Review Roach 3/5 · Jun 6, 2024
Console Edition
My first experience with the Sims franchise was the console release of the Sims Bustin' Out. It is still one of my favorite games so I wanted to experience the rest of the console releases and their campaign modes, a lacking feature on PC. While I own a copy of the Sims for Gamecube, I never managed to beat …
My first experience with the Sims franchise was the console release of the Sims Bustin' Out. It is still one of my favorite games so I wanted to experience the rest of the console releases and their campaign modes, a lacking feature on PC. While I own a copy of the Sims for Gamecube, I never managed to beat it due to the game freezing randomly, usually after several hours of playing without saving. I always thought this was an issue with the disc but unfortunately it appears to be an issue with the game itself, as it froze again while playing on Dolphin Emulator. Alas I pushed through my frustrations and finally managed to beat this game after owning it for so long.
Get a Life mode is the name of the campaign. There are six chapters to this mode with an entertaining cutscene at the end. While the campaign is short, it becomes a grindfest to complete the later chapters. The main goals revolve around getting promotions within your career. These promotions work the same as they always have: increasing your skill points in a specific activity and making friends. The grind is in making friends. Every Sim in this game is so mean. Most social interactions fail so I always had to resort to the "Talk" option. Generally this took forever.
I was also frustrated the campaign wouldn't allow my Sim to marry a personally created Sim. I was forced to marry a pre-created character, so I picked the one that most looked like my partner and pretended "Peter" was their undercover name. And then I was discouraged from being romantic with them because simply kissing or any romantic social option resorted in a baby suddenly appearing in the house.
Otherwise the things I enjoyed about the game were the different personalities of each Sim, usually expressed through dialogue boxes, the addition of unlockables through completing objectives and making friends, the wonderful soundtrack, and a lovely dose of nostalgia.
The first half of the game was pure fun but the latter half I was stressed about the constant struggle of keeping friendly relationships with the meanest Sims ever and the risk of my game suddenly freezing and losing hours of progress. Yet overall I'd recommend this game for those interested in the series.