The Sims is, in short, a cultural phenomenon. If you haven't heard of it, you've probably been living in a bomb shelter for the last five years, afraid of 'The Big One' hitting your house. If you haven't played The Sims, not only are you out of touch with the popular world but you're really missing out.
I could cheese out here and say that The Sims needs no introduction, because it doesn't, but introduce it I shall. It is undoubtedly the definitive example of what is called the God Game. God Games got their start with other resource management simulations like Sim City and Civilization, games where the player determines the fate of the game world by controlling various aspects down to the smallest details. The difference between The Sims and other God Games is that while most of us have no practical experience running a metropolis or waging war against the Greeks, we all have very intimate experience with its subject: life. In short, you watch over and help control the everyday lives of your Sims.
To some people, this is boring and pointless. "I already live my life," they muse, "why would I want to watch the mundane details of the life of a fake person in my computer?" These people generally don't do anything more interesting than recalculate their tax deductions four times a year. For the rest of us, The Sims becomes an exercise in fantasy reality - a giant 'what-if' machine where we can set up any situation we'd like and watch it play out to the end.
The basic play in The Sims revolves around your Sims' household. Upon creating your Sims or using any of the pre-built families, you move them into a 'lot' (a small parcel of land) which brings you to the three main play modes - Live, Buy, and Build.
Build Mode
This is where most players usually start, unless they buy a lot with a house already on it (most lots are empty). Building is fairly simple; click and drag on the 3-D isometric land to put up walls and fences, click or place windows and doors, etc. The house can be customized with dozens of different wallpapers and floorings, and there are outdoor plants and flowers to make things look presentable.
Buy Mode
After building the house, it looks a little bare, so next is to buy some furnishings. Everything from toilets to chairs to paintings to pianos is available, some of it vital to your Sim (like a refrigerator for food), some optional for Sim growth, and some purely decorative.
Live Mode
Live mode is where all the action is. This is where your Sims live their lives, and you can choose to control them or let them make their own decisions. The basic object of the game is to keep your Sims happy; if they're happy, they're able to improve their position in life by learning new things or making new friends. A Sim's happiness is determined by eight 'needs'; Hunger, Energy, Bladder, Comfort, Fun, Social, Room, and Hygiene. These are pretty self-explanatory: Fun suffers if they have no recreation, social suffers if they don't interact with other Sims, and so on. Managing these needs is the basis of the game, and Sims can even die if some needs are not met, most famously the Sim who starves to death.
For the most part, Sims will try to meet their needs on their own. They have a certain level of self-sufficiency, so if a Sim has a low Bladder need, they will (usually) make their way to the toilet by themselves. However, Sims are fickle and sometimes downright stupid. They do not always do the most logical things to meet their needs, and some things they will rarely if ever choose to do on their own. This is where you come in. Take control and act as your Sim's 'conscience' by directing them to certain tasks. For example, your Sims will never look for a job in the paper or on the computer if you don't tell them to. This is vital, since another resource you have to manage is money.
Simoleans
Sim money is called 'Simoleans', but forgive me if I just use dollar signs ($). When you start a family, you have $20,000 to work with - sounds like quite a bit but for a family of three or more it starts to stretch thin. In order to be able to provide your Sims with the basic necessities of life - like food and paying the bills - not to mention help them advance their positions in the American way - by buying bigger and better stuff - you'll need to find a way to make money. This generally means getting them a job, though there are a few supplemental ways to go about it. After getting a job, you also want to get a few promotions, which means enhancing your Sim's skills through the use of special objects, and on top of it making friends with other people in the neighborhood.
Luckily, to help a first-time player get started, there is a tutorial house along with a few premade families. Going through the tutorial once and turning on the interactive help is enough to get anyone playing the game in no time.
I have to apologize for the long-winded explanation of the basic gameplay - it's just that this gameplay is what makes The Sims so great. While it seems like just a bunch of random rules, the needs system really does a great job of paralleling people's real-life motives. People get cranky when they're hungry and tired, and so do Sims. You might even find yourself thinking, "boy my Comfort is low right now."
Plays Pretty, Looks... OK
But what would a game review be without a discussion of graphics? The Sims is about five years old now, so don't expect any technological wonders here. The game is presented in a 3-D isometric view, which you can look at from four different angles and with three levels of zoom. Everything in the world is 2-D, but because of the isometric camera angle there's a good illusion of 3-D going on. The real draw are the animations, particularly of your Sims interacting with each other and various objects. They'll frantically run to the bathroom, slap each other in the face, fall asleep on the floor, and generally do a lot of stuff. Just sitting back and watching them is entertainment enough.
A Hana Doogie Doo? Deem Lau!
Perhaps even better than the actions of your Sims are the sounds, or specifically, Sim Speak. Your Sims talk, but not in any intelligible language. Rather, they sound like they're speaking a sophisticated type of baby babble. While you can't understand the words, the mood is perfectly conveyed through the way they speak, so even if they don't say they're bored or angry or elated, you can hear it.
Congratulation! You Are Complete All The Game!
So what's the object of The Sims? This is one of the things that makes it such a great game and has helped keep it alive for five years. Simply put, there is no object. In this way, The Sims is like life as well; the goal is whatever you want it to be. Maybe you want your Sims to have the biggest, poshest house ever. Maybe you want them to be a master of every skill. Maybe you want to promote them to the top of every career. Maybe you want to create your own soap opera, or just kill them all off in the most malicious ways possible. It's up to you. This helps give The Sims immense replay value, along with the level of customization of the Sims and the families. A family can consist of one to eight Sims, and each Sim has different personality traits that you can determine. This means that you can try different goals or try to reach the same goals with different Sims in different families, which means reaching the goal in a different way.
There are some limitations to the basic game, however. There are only ten lots, so only ten families can be active at any one time. This seems like a lot, but once you relaly get playing the game and want to try out different things, it really becomes restrictive. Also, while there is a large selection of items, wallpaper, flooring, and so on, there are only a few real themes to go with, so it seems like there's less than there really is. It's only fun to make a horribly gaudy house for so long.
The box also claims that a 133mhz processor and 32MB of RAM are the minimum system specifications. This is completely false; the game runs agonizingly slow and often crashes with a machine at this speed. I would suggest at least a 350mhz processor and 128MB of RAM for the basic game, and more if you plan to purchase any of the expansions.
Ah yes, expansions, the other reason The Sims has survived for five years (and has been EA's cash cow). There are 7 expansions for The Sims, each costing $30 new (most can be found for $10 to $15 now): Livin' Large, House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Superstar, Unleashed, and Makin' Magic. This means that if you want all of them, you need to shell out over $200. Thankfully, EA has recently released The Sims Deluxe, which includes the basic game and Livin' Large; The Sims Double Deluxe is even newer with the basic game, Livin' Large, and House Party. If you want to install all of the expansions, and run the game with all of the graphics options turned on, I would suggest a 1.2Ghz or faster processor, at least 256MB of RAM, and a 128-bit 32MB or better graphics card, and even that is a pretty sparse system for this game. However, the expansions do take care of my major complaints about the game, by providing tons of new items, features, jobs, and even new neighborhoods for your Sims to live in.
There are some other minor complaints about The Sims as well, beyond the massive amount of time it will suck out of your life. It's easy to make a Sim that's a real pain to work with; for example, a highly outgoing personality will mean your Sim needs almost constant interaction with others to remain happy. Also, at some times your Sim may get stuck - sometimes it your own fault for putting chairs in corners, but sometimes it's a real glitch, and sometimes even bigger bugs happen, like things just disappearing from the house. The aforementioned crashes happen often enough that it's wise to save the game frequently, though there is a patch available from EA's website which helps and later expansions eliminate the problem.
It should be mentioned that The Sims is a game for everyone. It's truly a 'crossover' game that appeals to many people outside of the realm of 'the gamer'. I believe this is due to many factors, but primarily because the subject is something tangible to all of us, and because it's primarily a 'constructive' game. While not everyone can understand the point of killing wave after wave of aliens, we can all understand the desire to make more money, have more stuff, and cultivate relationships. At least I hope we all can. The Sims is great for children and adults alike (Sims do take off their clothes for showers and bed, but are covered with a mosaic), and appeals equally to males and females.
All in all, The Sims deserves to be called one of the greatest games ever. The interface is easy enough for anyone to play, the subject is appealing to everyone, and the game goes as deep as you want to look. Currently, the numerous expansions make purchase of the entire game seem a bit exorbitant, and The Sims 2 is on the horizon of early 2004, but it's still a worthwhile title to pick up if you haven't yet, especially the Deluxe or Double Deluxe editions.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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