Avault.com said "... The Sims is the most amusing rendering of digital life gamers have ever seen."
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The Sims PC review
Review by: Nick Stewart
Published: March 9, 2000
Without question, Will Wright is a visionary. At a time when publishers sniffed at the idea of a game in which there was no winning or losing, he persevered to create the genre-setting masterpiece, SimCity. The continuity of its concept and popularity of its successors, SimCity 2000 and SimCity 3000, should speak for the genius in the concept Wright laid forth so many years ago. In light of this astounding accomplishment, the industry as a whole understandably stood up and took notice when Wright announced his intention to base a PC title not on the creation of a city, but rather on the management of everyday life. The gaming community has waited with baited breath for the opportunity to oversee the ins and outs of a digital self, and very recently had this desire sated with the product’s release. The Sims has since been propelled to the top of the charts, but at a time when titles like Deer Hunter and Frogger have dominated the upper echelons of sales lists, does this mean Wright’s creation is a good game, or merely a novelty for mass consumption?
Before answering this question, one must first fully establish the nitty-gritty of The Sims‘ premise. Set as the resident omnipotent deity of what almost looks to be a SimCity subdivision, players must first breathe life into a series of digital social entities, be they a single man or woman, a dating couple, roommates, a standard nuclear family, or even a commune if desired. You then select one of ten lots, either purchasing the house located therein, or building one yourself using your newly created family’s standard allotment of $20,000. Items, ranging from the necessary to the superlative, are then purchased and placed within the building in accordance with your whim, and possibly your Sims’ aesthetic wishes. You are then free to watch as your pseudo-human creations go about their existence as they eat supper, watch television, deal with neighbors, and prepare to go to work. You can even zip from house to house, witnessing the antics of the Sims within, and may even take pictures for that family’s scrapbook if you so desire. The real meat of the game, however, is only truly discovered when you take matters into your own hands, and actively direct their decisions and actions, playing in equal measure Jiminy Cricket and God. This is sometimes preferable since, depending on your Sims’ personalities, they might be too sloppy or lazy by nature to advance their stations in life on their own. This is where you come in, ensuring that their basic aspects of life are adequately managed and tended to so that they may perhaps come to know a happier, more satisfying existence.
Before jumping into the shoes of an omnipotent deity, however, players must first create families to populate their neighborhood, which starts with the creation of a single character. This involves selecting one of three skin tones and either gender, and while this has no real meaning within the game, it does help give you the mindset with which to develop your Sim. Next, you determine the individual’s physical appearance, choosing from a range of head shapes, facial styles, and hair color. Also to be decided is the Sim’s body shape, which can be selected from either thin, fit, or overweight. In so doing, you can also decide on the person’s clothing, draping them with anything from pants to shorts, and dinner jackets to tank-tops, although this can later be altered through the use of a dresser. Next comes what is perhaps the most important move for your Sim’s entire existence: the determination of his or her personality. This entails distributing a number of “personality points” among five different character traits: neatness, extroversion, activity, playfulness, and niceness. There are just enough points to ensure that your Sim has an evident personality, although not so many that you can maximize each statistic. In other words, you can see to it that Bobby Sim is an extroverted, active, and playful type, but chances are he’ll leave his place a mess and probably won’t be particularly kind in his dealings with others. On the other hand, if you’ve designed him to be a kind-hearted clean freak, he probably won’t be overly inclined to party with the neighbors. Once this crucial information has been established, you can type out a brief description of your Sim’s personality, rendering him or her that much more of an individual. Finally, you assign a first name to your character, and you’re done.
Sims aren’t truly Sims without a place to live, though, and as such, your next step consists of making appropriate arrangements. When the game is first booted up, you have a choice of several pre-made homes, although the truest fun is found in creating your own. Those who have toyed with any of the SimCity titles will find a few of the tools somewhat familiar, such as the terrain tool that allows you to raise, lower, or level the terrain as you see fit, provided there aren’t any items or bodies of water barring the way. Of foremost importance to creating your Sims’ new residence is, quite naturally, the wall tool. Walls, like all other landscaping and personal items, are set upon a grid. This might be distracting if it was apparent at all times, but fortunately, it only becomes evident upon entering the construction mode, which can be selected at any point during gameplay. While walls can be set on both sides of the grid squares as well as diagonally, doors can only be placed within if their target wall follows the grid’s edges. These doors, as well as windows and fireplaces, can then be selected and placed in and around the house, affecting not only the ease with which your Sims travel from room to room, but also the home’s lighting and the residents’ opinion of their abode. Next come the more customizable areas of construction–floor and wallpaper selection. A wide variety of carpeting, marble, and hardwood floors as well as styles and colors for wallpaper can be applied to various areas, rendering it as tasteful or as tacky as you wish. Then, place trees, plants, or flowers around the property, and your house is halfway ready to go. Although setting up wallpaper, flooring, and landscaping might not seem overly thrilling, it provides a tangible opportunity to clearly express the vibrant personalities of the residents, which is in itself half the fun.
An empty house is no place for a Sim to live, and as such, you’re provided with a choice of over 150 different items with which to meet their basic needs and entertainment desires. These items are available through a catalog-like interface, and are compartmentalized by their basic type, or, if you prefer, by the room in which they belong. Many of the items, such as pet fish and pianos, might not appear to be important in meeting your Sims’ needs, but in fact, all items satisfy one of the eight basic necessities in some form, which in turn affects their overall mood. These include hunger, comfort, hygiene, bladder control, energy, fun, social contact, and room quality. In other words, you can satisfy your Sims’ hunger by buying them a refridgerator in which to store their food, a counter on which to prepare it, a stove on which to cook it, and a table at which they can comfortably sit and eat. Similarly, you can purchase toilets to deal with their bladder needs, baths and showers to tend to their hygiene, and high-quality lamps with which to spruce up a room’s looks. Energy and comfort can be maintained by providing your hapless Sims with comfortable chairs and couches on which to sit and nap, and elegant, springy beds to sleep in. The items most likely to entertain you are those that are prone to entertain your Sims, thereby maintaining their Fun level. Your digital people will often laugh heartily and slap their knees while watching television shows they enjoy, and will dance the night away if provided with a radio or stereo system. Buying items might be a necessary, and sometimes costly, element of managing your Sims, but quite often proves to be amusing enough to make up for the trouble.
Just as in real life, nothing comes for free, and your Sims will have to pay out of their own pockets for the items you provide them. As such, arranging for them to acquire jobs is extremely advisable, as the initial $20,000 allotment runs out much faster than you would think. Either by flipping through the newspaper or, if they have the luxury of owning a computer, searching online, your characters may start themselves upon one of ten different career tracks. As with any job, they will start at the very bottom rung of the chain, and will have to persistently and constantly improve their skills if they hope to one day reach the top. This means that while Bobby may start his career in politics as a campaign worker, he may eventually reach senator if he sufficiently manages his work skills. These include cooking, mechanical, charisma, body, logic, and creativity, and are all improved through extended use of appropriate items. For example, aspiring scientists must maintain their logic and creativity skills, and accordingly should spend large amounts of time playing chess and the piano, as well as painting. On the other hand, if a pickpocket wishes to one day rise to crime boss, he should constantly work out to keep up his body skills, and recite speeches in front of the mirror to heighten his charisma. To reach the highest rung of the job ladder is a long and arduous process, often requiring many hours of raising statistics and increasing skill potential.
They say that to get anywhere in life, you have to know the right people. Simlife is no different, as making friends is an integral part of climbing the career ladder, and important to keeping the social aspect of your characters’ needs happily satisfied. Indeed, interaction between various personalities is a unique and fascinating phenomenon, and is certainly an important part of The Sims‘ experience. It is when Sims communicate and interact with each other that their personalities rapidly become apparent, as they behave and react to each other’s character quirks and flaws. Depending on their level of kindness, playfulness, and extroversion, you can direct them to most any kind of interpersonal dealing, ranging from basic conversation, to joking and complimenting. It is here that it first becomes obvious whether your characters’ personalities will click or clash, as a serious Sim might react badly to a playful Sim’s attempt at a joke. If negative interaction persists, they may be led to insult and tease each other, even mounting to the point of slapping and, in the worst cases, all-out brawling. On the flip side, highly compatible Sims may dance, play pool together, flirt with one another, kiss, and yes, eventually marry. Upon marriage, Sims move in together, transferring all their funds and friends over to the new family. Although same-sex friends–and in some cases, couples–cannot marry, they can flirt and kiss, or may simply just move in together without the trappings of a marriage ceremony. In the same vein, couples of differing sexes who live together may opt to have children, and same-sex couples may discover the joys of children via adoption. The arrival of children into the relationship changes the family dynamic, as babies must be tended to 24-7 for three days until they morph into perpetual eight-year-olds. As children cannot cook or have jobs, but instead attend school, adults must forever tend to them as you tend to your Sims, lending an interesting spin to gameplay.
While you possess a great deal of power over most aspects of your Sims’ lives and actions, there are some elements beyond your control. Despite your best efforts, calamity may befall your beloved creations. These tragedies are called failure states, and can often completely alter your Sims’ lives. Characters who have a low cooking skill may accidentally set fire to the stove, microwave, or fireplace, in which case everybody runs into the flaming room, screaming and wildly flailing about in a dramatic display of panic. If you can calm them down, you can then entice them to call the fire department, or perhaps to extinguish the inferno themselves. Unfortunately, these options don’t always work. The fire may spread to surrounding areas, destroying everything in its path, and sometimes burning your poor Sims into ash. The same end result may arrive from asking a mechanically disinclined Sim to repair a television or computer, only in this instance, it’s death by electrocution. In other words, your inept chef might squirt too much lighter fluid on the barbecue, thereby turning a hamburger cookout into a Sim cookout. The untimely demise of a Sim will result in the appearance of an urn, or if you move it outside, a gravestone. Your remaining characters will often take to mourning the lost individual, bawling their eyes out, although occasionally a vengeful deceased may at night come back from the dead to terrorize the bewildered survivors.
Additionally, there are wildcards that spontaneously change the course of a Sim’s life. This may involve an onscreen message, informing you that your pro athlete overextended himself during practice, thereby injuring himself and losing Body skill points, or that your Chief of Hospital Staff has tired of administrative life and has switched to a career as a scientist. All in all, such uncertainties lend surprising variety to what is a wholly amusing title.
Graphics: 4 Stars
While The Sims might not look overly impressive given today’s heavily 3D accelerated world, it rapidly becomes evident how the simple yet lavish graphics almost perfectly complement its gameplay. Details in the characters’ hair, face, and clothes can easily be distinguished in its minimum 800×600 mode, and even more so in its optional 1024×768 mode. While shadowing can only truly be seen on a Sim’s clothing, you’ll usually find yourself too busy gawking at their surroundings to notice. Like digital thespians, your Sims express themselves as much through their bodies as they do through their voices. Character animation is such that virtually all SimSpeak seems to be directly translated through your Sims’ actions, as they move their arms about expressively during heated conversations, sway suggestively while flirting, and stomp angrily if they’re particularly irritated. Even basic actions trigger animated eye-candy: Sims energetically jump around while dancing, perform swan-dives and cannonballs while leaping into swimming pools, and even hunch their shoulders, visibly relaxing as another Sim gives them a back rub. Such animations are apparent throughout the game, and only serve to further extend the illusion of reality that it so proudly portrays.
Interface: 5 Stars
The Sims is extremely easy to install, and provides several adjustable options. Music, sound, and various graphical switches may be toggled in-game, with the resolution being the only thing that must be selected prior to loading the program. Additionally, the skill and needs bars are easily accessed through a series of basic mouse-clicks, and display all necessary information as simply as you could possibly hope for. Even if you neglect to check up on your Sims’ basic needs, they will often remind you on their own by whining, grumbling, or in the most desperate cases, screaming.
Although your Sims communicate in unintelligible gibberish, their vocal tone is quite often so unmistakable that you cannot fail to comprehend exactly what they’re trying to get across. Even if you aren’t listening to what your highly talkative characters are trying to express, the speech and thought bubbles that frequently appear above their heads will provide you with incredibly easy-to-understand symbols. These symbols can also be witnessed during inter-Sim communication, and their respective pleasure or displeasure with this interaction can just as easily be seen by their physical reaction, or alternately by plus and minus signs that appear above their heads.
Gameplay: 4.5 Stars
The Sims is quite different from most any other title offered on today’s market, and is quite frankly a lot of fun to play. The plethora of career choices, adjustable personality traits, and item interactions will wildly vary the gameplay for a considerable time. The only black mark against this otherwise entertaining experience is that your Sims must develop a routine for a certain percentage of their day in order to ensure that they’re sufficiently alert, bathed, and fed before heading off to work. This can become somewhat repetitive after a while, although the options to queue a list of commands and fast-forward time tend to defer this variable somewhat. Fortunately, if you end up tiring of actively controlling your Sim, you can allow them to do as they please, which will often see them bathing and feeding themselves of their own volition, provided their personality dictates a certain level of self-sufficiency. Your Sim’s personality can thus not only affect their interpersonal dealings and the amusement derived from particular objects, but their ability to look after themselves as well. This makes for quite an interesting experience, and one that provides ample amounts of amusing gameplay for those who are willing to invest the time.
Sound FX: 5 Stars
The Sims‘ range of sounds is rather considerable, given the nature of SimSpeak. As previously mentioned, SimSpeak is complete and utter gibberish, although its tone and nature can convey its intended meaning with crystal-clear accuracy. Other sounds, such as treading across a wooden floor, or even something as simple as opening and closing a door, are rendered with near perfection, never leaving the player wondering what the effects are or where they came from.
Musical Score: 5 Stars
There is scant music in The Sims, with persistent instances only truly present while browsing catalogs or other similar transitory moments. Stereos and radios emanate appropriately-themed instrumental songs, depending on the type of station your Sim has chosen, whether it be country, rock, and so on. What makes the music so brilliant is the option to insert your own MP3s into the game, so that Bobby Sim could be listening to The Rolling Stones while playing pool, or Barry White while serving a romantic dinner to his girlfriend. Maxis’ decision to take advantage of the upswing in MP3 popularity is a masterstroke, and one that enhances the title to no end.
Intelligence & Difficulty: 3.5 Stars
One of the greatest features of The Sims is the ability to sit back and watch the people you’ve created go about their daily lives, chatting with the neighbors and entertaining themselves. Their individuality is so dependant on their player-created personalities that virtually every nuance, from their behavior to the type of television show they enjoy, is dictated by the traits you decide upon during their creation. The AI successfully implements this uniqueness, and player emotions are thus generated with surprising efficiency. Bobby Sim might become jealous upon witnessing Brad Sim dancing with his beloved, leading him to either give his competitor a smack or to break down and cry, depending on his personality, thereby conveying a fair amount of believability.
Some elements detract from this realism, however. Sims react to one another as dictated by their personality traits, and while this can provide some degree of a challenge, it is surprisingly simple to discover what a Sim enjoys, such as compliments or jokes, and to order your digital id to repeat that order over and over. This will almost always result in the opposing Sim becoming your friend or falling in love with you, and as such its simplicity is somewhat disheartening.
Overall: 4.5 Stars
Between its incredibly unique gameplay and heartily realistic character response system, The Sims comes off as a highly entertaining and twisted mix of Tamagotchi and The Truman Show. With countless additions being introduced through the official website on a regular basis, along with the ability to share photos, Sim families, and player-created textures through the Internet, the experience offered is as expansive as you could possibly hope for. The Sims puts forth the closest, most amusing rendering of digital life gamers have ever seen.
