This is my first Sims 2 games ever played, and it does show some promise.
~+~+~ GOOD ~+~+~
1- direct control
2- 3D engine
3- new aspirations
4- good graphics
5- new range of interactions
6- two player
7- interactive aliens!
8- cooking system
- - - 1 - - -
Unlike the first original PC Sims, (probably unlike the PC Sims 2, and like the Sims PS, but I haven't played either of those) you can directly control your sim, in 3rd person form. Make them walk/run, pick things up, run laps around the yard for reasons only your twisted mind could understand. I like the feeling that I AM the Sim, rather than some 'higher power' controlling the Sim from above. It's quite enjoyable.
- - - 2 - - -
Sims 2 for PC has this too, but being first introduced to Sims 2 through this game, this is the first chance I've had to experience it in action.
- - - 3 - - -
No more do you just dblunder blindly into the game with no clue what your Sim wants. When you make a Sim, you can give it aspirations - romance, popularity, wealth, to name a few. This will govern their Wants and Fears - things the Sim will get a buzz from doing versus things that will send it right down to neurotic. For example, a romantic Sim might Want to flirt with another Sim, and be afraid of being caught cheating. Soms wants and fears are common across the types - fear of being threatened, wanting to make $100 (in Simoleons, of course) and so on. In story mode, PLATINUM or GOLD wants advance the story, in turn unlocking new places you can go to.
- - - 4 - - -
The original SIms is not a patch on this. That said (being for PS2) it is understandably unimpressive. in fact, in some places it can downright suck (like friends images in freeplay). To get around this sometimes the images are not linked to the characters (for example, a character may change her make-up, but the picture stays the old way so that it can be sharper).
- - - 5 - - -
Ahh, Sims. We love screwing them over. Now there are more ways to do it. I'll let you experiment for yourself with what everything does.
- - - 6 - - -
It's PS2, so of course there's two player - have any household with 2 (or... more?) characters and you can control one each. In fact, combine this with direct control and it can get strange - playing two-player with my sister meant that in their free time, our Sims would run around playing tag (yes, really). We had officially tagged someone as soon as the green circle (signifying you can interact/socialise) appeared around the runner's feet.
- - - 7 - - -
You can meet and alien. You can be abducted by an alien. Heck, you can BE an alien! Thanks to the eerie skin. See this game's banner for a none-too-flattering example of a male alien sim.
- - - 8 - - -
To exercise your Sims creativity, you can now select specifc ingredients from the fridge, bung them together, and see what happens. It helps to have a stove, aa blender, a processor, a plain counter and, of course, a fridge. If you don't feel like experimenting, you get just get generic ingredients, or choose ingredients with the guide of a recipie book (learn recipies while relaxing in bed, reading in the toilet / WC / bathroom, etc).
~+~+~ BAD ~+~+~
1- speed
2- hunger satisfaction
3- buy/build modes
4- repeatitive music
- - - 1 - - -
Because most of the time your sim (you only get to control one in story mode) will be doing things in a slow process (like skills, cooking, sleeping, working, blogging, reading, programming, cleaning, so on!!!) you will probably spend most of your time holding down Fast Forward (R1) waiting for your sim to hurry up, get their nose into gear and their butt to the grindstone (see if you can figure out where those metaphors came from). This is a particular pain in 2-player since both players (logically, I'll admit) must be holding down FF (R1) before it will accelerate. That said, my sister and I (we played the 2-player) still spent alot of time fast forwarding, as well as begging the other to hold down the button too (which made running not only difficult, but comical to watch).
- - - 2 - - -
With full cooking skills, all recipies, the best fridge and stove money can buy, my Sim still barely just gets over half a bar with each painstakingly prepared meal. Worse when he was jsut starting out - I hat to get cheating to have a chance of not starving to death.
- - - 3 - - -
This is a fault of PC t PS2, rather than Sims to Sims 2. But buy/build modes (in particular build) used to be a way to exercise your creative interior decorating skills ( or just create something tacky to live in). Unfortunately, the control scheme for the PS2 removes all the fun and makes this more f a chore than an actual game.
- - - 4 - - -
If you read the official GameSpot review you'll read "Music is great, unlessplaing the PC version has driven you nuts since it's the same music". Well, it may be the same, but I have not played Sims 2 EVER and got sick of it within inutes. It's not the quality of the sound itself - you have your drums, bass, etc. But the music seems to be looped every 3-5 seconds! I cannot take that! The stereos may be different, but I've never had the tolerance to turn on the music long enough to check. Repeatitive sounds from a computer game are also infuriating. I ran right to the corner of the property to get away and it still didn't stop! I was going to sell the computer if it wasn't for that fact that (although I had two) they were nearly always in use.
~+~+~ OVERALL ~+~+~
As you can see by 8 Good vs 4 Bad, I do enjoy this game (particularly if you keep in mind I'm a rather critical reviewer). I would recommend it to anyone who likes to stick their nose in other peoples lives. Great for getting the girls into the gaming scene too... I myself am a testament to that (although I think the fact that I am a girl that still says "Wow! I can hack into the bodies! They twitch!" when playing Oblivion does influence that somewhat).