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The
Sims
Score: 8.7 / 10
When I first heard that The Sims, the
best-selling PC game of all-time, was making the leap from the PC to the
three home consoles (PS2, followed by the Xbox and the GameCube), I’ll
admit that I was skeptical as a Greek philosopher. How could a game so
perfectly suited for PC gameplay with its mouse-and-keyboard control
setup, transform into a good-playing home console game, minus the
mouse-and-keyboard controls that make playing the PC version so easy to
navigate, whether you’re designing and building a dream Sim home or just
simply interacting with other Sims?
After playing the Xbox version of The Sims, however, my skepticism
quickly evaporated. The Sims successfully enters the console realm by
wisely incorporating new console-friendly controls and more importantly
new game modes that even the
The staple gameplay of The Sims remains the same: you live out a virtual
life through your Sims. Build a place to live, go to work, deal with
relationships, eat, sleep; if you do it in your real everyday life, you
will do it in your Sim everyday life. That signature gameplay is present
in the open-ended single-player Play The Sims mode. But
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new to the console versions is a goal-oriented Get a Life mode (either
single-player or multiplayer challenge) and the two-player Play The Sims
mode.
For the first time, you can play with or against another human Sim
player on the same gaming system. Including two-player modes was a smart
move by Maxis, who recognized that console gameplayers are big on
multiplayer gaming. And the two-player modes are definitely a lot of
fun. The unlocked bonus two-player games square you off against another
player in all kinds of competitive hijinks. In the Frat House level, the
goal is to gain more new friendships in the college frat house than your
opponent before the time runs out. And to aid you in your quest for new
beer-swilling chums, you can use the “spread a rumor” interaction to
ruin your opponent’s Sim reputation and be victorious. The grand prize
for being a popular gossiper is a wild hot tub party that only a frat
house crowd could throw. All the two-player games have similar original
(and often-times devious) goals and options to accomplish winning.
The Get a Life mode throws you in a single-player goal-oriented Sim
game. You start out broke and STILL living at home with mom, no job or
money lining your pockets to move out. After you borrow enough cash from
mom to move out and meet a few other criteria, you’ll progress through
more scenarios like this. Of course, if you are a fan of the original
Sims, then you can play that way too, building a house in a neighborhood
and then going completely open-ended Sims adventuring from there. As in
the PC version, the choice of what to do when is left up to you.
Missing from the game however, is most of the gameplay elements that are
contained in the PC Sims expansion packs. So don’t expect to be taking a
Vacation with the new love interest you met on a Hot Date while throwing
a House Party for all your Unleashed pet-loving Sim friends who are
Living Large in your Xbox Sims game. But there are still plenty of
unique items, clothing, and characters throughout The Sims and the
two-player and goal-oriented gameplay more than makes up for your
unexpanded Sims options.
By far the biggest hurdle in getting The Sims onto the Xbox was coming
up with controls using an Xbox controller to maneuver in a game designed
to work with a mouse and keyboard. Maxis did a great job of mapping all
the PC commands to the Xbox controller. The one area where this game
could have really suffered was in the controls, but instead you have
easy-to-learn and quite responsive Sims command literally at your
fingertips. Helping out is a light “beam” that more than suffices for
the absence of a clicking mouse in selecting items and choosing your
Sims and your desired interactions in the Sim world.
The game is given a much-needed graphical upgrade. While the look of The
Sims is essentially the same as it is on the PC, there’s more detailed
visuals and they are in a real 3D environment. Unlike the 2D isometric
PC graphics, which are only quasi-3D, The Sims on the Xbox is in a fully
3D realm. The new Sims look will be appreciated by Sims fans and was
definitely needed in a game that hasn’t seen a major visual overhaul
since its inception 3½ years ago, even though its obvious that Maxis
didn’t push the visual envelope when developing on the Xbox, which is
definitely capable of better rendering than this.
And what would a Sims game be without the amazing music and sounds that
pervade throughout your gameplaying, which has always been one of the
strongest assets in a Sims game. Whether it’s the amusing conversation
babble between characters known as Simlish to the varied unique musical
tunes from the Sims musical acts that float through your Sim radios,
TV’s and dance floors, as always, expect to get an audio stimulation out
of this simulation title.
While The Sims isn’t a totally radical departure from its PC origins,
the Xbox version scores just a tad higher than on the other console
version I’ve played, the GameCube, because of its slightly better
graphics, more comfortable controller, and easier game save system on
the built-in Xbox hard drive. But whatever console you play The Sims on,
its new and improved 3D graphical presentation, console-friendly
controls, and new single-player and two-player modes make The Sims a
sim-sationally fun game that is a splendid addition to The Sims
universe.
