The Sims
It was inevitable - after controlling buildings, cities, theme parks now come the people
themselves. We already know that monkeys like best to watch other monkeys and so it
goes with people. Only here you have to do more than watch.
As a starter you can move into an existing family - or an existing house - or create your
own family and create your own house - that's a lot of creating so you might want to start
out with the tutorial. Or course you can go right into people creation and start as a
swinging single or go all the way with a family with teenagers. But let me warn you -
teenagers don't clean up after themselves here anymore than they do in real life.
Your job is to keep the Sims happy. Happiness is having a good job and making enough
money to buy things. Creative satisfaction and romance play a part here but the focus is
on acquisition.
The creator of the game, Will Wright, must be a frustrated architect because he has
included some very sophisticated tools for building - very similar to the ones used
professionally. When constructing a house it is important to make the room large enough
to allow for plenty of furniture and easy circulation for the Sims because they move
around a lot.
When creating your own people I found it good to have at least one neat freak in the
house just so the flies don't get out of hand. 'Flies' has gotten to be the code word in our
house for taking out the garbage. Yup you have to do that too in Simland.
There are so many things to explore that it is impossible to thoroughly review it. It's
clever, full of surprises and jokes and the graphics are incredible. The detail makes these
little people so real, from scrubbing their feet in the tub to making dinner. You can get
attached to them.
They fare best when you play with them - but they need your attention and guidance. I left mine
running over night - the adults became too depressed to get jobs, their furniture was
repossessed, the fish died and I think the daughter ran away. Accept your responsibility
towards these little people!
Reviewed by Genevieve 8/00
Ages: Teen/Mature Sexual Themes
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