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129 of 134 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent fun, but you need a powerful PC!!, 13 Nov 2004
After resisting the temptation to rush out and buy the Sims 2 on it's day of release, I have at last given in and bought it.
And I must say, I'm very impressed. The makers have broadened the game out from the Sims 1, thier life seems so much more realistic, and with the Aspirations the Sims seem to have meaning to their lives. In the Sims 1, you could play a family for weeks at a time and not really feel like thier lives were going anyhwere. Now, with the life cycle and the iminant prospect of death on the horizon, it really feels like you're Sims are alive, thier lives have 'meanings'.There are loads of new build and buy options (is it just me, or are the American makers obbsessed with 'colonial' style furniture?!). You can also customise most objects - changing the colour of lamps, for instance. The Sims can also do so much more with thier objects - for example, the can sit, lounge, nap or bounce on thier sofas, or 'gussy up' in the mirror. They can also cook specific meals - and there's more choices available to them each time they gain a skill point. Adult and elder sims can now, to the delight of many, I'm sure, play in bed (or 'whoo hoo!) in any bed, as well as Make Out,and Kiss. Naturally, they can also try for a baby. Back to building, one of the things I love is the ability to have basements and attics -although I have to admit building realistic and athestically pleasing attic conversions is quite difficult. You can also have many floors, and roof terrences!
The catalogue is better organised -floors and walls are separated into different catagories, e.g. papar, paint, brick, or carpet, stone, tile etc. The downtown, vacation islands and studio towns are all gone (as are pets, come to that) but the community lots are still available. Although these lots I have to say are rather boring - you can only build grocery and clothes shops - rather than the eleborate resurants, libraries, clubs and bars you could in the Sims 1. But hopefully they'll improve these factors a bit when the expansion packs come out. The Create a Sim part is incredible. You can completely design your sims's face, to thier hair style, to the size of thier facial features and shape of thier face! There are also many clothing options available. It's disapointing though, that there are only the 4 basic hair colours available - black, brunette, blonde and red - you can't customise thier colour (I really wanted a purple headed punk for instance!) and you can't give them freckles!! I designed a house of my friends and designed 'us' all so realistically, apart for my freckled friend! One thing I better warn buyers of though it the graphics and of course the high spec the game needs. I play the Sims 2 on my laptop, and I know it's not exactly a hardcore gaming machine, but the graphics do look good. However, my laptop only just meets the spec requirements, and I have to admit the game is very slow. It takes a while to load, to play the game, to zoom in and out etc, and that's with the lowest graphics settings.
However, when i play on my bro's top of the range computer, WOW! The settings look amazing, incredibly lifelike, and when you zoom in it's like being in the room with the sims! The game is also them gloriously smooth and jerk-free. All in all, the Sims 2 is a great game, far better than the orginal in also every area. But you do need a decent computer, otherwise you'll soon get frustrated with the slowness and the jerking.
Another warning - don't play the game if you have work to do in the next few weeks because I guarentee you won't be able to tear yourself away from the game!
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