The Sims Deluxe Review

The Sims Deluxe is not a new Sims game, but rather a bundle pack that includes The Sims, its first expansion pack Livin' Large, bonus objects and skins, and The Sims Creator.  The last part of the package is a stand-alone application that lets you build your own sim by mixing and matching heads, clothing, and accessories.  Since you are reading this review, you probably fall into one of two categories: you own The Sims and are wondering if you should pick up The Sims Deluxe as well, or you don't own The Sims and are deciding whether or not you want to enter the world of The Sims.

For the benefit of those of you who are new to The Sims, the game is a life simulator of sorts.  You create a sim and spend a set number of points on character traits such as neat, outgoing, and fun.  You then purchase a home (which you must furnish with the game's many objects), and obtain a job to pay for more stuff and the necessities of life.  The game part of The Sims is in monitoring the needs of your sim and making sure that they are met.  Needs include basics such as hunger, bathroom, and rest requirements, as well as social and entertainment needs.  The better you do at keeping the needs met, the happier your sim will be.  You'll want to keep your sim happy as unhappy sims will not want to follow your directions or could even die from starvation.  There is also a social aspect to the game, as your sim's happiness also depends on your circle of friends and relationships.  If you build a strong enough relationship with another sim, you can propose marriage.  If your proposal is accepted, the sim will move in with you, giving you another income source and some more help around the house.  The game also includes sim children, and if your marriage is blessed with one or more babies, then you can raise them to be sim children (the children never grow up, though).

The Sims Deluxe does not include an update to the original game, so the same problems are still present in this version.  Sims have trouble navigating through crowded areas and the game experiences slowdowns when scrolling or when there are a number of sims present in an area.  Also, there can be a lot of micromanagement and hand-holding involved in keeping your sim satisfied, and there never seems to be enough time in the day to meet all of their needs (sims don't even get weekends to try and catch up).  In practice, many players use some of the game's well-publicized cheats and tricks in order to manage money and their sims needs so that they can spend their game time building their homes and interacting with the game's objects.  In spite of these issues, The Sims can be quite addicting and has an amazing way of making time fly when you are playing.  It has struck a chord with many gamers, who have propelled it to the number one selling PC game franchise of all time.

As mentioned earlier, The Sims Creator is a separate tool that allows you to create your own custom sim for use in the game.  You can start out by browsing through the many heads and bodies available, and combining two that you like into a sim.  The clothing options run from normal everyday and formal wear to more fun and whimsical costumes such as togas, sports uniforms, and a Mountie outfit.  You can then further customize the clothing by combining different tops and bottoms, and applying different colors and patterns to the clothing.  You can even import pictures or logos and apply them to your sim.  We were able to easily import our logo and create a sim version of the official Gamers' Temple t-shirt.  While you work, The Sims Creator displays a 3D preview of your sim so that you can see how your changes will look on your sim.

The Sims Creator will also let you work on the actual head and body skins themselves.  However, if you don't have much artistic talent, don't expect any decent results from trying to create a sim from the skin up.  Those of you that are of an artistic bent might not like this feature much either, as it is pretty basic and might frustrate you by the lack of tools it provides.

One interesting feature of The Sims Creator is its ability to import digital photos for use as your sim's face.  You can even use a graphic file if you wanted to import a picture from a movie poster or a frame from your favorite cartoon.  The process of importing a digital photo and aligning it properly for use as a sim's face is pretty simple and straightforward - Maxis made it quite easy to use.  However, your results may vary depending on how well the photo fits the sim's head.  There isn't an easy or straight-forward way to switch the head styles once you are applying the image, so the face shape might not be a good match for the photo.  Also, there is no easy way to blend the photo into the rest of the head features such as the forehead and hairline, so some faces might look more "pasted on" than others. 

Once your sim is complete, you can start a game of The Sims and create a new sim based on your model.  There is no way to quickly find your creation, though, so you'll just have to scroll through all of the available sims until you find the one that you want.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 88%.  If you haven't experienced The Sims before, now's your chance.  This bundle will provide you with plenty of gameplay and introduce you to the enjoyable addiction that The Sims can be.  It is also compatible with all of the expansion packs available for The Sims, so you'll be able to expand your options with House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, and Unleashed.  If you already own The Sims, then this expansion is of questionable worth to you, especially if you already own Livin' Large.  You'll have to decide for yourself how important The Sims Creator would be to you.

System Requirements:  Pentium II 233;  64 MB RAM;  2 MB Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM;  1.4 GB Hard Drive Space;  Mouse.