Like many youngsters, I grew up taking part in no matter video video games I may get my arms on, my early decisions dictated largely by parental choice and what the proprietor of the only real laptop store in my rural hometown selected to inventory. The unique Sims was the primary sport I ever efficiently lobbied to personal: actively searching for it out — and my subsequent fascination upon truly attending to play it — was, with hindsight, a reasonably vital early expression of my rising character as a 10-year-old. As you may most likely think about, due to this fact, 4 years and numerous mercifully-untracked in-game hours later, I used to be about as hype for The Sims’ first-ever sequel as a geeky 14-year-old can get. Learn: extraordinarily. And since life is good generally, I used to be destined to not be dissatisfied.
All of which is to say that there isn’t any denying the nostalgia issue at play right here; however I nonetheless keep that The Sims 2 was the excessive level of the franchise. And, whereas this is not an uncontested view, it is not precisely a distinct segment opinion both: it is a stronger candidate for the title than The Sims or The Sims 4, definitely; and whereas The Sims 3 has lots of followers today, the room temperature learn appears to counsel it is an excellent cut up at greatest.
The Sims 2 wasn’t criticism proof on launch, after all, even when it got here in for much less flack general than its eventual sequels. For gamers of the unique sport, this was their first expertise of going again to a base sport with out the add-ons they’d spent the earlier 4 years (and a big chunk of cash) accumulating to broaden their expertise. The conspicuous absence of options like pet possession, holidays, fame, magical powers, and concrete nightlife — all of which had been added by means of the unique sport’s seven enlargement packs — got here in for a measure of criticism, particularly as soon as it grew to become apparent that EA and Maxis absolutely supposed to promote nearly all of these options once more for The Sims 2 in what amounted on a fundamental stage to remakes of stated EPs.