The sequel to the game The Sims came out in 2004. Four years after the first version was released. The long awaited sequel was a huge success. There was much criticism of the game because it is computer system demands, which meant many people could not play the game on their computer.

General Information

* Developer (s) Maxis
* Publisher (s) Electronic Arts
* Year 2004
* Genre (s) Strategy / Simulation
* Play Mode (s) Singleplayer

System

* System: Windows 95/2000/ME/XP/Vista
* Processor: 800MHz
* Memory: 256 MB RAM
* Hard Drive: 3.5 GB
* Graphics card with DirectX9.0 support and TGL

The game The Sims 2

The first game was a huge success and so the expectations were high when the second part finally appeared in stores. The promises were big and the game would be much improved. The biggest changes were nevertheless that Sims could become really older and the woman could get really pregnant. In The Sims 1 the sims maintained the same age and people could only have children, after much interacting with together in a romantic way (kissing and hugging). The woman was therefore not pregnant, but the phone rang asking if you wanted a child. Not realistic. In Part 2, your Sims can actually get pregnant after they have gone to bed together and allows your baby to grow up to an elderly person.

The goal of the game The Sims 2

The goal of the game is basically the same as in part 1. You have to help your virtual people and help them to make choices in life as making friends, relationships and finding a job. In addition, Sims simply have needs like eating / drinking, showering, going to the toilet etc. They can even be lonely! Better take good care of your sims!

Starting

When you for the first time starts the game, you can create a sim or an entire family. This you can do over and over again. When you click on the option of creating a family you get to a screen where you can see all the families who are not currently active. You can choose to place one of the families in your neighborhood, remove one of them or create a new family. Once you have completed your family, you can move them to the district and select an empty house or an empty lot where they can live.

Building and buying

Just like in real life, your Sims can also buy a house and build and furnish all well. This mainly speaks for itself and you have the option to active the Help feature which will guide you through the process. In the beginning you have very little money, so you cannot build like a huge house. You have to buy all of this with your money, including decoration and furniture. Your Sim will obviously all be going to the toilet and to the sink and you also need some items if you want your Sim to learn new skills, such as a piano for their creativity to improve their logic with a chess board.

Graphics

When you are playing the sims 2 for the first time, the differences will be clear compared to part 1. The graphics are much better. Even though the first version was already quite ahead of its time, there was obviously room for improvement. This version is in fact in 3D and you can now watch your Sims from all angles! This is very easy using the buttons at the bottom. The colors are also now much brighter and everything seems much more alive.

The neighborhood

When in part one you have only one section with houses that are occupied, or that you could live in, you have now real neighborhoods with parks and shops. You can now order a taxi and go shopping! Just enjoy some food and especially meeting new people. The biggest improvement is that you have now different neighborhoods especially when you buy the expansions like on holiday and superstar.

Personality of your sim

In part one your sim had a personality. You could compose this yourself and decide how nice, neat and active your sim is. In part 2 this plays a bigger role. Based on the personality the constellation was also linked, and this can affect how quickly someone can like someone else and how fast they do love or hate each other. You also have a life wish. A life wish may mean that you would wish to be rich or to have a big family. Every time you achieve a certain goal, your Sim becomes happier.

Photo album

You can take pictures during the game and gather them in a photo album. This allows you to see all the fun moments.

Conclusion

The promise of this game was that things would be more realistic. Not only in appearance but also the entire way of playing. I must say that this is indeed the case. In appearance the game looks much better in color and it's 3D. In addition, you can view your sim from all angles. The game feels more realistic in terms of contrast and the emotions. While the first part the sims sometimes seemed rather static, the interaction seems more natural this time. They can now marry, become pregnant and particularly important become older. Sometimes it is a pity that your Sim ages, but it is realistic. The gameplay in general feels smoother. A nice new feature, the shops and the parks and that makes meeting new sims a lot easier. Certainly a great game!