Review: The Sims 2: Pets

This is a title the N-Gage needed, a well known franchise from the original PC series. We have had so many different versions of Sims 2 Pets for all the mainstream consoles and handheld’s, is this version worth our money again? Read on…

My first impressions with the game were wow The Sims 2: Pets for N-Gage? And in all fairness the screenshots I did look at before the launch did look rather nice so I was rather worked up for this version, I soon changed my mind.

We start off with the EA logo, and a nice start-up screen which gave me high hopes right from the word go, the menu was clean and easy to understand. Not too messy, not too cluttered just right.

When first starting the game, you’re required to create your avatar or your “sim” along with your pet dog. This is the part where I think EA has gone wrong, why is it only dogs? Where’s my cat? Or even any other animal? This is something they could have added into the game to give it more depth.

The aim of the game is well, Basically look after your pet by training it, feeding it, washing it, playing with it and letting it sleep – that’s all you get to do in the game really and after say an hours play, you really do get bored.

The game isn’t really that deep at all, if you wish to play with your dog you get 2 options Ball or disc (Frisbee) you can buy more toys, well you can “upgrade” your current Balls and discs to well a different colour ball or a different coloured disc.

It’s the same throughout the game, the options are limited, there are only a handful of things to do with the dog, you can’t modify the house in any way – the money you earn is to buy more food for the dog.

The controls are simple, Its like a point and click game, Left and right for the camera and the A and B gaming keys to select things, cant get too lost with that eh?

Graphically the game is rather good, Its detailed and seems to of had some effort put into it which is good, the details on the dog itself and around the house are all decent enough running at a decent frame rate and all the colours and effects used are vivid and rather nice to the eye. Though like all other 3D N-Gage 2.0 games, it isn’t using the 3D chip.

The sounds of The Sims 2:Pets are decent, people who play the PC Sims 2, Will recognise the menu music – but the game lacks music, or anything whilst in-game, only the occasional bark and scuffle can be heard so that kind of lets it down – but its mediocre quality which is nice.

The N-Gage Arena aspect of the game is well, you guessed right – rankings! But to be fair, you can’t really make this game online unless you could walk the dogs with other players and stuff like that, but let’s not get hopeful seeing as we can’t even walk the dog in single player mode.

Overall the game is a let down, It makes you excited and for £8 its also rather expensive for such a quick and easy game which in the end is a waste of money, It has no replay value – I Will only recommend this game to the serious fanatics of The Sims, otherwise leave this one out unless you need the achievement points