The Sims 2: Pets

"A fun game at first - quite tedious later"

Sims 2 : Pets is one of the many famous Sims games out there in the world. And unfortunately, it isn't one of the good ones. The game may seem very fun, even addictive, the first two hours or more - but after that everything about it will seem very tedious and the fun is just gone. As always, you will get to create your own Sims, with the added feature of having pets in your family. But the question is : why have pets? You can play with them and bond with them, you can teach them tricks, but you will have to fork out to buy food and entertainment for your pets if you want to see them happy. Taking care of them will feel like a tedious chore after just a while.

If you do want to have a pet or two, I highly recommend you have two Sims, one to work and earn Simoleons (the game's currency) and the other to stay home and take care of the household. Your house (and pets) will require quite a bit of management - heck, your Sims themselves are quite high maintenance and will continually require you to do something to make them feel happy. If your Sim isn't in a good enough mood, he or she will refuse to do chores and will likely not get promoted to a better job, even when you have the necessary skills. Keeping your Sims happy, keeping the household up and running, taking care of your pets, building your Sim's skills and completing your Sim's Aspirations - it's all just plain tedious after a few hours.

The interaction - as with Sims games, you can socialize and build relationships with all the other Sims in the game. Your Sim NEEDS to socialize or they'll feel lonely and very unhappy. A telephone and a computer is a necessity as well as occasionally throwing parties and inviting your friends over often - if not you will lose their friendship. You can propose to other Sims but you will not be able to have any kids.

You can only go to two places - your own house, and the Town Square, where you can have fun and buy pet items - at the expense of a lot of Simoleons. The Town Square's currency is Pet Points. One Pet Point requires five Simoleons. And everything at the Town Square requires Pet Points if you want to purchase something.

There's a lot of furniture you can buy for your house, but money tends to decrease amazingly quickly in the beginning, when you're still at the bottom of the ladder of your job. You will need to scrimp and save and work before you're able to enjoy the luxury of not caring about how much something costs. And once you've achieved that - what next? Change jobs, start at the bottom again? *Yawn* Talk about tedious.

Clothing options for your Sims don't have very much variety either. The graphics in the game are good but some lack detail and colour.

The plot is non-existent. Make your own story because there isn't one. The entire game is Free Play mode.

Sims 2 : Pets is fun at the start but can get very tedious and monotonous very quickly. I highly suggest renting it first. If you can stick to it, buy it - but not very many people can stick to it.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/08

Game Release: The Sims 2: Pets (US, 10/17/06)