Sims 2 pets...cute or just plain annoying? (The Sims 2: Pets)

Member Name: candyfloss89

Product:	The Sims 2: Pets
Date:	05/07/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pets are cute, make familys feel complete, they can get jobs

Disadvantages: Adds very little to overall gaming eperience, not much varierty of animals, annoying strays

So after recently writing a review of The Sims 3, I decided it was time to do a review of all of my Sims 2 games since I'm not ready part with them just yet! I'm starting with the Sims 2 Pets because it's the one I have the most to say about it.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT
The Sims 2 Pets Is an expansion pack for The Sims 2 which allows your Sims to add a furry friend to their family. You can chose pets including dogs, cats, birds and Guinea pigs. Buy them from a pet shop or adopt a stray kitten or Puppy then breed your pets or train them to do tricks.

ADVANTAGES
The pets are really cute and you can customise their fur patterns and colours to make them look unique. This is a also useful option if your trying to create a pet based on your own really life dog or cat, you can achieve a pretty good likeness to your original pet.

You can befriend strays who walk past your house. This means that Sims who can't afford a pet can still have the chance to interact with them and even become friends with them. If your sim and the stray pet build up a good enough relationship, your sim can keep the pet.

The fact that Pets can work means that even poorer sims can afford to add a pet to their family. You have to pay for their food, bedding and toys but if you give your pets a job they'll practically pay for themselves. Teach them new tricks and skills to earn them a promotion.

DISADVANTAGES
I'm an animal lover and I adore dogs in particular yet this is probably my least favourite Sims 2 expansion pack. Why? Because the novelty of having a pet wears off very quickly and it just becomes boring. Your pets wont do much apart from eat and sleep and do their business on your floor. Teaching them new tricks is a tedious and long process yet unfortunatly neccesary for promotions and house training.

There's hardly any variety of pets. Birds, guinea pigs, fish and hamsters barely have any social interactions and so are pretty pointless apart from as decoration. But despite their uselessness, they still take up your sims time by needing to have their cages cleaned and needing to be fed. Birds can even fly away which is annoying if you've wasted your sims money buying them. If there not fed regulary you'll find them dead and letting of green stink fumes at the bottom of their cage. Where is the variety? I would have loved EA to have included horses and some more exotic animals such as Lizards. Llamas references have been common since The Sims 1 so a llama pet would also have been a nice touch. If they remake this expansion pack for The Sims 3, more variety is defintley needed for it to be a sucess!

You may decide that your sim doesnt need a pet. Unfortunately for your sim, they're almost impossible to avoid. Stray pets will wander onto lots at night and dig up gradens leaving massive mud piles in their wake. I assume this is supossed to be an amusing feature but instead it's highly irritating having to fill in the dug up holes every day. Claire the bear raiding bins in The Sims 1 is cute. The penguin that comes with The Sims 2 Seasons is cute. Random pets digging up your garden everyday is NOT cute. It's just plain stupid.

There are far more useful expansion packs for you to spend your money on than this. The Sims 2 Seasons adds not only seasons and weather but the ability to grow harvestable fruit and vegetables and the ability to fish. The Sims 2 Apartment life gives your sims the chance to live in and rent apartments as well as the ability to become a witch and learn differnt magical spells. The Sims 2 nightlife not only adds many new downtown destinations for your sims to visit, it also improves the romance and dating system in The Sims 2. The Sims 2 Pets adds...Pets! That's it. Just Pets. This adds very little to your overall gaming experience

CONCLUSION
A nice idea and pets are cute but there are far more useful expansion packs to spend your money on than this one.

Summary: Not the best Sims 2 expansion pack