All Sims Go to Heaven… Eventually

What is it about a reality-show-esque computer game that combines the best elements of a soap opera with the best elements of a home improvement show that sucks you in, making the virtual needs of your sims outweigh your own needs to urinate or cook dinner?

Well, if you’re a fan of the original Sims, you probably already know the answer, and the question you’re really asking is – should I go out and drop forty simoleons on the sequel?

The most obvious improvement is the huge 3D makeover for every element in the game. Now you can zoom in close enough to see the wedding ring on your Sim’s finger, then spin the camera 360 degrees around him and the highly detailed TV screen he’s watching, where a movie file you created from your sims’ previous exploits plays.

All this eye candy comes at a huge price – The Sims 2 might be the biggest resource hog of any non-FPS on the market. In fact, I’d wager I got faster load times and better performance playing Doom 3 than I did in The Sims 2 (especially when inviting too many friends over to my sims’ virtual house).

The second, more subtle but far more important, change is the new growth and aspiration system that gives your sims life spans and goals, other than to keep the bathroom clean or go to work. In addition to having the “normal” needs from the first game (hunger, hygiene, environment, bladder, energy and comfort), each sim has his or her own life-long goal of wealth, friends, family, knowledge or just plain Whoo-Hoo. Then they have everyday goals from as complex as having sex in public to as simple as eating a grilled cheese sandwich.

You can focus strictly on these “aspiration” goals, but you still have to monitor the basic needs – and your money – to ensure your sims stay healthy, wealthy and alive.

The AI has vastly improved since the first game, meaning sims are less likely to die from hunger or exhaustion as they were in the first game. You can pre-establish relationships so that your married sims will actually sleep in the same bed together on their first night!

In fact, if you’ve just played the original game, plus maybe a few expansion packs, you’ll find the entire experience much more realistic and entertaining.

Unfortunately, the game still suffers from many of the endlessly annoying problems as the first game – Sims sometimes get stuck trying to move around objects and simply give up what they’re doing; sims you barely know will treat your house like it’s their own once invited in the front door; sims will yell about having to pee even when only a few feet away from the bathroom; and the game certainly hasn’t reduced the frequency of public urination to a socially acceptable limit.

By far, the family and friend relationships you cultivate in this game are far more interesting than the daily minutiae that sometimes dominated the first game. (I still would like to see some polishing in Sims 2 to further reduce the micromanagement that comes along with these daily needs.)

Now, if you’re one of those players who found children to be an annoyance not worthy of your attention in The Sims, you might be surprised to find yourself focusing on the kids more often than the adults in the sequel (Especially when the toddlers have such adorable animations for nearly everything they do!). The whole concept of genetics, family trees, growing up and growing old adds a sense of history and realism not previously seen in the world of the nearly-immortal Sims.

Unfortunately, the aging process also lends itself to problems some might find nitpicky. If you want your teenager to marry her high school sweetheart after graduation, you’ll have to jump over to that family’s house and play through that teen’s life until he (or she) hits the same age. And just forget about keeping those “townie” sims (NPCs) as friends – they never grow old no matter how long you play.

Maxis included a cheat to allow your sims to stay immortal should you wish to play that way, but no utility to speed up the aging process. So, this will continue to be a bone of contention, at least for myself, that hopefully can be remedied with a patch or expansion.

Speaking of which – I didn’t mention those of you who bought the original Sims game, then spent more money on expansion packs than on groceries. You might actually find the game’s content lacking, at least in the fact that some of the content included those expansions is missing – most notably pets. At least some concepts from the expansions – including community lots – made it into the base Sims 2 game, but the amount of pre-included content is relatively limited. It remains to be seen whether Maxis will release more content online or focus on harvesting yet more piles of cash from another endless stream of expansion packs. (So far player-designed clothing and hairstyles abound, but few “objects”, e.g. paintings and such, exist for download, even on the main Web site.)

Overall, those of you who’ve already paid a couple hundred dollars on the original series will still find more to love in the Sims 2, though you should prepare for a couple of disappointments. And, for everyone else, the Sims 2 might be the best thing since curly fries.