Pros: Pets are very lifelike and highly customizable. New animations and interactions are hilarous!
Cons: If you're not interested in pets, don't bother. There's very little else in this expansion.
The Bottom Line: Pets make a great addition to any life, real or SIMulated. Maxis has done a great job of capturing the essence of our animal friends in this pack.
Like many Sims fans (Sims 1 and Sims 2), I can't help myself. I buy everything "Sims" that Maxis throws out the door. I have a compulsive need to have it all...and now my Sims do to.
Sims 2:Pets is an expansion, or add-on pack for the base game, The Sims 2. Each of the (now 5) expansion packs operate independently or together with any of the others, meaning you can have 1, 2, or all of the packs loaded onto your base game. I fall into the latter category.
THE BASICS - INTRODUCTION
The main purpose of this expansion pack was to introduce our four legged companions to the world of Sims. Much like the "Unleashed" expansion pack for the original Sims 1 game, this pack added not only pets, but additional object and game play features as well.
With this pack, Sims can now obtain new pets from the local pet store, from the telephone, from friends and neighbors, or from walk-by strays. Sims who venture to the pet store have the option of creating their desired breed and appearance. Only adult animals are available this way. Puppies can be purchased via the telephone (if any are available for sale) or through a neighbor whose pet has reproduced.
The option to breed Pets in the game adds a new dimension, just like the life cycles added to the Sims themselves. Sims are now able to raise, breed, and sell cats and dogs. The animals are "trainable", learning certain skills and behaviours such as:
• Staying off the furniture
• Peeing outside
• Eating petfood (as opposed to Sim food)
• Playfulness towards others
• A calm demeanor
• Etc.
And tricks such as
• Sitting up
• Playing dead
• "Speaking"
• Coming when called
• Etc.
Each trick, skill, or behavior learned takes time and the reward is either a higher price for selling the animal or skills in the workplace. Yes, pets can have jobs. There are job choices for both cats and dogs in service fields, show biz fields and law enforcement fields. Animals report to work just like Sims (via the carpool) and become eligible for promotions and rewards just like their "human" counterparts.
WHAT WENT WELL
Many, many members of the Sims community have been asking for Pets for years. They wanted them before Unleashed came out and they wanted them again from the beginning with Sims 2. And for the most part, I believe folks are happy with what they got, particularly this time around.
The game focuses primarily on cats and dogs, but birds, little hamster like creatures, and aquariums are available as well. These are rather periphery to the game and actual interactions are minimal. These pets require feeding and a little social interaction, but are not a dominant in the game as the cats and dogs.
Maxis did a fine job of animating our furry friends in this pack. If you've ever owned a cat, you will immediately see the very "catlike" behaviors in the game. The cats jump up on counters, sleep on beds, sit on sofas, watch television, have extreme moments of activity for no reason, and are basically aloof to human intervention, but do love to rub against legs. They use a litter box and can be trained to stay off the beds and other furniture. Cats are available pre-made in a variety of breeds with differing body and face shapes, typical colorings (like the Siamese), and coat and tail differences. If that doesn't suit, it's quite entertaining to create your own.
Dogs come in two sizes -- large and small. Among them are most of the common breeds and a few not so common ones. The dogs have the same high quality level of animation as the cats, with very "doglike" behaviors such as barking at the door, sniffing visitors (human and non), rolling in the dirt, digging in the yard, peeing on the flowers, etc. Unlike cats, dogs have to be housebroken (typical) and must be taught to "go" outside. Once again, the Create-a-Pet section makes the variety pretty much limitless.
Another feature I've enjoyed is "registering" your unique creations. Once you've got that favorite dog or cat designed to suit your fancy, your Sim can then call the animal registry on the telephone and register that pet as a New Breed. This allows you to select that breed in the future for other Sims.
One more interaction that I find endearing is the fact that pets will mourn the passing of a Sim. The pets too have lifespans and grow from puppy/kitten to adult to elder. And yes, they die.
WHAT WAS NOT SO HOT
One "fault" I have always found with Maxis is there consistent ability to "overdo". Things that might be cute or funny albeit slightly annoying in the game, tend to become major frustrations over time. There is no sense of moderation. For example, in Sims 1, the strays became overwhelming, consistently peeing on the edges of the property, dropping the environment score into the dredges. In Sims 2, the dogs tend to wander by and dig large holes in the yard. Pets are also allowed in the downtown regions where they are forever whining for food to Sims who have no ability to feed them (since buy/build mode is turned off on community lots). This was an oversight in Sims 1 as well. Sims can't feed starving animals and the animals make all sorts of noise about it.
Additionally, animals on the community lots tend to shred furniture. They have no manners and the active Sim, who may not have pets of their own, is now responsible for scolding the offending animal to make them stop. When an animal takes to shredding furniture, if not stopped, the furniture will become a pile of rubble that must be cleaned up. That's going a bit far...
Additionally, the bird has to be fed 20 bucks worth of food more than once a day! Heck, large dogs don't eat that much! How realistic is that, I ask you?
Maxis should have tempered these actions so that they don't have to happen all the time, every time. What is cute once or twice becomes increasingly aggravating over time.
Finally, there is the wolf. Maxis felt the need to introduce Werewolves into the game. This state is attained by petting and subsequently being nipped by a wolf with glowing eyes. Because of this interaction, wants and fears having to do with the wolves were also introduced into the game. Fine, I can work with that.
The problem comes when a toddler has a fear of seeing a wolf...real enough on it's own, and that fear is met simply by the appearance of the wolf somewhere on the lot. The wolf may be on the far corner of the lot and the toddler tucked safely in bed inside the house, but as soon as the wolf appears, the fear is realized and the toddler's aspiration scores bottoms out.
OTHER STUFF
Like all expansion packs from Maxis, along with the theme of the pack comes various accessories and objects. With this one, we got an assortment of pet related beds, bowls, toys, houses, etc plus a few decorative items like floors, wallpapers, windows, and doors. Additionally there were some pet themed paintings and knick-knacks like the Japanese good luck cat statue. Unrelated to pets, there were some other nice objects like clocks and phones to dress up the Sim home.
All in all, I have enjoyed this expansion pack and the addition of animal friends to my game has been positive. The few minor annoyances are not enough to detract from the overall gaming experience. If you have ever had a pet, you'll appreciate the work that went into making Sims 2:Pets a huggable addition to the Sims world.
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