True Story
READ: Review for The Sims 3
After three iterations of The Sims, which gets increasingly interesting and varied, revisiting the original game that started it all is a bit of a difficult task to take up. Unfortunately, if you have played through The Sims 2 and 3, you’ll find the original version to be not as fun, not as varied and not as interesting.
Yes, there’s still the censored showers, censored defecating and WooHoos, but the effects are less pronounced, the stages in life is less pronounced, you can go by your whole Sim life uneducated because there’s no university. There are no shops either. You can’t set up your own business either. You might as well forget this game, in other words.
Unless you want a simple game that plays well on a netbook… or if you haven’t played the Sims 2 and 3, which you’ll have no idea whatsoever of what I’m talking about above.
Credit is due to the deserving and it is The Sims that got many ladies into gaming, as it was a game that piqued the interest of many men. The game is basically a sandbox game where you’ll have to construct your own house, get into a relationship and do your biological duty of producing a child. The cycle repeats. At the same time, you’ll have to go out looking for dough by doing jobs in the security line or living the life of crime, and in order to climb up the ladder of success and start raking in the Simoleons, you’ll need to upgrade your skills by working on the various machines.
Of course, you could just be an irresponsible person who sets the kitchen on fire and kills your spouse. Or you can drown her. And your baby. Single life never has been so easy to re-achieve.
Though the expansions have given it a lot of life, the original Sims cannot do what its newer siblings can, and therefore, you’ll need to be steadfast that you can forgive these lackings when you decide to install the game.
Performance
The game runs excellently on a netbook, with no graphical issues. FPS is high and the game is smooth and responsive, as you would expect from a game from Y2K. Unfortunately, you’ll have to play it at a resolution of 800×600, which will mean you’ll see letterboxing on the two edges of the screen.
Like
Still the original game that started it all
The little Sims world with the Goths, Newbies and other noobs.
Still fun…
Interesting god-game concept
Dislike
Still fun, just don’t dread that it’s lacks what you’re used to in The Sims 2 and 3.
Y2K graphics… nothing like The Sims 3
Inevitably, you’ll compare it to The Sims 2, or worse, The Sims 3.
Verdict
While The Sims still possess everything that you like from the series, it lacks everything that comes with The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. The severe limitations might inspire you to try The Sims 2, or play with fire by installing The Sims 3 on your netbook. Let me know how it goes, if you do.
Gameplay: I’m ambivalent
Graphics: Excellent (25 fps)
Work needed to get game to play: Minimal
Screenshots: Wikipedia
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