The Sims

"Strip Poker, Monkey Butlers, and Vibrating Beds - oh my!"

The Story

Welcome to the world of The Sims. You don't just watch your Sims' lives unfold, you are an active participant. Sims are a lot like you: they have moods, urges, and soaring desires (of course, sometimes their desires have to do with ordering pizza). Your decisions direct the very design of your Sims' personalities... and lives.

In The Sims for the PlayStation 2 console, the Sims carry out their lives in full 3D detail and in a variety of cool game styles. In Get A Life mode, you advance your Sims through life's big moments, acquiring bigger and better homes and exciting new items along the way. In Play The Sims mode, you shape the lives of an entire community. And, you can also hook up with your friends in Bonus mode and compete to see who's the master handyman or top cleaning wiz. With dozens of Sim characters and objects, The Sims for the PlayStation 2 console is a whole new way to love one of the best selling games of all time.
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The Summary

You gotta' love this genre of games. They're so open-ended and you can do nearly anything with... well, anything! The Sims is a great addition to this genre, especially for those of us gamers whose computers are too slow to run games like The Sims for PC or if our RAM is slowly draining... erm, that's beside the point. Let me get on to the pros and cons of The Sims for PS2.
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Pros

Get A Life mode is a way to actually beat The Sims. The rumours are true - hallejuah! It's a 1-player mode where you go from rags to riches; that is to say, you start out as an unemployed person living at your mom's house(pathetic) to a huge mansion(the good life). Along the way, you have dozens of various goals to fulfil in order to progress through stages and get to your next house.

The idea of unlocking items through Get A Life mode is challenging in a strange way, but also very captivating. The items you unlock in Get A Life mode can also be used in Play The Sims mode. Nifty.

Once you beat Get A Life mode, there's always the open-ended Play The Sims mode(unlocked in Get A Life mode) which is sort of reminiscent of The Sims for PC.

The customization options for creating your sim are wide and varied. You can customize their personality, gender, first and last name, and, of course, appearance. There are lots of different shirts, pants, skirts, and dresses to dress your sim with, so there's no lack of creativity present here.

When you get something like a stereo or a guitar, the sound is great most of the time. The music for a stereo blends in nicely with the background often, but when your sim interacts with the stereo, the music gets a bit louder so you get in the mood, so to say.

The ability to do better things when your sim's skills are raised is a nice little feature. For example, if your sim has a lot of skill in the creativity area, he/she can paint beautiful pictures that he/she can then sell for a decent price or they could play some great tunes on the electric guitar or piano. All in all, a nice little feature.

Random events! They're pretty cool. Things like your neighbors coming over to visit you at your house, burglars trying to rob you of your hard-earned goods, and the phone ringing to tell you that your psychic advisor's head has just exploded. Nifty, nifty, nifty. Well, that's not ALL the phone does... obviously, you can phone your sim's friends, throw a party, and even receive calls that award you simoleons(the currency of The Sims) for something you never did.

This is going to sound corny. I like the ability to work in The Sims... well, to an extent. There are several career paths that your sim can pursue, ranging from a life of crime to being a superstar in the movie industry. You don't actually get to see your sim at work or anything... would be nice... but you don't.

Kids! Marriage! All that lovey-dovey, soap opera-ish stuff. Your sim can fall in love with a sim of the opposite sex(or the same sex - there's variety for you) and have children with their significant other(except if you have a guy-guy couple... which is a bit overly obvious). The kids are little hellions, but that's beside the point.
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Cons

The bad stuff... let's see. Well, your sim's constant needs are a bit frustrating. For one thing, if you don't tell your sim to go to the bathroom quick enough, they'll wet themselves and start crying. Heh... it is rather funny, though... they pee water... ahem. Seriously, though. It gets somewhat repetitive after a while to fulfil your sim's every need. Don't fulfil them and they'll either wet their pants, get depressed, or perform badly at work(which sometimes gets you demoted).

Depression is freaking annoying. Depression occurs when your sim is overly bored(their fun meter is close to zero) or they haven't talked to anyone for a long time and have no friends(their social meter is close to zero). During depression, sims refuse to study, work out, or do anything that builds their stats. It also significantly lowers their mood, making other sims start to dislike them and give negative reactions to what your sim tries to do to them(ex. they will push you away if you try to tickle them, refuse a back rub, get offended by a compliment or joke, etc.). Thankfully, raising social and fun levels to get out of depression is rather easy.
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The Bottom Line

I would recommend you buy this game. Give it a rent at first to see if you want to before buying it, though. It may not be for everyone. Then again... everyone might not like making soap operas out of their sims' lives as much as I do, but... well, let's just ignore that. The possibilities are nearly endless in The Sims and that's mostly why I loved it so much. Will you love it as much as I did? Well, go out and try the game to find out, fool!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/03, Updated 01/28/03