The Sims Unleashed also introduces five new career tracks to the game: fashion, education, animal care, culinary, and circus.  In addition there are over 125 new objects, walls, and floors, with many of the objects pet-related - toys, scratching posts, litter boxes, and the like.  Maxis could have easily stopped at the addition of pets, and it is nice to see that they added even more new content in Unleashed.

If there is a knock against Unleashed, it is that the community lots can experience serious slowdowns on machines at or near the game's minimum requirements.  This can make trips to these lots trials in patience, so make sure that your machine can handle the game before you pick it up.  Check your hard disk free space too, Unleashed requires a whopping 1.3 gigabytes.  If not a record for an expansion game, it must be close.

Also, the same issues that have plagued The Sims since the beginning, most noticeably the poor pathfinding, are still present in Unleashed.  However, when viewed as an expansion pack, it more than delivers.  You get an entirely new aspect of gameplay with the pets, and a whole host of new features such as new careers, objects, and community lots.  Sims fans are sure to enjoy this expansion.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 90%.  As an expansion pack, The Sims Unleashed is totally packed with new features that Sims fans will love, and if you like animals, you'll absolutely love it.  It is always great to see an expansion pack that adds so much life to a game - quite literally in the case of The Sims Unleashed.  If you are not a fan of The Sims though, Unleashed probably does not change the game enough to change your mind on it.

System Requirements:  Pentium II 350;  64 MB RAM;  2 MB Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM;  1.3 GB Hard Drive Space;  Mouse.

« Page 2