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 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 important early expression of my rising persona as a 10-year-old. As you possibly can in all probability think about, subsequently, 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 generally, I used to be destined to not be upset.
All of which is to say that there is not 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 isn’t 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 a fair cut up at finest.
The Sims 2 wasn’t criticism proof on launch, after all, even when it got here in for much less flack total 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) gathering 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 turned apparent that EA and Maxis absolutely meant to promote nearly all of these options once more for The Sims 2 in what amounted on a fundamental degree to remakes of mentioned EPs.
However The Sims 2 nonetheless prevented the harsher backlash that may characterise each The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 in the course of their lifespans, for quite a few 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 considered 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 laborious to imagine we spent 4 years prior taking part in with out them.
The Sims 2 was the primary sport within the franchise the place time handed critically and had penalties for the characters: ageing, genetics, generations, and even days of the week have been all launched in The Sims 2 base sport. In The Sims authentic, demise 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 sport that I would argue was all the time a reasonably 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 wished to see their temporary simulated lives take. The choices have 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 closing appointment with the Grim Reaper thought of 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 acquired a sequel, as a result of The Sims 2 added so many new dimensions — certainly, a brand new defining philosophy — to the very idea of the life sim as originated by its predecessor. By comparability, The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 are each much 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 when it comes to gameplay because the seismic change that was The Sims 2’s full overhaul of the core objectives of the entire simulation.
Open worlds in 3 have been a successful thought 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 swap from a comparatively static needs-management sandbox to a life sim that really, in a really possible way, simulated life? It is no surprise it nonetheless stands out all these years later.
The looming spectre of mortality wasn’t all that The Sims 2 delivered to the desk, after all. Regardless of these not-unfounded criticisms of repackaging and promoting again add-on content material from the unique sport, from the start it did genuinely incorporate most of the quality-of-life enhancements launched within the outdated sport’s expansions. TS2’s base sport introduced throughout the likelihood for Sims to host home events, go to neighborhood tons, and reside 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 sport within the sequence and probably the most plot-heavy entry thus far, with the bottom sport alone being single-handedly accountable for many-if-not-most of the franchise’s lore cornerstones.
Trying past the bottom sport, The Sims 2’s enlargement packs would introduce staple ideas equivalent to climate, universities, enterprise possession, and flats — all now thought of important enlargement pack themes (and thus simple wins on the subject 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 — which no less than included a beneficiant quantity of content material for his or her smaller price-tag, however which have 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 probably not what it did for the franchise however whether or not it is nonetheless price taking part in — particularly if, like many Simmers now, you have 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, through EA’s storefront Origin. Nevertheless it was solely accessible to gamers who might declare it without spending a dime by proving that they owned a boxed version of the unique base sport, and just for the comparatively temporary 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 completely, solely re-downloadable in the event 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 it’s a must to take care of the truth that the boxed variations have 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 unimaginable activity to get The Sims 2 working on a contemporary set-up, The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 each being accessible 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 bring about. They’re robust sufficient as successors, no less than, that the comfort and ongoing assist from EA for each titles imply it is in all probability a extra engaging prospect to only play considered one of them as an alternative, until 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 lively assist and modding neighborhood round TS2 even now; but it surely’s not precisely a sport you possibly can simply casually dip into in the best way you possibly can with its sequels. It is abandonware, mainly, and so it takes a bit of labor on the participant’s half to even attain the title display.
In fact, the utopian completely happy ending right here can be for EA to re-enable assist for The Sims 2 Final Assortment and start promoting it digitally — 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 exterior the realm of chance; the franchise as an entire turns 25 in February of subsequent 12 months, 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 assist a number of Sims titles concurrently going ahead.
May 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 Challenge Rene (a.ok.a. The Sims 5) appears to have quietly slowed proper down. However possibly which means it is truly the right second for The Sims franchise to look to the previous somewhat than the longer term for its elusive dream of a renaissance? And if it does, The Sims 2 is incontestably the right place to start out.