The Sims 2 is a must buy for veteran players of the franchise and new players alike.
The Sims 2 improves on every aspect from its predecessor; gameplay, sound, graphics have all been boosted. For those who have played the original Sims game a bunch of new features have been added, allowing for hours of new fun and exploration and for those that new to the series a huge world is open to you from the get-go.
Even with all the new features, the core gameplay remains the same. Your sims interact with the world around them by you click on different areas of their home and giving them tasks to perform. Other then a few exceptions everything in the sim world can improve your sim’s mood and advance his skills. The game continues to do a good job of making your mood drop and rise without it seeming unnatural. Although there were enough mood items, the skill items felt shallow, but this can easily be fixed with the expansion packs.
Getting as much money in the fastest possible time is a huge aspect of the Sims world. Therefore keeping your sim’s mood high and improving their skills is necessary because it will result in a promotion. There is nice variety in the job selection and in ways of getting does jobs. Although veterans may find a few jobs missing the ones present, keep things interesting.
The new addition to gameplay is the Aspiration Metre. There are 5 Aspirations in total and they all are quite unique from each other. It works much like the mood metre, by rising and falling through out the day, except specific actions must be performed to increase it. The Aspirations give more depth and structure to the open-ended gameplay and also gives more personality to all the sims. Unfortunately, the Aspiration metre is not as tight as the mood metre; it seems to fall much quicker and is much harder to increase.
The Sims 2 also features the possibility to leave your home and have some fun by visiting community lots. These community lots include parks, malls, community centres, the basic landmarks of entertainment in any city. Your sims can enjoy themselves, meet other sims or even buy groceries. Unfortunately, the games long load times, sometimes up to a minute, between community lots and residential lots make this experience much less enjoyable.
Customization is definitely one of the most important elements of the Sims experience and Sims 2 does not disappoint. The create a player has been completely reworked, giving players more control of how their Sims look. The face editor is by far the most improved on, allowing you to mould key features on the face. This allows more emotion to be expressed then ever before. Unfortunately, the rest of the body cannot edit other then adding different types of clothing. The build mode for creating and editing your home looks much as it did in previews games, except it allows for more control and customization. Some beautiful works of art can be created with the build mode, but only if the time is taken.
By far one of the gems found in the Sims 2 game is the online community. Although the game is not directly online, the thousands of things that can be downloaded from community site is incredible. Clothes, homes, sims and even extra items are all at touch of a finger. Most of these items are created and uploaded by players of the game and therefore some of the quality can be challenged, but most of the time great things can be found.
Graphically the Sims 2 has much improved, since the original. The game has a cartoony feel to it that may not appeal to all gamers, but the graphical style definitely fits the cartoony mood of the Sims 2 game. Sims now feel much more alive then they did in previews version. Your sims will finger point at each other, whistle, throw tantrums and pee themselves unlike previously. All of these things add to create a living breathing world that will only get better with expansions.
Sims 2 is a fantastic game for both new players and old ones. Although it has its problems, just like any other game, the overall package outshines those flaws.