Sims 2 is simply a lot of fun
In this sequel, the focus is still on leading the lives of your many sims. You begin by creating a customizable character. You can edit the character’s facial attributes, hair style (and color!), as well as clothing for different occasions. The game also lets you choose the skin color and eye color to further customize the character’s appearance. You’ll also have a hand at building their personality since you can specify the horoscope and characteristics like playfulness, outgoingness, neatness and niceness. Once you’re comfortable with the one you made, you can choose to create another or move on to the neighborhood. The game allows you to enter a pre-made house or you can choose to build one on your own. That’s where the fun begins as you’re able to construct a massive, four-story house and populate it with much furniture and other decorations. The game also allows you to design the whole neighborhood to your liking; meaning that you can add parks, additional houses, etcetera to the neighborhood, should you wish to do so. Although there are many options, The Sims 2 allows you to choose how in-depth you want to be in creating your virtual world, which explains why it is so popular with hardcore and casual gamers alike.
While giving “birth” to characters and building neighborhoods is great fun, the main activity in the game is controlling your sims through their virtual lives. Much like the rest of the game, you can sit back and watch the sims go through their day. You’ll notice that the adults go to work, and the children go to school, and they’ll generally interact with each other. They also seem more adept at keeping themselves happy so you don’t need to be constantly telling them to do this or do that. Thanks to the game’s screenshot- and video-capturing utility, you can even choose to watch them live by themselves and relive these oft-humorous moments later on.
The Sims was great fun for many but was continually criticized for being too open-ended. After all, the game had no defined goals… what kind of game has no defined goals? The folks at Maxis have addressed this by making you feel like the game actually progresses. For starters, sims age in the game and can die, even without the strange activities players did in the first game (like telling the sims to swim and remove all the handles to get out of the pool). As your sim ages, it begins to remember fond memories like childbirth in the family or marriage. Hopefully, before the sim passes away it will have children and conceivably those children will have children. Another major addition to the formula is the addition of genetics. Your sims pass their genetic makeup to their offspring, effectively allowing for generations upon generations of your created family. The illusion of family is furthered by occasional visits from children and grandchildren.
Moreover, there are actual goals for your sims. You are now more involved in your sims’ careers and you’ll need to make periodic decisions regarding them which affect the outcome. More importantly, each sim has aspirations, which they’ll want to accomplish, and fears. You can choose to make your sim have a romantic aspiration, or a more financial-oriented one or perhaps just to be popular. Along the way, you’ll to accomplish a couple of defined goals which fill your aspiration meter. The sims also have fears which drain the aspiration meter and can even force your sim into a state of hysteria.
The addition of aging, the passing of genetics and the aspiration system allows players to be more involved in a sim’s life, which is certainly great news. It also keeps the game fresh since you’ll be less likely to get bored when you know that planning the perfect party is only a few more minutes of gameplay away.
The most apparent change can be found in the visuals. The Sims 2 looks pretty great all in all. The engine is completely different from the first game, and allows for many characters on-screen, much more detailed environments and a fully controllable camera system. The sims’ models are much improved and allow for all the customizing I mentioned above, and as always, the animation is spot-on and very impressive. The game’s background music is solid and certainty fitting with the zany world of the Sims. The numerous sound effects are equally suitable. The audio’s highlight, though, is definitely The Sims 2’s spoken language – Simlish – which while not real is able to showcase a variety of emotions and carry on many conversations. All in all, while The Sims 2 is no longer a game about “nothing,” its “something” is deep enough, varied enough, interesting enough and most importantly fun enough to justify its purchase for just about everyone from soccer moms to first person shooter addicts. There is so much to do, and the game offers nearly infinite replay value especially when you add in the sure-to-be-strong community into the mix.