Video Game Review: The Sims™2 Seasons
- The Sims™2 Seasons
- Electronic Arts (2007)
- Grade
- A
Like the four previous expansion packs for The Sims™2, Seasons includes fun features to make your Sims world more realistic and challenging.
When it comes to PC-based games, it doesn’t get bigger than The Sims franchise. By the beginning of 2007, over 70 million units had been sold worldwide, so if you haven’t played it yourself, you probably know someone who has. Considering the game has no ultimate goal, but consists of the player managing the lives of their virtual people (Sims), what accounts for this popularity?
One reason is the ability of the player to buy expansion packs to increase the range of experiences your Sims can have. Now your Sims can not only live, work, eat, own pets, fall in love, and go to the university, they can also experience the seasons.
Each season in your Sims world lasts approximately five days. Even so, your Sims can be caught in unseasonal weather, so you have to pay attention. Be sure that your Sims read the newspaper or check the weather channel, because they’ll need to be prepared.
During the winter, if it snows heavily, your Sims can participate in snowball fights and build snowmen. Just be sure that if your Sims are properly clothed when they go outside to play in the snow, as they can catch colds.
In the spring, it’s nice and warm, and if your Sims have a deep-enough pond, they can go fishing. The swimming pool has some fun features; your Sims can use a slide or play a game of Marco Polo. Spring will also bring thunderstorms which can start fires. If lightning strikes while your Sims play in the puddles, they could be electrocuted, so watch out! Summer is similar to spring, except that your Sim has to be careful to keep cool.
When autumn rolls around, and the leaves fall from the virtual trees, your Sims will have more outdoor chores to do. Lots of dead leaves means raking, composting, or playing around in leaf piles.
Another feature of the game is the garden your Sims can create. The bigger, and the more well-kept, the garden, the better the reward. If your Sims have a nice-enough garden, they can join the garden club and have their garden judged. Treat the garden well and make it look beautiful, and your Sims can win interesting prizes. A garden badge may be awarded for all your Sims’ hard work.
The garden can have more than just flowers, though. Your Sims also have the opportunity to grow food. They can sell it, or they can stock their fruits and vegetables in their refrigerator. They can even turn the fruit into juice.
Other features in this game include a fishing badge, six new careers (including journalism), a new neighborhood, and new ways to make extra cash. Also, be on the lookout for green plant-like Sims — they used pesticides a bit too much. In The Sims™2 Seasons, your Sim may become a plant person, too, so it pays to keep a close eye on their pesticide use.
The new gardening options are by far the best of Seasons’ features. The weather adds variety to the game and is a fun addition, although the thunderstorms can be annoying. If the lightning strikes your house more than once, alarms sound and the firefighters drop by. However, in the autumn, the more trees you have the more you have to rake, and, just as in real life, even after you’ve gotten rid of the leaves once, you may have to do it again. Your Sims can spend a lot of time at their chores during the autumn rather than more fun things. Another downside is that your Sims cannot stay outside for too long before they need to cool down or get warm. However, these minor nuisances don’t seriously detract from the game.
Overall, this is a great game for the average Simfan.
Copyright . Published 1 April 2007 in What’s New.
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