The Sims 2

"Strangely Addictive, Despite its Many Faults"

Introduction

I am a big fan of the Sims games and found myself drawn to the DS versions after playing the PC and Gamecube Sims. I do not enjoy the DS versions as much as many of the others because of the changes to the format (no chances to create families and fancy houses here), but I thought I might as well get this game anyway.

Gameplay - 5/10

Anyone who has played a Sims game before will know that the series involves controlling computerised people and satisfying all their needs. In this game, your Sim runs a hotel and has to take care of customers by checking them in and out. In addition, you have to try and make sure they are happy at all times by cheering them up or calming them down by selecting the right interactions when talking with them (it depends on their body language, and takes a while to fully master doing the right moves at the right time).
Your hotel starts with only a few rooms, but you can add to these by getting Tristan Legend to build new ones - at a price.

Gameplay is fun for a while, but it soon gets boring and repetitive. One of the biggest annoyances is how this game runs in real time (controlled by the setting on your DS clock), so when you switch off your game and switch it on later, time actually has passed for your Sims. What annoys me about this is that whenever you ask the DIY guy (Tristan Legend) to build you a room, it will take EIGHT HOURS of real life time to do this; I don't know if the game developers did this just so the game wouldn't be beaten ridiculously fast, but it means you will keep having to go back at different times. Some missions require you to play the game at certain times of day too, so you will either have to adjust your DS clock or wait until the right time to do that mission.

You will find yourself running missions for various Sims, usually getting certain items, or delivering things, during the game; most are incredibly easy and don't require a lot of thought, while there are a number of random sidequests that keep cropping up from time to time, but these soon become annoying and repetitive (it will often be rescuing Sims from aliens, or vacuuming up mice). A few other enjoyable things I found were using the super soaker to squirt aliens (once you get the hang of it anyway) and turning vigilante (and putting on a rat suit) to capture criminals.

The other big annoyance I found was that your Sim's mood bars are not displayed, instead using a "sanity meter", which must be kept as full as possible by using objects. Your Sim will often give sudden hints that their moods are low, showing that they are hungry, tired or need to shower or use the toilet, but this often happens very suddenly (luckily, the place is full of locations for filling up your Sims' needs). Should you run out of energy and fall asleep in public, you will be arrested (for vagrancy?) and have to pay a fine; for some reason this even happens in the privacy of your Sim's own bedroom; the law services are ridiculous in this game (there is a sheriff, but he just sits at his desk and you can never speak to him, only sell him license plates).

Some of the new rooms that Tristan Legend builds are fun to use; the art gallery can be used for creating pictures, which will later be bought by customers; the casino contains only two games for some bizarre reason, but one of them is the game "Keelhauling" which, while all too easy to win, is strangely addictive (at first this is likely to be your main way of increasing your funds); you can also build a government lab where you can autopsy dead aliens. Some of the rooms seem surprisingly redundant, though; the Jazz Lounge and the Lion Lounge are virtually the same thing, and provide only opportunities to create music and buy food, and the asian market is yet another place to get food. The gym has some exercise machines and a tanning bed, but these are mainly used for fun purposes; it also features an entire area which looks like somewhere where you can buy shower gel (or something), but considering that there is nobody to actually sell the stuff, it ends up being completely useless, and I really think there are many more music panels (effectively a sound test for the game) than anyone could possibly ever want.

I also found the method of building skill points completely bizarre; instead of actually studying or working out, skill points just crop up at random places for eight (real time) hours at a time, and you pick them up, which is rather odd because I thought this game was meant to simulate real life.

Although you will probably get some enjoyment out of playing this game, you are not going to be playing for long periods of time, as the play area is too small; the only areas are the hotel, the town and the desert, where your sanity drains fast and if it reaches zero, you will be abducted and probed in an unmentionable place by aliens.

Oh, and after a while, you will want to chuck your Sim's phone out of a window as it constantly goes off, and many of the messages are very repetitive and annoying.

Story - 6/10

It's reasonable, I suppose, although somewhat silly; your Sim winds up in a remote town, where he/she ends up as the manager of a hotel and has to deal with the needs of guests; in particular those who visit the penthouse, who become increasingly troublesome, including a Mafia Don and a goth stereotype who would probably cause offence to any real-life goths who choose to play this game. They will ask you to do various missions for them and although the characters seem interesting to begin with, they soon become irritating.

Graphics - 5/10

The graphics are okay, but not great, and sometimes the animation is so bad it is laughable; I have seen Sims hug and their bodies actually go through each other; one time my Sim went to milk a cow and he started milking thin air, but somehow still got some milk. All of the rooms are nicely detailed, but are often full of objects you can't even interact with (see gameplay section), but I like the monument valley-inspired desert. Also, the range of faces and clothes your Sim can choose are extremely limited.

Sound - 7/10

One of the better aspects of the game; I love the music that accompanies the Keelhauling game, and the aliens' creepy theme, reminiscent of The X-Files. The characters speak in the usual Sim babble that I have come to expect from a Sims game, although I have to switch the sound off whenever a bunch of them start clapping me when I am trying to paint.

Lastability - 7/10

The game will last you a while just because you cannot finish it all in one sitting because of the real time format; however, I get a strange pleasure out of picking it up occasionally and playing, possibly because of the enjoyment of painting pictures and playing Keelhauling. Just don't expect to play this for any long period of time.

Final Verdict

This game is pretty so-so; it's not dreadful, but it's far from being the best Sims game around. Some aspects of it are strangely addictive, but it also feels as though there is a lot missing, and it gets very repetitive after a while.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/25/08

Game Release: The Sims 2 (EU, 11/04/05)