Review of The Sims

Ever wanted to live a completely different way of life? Ever wished you chose another career? Ever wanted to build a giant mansion? Now you can, in the latest addition to Maxis' legendary SIM series.

Tested and written by Anders "Twilight" Steinlein, published 21st May 2000

As you probably understood from the introduction, The Sims is quite different compared to the infamous SimCity and other games in the SIM series. Instead of creating the ultimate city or theme park, you strive to control the lives of your simulated people - Sims - in the monotonous round of everyday life.

Installation is done in a minute, and I am welcomed by a nice movie as I enter the game. After which I am presented to my neighborhood. This is where you choose to continue play at a previously started family, create new ones, and move new families into a pre-built house or landed property. Establishing a family is done in three simple steps - you give them names, a look, and personality points according to how you would like them to behave.

New Neighbors

After your family is created, it is time to give your new Sims a home. I decided to start by buying a property, but you can always move them directly into a pre-build house if you prefer. As I bought some empty land, I had to build up my home from scratch. "Hmm", I thought, "this can't be much fun." I couldn't be more wrong. After some fiddling around, I realized that this really was fun! Setting up and painting the walls, laying the floor, and last but not the least, furnishing the house - it somehow made me feel... adequate.

As the house was ready, I could start the actual playing. "What is it really, that you do in this game?" you may ask. Trying to be happy, really. Just like real people, the Sims have certain needs, which are split up in eight attributes - hunger, comfort, hygiene, bladder, energy, fun, social and room. If these needs aren't met they will complain and end up depressed, just like us. Obviously, it is your job to meet these demands. To do this, you should get them a job, otherwise their demands will be hard to reach as you can't afford needed thing such as food, chairs, a television or other form for entertainment, a shower, toilet, decoration, etc.

When you do get a job - trough the local newspaper or the Internet - striving to build up their career in order to reach its peak, is perhaps the games most satisfactory element. Depending on which career you have chosen, you are given certain objectives that must be accomplished in order to get a promotion. These objectives vary from getting in physical shape, to increase your logical skills depending on your job, naturally.

Playing God

So, is it any fun? Oh, yes! You make them eat, sleep, watch TV, study, make friends - and enemies, and go to work. Sounds dull? Well, when you make some money you generally expand your house and buy better things to make the eating, sleeping, entertainment, etc. more efficient. This is what makes it so addictive. There are so many things to buy that you're constantly eager to get something better, whether it's just a bed or stove, or that big screen TV.

On the contrary, this is also the most annoying part of the game. You eat, sleep, watch TV, study, socialize, and go to work. Oh, and you eat, sleep, watch TV, study, socialize, and go to work. Did I mention you eat, sleep, watch… you get the point. After a while, you will get bored - probably long before you have finished your dream house. The game is as said very addictive, but given the relatively similar content of every gameplay-day, you are going to get this "déjà vu" feeling sooner or later.

As said earlier on, you have the possibility to buy a lot of different objects. You have to choose among several different beds, paintings, tables, computers and so on. Not only do they look different, they have different points of the mentioned attributes, to enhance your gain on the particular attribute. Each and every object also has a detailed description, which following traditional Maxis style often is very funny. Do yourself a favor and read them all!

Does God have an interface?

A life simulator would obviously be a really comprehensive game, and The Sims is. It is however genially presented with its user-friendly interface, making it a breeze to play. The manual is excellent, covering everything you could possibly ever want to know about the game. Reading it is however not required due to the excellent interface, but I do recommend doing so anyway, to get as much enjoyment as possible out of the game.

As noted, the interface is superb. It couldn't be simpler to order your Sims around, making them do whatever you want. I have to mention that even though ordering them around is simple, they doesn't always do what you want them to do right away. If some Sims are making a conversation, it may take a while before they will respond to your request. When they do get to work, they often intersect each other, and so both are waiting for the other one to get out of the way! This isn't too big a problem though, and the just-released patch may have resolved it.

Let's get back to the interface… To be let off having to wait for your Sims to eat, sleep, read and so on, you have the possibility to fast-forward making time go faster. This is particularly useful as you can queue up a number of actions, then to speed up the process. Information as to how your Sims feel is also easily available, making it easier for you to see which demands you should pay a little more attention to.

Almost like the Looney Tunes

Going over to another topic, the graphics is quite important in such a game as this. The Sims should after all look like human beings, not aliens or hedgehogs! Maxis have yet again succeeded at this aspect, by combining a fair 2D engine with detailed objects and textures. Following traditional Maxis style, the game does feels "cartoonish", but I don't find this inappropriate at all given the many in-game jokes. I have to mention though, that the reason I said a "fair 2D engine" is it doesn't take the poorest machine before the game starts to feel sluggish. Not too big a deal, but worth mentioning.

The objects and textures aren't the only good things about the graphics. The Sims is very well animated, and watching them run to the toilet, scratching their heads, talking with others, changing their clothes, and more, is absolutely hilarious. You can also, by the way, hear their special Sim-language, which is very funny indeed. In other words, you have a lot of small surprises waiting for you…

As far as the sound goes - it is just as good as the graphics. Every natural sound, from the water in the shower to the sound from the TV is in place. If you zoom closer in, you can even hear more sounds, such as the "sssschmock" sound when kissing your girlfriend! All of this collaborates to make the game feel more "real", so two thumbs up to Maxis here. Maxis have also done a great job with the music, as usual. It is extremely relaxing, and fit very well to the setting of the game.

To sum it all up, this is a highly addictive game, and should therefore not be played late at night if you are to get up early next morning! You will struggle to make your Sims live a happy life, by giving them increasing amount of material benefits, a good job and good friends. It is almost as life, actually. Unfortunately, it is almost as life. Sooner or later you will get bored, by doing the same routine over and over again. Even so, this is a game you will enjoy for a long time, and with its good graphics and sound, there really isn't much to complain about. Tired of the usual jog trot? Go buy The Sims - now!

	Pros		Cons
	Very original Quite Addictive It will make you laugh Nice looking graphics Perfect sound effects and music		Too addictive? Boring, after a while Bad pathfinding Feels a little sluggish

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