Overview

No one can deny the universal appeal that The Sims has generated along with its fifteen million expansion packs. The whole idea of controlling an assortment of different little people in day-to-day life while managing their money and home development was all it took to attract an unbelievable amount of fans, most of which are the elusive “mainstream” audience. The Sims is basically a big, computerized dollhouse filled with dolls you can kill or make successful and happy. Probably not a good game for clinically diagnosed megalomaniacs.

The broad appeal of The Sims is that the game doesn’t really have a win point. This makes the game rather easy to get into and out of, whether you want to play for several hours or just a few minutes, there are no chapters or save points. That along with the numerous expansion packs to give each player more and more options for expansion and lifestyles makes for a rather open-ended game that can literally be played forever. The Sims 2 doesn’t really vary much from this formula, though it does add some goals and a few other interesting tidbits here and there.

With The Sims being as successful as it is, what else would a company want to do more than make a sequel that will rake in more money for general wallowing/burning purposes? Nothing at all, and that’s why we have The Sims 2. Starting out of the box with more options than the original touted upon release, the game has been an instant hit, selling more than one million copies in its first ten days of release.


Everyone knew that the game would be a huge hit, but will it be able to keep the attention of its fan base? The answer turns out to be a mixed bag, but mostly positive. In a game where more of the same thing isn’t such a bad idea, there were a few questionable decisions made by the development team.