Pros: Same addictive game, new goal-oriented gameplay, 3D graphics, camera control, just awesome
Cons: Repetitive goals, a little more complicated, not enough items yet
The bottom line: If you don't play Sims 2 you must be a cold-hearted Nazi who tells little children that Santa is dead and you ate the reindeer.
Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Concept: 10
Replay Value: 10

How do you follow the best-selling game of all time? Easy: make a sequel that's the same, but better. That's exactly what the Maxis team did with Sims 2, and the result is easily one of the top titles of the year.

By now you probably know what The Sims is, as the franchise is around five years old. The basic concept of the first game is still at the core of Sims 2; you control the lives of computer generated avatars who eat, sleep, work, play, love, hate, and, well, do most of the things we do. You build and furnish their houses, get them jobs (or keep them unemployed), help them make friends (or enemies), or just let them do their own thing, controlled only by the whims of their personalities.

What marks the difference between The Sims and Sims 2 are several changes, most of them improvements. Some of these changes are more obvious than others, some of them have made fans of the series very happy, and some give more reason to play to those who found the first game aimless.


LxWxD

The most obvious change is the move to full 3D. Your Sims are 3D, the environments are 3D, the objects are 3D, everything is like those great horror movies in the 70's and 80's but without the cheap cardboard glasses or the headaches. Not only have the Sims moved from a 2.5D isometric view, it just looks good. Details are sharp, objects are nicely modeled, and the Sims look good too. At least most of them.

The move to 3D has also added increased camera control. No longer are you forced into those three terrible levels of zoom. Now, there is complete freedom to zoom, rotate, and pan and tilt the camera, so you can see just what's going on.

Weird Science

Upon starting the game up and creating a Sim, the new options for customizing Sims seem a bit overwhelming. Whereas in the previous game there were simply selections for heads and outfits, now the Sims' faces are like Play-Doh. The shape, size, and position of eyes, nose, mouth and eyebrows are adjustable, and there are options for hairstyle and color, facial hair, makeup, glasses, and more. Spending a little time creating a Sim turns into an hour and a half of trying to get the nose just right and picking out the perfect clothes.

The game also comes with a utility that will export the graphics for hair, clothes, and other options which players can then edit and import as custom skins. This takes a little practice to get right, and a good graphical editor like Photoshop.

I Want it, I Need it, I Love it

Another important twist is the new want/fear system. Sims 2 still has the classic needs system which determines a Sim's overall mood from their level of hygiene, social interaction, hunger, and so on, but adds a little bit of motivation for your Sims to get things done.

When creating a Sim, one of five overall goals must be chosen from fortune, popularity, love, family, or knowledge. This goal determines what kinds of wants and fears a Sim will have; for example, a Sim with a family goal will want to have a baby or make sure a child gets a good report card, while they will fear their child being rejected for private school or a family member dying. Every time a want is met, three things happen: a meter fills up, the Sim accumulates special points, and that want changes to something different. Fears are similar, except that the meter decreases and they lose some bonus points.

Provide your Sims with their wants enough for the meter to start filling up and they'll get a mood boost. Fill it up more and they'll hit 'platinum', which keeps their mood up even if their needs drop. On the other hand, indulge their fears and your Sim will get depressed and eventually go crazy. I'll let you decide which is more interesting. The bonus points Sims earn for achieving wants can be used to buy special bonus objects, ranging from a money tree to a 'thinking cap' to the unambiguously named 'love tub'.

HUD

Housing and urban development is slightly changed in Sims 2 as well. the game comes with three prebuilt neighborhoods and the option to create as many custom neighborhoods as your little heart desires. There are three basic ways to move in new Sims; create an empty lot and have them buy it, build a house on an empty lot before your Sims move in and have them buy that, or create a lot with one of several prebuilt homes and move them in. Building a house after moving to a lot is the most expensive by far and leaves your Sims with little spending money. The basic building tools are the same but Sims 2 comes with a huge array of flooring and wallpaper.

Lights, Camera...

The Sims' actions have been improved as well, partially from the fact that modeling interactions in 3D adds a more realistic look and feel. The basics are still there, so someone who played the first game will be able to dive right in, but there are many additions. There are more interactions with other Sims, which can make building friendships a little confusing, but things like "play... punch u punch me" can be pretty funny depending on the Sims. There are more object interactions, too; the TV and stereo can be used to exercise, the computer can be used to chat with other Sims or write email and novels, and depending on personality some Sims have extra interactions. Playful sims, for example, can play in the bathtub, which is a singular experience to watch.

Of course, SimSpeak is still there, and better than ever. It sounds like a lot of new language has been added, but is still as babbly as ever.

Will you Still Need me When I'm 64?

Another extremely important change in Sims 2 is the addition of aging. Now Sim babies and children grow up and turn into adults, and Sim adults grow into elders and eventually die! Players are encouraged to develop a Sim 'dynasty' with parents passing on their inheritance to children, who have their own children and continue on, trying to secure prosperity for the next generation. It's actually a really fun exercise, and adds a new dimension to the game. No longer can you just sit back and train your Sims day after day until they have full skills and a great job, there's now some pressure to get everything done.

This is perhaps the most controversial change to the game, and it seems like the designers knew it would be. Not only did they add a cheat that turns off aging, but they put it right in the instructions so those who want to play with old-style 'immortal' Sims can do so.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes...

There are a host of other minor changes. There's a new Cleaning skill, and speaking of skills, Sims not only gain skill points when studying a skill but also when using it. Instead of letting your Sims have floating days off, each job and position has certain days of the week off when your Sim can't even go to work if they want to. Some items have design options, so for example when buying a bed you might be able to change the color of the headboard and choose the sheets. There are short cutscenes when special events happen, and players can make short video clips in-game in addition to taking pictures. Sims are a little more independent; certain actions that they wouldn't do on their own in the fist game, for example studying a skill, will sometimes be done of their own free will. Some jobs have extra bonuses, like the food service job which fills up a Sim's hunger meter while at work.

Some of these changes only make things unnecessarily complicated. Instead of just being charged to use the refrigerator, a Sim must now call and have groceries delivered periodically to keep it stocked. This is some kind of attempt to make things more realistic but it just makes it more complicated, and makes it more difficult to figure out just how much you're spending on food.

There are a few complaints about the other changes as well, especially the want system. When one want is achieved, another one takes its place. But sometimes these wants are so easy to provide that a Sim's meter can be completely filled within minutes and they can rack up an ungodly number of bonus points. Sims with a popularity goal are especially susceptible to this; often a want will be something like telling a joke to another Sim. Once they do that, it's replaced by playing with that same Sim. That's replaced by telling a joke again, and it keeps going on and on. Hopefully as expansion packs are released, more wants will be added to provide more variety.

For the most part, Sims 2 takes all of the basic additions from the first game and the expansions and puts them all together. This makes the game very familiar to players of The Sims, but those who purchased all of the expansions may find a few things missing. Things like pets from Unleashed and the magic system from Makin' Magic are missing, but on a more basic level the item selection seems skimpy. With all of those expansions adding new items, we got used to page after page of chairs, beds, tables, lights, you name it. The item selection in Sims 2 is almost as bare as it was when The Sims first came out. Other things seem to be missing too; the job selection is just about as limited as the first game was before expansions as well. Obviously more will be added over time, but it's a bit of a shock for fans.

Also, just as the first game was, Sims 2 is a huge resource hog. The minimum specs of an 800MHz processor, 256MB of RAM (yes it requires 256MB RAM), and a 32MB video card with DirectX9.0 capability might actually let you run the game at minimum detail but I don't know how well it would actually play. On my system (specs at end of review), the game runs decently with high (not maximum) quality settings, but there is still some slowdown, especially when the camera is zoomed out. There are lots of graphical options so performance won't be too bad on low-end machines and it looks brilliant if you have a beefy PC with a good video card.

Load times are long, especially when first starting the game or after shutting down the computer. There are three places where the game loads: on startup, on entering a neighborhood, and on entering a lot. When the game is first run, all loads are fairly long. After that, the startup load takes only a few seconds and the neighborhood load is under 20 seconds. The lot load, however, still takes a while, sometimes up to a minute or so. Systems with faster processors and more RAM should experience faster load times.

One little bonus that seems minor but is worth mentioning: during the install, instead of just watching a little progress bar creep across the screen, Maxis adds a little memory and trivia game to play during the wait. It's a minor touch but it would be nice if more games had this.

Obviously fans of the first game will want this. It's more of the same, only better. Those who liked the idea of The Sims but were turned off because the game wasn't goal-oriented enough may find what they're looking for with the want/fear system and aging. And, as always, this is a franchise that appeals to everyone, male and female, young and old, and that anyone can enjoy. That is, as long as you're not such a H4R|)K0R3 gamer that you can't admit you like it.

Reviewer's System Specs:
AMD AthlonXP 1700+ CPU
512MB DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 256MB video card