Where most survival games went wrong Castaway got it right.
The plot here is that you're stranded on a desert island and have to find a way home. Has been done before yes, but where most survival games messed it up was the difficulty. To compare this game to the Lost in Blue would be to compare a bush of thorns to a soft carpet. Castaway is just that much more accessible. A very good tutorial gives you the low down and the gradual introduction of the needs gives you enough time to prepare and ready yourself for other needs.
Now simoleans aren't going to buy any home comforts out here so your Sim (or sims depending on how many you created at the begginning) must work to gather nesscary materials and food. Food is never really much of a problem as most fruits can be carried with you to snack on whenever your Hunger gets abit low.
Resources on the other hand are abit more complex. Some things will only be found in certain areas so you must explore every inch to find all of those useful items. These resources can be used to build huts and tools all of which will be needed to help your Sim survive. You will start out with some basic plans but as you create, build and explore your plans will evolve into more and more complicated things until you finally have the plans for a mansion.
You do have to spend a good chunk of time gathering resources which is quite straining on your needs but only two needs will actually do anything too significant if you let them drop. Hunger will kill you if it hits empty and Energy will make you drop and fall asleep from exhuastion. There is quite a vast array of land to explore as early on you will find the plans for raft so you can go to sea and explore the other islands. Lucky the creators put in a very cool feature to save all this running around. The map in the game will allow you to jump to any area aslong as you've been there before which saves running arond getting confused where to go. So once you've found that room in that maze for a jungle you can instantly warp back to it.
There are loads of neat touches in the graphics. Such as that clothing gets torn as you explore and need to be repaired and beards start to grow. Weather also has an impact on your Sim. If it's rainy it'll negatively impact his or her Energy bar. All in all the game looks very nice. There are multiple endings to find and a plethora of unlockable plans and objects if you can find the time to complete all of the goals.
The Sims 2: Castaway is simply the best desert island survival game to date. It's easy to get into but there's alot of depth which you'll learn without really noticing thus making it really accessible. I fully reccommend this game if you're willing to put away a good few hours on this.