twofold; in one sense the game has changed a lot to the better with more options and features along with being technically superior. On the other hand it’s basically the same game so if you’re a long-time player of Sims and its expansions expect it to be an upgraded and improved The Sims containing something similar to the expansions ‘Hot Date’ and ‘House Party’

The sims age now and eventually die i.e. they have lifespans. As before the sims can have children and genetics and the way you raise them is a big factor now. What this means is that you can have generations of sims just like some kind of soap opera thus making it the game that never ends! It’s possible to “cheat” death for those that get attached to their sim by the use of a so-called life elixir bought with aspirations points. Those aspirations points are the product of an aspiration/fear feature that is new in The Sims 2. At any given time a sim has a few aspirations and fears; those aspirations could be everything; getting a promotion, cooking a salmon, entertaining guests, buying a hedge and the list goes on. Each time you fulfil an aspiration you get a certain amount of points and conversely lose them if fears are realized. The bonus of regularly fulfilling aspirations is that then you are able to buy and use specific items to help the sims out such as the aforementioned life elixir. If your aspiration meter hits rock bottom, your sim will lose it, becoming unresponsive and possibly getting a visit from the therapist.

Artificial intelligence

The sims have much better AI now and also have memories which affects their behaviour, for example if a social-minded sim has thrown a bad party he’s going to burst into tears occasionally afterwards. They are now much better at managing themselves, doing the bare necessities like taking a shower and getting some food. In fact you could just watch the game if you choose to, they won’t do nearly as well but will manage.

The creation process of the sims is very robust now; you are able to mould them in detail and there are a lot of controls for facial construction for example and the wardrobe is extensive. In fact it almost seems too robust since most of the time you are watching the sims from a distance but with the community exchange The Sims has, there are probably a lot of people who enjoy dabbling in the details. The height of the sims is always the same (except for children obviously) which doesn’t really matter but could have been an interesting feature to mess with. As before you can choose the personality of the sims by using horoscope signs as a rough guideline.

Building and buying items around and in your household is almost too similar to the original Sims games and expansions. To someone who hasn’t played through those there are indeed more than enough items to build and buy but to others it’s one factor that could have benefited from some new innovations and more options. The building process is definitely improved and this especially holds true for the neighbourhood editor where you can choose how your neighbourhood looks with many interesting features such as crashed spaceships as an example.

Technical issues

The Sims 2 features a new 3D engine and it shows, you can zoom into the scene and hardly notice any blockiness. In fact at first I thought the majority of screenshots were from cutscenes when in fact they were zoomed in in-game screenshots. The overall look of the game is again the same but much more polished and this goes also for the music, but after some playtime you will pick out some innovations and even humour there. On some low-end computers the game tends to slow down or go into an unintended “slide-show” mode, when there is lot of activity on some computers, so check out the recommended specifications before you buy the game.

Another technical issue I came across are some potentially game-stopping bugs (one with build/buy functions greying out and another with sims “jumping” out of activities). Hopefully these are rare and will be patched very soon but they did put a dent in an otherwise great gaming experience for me.

Shiny Happy People

The Sims 2 is recommendable to just about anyone. As someone who bought the original The Sims game plus two expansions, Sims 2 feels and plays like a new game to me although the concept is still the same. Although many groan at the past endless stream of expansions (give the cow some rest, will ya!) it’s hard to argue with their success and The Sims 2 is really an excellent game in its own right. One of the main things that has kept the franchise going strong is the community and The Sims 2 does nothing to reverse that; quite the opposite. Almost everything can be created or modified now. You have the option of taking snapshots and making a family photo album and even making an video file (in avi format) from within the game, which a lot of players have used (or dare I say directed?) to make their own videos.