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The Sims has been around for quite some time but now they’re joined by lovable pets. The Sims 2: Pets actually upgrades The Sims 2 on consoles in two ways: it adds pets while improving the AI to more closely match the original PC game.
With a name like The Sims 2: Pets, you can expect that pets will be a pivotal part of the gameplay. This is true of the game and you’ll find dogs, cats and fish in the game. While the fish don’t end up being much more than collectibles (as in real life), dogs and cats do play an important role in the game. Like with the Sims themselves, the game lets you really customize your pets. You can choose fur colors, fur patterns, ear types, age, size, and breeds. You can even dress up your pets with shoes, hats, shirts and more. Furthermore, the pets have their own personality so some will be neat while others will be messy, some will be eager to learn new tricks and other will try to put it off for as long as possible. Teaching the pets tricks is actually one of the most rewarding new features of the game and it ends up working well. Although you don’t directly take control of the pets, you can interact with them as you would with another human Sim.
Aside from interacting with you, the pets also interact with other pets. This means that you’ll need to watch for pet relationships and fights. You also need to make sure that the pets don’t go crazy on the house and destroy your expensive, foreign furniture. You can even mold your pet’s behavior by discouraging and encouraging certain behavior. The worst thing that can be said about the pets system is that—like in the real world—having a well-behaved pet takes a lot of time. Time that your Sims may not be able to spare with their complex relationships, friendships, jobs and hobbies. The console version of Pets only includes one downtown area and a single neighborhood, which may make you feel shortchanged when you compare it with the PC version but is in line with previous Sims games on consoles.
The Sims 2: Pets uses the same graphics engine that the console version of The Sims 2 used. This means that the game is in full 3D with reasonably detailed houses and neighborhoods, well modeled Sims, and excellent animation. The pets look good, as well, and they animate in a realistic fashion. The soundtrack includes some new tracks for consoles that are borrowed from The Sims 2 on PC. The new pet sound effects are perfectly in line with the simlish that the human Sims speak.
The Sims 2: Pets isn’t without its flaws. Nonetheless, the addition of pets is a logical transition in The Sims franchise that ends up working very well with the core game. Aside from this, the game manages to improve the AI to be more spontaneous and more closely resemble the PC version of the game. Overall, The Sims 2: Pets is definitely worth the price of admission. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 25, 2006
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