Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The Sims was one of the most popular games ever made. In it, players micromanage the lives of a family of virtual people, or Sims, and influence their paths toward success or something akin to a nervous breakdown. Its open-ended blend of cartoonish behavior and everyday living is unique in an art form otherwise obsessed with carnage and sports. With The Sims 2, long-time fans now have a deeper game with lots of ways to customize and share their experiences. The game will also attract first-timers because the goal-oriented gameplay and the luridly fun starter families make it easier to get into the action right out of the box.
Now Sims are born with the traits of their parents, families grow, and Sims grow old.
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The People in Your Neighborhood
The game starts at the neighborhood level. Here you can create a housing development from scratch or start with one of three premade neighborhoods, each with its own theme. From there, you'll settle on a house and a family of Sims to control.  | | Create your own Sim (above) or your own house (below) from scratch with advanced tools. |  |
Aside from the basic needs carried over from the previous game, Sims now have aspirations, wants, and fears. The wants and fears are the day-to-day things that occupy their minds, like wanting to see friends or get married and fearing death or being rejected for a kiss. Satisfy their wants, and they become more efficient at completing tasks you assign them. Realize their fears, and Sims become lethargic, cranky, and unresponsive to your commands. Aspirations are the big-picture things, like raising a family, becoming wealthy, and gaining knowledge. Succeed here and you'll be able to buy odd gifts for your Sim to improve his or her life, like a money tree that pays dividends or a "fountain of youth" water cooler. What Else Is New?
Of course, you wouldn't be able to juggle all that if it weren't for the improved "Free Will" option, which makes it easier for Sims to fulfill their basic needs. The artificial intelligence of the game is noticeably improved; they won't turn on radios just as a family member is going to bed but, strangely, they do occasionally put their dishes on the floor. Another big change in the series is the concept of the lifespan. Now Sims are born with the traits of their parents, families grow, and Sims grow old. Not only does this go hand in hand with aspirations (growing up is the first aspiration that a baby Sim will have), it provides a limited time with which your Sims can achieve their goals.  | | The Universal Control Panel helps you manage your Sim family. |
A Family Affair
The Sims 2 not only lets you create just about any type of Sim in any type of family, build elaborate houses, and even create a neighborhood from scratch, but it also allows you to start the game in medias res, with premade households. These families all have backstories that are smart spoofs of soap-opera plots--lots of scheming, romance, ghosts, and family fighting. Parents of teens shouldn't worry, though, because nudity is tastefully blurred out and "woo-hoo" between Sims takes place completely under the covers. The ESRB has given this a Teen rating. If The Sims 2 were a film, it would likely land between PG and PG-13. The makers have included some nice tools to help share the universe you've created. For example, you can capture in-game stills and video to show friends the private moments, family interactions, and house parties of your Sims. You can even package a household to share as a blog or an album on a special Web site. The Sims 2 is for patient gamers. Like life itself, the game is filled with mundane details, like getting ready for work and doing dishes. The game also demands a level of creativity from its players that the run-and-gun game genres wouldn't know what to do with. But those who stick with it will be rewarded with an absorbing, amusing diversion and a virtual family history that they've created themselves. --Porter B. Hall Set Up a Sims 2 Machinima Studio
 Amazon.com contributor Porter Hall reveals how you can make movies using the Sims as your actors. See his guide to setting up a Sims 2 Machinima Studio. Product Description
In The Sims 2, your Sims will be more lifelike, more responsive, and more complex than ever before. You'll be able to control your Sims over their entire lifetimes, taking them from their first steps to their golden years. Guide them through "Life's Big Moments" and build their "Life Score" with every decision you make. And since every Sim will have its own DNA, their appearance and personality will be passed down through the generations. Life in The Sims 2 will take on a whole different dimension with our entirely new 3-D engine. |
Customer Reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 The no. 1 selling game, deservedly so, May 7, 2023
Unless you've been living down a big, dark hole for the past 4 years, The Sims will need no introduction. Not only was this game the biggest selling PC game of all time but it also offered a completely new experience for all those wannabe Gods out there, there was nothing like it before and apart from the numerous expansion packs the only thing that came close afterwards was Singles: Flirt Up Your Life which was basically The Sims, with more emphasis on bedroom antics!
But now, after much anticipation, The Sims 2 has arrived! If there is anyone out there still asking "but what are The Sims?" then you really need to get out more, or maybe I need to get out more? Either way The Sims offers a simple concept, players get to create a little computer person (or a whole family), design them a house and then completely run (or ruin!) their lives from their career, relationships and even bathroom habits. So what is The Sims 2? Well take everything I've just said and make it 100 times better and you have The Sims 2!
As soon as you start the game up the first major change that hits you are the games graphics which take The Sims totally into 3D, the 3 pre-designed neighbourhoods that come with the game are huge filled with tree's, rivers, bridges, flying birds and of course an array of houses (some empty and some housing numerous new families) and what's more, each neighbourhood is totally different with their own stories and overall style, fans of the first game will recognise many of the families in "Pleasantville" such as the Goths who now consist of a greying Mortimer and an adult Cassandra, Bella has mysteriously vanished however.
The next change that hit us was the "Create a family" option which has also had a major overhaul allowing players to create totally custom Sims with a number of hairstyles, hair colours, pre-set faces, types of facial hair, eye colour and clothes and to make it even more editable, players can fiddle with numerous parts of their Sim to get him or her looking just right from the shape of their eyes, width of their chin and length of their nose; everything is customisable. In short, players can re-create anyone they want to from real life family members to celebrities to a spooky likeness providing they have the time and patience to mess around with the editor for long enough! As I'm sure you have guessed, this "create a Sim" editor is a massive improvement on the first games "create" mode but if we're going to be picky, one cant help wondering why Maxis left out other important feature changers in the editor such as height and a few more body shapes (at present we have thin and fat), I know there is always room for expansion packs (as we know from the original!) but with such an excellent "Create" mode, it's a shame they didn't go the whole way and add more body adjusters.
So, you've chosen a neighbourhood (or created your own), have created a family of Sims and are now ready to move them into a pre-made house or design them your own. Should you choose the latter you will notice the next obvious change to the franchise. The build tool has been considerably improved, houses can have a maximum of 3 floors as well as foundations and a roof top floor allowing players to build much bigger homes for their families than in the first game and as you would expect, the game offers a much wider variety of floors, doors, windows, wall coverings and fences allowing players to really design a custom home from scratch and thanks to the 3D graphics and variety of build tools homes in The Sims 2 look much more realistic than ever before.
Also to feature a lot more variety is the "buy" mode which gives a number of colour and style variations with almost everything that is available to buy, clicking on a bed for instance will bring up a number of options including the colour of the wood and bed covers allowing you to truly mix and match the objects in your house.
So onto the actual gameplay and again, despite the concept of the game being the same (keep your Sims happy) The Sims 2 feels different from the very moment you being to control your families, for a start the `characters' that you create have a much deeper feel to them, they seem to show expressions, develop their own feelings and come with a host of new animations that allow them to show off their new personalities. No longer do they carry the very basic needs such as "bladder" and "hunger" (although you still have to tend to these), your Sims now come with life aspirations meaning they aspire to a particular goal in life from fortune (their goal is to be rich), knowledge (these Sims have a passion for learning), Family (self explanatory, family orientated), Popularity (these Sims "need" to be popular) and Romance (again, self explanatory).
You simply cannot explain this without an example so take my family of Sims, "The Simtons" which consist of a mother (Sarah) and father (Dave) and a young son (Robert). Now, Sarah was blessed with the family aspiration and wanted nothing more than a big, happy family. Unfortunately for her she was partnered (by my good self!) to Dave who had the fortune aspiration meaning he was obsessed with earning money, getting the kid into private school and swatting for promotion. Down the road lived the young "Andrew" who carried with him the romance aspiration and whilst Dave was at work one day, Andrew and Sarah got to know each other pretty well, in fact, they ended up sleeping together, nothing too exciting so far right? Well unfortunately little Robert had seen the goings on and was stood outside waiting to greet his father from work in tears, Dave came home and Sarah came running downstairs all very innocent, she walked past Dave as if nothing had happened with a sheepish wipe of her mouth and a quick shake of the head Sarah thought she had gotten away with her quick rumble upstairs...Dave however had been told of what had happened and refused to speak to her for days, in fact it took quite a while for me to get their marriage back on track! At this point, you would've been forgiven for forgetting that these characters are not real people, despite the great job they do of convincing you otherwise!
Another way they try to convince you of their realism is through their animations, Sims will now lounge across the settee with their feet up and head resting in their hands, in bed adult Sims will cuddle up to each other and when watching TV, parents and children can snuggle up together while two adults can get "romantic" on the couch! I bought one of my Sims a double bed after it showed up as a "want" of hers (more on this later), she was so pleased with her new possession that she promptly began re-arranging the pillows and then laid down on it and began day dreaming, it looked so realistic. Toddlers can also be found crawling across the floor in search of an adult and young children play a number of games including the very violent "cops and robbers" which involves one of them falling to the ground after being "shot" by the other!
Ok, so The Sims 2 is more realistic, what else is new? Well as mentioned earlier, the Sims now develop "wants and fears" in addition to their "needs", wants usually accompany the Sims aspiration so a "fortune Sim" will constantly want expensive furniture, promotions and money whilst a "popularity Sim" will want to make new friends and host big parties. Fears can be based on a number of things such as the death of a loved one, a grade D report card or a rejection of a kiss, its your job to fulfil their wants and stay clear of their fears and watch the aspiration metre fill up, points are awarded for completed wants and a good aspiration meter puts your Sims in a `platinum' mood.
Finally, your Sims will now age, there are 6 stages to a Sims life ranging from baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult and finally, old age and unlike in the original game, Sims can now die of old age. Families are also backed by a family tree meaning that the game remembers who is related to who so in practice, you could raise a child to a teenager, through adulthood, witness them raise their own children and finally grandchildren before he or she dies leaving a long history behind him. This feature adds tons to the depth of the gameplay.
So that's the game, but the question is, was it worth the 4 year wait? In a word, yes. The Sims 2 is what everyone wanted The Sims to be, the graphics are great, Sims get a couple of days off work and school for socialising and brushing up on skills, everything is fully customisable from the houses to the Sims themselves and the aging system coupled with the aspiration system just makes The Sims 2 more addictive than ever and what's more, they no longer take 1 hour to use the toilet and no longer need to go to bed at 17:00 in order to get up for work in a morning! If you're a fan of the original, you will love this, if you hated The Sims first time around, chances are you will hate this one too but on the whole Maxis have done an excellent job of creating a successful sequel to the best selling PC game of all time.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Best Game of All Times, May 1, 2023
I started playing this game in the year 2000 when the first game "The Sims" was released and bought every single expansion pack. I also beta tested and played "The Sims Online" as well as the game console versions.
I awaited the release of The Sims 2 for years and I couldn't believe how great this game is when I played it the first time. You are actually playing a multidimensional person with ambitions, fears and desires that you must keep on a balance. But what amazed me the most is the wonderful graphics and the ability to completely customize floors, walls, clothing, skintones, hair and more. There is also a huge comunity of sim players around the world that create amazing custom content and develop gameplay strategies and, of course, modify the game to it's very extreme.
You will never grow tired of this game because it is limited to your imagination. Plus expansion packs are released twice a year for new features and improvements. I rate this game 10 on a scale of 5. Two big thumbs up!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
If I had to pick just one word to describe The Sims 2, it would be "charming", Apr 30, 2023
The Sims 2 is, quite simply, the most charming game I've ever played in my life. I purchased the first one all those years ago not knowing exactly what to expect, but knowing that, since I had so enjoyed many of the other Sim-themed games, I would probably enjoy The Sims as well. Who could've suspected what a huge success it would turn out to be, or what path it would take, or the type of appeal it would have.
Well, everyone pretty much knew what to expect with this sequel. I've been anticipating it myself for about two years or so, and my expectations were quite high. I can confidently say that I have not been disappointed. The Sims 2 completely fulfills the promise of the first Sims, fixing every major issue, and adding almost every feature needed to round out and complete the experience of running a group of families in a neighborhood.
The gameplay is almost identical to the original, with a very smooth and intuitive interface. The design keeps the relatively complex controls convenient and straightforward. The free will of the sim themselves has been much improved. There were problems in the original where they would complain about a need being unfulfilled, yet fail to take care of it themselves. In this game, they are much better about taking care of themselves, which is a huge and crucial improvement. The pathfinding is also much better, and some critical fixes have been made that almost completely eliminate some of the worst problems, such as sims getting stuck in impossible to resolve "traffic jams" and the like.
For example, in the original, only one sim could walk up or down stairs at a time. The could be a nightmare of logistics in a large house with many residents or guests. In The Sims 2, you can have sims walking up and down the stairs simultaneously, which is an immense help, although it still appears as though you can only have one sim walking in each particular direction at a time. This can occasionally cause problems, but this is not often enough to detract very much from the fun.
As I said, there are a number of improvements, but I have noticed one area or situation in which there are still some problems. When your adult sims have babies, there can be some difficulties getting them to do what you want. I've found that adults will more often than neccesary want to pick up their baby or toddler, and stop doing whatever else I've told them to do. This isn't an utter disaster, as with careful attention and some pausing in the action, the problem can be minimized, but it is somewhat frustrating on occasion. The only reason I'm pointing this out is because I have one family that had twins, and this problem became much more noticeable with two babies to pick up.
With so many amazing looking games coming out these days, and with all the pre-release time to look at videos and pictures of the game, it's easy to take the graphics in The Sims 2 for granted. But four years of technological advances in the gaming world has made this sequel immeasurably ahead of the original in terms of graphic quality. The 3-D engine was of course a must for a modern game, but the style of the original is preserved, with changes that don't detract from what we've come to expect from the Sims. Suffice to say the look is very satisfying.
The music is also pretty good. The music for the buying and building phases is pretty good, not amazing, but I think where the game really shines is in the music that plays on the stereo systems that the sims can purchase. The styles have really been nicely updated for 2004. I especially enjoy and am amused by the pop songs included. They perfectly parody the trends of the last couple years, and the fact that the lyrics are gibberish actually enhances the pop qualities. Pop songs have mindless lyrics anyway, so this it is fun in that way.
The fact that the sims can age and pass on their genes and wealth to their children makes this game so much deeper than the original. Also, the number and types of interactions have been noticeably improved. From playing different games to the crazy variety of kisses you can have, The Sims 2 has so much more personality than the original, I can barely scratch the surface of it all.
Another thing that is amazing is the potential for storymaking and drama in this sequel. In the original, there were limited options as far as relationships. In fact, there were no official blood relationships. Even after a child was born, it was not noted whose child it was, or anything like that. In The Sims 2, all relationships are explicated, and all major events are remembered. It's possible to get engaged and then break up before getting married, or be left at the altar, or even to have babies out of wedlock. The possibilities are endless. One could create stories that would make a soap opera writer blush.
This game is amazing. The joy of seeing children grow up and families grow and evolve, the complexities of relationships, everything is just a treat to witness unfold. I've been playing this game for a week, and I haven't even touched the pre-generated neighborhoods. I feel like I've just barely discovered all there is to do in this game, and I think I'll be playing it for a long time. Judging from the original, I'm certain there will be a vast number of expansion packs, and a never-ending supply of user created sims, houses, and items. The value of this game is infinite. While there are a few very minor issues, they don't come close to taking away from the immense fun of this game. It's recommendable to anyone.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Hmm..., Apr 21, 2023
I bought this game for my computer but it didnt work so I ended up returning it. I played this game at my friends house and it is extremely fun! I would recomend it if you have a new computer. It will keep you entertained for hours!
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 great game but some problems, Apr 4, 2023
First off, this game is way better than the first sims. Second, its fun with the way better graphics and the more things you can do. This game is VERY ADDICTING!! YOU WILL BE ON THIS GAME FOR 5 HOURS AND NOT KNOW IT!!! As fun as this game goes, do NOT over play this game. You will soon find yourself bored with the family you made and move on. Soon you'll be bored period. You can only take so much in the sims until you just fall asleep.
This game is fun, but there are some weird things that annoy me. If you have kids and they move out... PLAY AS THE PARENTS!!! If you stop playing as the parents, they will stay the same age. Once my guy died of old age and his parents werent even old yet!! Thats just WAY to weird. Another thing is when you go downtown and come back, your sim may not come back. One time he never showed up back home. Its like the computer deleted him. That made me a little upset.
As I have warned you before, take ALOT of breaks with this game or it will soon grow boring. Also play this game when you can spend alot of time.
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