| The Sims 2 (Plus all expansion packs) Graphics 5/5 The graphics were quite well made, but the animations was the thing that gave a perfect rating here. The facial expressions, the movement and reactions were all quite well made, entertaining AND pretty at the same time. The hair and skin of the avatars was well made and credible, the hair was not a chunk of matter just there to represent the hair. Really good stuff for the time it was launched! Play Control 9/10 Much better than The Sims, less stupid movement of the avatars and fewer bugs. I never really had any problems controlling my avatars in the game, and I did not really need any tutorial to move them around since it is basically like The Sims. I think that if I never played The Sims before and I big fat lazy guy who never reads instruction manuals, I would have learned quite quickly how to move my avatar around with little problems. It does not get a perfect score because the game initially had some bugs with the avatars, but are now fixed fortunately. Interface 9/10 Best interface in the two Sims games. It did not receive a perfect score because with all the expansions, the interface becomes more complex and would be VERy confusing for someone who never played The Sims before and bought hte complete set of The Sims 2. But an excellent interface with little or no bugs in it, very useful and quick to use since they kept the buttons all at the same place, you don't need to move your mouse pointer up and down and left and right to browse the menues, all is at the bottom of the screen while playing. Fun 14/15 A really highly addictive very entertaining game. With all the expansions, you get zillions of hours of game play to go through before you went through everything you can do in the game. But a "campaign mode" would have been nice to have, the only thing missing for a perfect score here, a campaign with a multiple choice story with multiple endings according to the choices you have made, maybe with deadlines on certain objectives of the characters involved too. Depth 9/10 The game is quite deep, although the initial launch, like its predecessor was a bit shallow, less than the first but still shallow, like if they made it like that on purpose so that they could make more money on expansion packs rather than launching a complete game. This is why it only receives a 9 out of 10 instead of a perfect score. Story 4/10 Same as The Sims, no story, but you can actually make your own story. And in The Sims 2, you can actually do even more of that with the screen shots, family albums, family description and story, community description and story, etc. Idea 4/5 The idea was already there and theirs, so it is not a new idea, but it is a great idea. The reason why it does not have a perfect score. For more on the idea, read the same part for The Sims. Improving the old version of the game in everyway is a great idea by itself. Non-Linearity 13/15 Very non-linear, every game you paly will be different whether it is because of the player's choices or random events and especially the random npcs generated by the game. The lack of a story with a multiple amount of choices and alternative endings to the story makes this rating drop by two because a game with a multiple amount of choices and endings will be better than an open ended ever lasting game for non-linearity since it is much more difficult to make. Interpretation 13/15 The idea of the game is better interpreted than in The Sims, almost everything that was missing in it was now available in The Sims 2. But like in the first one, the voice acting sucks since it is SimTalk, very boring after a while, probably annoying to some people too. Completion 0/5 Like the first The Sims, it had bugs when it came out as well as being rather shallow, less than The Sims though. The fact that this is the sequel and you have barely more stuff into it is lame, I mean the sequel should have included everything the first one had after all the expansion packs and then add new stuff via expansion packs and add-ons. Really disappointing, this only shows they're only interested in making money rather than a product of quality and a very complete one too. I know making games is about money, but no need to overdo it either... too much of something is like not enough. You need one expansion pack per year after the game was launched to keep it alive but no more than a total of three should be launched though, otherwise, it shows too much how little time you have spent making the game. 80/100 A must buy for all life/raising/training simulation fans. A must rent for everyone else. This is a really good looking, entertaining and great game to play. Don't download this one from the newsgroup, torrents or other illegal ways, it's worth giving your money to the guys who made the game so they can come up with even better games or The Sims game! |