Sims is a life simulation game. You can create your own families and design your own houses, but there’s plenty of ready made families and houses in existing neighbourhoods that you can play with if you aren’t feeling creative.
The people are known as Sims, and each Sim has many needs that deplete over time. These include Hunger, Social, Fun, Bladder, Hygiene, Comfort, Environment and Energy. You replenish these by interacting with household objects or other Sims.
The game is mainly played in the Sims’ house. When they leave for work, they hop in a car and you lose control of them until they return. If you have more than one person in the household, you can carry on issuing commands to them, otherwise you can speed up the simulation.
Plenty of fellow residents pass by your house, so you can step out and greet them. People that you know of can be called on the phone, and you can either converse with them there, or invite them (and their household) over to yours. You also can venture to a different location or go on holiday with them (might depend on the expansion packs you have).
You can travel to places of interest such as museums, arcades, shops, which are great places to meet new people, or go on a date.
Sims speak in a fictional language known as Simlish, and you can issue simple commands like Gossip, Brag, Talk About Hobby. Sims have different personalities, and different interests and hobbies, so these interactions can have different effects. You have a relationship metric, and keeping this high means they are then classed as “friends” or “best friends”, but you can also be romantically involved. This gives you the option of asking them to move in with you and have children to carry on your lineage.
There are hundreds of objects to purchase and I found navigating through the menus a bit awkward. You can click through categories (eg Hobby, Children), or by room (Bathroom), but there didn’t seem to be a free text option, so sometimes finding a specific item was a challenge.
The game largely plays like the original game so certain actions feel a bit clunky. I felt trying to make friends with people was quite awkward. If you invite them round, then there’s going to be times where either your character or your friend will want to go to the toilet, or maybe want something to eat, so they wander off. Trying to do a group activity like watching TV or playing on the pool table can be cumbersome. After instructing your character to play Pool, do you click on the pool table or your friend to ask them to join you? I often struggled to find the correct options, then my friend may decide he wants to play the piano by himself.
Then probably the next day you will have all your other friends moaning you haven’t spent time with them, but you need to balance your own needs, and trying to improve your skills for a promotion at work.
To be promoted, you must ensure your Sim goes to work in a good mood. Some promotions have a friend requirement but this is judged by your total household friends. You will also have a skill requirement. Some skills can be improved by reading books eg Cleaning, Mechanical, Logic is improved by playing Chess or using a Telescope; Charisma is improved by practicing a speech on a Mirror; Body requires exercise equipment.
There is an option to enable/disable free will. I felt like disabling isn’t a good idea because they always stand there if you haven’t given them instructions but there could be really obvious things to do. Enabling free will is annoying when they start making something to eat when there’s already leftovers in the fridge. They may also queue up some tasks which you are happy with, but then when you issue an instruction, this overwrites their auto instructions. Maybe there needs to be more options here so you can tweak the AI a bit more to your liking.
Maintaining your house didn’t seem worth the time to me. You may as well leave plates on the table and hire a Maid to come clean it all up. They can ensure your bath/shower/toilet is clean too. If you have a garden, then hire a gardener rather than watering/weeding yourself.
The game takes a few minutes to load, but once you get into the game, the gameplay is smooth. Just bear in mind you do get the occasional crash, so make sure you save on a regular basis.
The new features in the game don’t have much impact on the gameplay. There’s “Aspirations and fears” which essentially give you a long term objective, and daily objectives. These then give you prestige which can unlock new items or perks.
There’s seasons so in Winter it will be too cold to stay outside for a long time. There’s some season-specific activities, like you can build a snowman in winter.
Sims age over time. The transition from baby to toddler is very quick, toddler to child is pretty quick. The adult period is long, and your Sim hopes to have achieved their aspirations by the time they become an elder.
If you have the University expansion, then there’s another stage before they become an adult. Whilst at University, you can really concentrate increasing your skills whilst in the dorms. Your Sims have a time when they need to go to class, and you have to increase your performance meter in order to get a good grade in your final exam to transition to the next school year. This cycle repeats a few times until you graduate and have to move back home.
Just like most simulation games, it’s easy to play for long periods of time and is quite addictive. The mechanics are simple and it's easy to see why it resonated with casual gamers.