The Sims

DEVELOPER : Maxis
PUBLISHER : EA

 

System Requirements Pentium 166 Mhz, 32 MB RAM

Recommended Pentium II 300MHz, 64+ MB RAM, 4 Megs Video card

Ratings
Code Issues Graphics: 8.0 – Very well done, but some aspects could use a bit more detail. Audio: 10.0 - You’ll love to hear your sims speak their gibberish.  The ability to use your own MP3’s is outstanding! Interface: 9.0 – A breeze to play and build to your heart’s content.  Simpler = Better.	Play Issues Gameplay: 8.5 – It is one of the most creative pieces of software you can pick up.  But the time issue should be addressed.  If it is, this shoots up to at least a 9.0. Replayability: 9.0 – It doesn’t end.  You can play all you want.  Though some may find the lack of any kind of closure a downside. Mulitplay: N/A Learning Curve: 9.0 – I don’t think a game can get much easier to learn.  Besides, its life, you should know what to do already!
Other/Notes Documentation 9.0 – Addresses all aspects of the game, plus answers some extra questions you might have. Pros: A fun game that gives you that same feeling as playing with a box of Legos or your favorite figures as a kid. Cons:  The time aspect is skewed, and some may find the simulation of everyday life boring. Overall: 9.0

It is a beautiful afternoon, with the birds chirping, the sun shining, and the air as fresh as the morning dew.  I slowly settle onto the couch to watch some television, and am joined by my beautiful wife Janice.  After socializing for awhile, my eyelids get heavy, and I fall into a deep slumber.  I dream about my new job promotion that afforded me a new extension to my house.  After all, the new baby needs a room, and—the Baby!  I spring up from the couch and rush into the bedroom where the baby lies in its crib.  But its too late—social services knocks at my door and proceeds to take little Anne.  My second and third wife, Margaret and Zyonian, are pretty upset.  Not to worry, I’ll adopt another one soon.  I just have to remember one simple rule—baby needs food, baby needs food.

  No, this isn’t some messed up scene from General Hospital; its Will Wright’s newest creation.  Part soap opera, part financial manager, The Sims is the ultimate sandbox.  Will Wright’s genius really shines when you sit at your computer to play exactly what you were just trying to escape—life!

Whether you want to play God with one individual or an entire family is up to you.  You start out by customizing the looks and personality of your sims.  You can choose from a nice amount of bodies, faces, and skin tones, and allocate a finite number of points to different attributes that personalize how nice, outgoing, neat, and energetic your sim is (sort of like your standard RPG).  Or you can quick start by choosing an astrological sign that determines their personality.  Next, its time to move into the neighborhood.  Pick a lot, then get building.  You’ll have the chance to show off your affinity for, or lack of, architectural skills by building a home.  I found this part of the game almost therapeutic, with soft, sim-esque music playing in the background as you place walls, windows, floor tiling, wallpaper, and even roofing.  Switch to the buying mode, and ‘50’s era shop-at-home jingles will have your feet tapping as you spend your cash.  You see, the sims are motivated by greed, pure and simple.  Everything you do will revolve around making your sim the most affluent person around, or letting the bills pile up on the kitchen table, that is if they haven’t confiscated it already.  

Buying items has two effects.  One, it makes your place look nicer, and two, it helps your sims live more efficiently.  There are a variety different attributes you have to maintain; hunger, energy, fun, social, comfort, bladder, hygiene, and room (here’s where your architectural skills come in), and taken together they determine the mood of your sim.  Consequentially, you’ll always have to buy the necessities, such as a refrigerator, toilet, sink, bath or shower, and a television set for entertainment.  More money equals bigger and better goods, which makes it easier to keep all of your sims living efficiently and not stomping their feet in anger.  For instance, trade in that microwave oven for a fully featured stove.  Or get rid of that old black and white television set for a wide-screen flat TV with surround sound.  Better quality items increase your sim’s ratings at a faster rate.  Ah, the pressures of capitalism.

Luckily there’s a newspaper and a home computer available to help find a job.  Once you’ve chosen a career track you have to work your way up in the world.  The only way to do so is to make friends and increase your sim’s skills.  If you want to go from security guard to FBI agent you better pick up a weight machine and increase your body rating, and you’ll never go from intern to mayor of Sim City without spending some quality time in front of the mirror working on your charisma.  Quite frankly, you won’t go anywhere without friends!  Each job promotion requires a certain number of friends to be made.  You can call them up on the phone to invite them over, then talk, watch TV, dance with them, or serve them a meal.  Every one of your relationships is tracked on a scale of one to one hundred.  Once it reaches fifty they’re considered a friend, but go higher and you’ll be giving back rubs, smooching, or even proposing.  The game even includes polygamy and same-sex relationships.  A couple of the same sex can’t marry, however, but they can move in together and adopt a baby.  It only takes about three days for a baby to develop into a child, so be ready.  They never grow into adulthood, so you’ll have to make sure they catch the school bus every day and study.

  You can see how complex the game is by now, so it’s a good thing the game sports a fantastic interface.  Simply click on any object and it brings up a series of choices.  For instance, click on a phone and you can order a pizza, call for a maid, or invite a friend over.  Clicking a bookshelf allows you to study cooking or mechanics, or read a book for fun.  Everything is available on the bottom of the screen, so you’ll never be flipping through menus or fumbling to get something done.

 One of the great things about Maxis games in general is their commitment to the game long after it hits store shelves.  The Sims is no exception.  Registering online gives you access to new skins (or outfits), faces, and objects.  Already you can download a slot machine, moose head for the wall, a pet guinea pig, and new wall lights and plants.  There are also new houses available, and many fan sites have hundreds of wallpaper and floor patterns for download.  One of them even has pictures available as murals that the designer made into separate wallpaper tiles.  You can even download architectural tools to create your own faces, skins, wallpaper and floor tiles and import them into the game.

 No game is perfect.  Yeah, you knew it was coming, so lets get it over with.  Here are the complaints.  For one, time is oddly warped in the sim world.  It goes by way too fast, so that taking a shower and using the toilet in the morning can easily take an hour or more.  Walking from the refrigerator to your bed takes a half-hour!  What this creates is a constant need for time management.  You simply can’t get everything done in one day, so you have to allocate the days you’ll spend socializing, increasing your fun rating, working on your skills etc.  While some may say this adds a nice challenge, it gets annoying.  Here’s hoping they add a patch to customize how you want time to be handled.  Also, jobs are rather arbitrary.  Sure you get different uniforms for different careers, but you actually never see a sim at work.  Get him into the carpool, wait a few hours, and he is back.  Some jobs, however, do have fun side effects.  Being a crook may land you in jail, and I was actually shot as a police officer and had to work harder to get my body back in shape.

 Graphics-wise the game is very good--not excellent, but very good.  Nice use of shadows and texturing increase the quality overall, but the sims themselves are not as detailed as one might hope.  On a good note, the music is whatever you want it to be.  You see, you can actually download MP3’s and make them play on a stereo.  Play some Bach or Britney Spears, Chopin or Star Was—its up to you.  Sounds are superb--every object makes a distinct sound, and you can hear the difference when your sim is walking on tile or carpet.  Also, the sims speak their own unique language, but the excellent animation, as well as the mood they put into every phrase, lets you know exactly what they’re saying.  Another spark of creative thinking from an already unique game. 

 Quite simply, The Sims is fun.  You can play it for hours on end without hesitation.  That’s when you realize that it’s simulating exactly what you’re going to have to do in the morning.  Then you go back to playing, because life is so much more enjoyable when you spend it with The Sims.   

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Reviewed by Anthony Micari