Kudos 2 is a simpler text-based version of The Sims
Your character's avatar is shown on the screen. You can tell their overall state from the expression, posture, one line descriptive text, and their panel of statistics which updates after each activity. Not all statistics are positively worded which is a bit annoying. 'Weight' is something you definitely want lower, same with 'loneliness'.
It plays out very much like a text based version of The Sims. There's even more stats to look out for, but the customisation is very basic. Using basic customisable options, you can choose what your character looks like and what they are wearing before the game starts. Sadly, you can't change this later. You can purchase items but these are simply added to your inventory. They either have a contant buff to your attributes, or provide additional choices of activity.
Every decision you make; activities and social interactions have an effect on your character with multiple attributes increasing and decreasing. Drinking alcohol can raise confidence and happiness, but will reduce sobreity and raise weight. The people that you are doing this activity will effect you. The type of personality they have changes certain stats, so hanging out with 'honest' people can raise your honesty, and confident people will raise your confidence. People can have negative traits too, and socialising in groups has a lesser effect but more attributes will change.
You also have a set of skills which are mainly used in the career paths or sporting activities. You can raise these by reading books, attending afternoon classes, or by performing in your job.
Your set of friends also have friends which you may meet on their social gatherings. These can become your friends over time. You may meet people at work, or doing activities like whilst walking in the park. After getting to know poeple, you will find out their interests and will be able to arrange an activity that suits them. They might like playing football, going to museums, wathing movies, eating at Mexican restaurants etc and each activity has a minimum and maximum number of attendees as well as an associated cost. Over time, relationships will fade, which means it is hard to have lots of friends. Turning down their offers to meet takes a huge hit to your friendship but attending isn't fully guaranteed to be a positive experience either. If you genuinely don't have the money, you can tell them this and they won't feel as bad. The option is also there to lie, but this affects your honesty.
You can be in a romantic relationship but causes quite a few problems. Your partner will resent not being invited to social events, especially if you socialise alone with someone attractive. The extra social options like Romantic Movie, Romantic Meal are particularly costly, so you may be better off alone.
There are a number of different career paths you can choose, and can jump freely between jobs/careers providing you are qualified for them. Each job advert shows the required attributes to apply, and doing so uses your current state to decide your performance in the interview. So don't look for jobs whilst drunk or unconfident, otherwise you will see your application rejected, and your confidence will suffer as well as the evening being wasted.
You can choose your commuting method which depends on the distance. Short journeys can be walked or skated but you will take a hit in bad weather conditions. Medium journeys can be cycled, and longer journeys require bus, motorcycle or car.
The shopping menu is split into several shops; general, music, pet, and book stores. Some items are one-off purchases, but others incur daily costs (such as the cleaning service, newspaper subscriptions and digital TV). Some items unlock new options (such as the chess set, gaming console, digital TV), some have attribute modifyers (clothes, dishwasher, bed), and extra commuting methods (skateboard, bike, motorcyle, car).
Like The Sims, keeping all your friends happy whilst maintaining your own happiness is a tough challenge. They are constantly wanting to socialise which can be costly when its £10 or £20 per event which is more than likely about your daily income. When you need money for your evening classes, for items, or for the weekend; it is a constant struggle to save. Even when you do save a decent amount of money, you inconveniently seem to get mugged and lose it all. It would be nice to have a banking system rather than your character seemingly having it on them and being robbed of his £400. Getting a car seems like it would be a good idea, but is very costly to learn to drive, buy the car, and then incur the extra travel costs. Even though it should save time, it does not allow you to have any extra activities; so didn't seem worth it to me.
Kudos 2 is a simpler text-based version of The Sims. It is surprisingly enjoyable and addictive which mean it can be just as time consuming. The slow progression and challenging system means you keep playing for a lot longer than you planned.