Pros: Nice graphics. Nice soundtrack. Making the magazine is fun.... for a while.
Cons: Clumsy, restrictive interface, All the girls look the same. Limited gameplay gets old quickly.
The bottom line: Novel Idea with some cool elements, but this game is wasted with not enough fleshing out and variety in gameplay.
It should stand as testement to the overall increase in sophistication of computer nerds around the globe that Arush's Playboy: The Mansion has come and gone, barely registering a blip on the gaming radar. When I was growing up, the thought of seeing a bit of pixelized flesh was too much to resist. Diabolically bad games like the appalling Samantha Fox Strip Poker, with it's gloriously inert, blocky, monochrome images had us all glued to our Commodore 64's.

Playboy: The Mansion throws the player into the role of none other than the man himself, Hugh Hefner in a 3d environment more or less exactly the same as that seen in The Sims. The game features two modes of play – the freeform game which basically lets you just cruise along at will, and the mission game which sets a variety of goals which must be accomplished in order to unlock different mansion locations and features.

Just as in The Sims your mansion may be extended, furnished and generally jazzed up, however unlike Maxis' lofty series, the interface for doing this in P:TM is extremely cumbersome and annoying. In fact, the interface flat out stinks for the whole game. Perhaps the biggest reason for this is the inability to scroll around the manion unless you are in purchase or build mode. Sure, you can pan the camera around and zoom out to some extent, but if you want a look at a distant part of the house you are going to have to physically walk there with Hef. If hef is doing something like having a conversation, you can't wander off on your own and have a look at something because you -are- Hef.

Of course, you might be thinking “Lame Sims clone” right about now, but you wouldn't be entirely correct. Unlike The Sims, the building of the mansion takes very much a back seat to the all important job of compiling and publishing each edition of the Playboy magazine itself and your own personal needs seem to be non existant. The publishing is where the real fun in the game lies. It is quite the novelty to see your finished magazine hit the news stands, in all its glossy glory. In order to accomplish this and provide a quality publication for the punter, Hef has to throw lavish parties and schmooze with celebrities who may then be tempted to contribute an interview or an essay – yes, it's the all important “articles” - They have to come from somwhere! The more famous the celebrity and the more qualified they are to talk about the subject matter, the better quality the finished work will be. If you get some unknown tennis player who particularly hates Art and Culture to write about it, you are not going to end up with a piece of compelling reading.

Of course, The mansion wouldn't be much fun without the ever popular Playboy Bunnies, a couple of Hef's girlfriends, and the occasional playmate. Staff may be hired and fired to fill up your mansion with all the likely sorts. In addition to those already mentioned, you need photographers and journalists (who conduct interviews and write articles). Each staff member has a rating which effects the quality of their work. A great photographer might be able to produce decent results with a mediocre playmate, but give him quality to photograph and your next issue is sure to sell a bundle. .... Provided the articles are good of course.... of course.

Each issue of the magazine must consist of the following before you can send it to print:

Cover Shot: A photo for the front cover of the magazine, presumably relating to a pictorial section within. You are going to have to convince some female celebrity to pose for this one and get your cameraman on the job. Previously published playmates also qualify.

Pictorial: This is where you send your photographer out and about to get some content. You set the general theme and he or she comes back with something along the lines of “The girls of wrestling get naked” or “The hot bodies of congress”.

Article: Some piece of fluff written by one of your journalists. Once again, you set the theme.

Interview: Convince a celebrity or published playmate to have a chat with one of your journos and this requirement is filled.

Centrefold: Hire a playmate, photograph her.

Essay: Similar to the interview, but the celeb/published playmate goes off and writes this for you in the manner of your journalist writing an article.


In order to have a constant supply of fresh talent and fresh material to satisfy the above criteria for every issue, you must continue entertaining celebrities at the mansion and keep your staff happy, because the quality of their work suffers when their needs are not being met. Unhappy staff are also no fun at parties.


Now that I have told you basically what you do, I will give you a bit of a rundown on why this game is only fun for a limited amount of time.

Photography is kinda fun for a little while – Yes, this game allows you to have every teenage boy's dream job – that of actually photographing centrefolds. It all works a little bit like the camera in Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. You tell the girl where to stand, you compose the shot, she strikes some poses, -click-click-click- Done. The biggest problem with the photography is that it doesnt seem to matter what props are used, wht the background is like, or anything else for that matter beyond the photographer and the girl's fame/ability rating and their current happiness level. You could take a photo of the floor and it would still rate just as highly. It would have been nice to need to take a good photo to succeed.

I found it a bit irritating that while you can ask the girl to change pose by pressing F1, you can't actually click on a location and make her go there, or pose on it. It's also disappointing how limited the use of props are. Sure, she can sit or lie on a bed or chair, but tables, showers, baths and swimming pools seem to be no-go zones. Did anyone at Arush ever “read” Playboy for goodness sake?! I wont even get into the fact that no one ever gets fully naked in the game. Yes, that's right! Topless is as good as you get....oh, I seem to have “gotten into it”. Well, moving on....

Time doesn't seem to flow in any fixed manner in the game. Every now and then your funds are deducted to pay your staff and manintain the mansion, but you don't have a deadline for each release of the mag, nor is there a limit to how quickly you can put out a new issue. As a journalism student myself I found this a little irritating (ho ho ho).

The graphics are quite nice and the characters (and girls) are pleasant to look at, but WHY do they all look the same? EVERY and I mean EVERY girl has the exact same face, just with different hair, different clothes and different skin-tone. Just how hard would it have been to offer a bit of variety here Arush? It soon gets boring photographing the same person repeatedly.

After the initial novelty wears off, the gamer is effectively stuck in an endless rut of throwing parties and conducting sims-style conversations to build up relationships with the rich and famous, who can then be milked for magazine contributions and/or appearances. A few nice touches like the excellent soundtrack, filled with dozens of varied songs and the cool idea of actually having to compile the magazine aren't enough to flesh out this game, which is basically an intereting idea based upon a very limited Sims-like engine. I have to wonder why this type of engine was chosen when it's key strengths end up being very minor parts of the game.