The Sims 2 Apartment Pets Review

Written by: Tracy Bosworth Posted: 17th September 2008

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The Sims 2 comes to the DS and they've brought their pets with them!

The Sims 2 Apartment Pets Details:

Goto The Sims 2 Apartment Pets Game Page

	Simulation
	Nintendo DS
	Electronic Arts Redwood Shores
	Electronic Arts

Out Now

Does “The Sims” really need an introduction anymore? We all know who they are, those little computer people that wander around computerised neighbourhoods having families, working their way up career ladders and frequently using the toilet. We’ve taken care of them since the year 2000 when EA unleashed them onto our PCs and since then they’ve gone 3D, spawned a few million expansion packs (well, that may be a ‘slight’ exaggeration!) and branched out onto the consoles.

But I know I’m not alone when I argue “The Sims” is a PC game!! It always was and always will be. In my experience, the console versions don’t even come close to the original format and The Sims 2: Apartment Pets for the DS is a great example of this.

Firstly, unlike The Sims 2 for PC which boasts truly open Gameplay as its main selling point, Apartment Pets has a storyline. A rather basic one however, but a storyline nonetheless.

You play as A Sim (note, you only get to control one in this game, another difference from the other Sims 2 games). The story then follows you as you agree to take care of your uncle’s pet Spa business whilst he is away, in return for free use of his apartment upstairs. So that’s it basically, you live above the shop, are occasionally visited by neighbours who force their own pets on you whilst you run the business downstairs.

So how does it work? Well at the beginning of the game you get to create your Sim. You choose whether to play as a male or a female, you get a choice of a few faces, a few hairstyles and a limited selection of clothes and then you’re off, ready to start life in the pet spa and your new apartment.

So the idea is that you earn money by working in the Pet Spa and you can then spend that money on the apartment or on upgrading the pet spa itself. Every few minutes during the day, a Sim will bring their pet to you and you must first diagnose what is wrong with it. For instance is it smelly? Dirty? Needs a new collar? And once you’ve done that (via a very basic mini game) you get to treat it. So if it’s dirty you give it a shower, if it needs a brush, you, well brush it! It’s all a bit tedious after a bit because every animal seems to have the same problem so you’re continuously repeating the same treatments over and over again. You get 600 “simoleons” for each correct treatment you administer but if you make a mistake or irritate the animal it simply runs off and you have to start it again.

And that’s basically all there is to the pet spa! So after a long, hard day at work you head back upstairs to your apartment and low and behold the neighbours start to bring their pets for you to look after too! The first example of this was when the caretaker dropped by and left a dog which he had ‘found’ in my care. A little menu appears when you click on an animal which tells you how happy or sad it is and you must then use your pet spa tricks to diagnose what’s wrong with it. It’s pretty much the same deal as when you’re in the spa, the pet is dirty/smelly/un-kept etc etc and you then get the job of offering the appropriate treatment.

If the pets downstairs and the pets being brought into the apartment were not enough however, you also have a few of your own. Whilst wondering around the apartment I found a hamster, a guinea pig, a snake and a rabbit, all of which come with their own little mini-games which enable you to ‘bond’ with the animal.

So that’s the “pets” part out of the way but apart from looking after various animals, you also have to look after yourself and this involves the age old “sim meter” which indicates when you need to eat, sleep, use the bathroom and socialise. All of this is easy to take care of as your Sim never leaves the building and never seems to be doing anything other than treating animals. There are no families, no friends, no going ‘out’ to work, everything your Sim needs is literally right there to use. I think this is the problem with the game, it’s so ‘closed up’ that it feels nothing like a Sims 2 game, its far too easy, there is no challenge here and you’re repeating the same thing day after day. For this reason I’d say the game has 2 hours of Gameplay value maximum before it becomes too boring and tedious. Maybe slightly more for a young child but even then, I couldn’t imagine anyone being able to sit and play this game for more than a couple of days because once you have mastered the diagnosis and treatments of animals…that’s it! There is nothing more to do.

Worth a quick mention however is the “decorate” option. This allows you to re-model the pet spa (by replacing old furniture with new, modern items) and the apartment. To do this you go to the ‘decorate’ option in the menu and are given a limited selection of new items in which to replace your old stuff. You can also change the wallpaper and floor coverings but to be honest, there is so little choice available that you’d probably only get to do this once before the ‘shop’ ran out of stuff you liked.

You can also buy things for your pets (or your customer’s pets) such as new dress up items, toys and consumables but again, choice is limited and seems rather pointless after a while anyway.

Graphically, the game is quite good. The apartment and spa are realistic and the developers have made good use of the space available on the DS screen. The audio is also pretty decent with the animal noises (especially the screeching cats!) sounding realistic and adding a touch of humour to the game. Sims still talk in their own language but we’re used to that now and I think if they started to suddenly speak English, we’d all moan about it! Sometimes it’s more fun to imagine what they’re saying than to actually hear it.

And that is pretty much all that can be said for The Sims 2: Apartment Pets. It’s a disappointing addition to The Sims franchise with very limited Gameplay and if anything was to persuade a Sims fan to try out the console versions of the game this certainly wouldn’t be a good place to start.