Like many kids, I grew up taking part in no matter video video games I might get my arms on, my early decisions dictated largely by parental desire and what the proprietor of the only laptop store in my rural hometown selected to inventory. The unique Sims was the primary recreation I ever efficiently lobbied to personal: actively in search of it out β and my subsequent fascination upon truly attending to play it β was, with hindsight, a reasonably important early expression of my rising persona as a 10-year-old. As you’ll be able to 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 sweet typically, I used to be destined to not be disillusioned.
All of which is to say that there is no denying the nostalgia issue at play right here; however I nonetheless preserve that The Sims 2 was the excessive level of the franchise. And, whereas this is not an uncontested view, it isn’t precisely a distinct segment opinion both: it is a stronger candidate for the title than The Sims or The Sims 4, actually; and whereas The Sims 3 has a whole lot of followers today, the room temperature learn appears to counsel it is a good cut up at greatest.
The Sims 2 wasn’t criticism proof on launch, in fact, even when it got here in for much less flack total than its eventual sequels. For gamers of the unique recreation, this was their first expertise of going again to a base recreation with out the add-ons they’d spent the earlier 4 years (and a big chunk of cash) amassing to increase their expertise. The conspicuous absence of options like pet possession, holidays, fame, magical powers, and concrete nightlife β all of which had been added by the unique recreation’s seven enlargement packs β got here in for a measure of criticism, particularly as soon as it grew to become apparent that EA and Maxis totally meant to promote virtually all of these options once more for The Sims 2 in what amounted on a fundamental stage to remakes of mentioned EPs.
However The Sims 2 nonetheless averted the harsher backlash that will characterise each The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 during their lifespans, for numerous causes; a key one being its real innovation.
The Sims was a revolutionary life sandbox upon its launch in 2000, and The Sims 2 was the one certainly one of its sequels to innovate so drastically as to be solely barely recognisable as an iteration on its predecessor. The Sims nonetheless deserves its place in online game historical past for proving the idea, however The Sims 2 had each a much bigger funds and higher know-how to work with, and so launched many options to the sequence that really feel so important it is onerous to imagine we spent 4 years prior taking part in with out them.
The Sims 2 was the primary recreation within the franchise the place time handed significantly and had penalties for the characters: ageing, genetics, generations, and even days of the week had been all launched in The Sims 2 base recreation. In The Sims authentic, dying was solely ever a consequence of misadventure and pretty simple to keep away from. In The Sims 2, it was an inevitability, including a a lot deeper layer of time administration to a recreation that I would argue was at all times a fairly hardcore administration sim anyway.
This dovetailed immaculately with the introduction of Aspirations: a brand-new gameplay function giving Sims the selection between just a few fundamental instructions they needed to see their transient simulated lives take. The choices had been to dedicate themselves primarily to the pursuit of romance, wealth, household, data, recognition, or (in a later enlargement pack) uncomplicated leisure. Succeeding in making these goals occur would make-or-break whether or not an aged Sim heading off for his or her remaining appointment with the Grim Reaper thought-about theirs to be a life well-lived or wasted on dead-ends.
Some long-time Simmers maintain the view that the unique The Sims by no means really obtained a sequel, as a result of The Sims 2 added so many new dimensions β certainly, a brand new defining philosophy β to the very idea of the life sim as originated by its predecessor. By comparability, The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 are each way more modest iterations on The Sims 2: every with a central set piece (open worlds for 3, feelings for 4) that proved each controversial amongst up to date gamers and nowhere close to as revolutionary by way of gameplay because the seismic change that was The Sims 2’s full overhaul of the core targets of the entire simulation.
Open worlds in 3 had been a successful concept in concept, however the stability points they brought about meant that even enthusiastic followers usually could not truly play the sport; whereas the concept of Sims experiencing ever-fluctuating emotional states in 4 turned out to be far much less game-changing than it sounded on paper. However that preliminary change from a comparatively static needs-management sandbox to a life sim that really, in a really possible way, simulated life? It is no marvel it nonetheless stands out all these years later.
The looming spectre of mortality wasn’t all that The Sims 2 dropped at the desk, in fact. Regardless of these not-unfounded criticisms of repackaging and promoting again add-on content material from the unique recreation, from the start it did genuinely incorporate lots of the quality-of-life enhancements launched within the previous recreation’s expansions. TS2’s base recreation introduced throughout the likelihood for Sims to host home events, go to group heaps, and stay throughout a number of neighbourhoods, whereas massively increasing their choices for social interactions and meals and clothes decisions, all accompanied by a much more detailed character customisation suite than the off-the-peg skins supplied within the authentic. It was additionally the primary fully-3D recreation within the sequence and probably the most plot-heavy entry to this point, with the bottom recreation alone being single-handedly chargeable for many-if-not-most of the franchise’s lore cornerstones.
Trying past the bottom recreation, The Sims 2’s enlargement packs would introduce staple ideas reminiscent of climate, universities, enterprise possession, and flats β all now thought-about important enlargement pack themes (and thus simple wins in terms of DLC gross sales) for any new gen of the franchise. And it additionally, for higher or for worse, started the custom of smaller add-ons for The Sims with the arrival of stuff packs β which at the least included a beneficiant quantity of content material for his or her smaller price-tag, however which had been nonetheless the apparent precursors for the micro-DLC practices seen on The Sims 3 Retailer or in The Sims 4’s ever-growing horde of kits.
However on its twentieth birthday, probably the most pertinent query about The Sims 2 is maybe not what it did for the franchise however whether or not it is nonetheless price taking part in β particularly if, like many Simmers now, you had been too busy not being born in 2004 to expertise it when it was the brand new hotness.
My reply can be sure, however maybe solely in concept at this precise second in time. The Sims 2 was briefly launched digitally as The Sims 2 Final Assortment, containing all expansions and stuff packs, by way of EA’s storefront Origin. However it was solely out there to gamers who might declare it without cost by proving that they owned a boxed version of the unique base recreation, and just for the comparatively transient interval between August 2014 (when the gathering got here out to advertise the discharge of The Sims 4) and October 2018 when it was discontinued totally, solely re-downloadable when you had the means and the presence of thoughts so as to add it your library throughout these 4 years.
It is nonetheless pretty low-cost and straightforward to acquire second-hand bodily copies of the sport, however then you need to cope with the truth that the boxed variations had been produced in 2008 on the very newest, and so are solely optimised to run on PCs as much as Home windows Vista. Whereas it is on no account an not possible activity to get The Sims 2 working on a contemporary set-up, The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 each being out there to pick-up-and-play on the press of a digital button make the technical limitations to entry to their lauded older sibling really feel all that a lot larger.
Whereas I will defend The Sims 2’s supremacy till my final breath, The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 are each excellent follow-ups, worthy of being appreciated for their very own distinctive spins on the concept and the quality-of-life enhancements they convey. They’re sturdy sufficient as successors, at the least, that the comfort and ongoing help from EA for each titles imply it is most likely a extra enticing prospect to simply play certainly one of them as an alternative, except you are already a die-hard Sims 2 fanatic who will settle for no substitutes. If you’re, you are in luck, as there’s nonetheless a really energetic help and modding group round TS2 even now; however it’s not precisely a recreation you’ll be able to simply casually dip into in the way in which you’ll be able to with its sequels. It is abandonware, principally, and so it takes a bit of labor on the participant’s half to even attain the title display.
In fact, the utopian joyful ending right here can be for EA to re-enable help for The Sims 2 Final Assortment and start promoting it digitally β and heck, whereas we’re at it, digitise The Sims Full Assortment in order that the entire core franchise is preserved and available to trendy gamers. It isn’t outdoors the realm of chance; the franchise as a complete turns 25 in February of subsequent yr, and whereas 2024 has seen two different huge Sims anniversaries go largely uncelebrated by EA, they’ve been vaguely hinting for some time about desirous to help a number of Sims titles concurrently going ahead.
Might this cryptic suggestion imply they’re planning to lastly throw “retro” Simmers a bone? Honestly, I do not know; and I am starting to suspect possibly they do not both, given how manufacturing on Venture Rene (a.okay.a. The Sims 5) appears to have quietly slowed proper down. However possibly meaning it is truly the proper second for The Sims franchise to look to the previous moderately than the long run for its elusive dream of a renaissance? And if it does, The Sims 2 is incontestably the proper place to start out.
