The Sims 2 Review

By Kristan Reed Published 22 September, 2004

If this game is to believed, we'll make really rubbish parents...

Version tested: PC

Order yours now from Simply Games.

'The Sims 2' Screenshot 1

Unbelievably, your faithful hound of a reviewer had never touched a Sims game before in his life. For some reason the idea of nurturing some sort of Tamagotchi human had lost its appeal around the time Activision tried the same trick back in 1986 with Little Computer People on the C64. The chances are, four and a half years ago, there were more appealing games around, and the moment passed. But then came the chart residency, the onslaught of expansion packs, the multi-million sales and even the console versions. Surely someone who plays games for a living should at least have played one of the best sellers of all time? Burying your head in the sand and saying "this just isn't my thing" is all well and good when you're a consumer; but as a professional that earns money from having opinions? You can't really get away with that attitude - not on a game of this cultural significance at least.

But despite the years of resigned indifference, somewhere along the line the prospect of The Sims 2 did provoke a genuine spark of interest. It did take a rather impressive EA demonstration of it a year or so back, admittedly, but suddenly there seemed so much more point to it now. Previous Sims just came across as little more than a glorified Doll's House, populated by easy to manipulate drones. The Sims 2 seemed much more like an advanced Alter Ego; a chance to create people in your own image; take people from birth to death and take them on all of life's little journeys, shaping their very personality along the way.

One of the cleverest ideas in this latest incarnation of The Sims 2 is the level of choice it gives to the player from the off. If you want to create your own Sims you can; to the point of being able to - potentially - recreate yourself, up to a point. For the purposes of the review we created the imaginary family unit, complete with a faithfully recreated girlfriend and with two young sprogs. Almost too weird, to be honest. We bought a functional pad in Pleasantville (one of the three neighbourhoods to choose from) and waited for the madness to occur, but more of that later.

Mr Tinker plays his fiddle

'The Sims 2' Screenshot 2

The beauty of the package, up to this point, is the sheer mind-boggling level of customisation. For those really into the process of creating everything down to the minutest details, it's all there, and even better, none of it is required for those who want to just jump in and play. The Create-A-Sim process on its own is superb fun, giving a huge amount of potential hilarity (down to being able to cross aliens with humans, oddly) and the online community provides an even greater degree of tinkering. Almost everything is adjustable, from nose size/shape to the type of underwear you'll be wearing at night. The only real sense of disappointment comes from the fact that Maxis does not allow users to vary height at all, and everyone is of slim build (even the apparently overweight models are pretty svelte) - hardly a reflection of Super Size Me modern times, and a missed opportunity. The icing on the cake, though, is being able to tinker with various personality aspects, making them less inclined to tidy up, more stroppy and aspire to be lying cheating Lotharios. All good, and certainly more than evident when you get around to seeing them in action.

And all of this is before you've even had a chance to work out where they're going to live. Again, the whole design-your-own-home thing is entirely optional, and not necessarily for everyone. We had a few aborted attempts at it, and could see the massive potential, enjoyed the slick interface and never had a problem actually understanding what to do, but frankly we could see what a timesink such a project would be. Not to mention that it didn't interest us at all - we just wanted to get on with ruining our Sims' lives.

Arriving at their home of choice (and there's not a massive amount to choose from, thanks to the limited budget) it's pretty much imperative to make their lives as comfortable as possible. With no furniture, no home comforts bar the bare minimum (not so much as a bed), we realised just how much work there is to do to make their lives bearable. Not only did they have no jobs, but the jobs available paid such a pittance that keeping everyone happy was almost impossible - with both parents forced to go out to work while the kids amused themselves. Not only that, both parents worked different hours and soon started bawling at the grief of never having any attention. The dad got so bored with life he resorted to imagining that a Social Bunny was in the house, and started fighting with him in a cartoon ruckus fashion, and even dreaming about him. Ooops. The kids? Well, they were doing terribly at school, being underfed, and suffered from hygiene issues. No one said we'd be good parents okay? Was this turning into some sorry social commentary? Well, we didn’t think so until the Social Worker came and took the kids into care.

Sell your story

'The Sims 2' Screenshot 3

And so on. The real charm about The Sims 2 is the storylines you create. Very quickly there's a sense of attachment, humour, and personal involvement in what you're doing that few other games could ever hope to match - and that's whether you create everything yourself or jump into one of the numerous readymade scenarios or families. The question lies in how long you'll want to play it for before the novelty wears off? Sure, like any game there's always going to be a period where the newness charms you, but one of the great things here is that there's such a range of permutations that almost every day provides something fresh.

But as much as we can acknowledge the hugeness and the open-ended possibilities, where the game falls down is the sheer repetition of having to continually do the basics; the toilet trips, the showers, sending them to bed. To an extent characters begin to look after themselves after a while, but much of the 'fun time' when they're not working or going to school is taken up doing actually quite boring tasks that after the 50th day you really start to wish could be removed from the equation so you can just get on with making Woo-Hoo (that's a shag, in case you were in any doubt) or seeing how quickly you can send them mad.

But then much of what we didn't like about The Sims 2 seems to be part and parcel of the experience, and presumably must be something that most followers of the game take on board as a necessary part of simulating life. It may be accurate to a degree, but much of real life really isn't that interesting - and perhaps going to lengths to map out a human's bladder/body odour/hunger cycle isn't necessarily an ingredient for a compelling game. It's tedious enough in real life having to go through that, without watching AI humans doing the same endlessly. In short, if you can tolerate the more nuts and bolts elements of The Sims 2, then there's just an oceanic amount of things to do.

Even graphics whores will love it

'The Sims 2' Screenshot 4

Having admittedly never touched a Sims game before it's hard to identify with any authority what has been enhanced over and above the visual gloss and level of customisation given to you, but certainly it's worth noting just how much effort Maxis has gone to in order to bring every area of the game up to scratch. Back in 2000, the original Sims sported the kind of fugly isometric visuals that were years out of date even then, with generic characters with the same bodies and the same head. Fast forward to the present and it's a game that not only is a vast improvement, but easily outshines practically any game of its type, with a wonderful array of subtle animations and expressions that you can zoom right in on. The only thing that you feel could have been improved is the camera system, which even after a couple of days felt unnatural and unwieldy. With so few characters to worry about and such a small play area to manipulate, it seems odd why the game didn’t just give you the option of playing it in first-person - the engine could certainly handle such a transition and would make some the scenes really outstanding to watch.

But it's not just niggling repetition and control issues that detract from the overall package. There are many things that could have improved matters - being stuck in the same house feels somewhat stifling and claustrophobic, and for this reviewer was the main reason it shattered the dream possibility of The Sims 2 delivering a virtual personality simulation the way that classic Alter Ego did all those years ago. Sure you can always change family or scenario, but that's not the point: there's massive potential here to make this a life sim, and being confined to one single house eventually makes you feel trapped; inevitably you want to see what adventures your Sims get up to at work, or at school, or their cheating ways round at a neighbour's house.

We guess, ultimately, that's where EA could make their dollars from the next half dozen expansion packs that will all sell bundles, but for now we're guessing that most people will just be happy that the sequel does a fabulous job of enhancing everything that the first generation did. Tampering with a winning formula has never been characteristic of EA, but still - there's a whole lot more Maxis and EA could do to give the game a much wider appeal. For now we're happy to have dabbled in The Sims 2; it's a thoroughly charming package rammed with possibilities. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to those that have so far resisted its charms, and for the real fans it'll be a dream come true, but whether we'll stick with it is another matter. Ask us when the inevitable expansion hits...

Order yours now from Simply Games.

8 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • yegon #1 7 years ago

    ...I wonder if there'll be any expansion packs...

    ...as good as Halo...

    ...could I be any more irritating?
    Edited by 1 at 22/09/04 @ 14:09

  • Pirotic #2 7 years ago

    I really liked the Sims 2, as a stand-alone game it's far more complete than the original sims.

    The main down-side it that it doesn't feature all the stuff which was later added to the original via expansion packs - it keeps the hot-date and house-party features, but totally drops vacations and pets.

    I'll be happy to buy original expansions, but if they are going to try to flog me a 'pet' expansion again they can forget it.

  • Nasty #3 7 years ago

    "being stuck in the same house feels somewhat stifling and claustrophobic, "

    Phone a Taxi :p

    It does possess the ability to turn 10 minutes into 2 hours...

    ..and it makes the wife want to be on the PC which doesnt help when you wanna game of JO:TR :(
    Edited by 1 at 22/09/04 @ 14:21

  • Dirtbox #4 7 years ago

    That's made my mind up. I'll be getting this, I missed out on the last one completely.

  • volb #5 7 years ago

    A very good score, though you sound like you are already fed up with it by the end of the review...
    Is it a "8-because-others-will-like-it" out of 10?

  • reflux #6 7 years ago

    I want Sims Arena Online where you can take your Sims characters and fight with others.

  • krudster #7 7 years ago

    It's not a case of being fed up, more a case of seeing the same things happening over and over again and realising that part of the fun is taken away as a result.

    As for being able to wander around the community lots - that's hardly a substitute for being able to see how their lives are progressing is it? The Sims needs to meet Sim City somewhere in the middle. This still resolutely sticks to the principle that watching someone's home life is where it's at, and to an extent it is, but it's not the full picture, you feel.

  • ERG1008 #8 7 years ago

    A bit like Fightbox then reflux? :op

  • Blerk #9 7 years ago

    Hmm.. sounds like I'd have exactly the same issues with this game as I did with the original Sims, tbh - loads of fun for about a fortnight then a complete loss of interest. If I had a PC that was anywhere near good enough to run it, that is. :-)

  • Whizzo #10 7 years ago

    The wants/fears make a huge difference in how the game is played over the original, it gives you something to do rather than just furthering the Sim's careers and material possessions. Some of them are on the tricky side as well, having a Sim who wants to have public "woo-hoo" is not too tricky, when they want to do it with 5 different Sims it starts to get a bit on the difficult side.

  • Talha #11 7 years ago

    Sounds wonderful to me. I think the score is 8 because Kirsten is not bold enough to go out and give the game a 9 which it deserves. Hell, GameSpy gave it a 5/5. As for being able to wander around the neighborhood, hello, that's what SimCity is for!!!!

    Like the review for Far Cry, Kirsten was not able to hide exactly how impressed he was with the game, but dug out some pointless criticism in the end. Problem is, his reviews are usually so nice

  • Tiger_Walts #12 7 years ago

    I absolutely love it that the home I moved my Sim into has a cooker located such that, if on fire, it would trap the Sim in the house. The only phone was by the door and if I hadn't already moved another Sim in, Ickle Tiger would've been burnt to a crisp!

  • Whizzo #13 7 years ago

    Buy smoke detectors and when the inevitable happens you don't have to bother calling the fire dept!

    Nice that food that takes ages to cook goes in the oven and your Sim will do other stuff while it cooks/burns...

  • pjmaybe #14 7 years ago

    Great review, and pretty much sums up what I think about it too...

    "The Sims needs to meet Sim City somewhere in the middle

    Though not with the chav-friendly "Urbz" though, pleaseeeee no!

    Would be nice to see some sort of cross compatibility with Sim City 5 when it inevitably turns up...

    Sims 2 is weirdly addictive and I think a lot of that's down to the way you can pretty much customize your gaming experience to suit your own ends (no matter how devious they are!) but at the end of it, it does tend to get a tad repetitive and as with Sims 1 I just end up thinking "Shit, I could be doing all this stuff properly and for real rather than manipulating some computer-generated character on a screen to do it.."

    Peej

  • Phil_- #15 7 years ago

    Nice to see mentions of Alter Ego and Little Computer People. I've still got the Little Computer People folder thing somewhere. *sigh*. I loved the way that was presented as some great science discovery: that you were just buying a "House On A Disc" which would hopefully coax the little person living inside your computer out into the open.

    /presses CTRL-R to leave a record on his LCPs doorstep.

  • Nikanoru #16 7 years ago

    Complete utter boring crap. I'll never touch this, or the first one.

  • pjmaybe #17 7 years ago

    Alter Ego was superb. One of the best games on the C64. Not much graphically (in fact not much at all!) but as life-sims go, this for me has still gone a long way to providing the player with a lot more freedom to do dozy things than any other game.

    /eats entire can of spray cream, gets ill

    Peej

  • krudster #18 7 years ago

    If someone has a copy of the female version of Alter Ego (or knows where to get one) I'll pay top dollar for it! C64 version, not Apple, btw.

    Activision used to be amazing for original stuff. Remember Portal?

  • Rusta #19 7 years ago

    Alter ego, wow blast from the past - It is around on the net somewhere, there is a website where you can play the game in your webbrowser - Someone posted a link to a old Robin Hood C64 type of adventure game, which you played via your webbrowser.

  • UncleLou #20 7 years ago

    Complete utter boring crap. I'll never touch this, or the first one.

    Now that's what I call an informed opinion!

    /chapeau

  • Phil_- #21 7 years ago

    Not sure where you'd buy a C64 copy of Alter Ego these days, Kristan. But both male and female abandonware versions are available for download here. Scary PC CGA stuff, but .. you know.

  • Stilicho #22 7 years ago

    If they made one of the available "professions" serial killer this might be worth a look at some point. The prospect of wandering about Pleasantville or wherever dismembering Sims is strangely appealing....

  • Doogle #23 7 years ago

    Alter Ego was an excellent game at first but in the end the same old options kept coming up which kind of killed the interest.

    Highly original though just very short lived.

  • volb #24 7 years ago

    abandonware versions are available for download

    Why not play it online?

  • Sko #25 7 years ago

    I'm sure I kept reading previews/interviews going on about how you wouldn't need to spend all your time guiding sims back and forth between toilet and fridge. Oh well.

    Maybe they fixed it, found there was bugger all else to do and put it back in.

  • AOFanboi #26 7 years ago

    Another game in the "train AI to do tasks" is Creatures, and its sequels, all published by Mindscape.

    Edit: Except "Creatures: The Albian Years", published by Fusion Labs Ltd.

    Personally I skipped on Sims 2 in favour of Burnout 3: Takedown. I mean, since that game is GOD of Gaming at the moment - and it is.
    Edited by 2 at 23/09/04 @ 11:45

  • Whizzo #27 7 years ago

    Sko, the Sims will do what they really need to do themselves; eating, showering, going to the loo, watching TV etc.

    You can leave them alone and they'll just keep doing what's necessary to keep themselves reasonably well without your intervention.

  • Tiger_Walts #28 7 years ago

    Just keep the fridge stocked till they begin to fill it themselves.

  • Psi #29 7 years ago

    "but easily outshines practically any game of its type"

    yes the market is so cluttered /lick

  • kalel #30 7 years ago

    Hmmm

    How can you make an accurate review of the Sims 2, if you admit that you have not played the Sims 1. Most people that read this review will mostly want to know how it differs from the first one, and surely you are in no position to comment on that, and yet you do comment on it several times:

    "Previous Sims just came across as little more than a glorified Doll's House, populated by easy to manipulate drones"

    "Back in 2000, the original Sims sported the kind of fugly isometric visuals that were years out of date even then... Fast forward to the present and it's a game that not only is a vast improvement..."

    True and fair comments, but I am not sure how you came to these conclusions if you are one who has:

    "never touched a Sims game before in his life"

    You also say that:

    "We wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to those that have so far resisted its charms"

    Personally, I would recommend that they go and get the first one on budget and see if they like it, as if they don't I severely doubt whether they will be pleased to splurge out £30 on this, seeing as it is basically exactly the same!

    Not having a go Kristan, I'm a fan of your reviews, but in this case I'm not convinced that this review is particularly helpful to people who have already played The Sims, and lets face it, this group probably covers the majority of people who will buy this game.

  • Whizzo #31 7 years ago

    The wants/fears and aspirations is a major change to the game from the original but I can't see any mention of it in the review and it's key to having a successful household.

  • krudster #32 7 years ago

    Yes, there is a school of thought that suggests that in order to have a valid opinion of something you need to have played all the others. Fair play.

    But that's not entirely helpful to the vast majority of people out there, like me, that have never played it before and want an alternative viewpoint. It doesn't make it an invalid viewpoint, just a different one.

    Saying that you can't review a sequel unless you've played the first one is like saying you can't have an informed opinion on a band's new album until you've heard everything else they've done. That person's outlook may not be as "up" on the progress of the music, but it's still a valid opinion.

    I'm sure there are tons of people like me that are curious about this one, having never played the previous games. Besides, Tom is utterly sick of Sims games and wanted a break! Would you have rather read a tired cynic's opinion, or a fresh one?

  • Sko #33 7 years ago

    To be honest, I've gotta admit I did come to this review looking for a fairly complete comparison between the two games. The first paragraph was kinda a sudden knee to the balls for those hopes. ;)

  • Dynamize #34 7 years ago

    "...to the vast majority of people out there, like me, that have never played it before..."

    Wouldn't the majority of people've played The Sims, as it is/was one of the fastest/mostest selling games ever, commonly regarded as a cash cow and stuff?

    Good review on the whole, I'm finding the story thingies a bit lacklustre. I imagined there'd be a bit more narrative or whatnot, but all I seem to get is "do this" at the start, then do it, and be left to my own devices again. Dunno if I'm doing something wrong, or if it's crap.
    And not being able to reset the neighbourhood to undo some of my godawful architectural/life choices is annoying.
    Having liked The Sims for a bit, then turned to hating it, I'm re-converted back to liking it by the sequel.

  • kalel #35 7 years ago

    Fair enough Kristan, you did caveat it in the first paragraph, and I agree that it is a useful perspective for people that won’t have played the first one, although I don’t agree that this is a majority of gamers.

    I still think a balanced review from somebody who has experience of the first one would be useful, but yes I would prefer not to have it written by a complete cynic.

  • krudster #36 7 years ago

    Sadly there's just not enough time to play every single game that came out ever. It's plainly unrealistic to expect us to be experts at every single game out there. You wouldn't read Q and expect them to be experts on Jazz or Classical now would you ;)

    We review about 130 games each per year. Ask yourselves how many games you've played in the last year!

  • Sunrise #37 7 years ago

    "The dad got so bored with life he resorted to imagining that a Social Bunny was in the house, and started fighting with him in a cartoon ruckus fashion, and even dreaming about him."

    :D

    Hit the road, Jack

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #38 7 years ago

    I was only trying to cop off with the buxon lassie, and I ended up getting her up the duff :\ Now I've got a screaming sprog on my hands and I can't even sell it!

  • sam_spade #39 7 years ago

    Mouse,

    If you don't look after it social services will come around and take it away for you.

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #40 7 years ago

    Hmmm. Well even though I don't want it, I would feel terribly guilty for not looking after the little blighter. He's a toddler now and just learned to talk and... well.. I'm starting to get attached to the little beggar. I'm just a tad annoyed though cos I was kind of planning on concentrating on just the one Sim for a while, but I ended up with three within a night's playing.

  • Clive_Dunn #41 7 years ago

    Good review.

    Still enjoying this game, but its proving bad for my ( real life )relationship. My girlfriend seems interested in asking me every 10 minutes what I'm doing now, and of course I'm trying to shag every women I meet. She's not too happy about that.

    One complaint - how are you supposed to tell the difference between an adult and a teenage sim ? I spend ages trying to "woo-hoo" with this women, but she wasn't having any of it. Eventually realised it was because she was a teenager and felt like a right kiddie fiddler. And she never seemed to grow up, so couldn't even groom properly.

  • Clive_Dunn #42 7 years ago

    ^^^^

    Well you've posted your Def Jam link on the Sims page. Well done, you've managed to confirm our fears that all Def Jam fans are stupid.

  • Dynamize #43 7 years ago

    A hip-hop gangsta kid lives down my road and professes how he is "from da ghetto!", and how he enjoys "bunning dat zoot, blad.". His dad drives a white Espace.
    Stereotypes are wrong. Not all gangsters are straight out of Compton, some are from Surrey dontchaknow.

  • tengu #44 7 years ago

    Sure you can have mine. It's...

    Oh, no, wait. I've changed my mind. You can't have it.