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| | Title:
The Sims 2
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System:
Gamecube
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Genre:
Simulation
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Publisher:
Electronic Arts
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Developer:
Maxis Studios
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Release:
10/24/2005
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Online:
No
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ESRB:
Rating Pending (RP)
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Will Wright brought a whole new concept to strategy simulation with Sim City, and it was one of the hottest games back in the day. You could create your very own super city from the ground up, block by block. All of your decisions had a positive or negative effect on the overall town, and your goals were to continue growing while keeping the bad stuff such as pollution, crime, and other disasters on the low. Shortly after the success of the first Sim City, a plethora of simulation games hit the market which included games such as Sim Ant, Sim Earth, Sim Copter, and others.
Then, the ultimate simulation game--the simulation of life, entitled "The Sims”--came out, and it was a mega hit. You got to make a family, build a house, start relationships, get jobs, have fun, clean dishes, and just about anything else that comes along with life. After that, another rush of games and expansions came out building on the huge success of the Sims. In late 2004, the Sims 2 was published and also seemed to be a big hit, but not nearly as huge as the original. Now, over a year later, The Sims 2 is finally available on the Xbox console.
Gameplay
Now that we are caught up to speed on the history of Sim games, let’s take a look at the actual game for the Xbox. If you are familiar with The Sims, you will notice just about everything is the same but now extremely detailed and seems more like real life. The camera is now closer to inside the house than a bird’s eye view of the house (although you can zoom out this far if you need to). There are also many more things to buy, places to go, and people to see!
The first thing that you will do--whether you are playing the story mode or free mode--is create your character (or entire family) from head to toe. A wall with picture frames will be displayed, and the game will randomly match up two family trees and then show you what they produce. If you like what you see, you can move on to customizing their appearance. The appearance of the Sim that you get is based on the genetics of the two family trees. Some of them will just have you laughing, and others you will be concerned about (especially if an alien gets into the mix). Even if you don't find what you are looking for, which is very likely, this is not a problem, because the level of customization is so deep that they will be an entirely different person when you are finished. The variety of clothing is amazing. There are about three layers of clothes you can wear on your upper body, all kinds of shorts and pants, shoes, jewelry, hair styles, glasses, skin color, weight, tattoos, and anything else you can possibly think of. On top of that, as long as you have a dresser anywhere in your house, you can change any of this at any time throughout the game.
In the story mode, you will be set up in a house with people already living there, and you will also be able to move to different locations later in the game. However, if you start off in free mode, you will have the option to build your entire home with a certain budget. Building a complete house consists of using two creation menus: the build and buy catalogs. The build catalog allows you to construct walls, put up wallpaper, lay down tile or carpet, make fences, install doors, windows, fireplaces, and even do some landscaping.
The buy catalog allows you to purchase items as you would in a store. You can purchase appliances, tables, plumbing (sink, toilet, shower, etc...), seating/bedding, electronics, lighting, decorations, and a number of other miscellaneous objects. All together, there are more than 350 objects you can purchase throughout the game. Some items will have to be unlocked, and some will just take forever to purchase due to their cost. Buying new items and adding additions to a home is a great way to improve the life of your Sims.
Once everything is set up (you have a family and a house), you are ready to start controlling their lives. The main idea of The Sims 2 is to continually improve their standard of living, while letting them have fun and interact with the other Sims. You are basically running the lives of the people you control, and issue to them their every move. Other Sims that you do not have selected at the time--or can't select--will automatically go about their business--but you can still interact with them and they can also cause problems in a house hold.
Jobs are one of the biggest parts of The Sims 2. If you don't have a job, you aren't going to have a good income, and there won't be any money to increase the quality of living and the Sim’s happiness. Because you have to pay for food and bills, just playing around with your Sims and not sending them to work will likely result in them becoming failures, and in worst case scenarios even dying! You can find jobs in several fields, and there are also many levels in each job. In order to gain promotions, you have to make sure that your Sim is happy before they leave, and that their skill level is higher than required.
In order to make your Sim happy, you need to pay close attention to their needs. Their needs consist of things such as hunger, tiredness, cleanliness, comfort, how entertained they are, and a few other things. By simply pressing the left direction on the D-Pad you can view a meter that indicates all of these. A Sim's needs are most important right before they go to work, and can help them get their promotions. Because of this, you usually need to wake your Sim up two to three hours early to make sure they can do the ordinary things such as get something to eat, take a shower, go to the bathroom, and get some sort of entertainment before heading out the door. Often, you will be rushing if you don't give them enough time, and they could even end up missing work. Multiply this by four other people that you have to get up, ready, and to the carpool in just an hour, and you will be going crazy trying to manage everyone in the house--and this is what The Sims 2 is all about. Unless you are extremely good, you will have other Sims entering bathrooms with other Sims in it, Sims running to the car with plates of food still in their hand, and if things get really bad, you may even have to wake up a Sim and send them directly to the work in a hurry!
Raising the skill of your Sim is another way to get a promotion. Generally, to get a promotion, the skills your Sim have need to be higher than what is required. Skill is obtained by performing actions such as studying a book, painting a picture, practicing speeches into a mirror, lighting weights, and many other things. Once your Sim starts one of these specific activities, a bar will appear over their head indicating how much longer it is until they gain a skill point for what they are doing. Among all the other things that you have to manage in the game, it seems that the skill of your Sim is often forgotten about, and this can lead to your Sim not getting promoted.
The second way to please your Sim--besides meeting their needs--is to pay attention to their wants and do your best to complete them. Wants can be anything from gaining a certain amount of money, to just making friends with a new Sim. There are always a total of four wants for each Sim, and once one is completed another will fill its place. There are also different values assigned to different wants, which indicate what the Sim wants to do the most. Completing wants will unlock a number of things in the game, and allow your Sim to be happier.
Although this seems like a lot to do in just one game, it is just scraping the surface. The Sims 2 is a very good simulation of actual life, and almost every major aspect of life is included in this game. You can also do things such as get married, break up, have a fist fight, start fires, make prank phone calls, get fired from work, annoy other roommates, create your own food recipes, surf, look for buried treasures, talk to a genie, and the list goes on and on.
Graphics
The visuals of The Sims 2 are nice, but they are not going to amaze you. Because there are so many objects, so much customization, and such a variety of houses, people, and environments you can create, making everything extremely detailed would be a huge task. The graphics are not the highest of quality--or the most amazing looking--but it is everything together and the amount of detail in the game that makes the visuals good. On top of that, when playing in story mode, you will get a completely different house to live in as you advance through the game. Each different house becomes more and more interesting, and at any time you can change the way it looks.
Audio
Anyone that knows The Sims knows it is famous for "Sim speak." When two Sims get together and start a conversation, they are just blabbing random nonsense and not actual words. Some things that they do say somewhat pertain to what they are talking about, and what they do while they are talking also helps show exactly what topic they are conversing about. The blabbing almost sounds like the adults in Peanuts, but with more variety. This, however, is understandable because recording voices for each response would be a tremendous task--but it would definitely be worth it.
Overall
Although the Sims 2 is finally making it to the Xbox after being on the PC for quite some time, this is still an overall excellent game. The gameplay is addicting and fun, and the challenge to continually improve your one Sim or family of Sims makes for great replayability. The amount of detail and things for your Sims to do have been greatly improved from the previous Sim games, as well. If you are a fan of The Sims, this is a game that you definitely need to pick up. If you have never been in control of a Sim before, it’s a good reason to give The Sims 2 a whirl.
| The Core Score |
Overall
8.6 |
| Fun |
|
9 |
| Gameplay |
|
8.6 |
| Graphics |
|
8 |
| Audio |
|
8.3 |
| Replay |
|
9 |
|
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