The Sims 2 along with NightLife, Open for Business and University Expansion Packs

reviewed by Daniel MacKenzie

This review won’t just be on The Sims 2, but also on three of its expansion packs: The Sims 2 Nightlife, The Sims 2 University and The Sims 2 Open For Business

The expression “Think of what it would be like if you were in their shoes” comes to mind when I played this game. That’s exactly what you do. You get to take control of almost every aspect of their lives, whether they’re slackers or they’re a wonderful workers, whether they play the social game or focus on work and school. All of it packed into one game. Escape reality and take out your anger out on your virtual enemies with this amazing game. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

You start the game with a choice of three cities to choose from. There are also a series of tutorials for you to get used to the controls. I highly recommend you go through these tutorials, because they explain the game controls and interface in excellent detail. Back to the cities; Each city has it’s own story and each of the families in the cities have a dilemma. You can choose to fix the problem or just play like normal. Anyone who has played the original Sims for the Mac, will experience a small change. If you don’t like the stories, you can make your own towns and families. You can add monuments and trees to your city. There are pre-built houses in a house bin that you can place, or you can build your own. It’s all up to you.

One thing I found particularly interesting was the Family Builder. You can modify every part you want to. The width of the eyes, the fatness of the lips or even the entire face at once. Pick their everyday clothes, their formal clothes, workout clothes and many others. Customize their turn-offs and turn-ons to your liking. Also, if you want a child it, actually takes the features of the parents and makes a child for you. If you have created a Sim which you really like, you can add it to the Sim Bin. This has pre-made Sims, if you don’t want to go in and customize them.

The graphics were quite astounding even when playing on an iBook G4. The game looks crystal clear with smooth movements. Of course, there were some hiccups, but that was mainly because my processor wasn’t fast enough. As of June 2, 2006 The Sims2 and Expansion Packs became Universal Binaries.

The only downside would be that some of the things they do seem very unbelievable. One example would be sleeping in your breakfast if you’re too tired. You would drown in your milk if that happened. Other than that this is an excellent game. I loved it.

Altogether, I would highly suggest that anyone who likes the simulation genre to check out this game. Great job Aspyr!

Expansion Packs          

So let’s look at the three expansion packs. Another was just released, The Sims 2 Pets, but I didn’t get a chance to review that.

The Sims 2 Nightlife adds an interesting spin to the game.

You get to go downtown. When you create a city, it will tell you that a new expansion pack has been installed and you get to add a downtown to your city. There is a pre-built downtown or you can build your own. It also gives you the option of building a driveway and buying a car. You can build a building and make it accessible to the community. Make a restaurant, grocery store, and many others, with this expansion pack. Unfortunately, you can’t make any money buy making a building like this, because it’s a community building and you don’t own it. If you need a monopolizing fix, then you should check out The Sims 2 Open For Business.

The Sims 2 Open For Business allows you to start your own business. Whether it’s inside your home or in a specific building in your new shopping area, you can make some money. You get a lot more objects, which allow you to run your business. To get started, you use a phone to call someone to start your business. A sign appears in the top right corner of your screen. These are your controls and stats for your business. The “store” will be open all the time, unless you buy a Open/Closed Sign. You can program the time your shop is open. I really enjoyed this expansion pack. Something that I didn’t like was that it took away from trying to make the Sims achieve their goals. I had to focus on running the business. Other than that, this was my favorite expansion pack.

The Sims 2 University lets you take your kid to college. When a child becomes a teenager, you get the option to send them to college. If you choose to send them to college, they will automatically become a young adult. They get put into a student bin. When you exit the neighborhood and enter the college, you can put the students in the student bin in residence on the campus. Each collage has different places that your student can visit when they aren’t in class. I personally didn’t like this expansion pack as much as the others. It was just the regular Sims style game play in a different place. You do get more actions and objects, but it didn’t really appeal to me.

Overall, this one of the best simulation games out there. Most of the expansion packs add even more to a great game. Keep up the great work, EA and Aspyr.