At Last - The virtual dollhouse you never had (The Sims (PC))

Member Name: R_Easton

Product:	The Sims (PC)
Date:	29/09/01 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Addictive, The Dollhouse you always wanted

Disadvantages: (Almost too) Addictive, Wierd sound (Vox voices?), Gets boring after lots of play

The Sims is a great game. You make a family, put them in a house and watch how they get on. You can take a more active role in their life and directly control their actions. When you create you family you can have up to 8 people in the family. You are not restricted to Mommy, Daddy and 2.4 children though and can have any mixture of family members as long as you have at least one adult. Each character has their own personality and looks that you choose at the start of the game. The personality is directly connected to the star sign of the character and controls what the character does in the game. For example – A lazy character will spend more time watching T.V and an active character will spend more time playing basketball. The looks of the character include clothes and your make your characters where anything from smart suits to skimpy beachwear and nurse’s uniforms.

The family will start with 20,000 simoleans (A simolean is worth about 50p) and with this they can either buy a pre-built house or you can design a house for them yourself. The adults go to work and can earn money (Anything from 90s to 1,550s per day) that can be spent on furniture/household equipment, buying a new and better house and, of course, paying the household bills! Promotions are received when you characters work hard and are suitably qualified. Children in the game go to school every day and their grades go up or down according to how hard they work at school, how much extra work they do at home and how often they bunk off school!

How hard your characters try at work/school depends on their mood. The mood is measured in 8 ways that are Fun, Comfort, Hunger, Tiredness, Social, Bladder, Hygiene and Room (Room is how much they like their surroundings). These all go down overtime and are sorted like in real life (Eating, sleeping, playing computer games!).

You can have more than one family living on your neighbourhood and the characters will m
ake friends (and enemies) with the other families. The game is very addictive and spent several months playing it before my addiction calmed. The two add-on packs (Livin’ it up and House party) and much to the game and I am looking forward to the next (Hot Date). This is definitely another hit from Will Wright and is worthy of the collection.

Summary: