The
expansion pack that a lot of Sim fans have been crying out for ever since
The Sims 2 was released is finally here! Your Sims will be able to buy a
dog, cat, bird or guinea pig.
If you can think of a breed of
cat or dog, chances are it's available in Pets.
Dogs and cats are fully customisable, including size,
shape, fur colour, personality (for example, gifted or
goofy, hyper or lazy), in a similar way to Sims. When
you've got your pet home, you can train it not to
destroy the furniture and to do tricks.
Train
your pets up well and you'll be able to send them off to
work. Your dog or cat could be a movie star, a rescue
pet (might be dogs only this one), or a member of an
Elite Security Pet Corps (I would expect that to only be
dogs too, but you never know...).
Dogs and cats can also cross-breed
to produce brand new breeds, which can then be
registered to Create-A-Family.
Like Sims, pets will go through life
stages and eventually die.
Unfortunately, the birds and guinea
pigs are no where near as interactive as dogs and cats.
From my understanding, you can only feed them, stroke
them, clean their cages and, in the case of the parrots,
train them to talk.
If you're not particularly
interested in adding pets to your Sim family, there
doesn't appear to be much else to this pack, so you
might decide to give it a miss.
No, it doesn’t tread new territory that
hasn’t been explored in a previous expansion, but
nonetheless The Sims 2 Pets turns out to surprisingly be the
most engaging and addictive expansion yet for The Sims 2.
Overall, if you are a Sim nut and love
pets, how can you turn down this cuddly ball of video game
preciousness? For an expansion pack, there is plenty to do
and see and it adds a completely new level of variety to
your Sims' already busy life.
Like the previous Sims 2 expansions, Pets seamlessly improves
upon and adds to the existing gameplay by allowing your Sims to
experience a lifelike caricature of yet another facet of
everyday life.
Honestly, The Sims 2 Pets doesn't do anything to revolutionize the aging
simulated universe. But by adding yet another layer of realism with the presence
of animals - dogs barking in the distant night, cats napping on the couch,
rodents running in their squeaky wheel - your Sims' world becomes richer and,
thus, your gaming experience more enjoyable.
Like any new pet, sometimes it will drive you crazy
when it pees on the floor, but the moment it does
something adorable and curls up on the end of the
bed you will love it all over again.
The Sims 2: Pets is a very entertaining, exciting
expansion pack filled with curious critters and
adorable pets, so if you loved the last pets
expansion, you will be sure to love this one. At
times, it may be difficult to manage the many things
your Sims can do, but you will quickly get a hold of
the situation and become better at scheduling.
It's not a bad expansion by any means, it just feels
rather light compared to the previous three
expansions. If a sale hits, definitely pick
this one up. Otherwise, it can be safely
skipped unless you're a completist or simply love
playing with cats and dogs.
As great as pets are in the short-term, they aren't
and never have been the draw of the game. You'll be
spending more time with your human Sims than your
pets, so why must the entire expansion be geared
toward the four-legged creatures?
So while it's a Sims 2 expansion, and while
it's about pets, it's a wellmade, superbly polished
addition to the original game. And there aren't many
EA expansion packs we'd dare say that about.
Even though it does add a decent-sized chunk of new
content to the original game, The Sims 2: Pets isn't
about redefining the Sims 2 experience or winning
over any new converts. It seems to be for players
who already know and love The Sims 2, who will
actually spend time layering spots and colored
patches onto a dog's fur, or who find the idea of
having a starlet house cat bringing home the bacon
(while the deadbeat family sits at home and plays
pinball all day) to be hilarious.
You see, The Sims 2: Pets is probably the weakest
expansion pack of the lot. Only really bringing pets
and pet items to the table, once you see past the
novelty of putting out food for your animals and
then failing to create a cat dog, or avoiding
becoming a werewolf, you'll soon be visiting
nightclubs in Nightlife or opening another shop in
Open for Business again.
The Sims 2: Pets
expansion pack is one of the smallest expansion
packs released yet, you now have pets running around
your house but the lack of human additions is a
little disappointing. Despite this the game is still
a lot of fun and Sims fans will lap this title up.
All that said, The Sims 2 Pets may
only pale because the other expansions set the
bar so high. The animals are cute and fun to
tinker around with. If you're a hardcore Sims
2 fan and you've greedily gobbled up all the
expansions to date, Pets is a great way
to give your neighborhood some variety. For
players who are just coming into the game fresh,
though, the other expansions provide a lot more
substance.
Thanks to
Metacritic for pointing me to these reviews
Back to Expansion
Packs
The
expansion pack that a lot of Sim fans have been crying out for ever since
The Sims 2 was released is finally here! Your Sims will be able to buy a
dog, cat, bird or guinea pig.
Train
your pets up well and you'll be able to send them off to
work. Your dog or cat could be a movie star, a rescue
pet (might be dogs only this one), or a member of an
Elite Security Pet Corps (I would expect that to only be
dogs too, but you never know...).
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