Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 29, 2007 7:20:30 GMT -5
Quickly: Not enough starting options, poor graphics and I can't stop playing it!
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]
The latest in the stand alone Sims2 spin offs. This one lets you create all the fun of Survivor, Lost, Gilligan's Island and Castaway in EAs unique Sim way.
You start off by making a crew of people on a small boat. Different from other Sim games all these people don't need to be family. You can make young adults or adults, males or females. You customize each of them using a very restricted set of clothing, hair, body type and other options.
Once your crew is made you pick on Sim to be your starting character. Then you watch a little cut scene where the boat gets wrecked and you wake up on a tropical island. The rest of the game is played on this island.
You start off with only the most basic needs (hunger and bladder). You must fend for yourself using the things at hand. The first steps involve gathering wood and building your first fire. The a fishing rod and other simple tools. You will spend quite a bit of time harvesting materials to build things. As you gather materials you will get 'inspirations' to build new things.
The game is set up goal based, like other sims spin offs like The Urbs. It's not a sandbox, you have definite things to do, more like an RPG then a SIM. As you progress your sim will learn to build and create new things like replacement clothing, simple shelters, more complex tools, bamboo cots, a friend made of sand, etc. As you complete goals new needs are unlocked. Eventually giving you the full set of sim needs. With each new need a new set of plans is learned so you can build the things to fill those needs.
While playing you will befriend the local wildlife. This consists of a group of monkeys. These provide some good benefits as well as amusement. In the start they are your only chance for social interaction. Once befriended though, they are an excellent resource as they can be used to gather materials saving you time to work on other things.
Eventually you will find your other crew mates and form a 'tribe'. Instead of the usual job system each person in the tribe can be given a task, like Food, Fish, Gathering. Each day they will spend 1 hour doing their assigned task, working together to provide for the tribe.
The eventual goal is of course to get off the island after working through a ton of small goals like "get a chimp to gather for you" and "befriend a crew mate".
The interface is typical Sims with a few tweaks. The biggest change is the crafting and cooking system replacing the usual buying interface. Cooking actually lets you pick ingredients one at a time to make a variety of dishes (once you have more then a camp fire). Crafting lets you build all the things your Sims will need, with the right skills learned and materials. The skill system is a bit different as well as there are no 'training' objects. In this one you learn by doing. You want to raise strength, climb some trees and harvest coconuts. You want to raise creativity, how about making some new clothes out of those vines you harvested.
[glow=Green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]
As fun and addictive as most Sims Games. This one is hard to put down. There is always that one more thing to do before you quit. That one more thing to build, that one more herb to gather. This is more of a Gilligan's Island then Lost which makes it a ton of fun. Early in the game you can build a 'friend' out of Sand and he has a basketball head. The chimps on the island will often steal this ball (which reduces the 'room' of the friend, reducing your Sims needs). You then have to find it and replace it. The various things you make are all taken with a humorous edge. I personally prefer Sims games that are goal based, like The Urbs, and this is one of those. I always got bored with the Sandbox style Sims games, where when I have a goal I find I can't stop until I hit it, and then they give you a new one. They lost island feel is rather cool. The way you go from gathering berries to eat to fishing to frying up food for example. The way your sim changes as you play is great as well. You will actually see their hair grow long, a beard grow in on the guys, their clothes get tattered and dirty as time goes on etc.
[glow=Yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]
The controls on the Wii are just weird. You take a game that should be controlled by a mouse, and put it on a system that has a controller that works exactly like a mouse, but then make it so you use the Nun-chuck instead of the Wiimote for 90% of the things you do. It just doesn't make sense and isn't intuitive. Due to the number of things you 'need' to get done in a day, you almost have to make a large crew. If you only make one or two sims you will have a hard time later in the game trying to get everything you need to done (as the crew are the only sims you will ever meet on the island). As noted in the good, this game is addictive as any Sims game, this can be a bad thing when you have to work the next day
[glow=Red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]
The Graphics. It looks like they took the PS2 version of the game and just ported it to the Wii. I know the Wii is capable of more then this. The Sims (the original) looks better then this on my Wii. I'm not sure if this is a Wii only thing or if it's all platforms. Along with a low polygon count you also are so restricted in options when designing your crew that it doesn't even feel like a Sims game. You only have 4 colours to choose from for most thing, there are only like 8 different shirts, 8 different pants and you can't change the colours of those. There just aren't enough customizable things in the beginning of the game. I seriously hope this isn't the same on the other editions, since if you can't make characters you like, it's hard to get attached to them.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]
When I first started playing this I couldn't believe how limited I was in the choices I had to make my crew. Then the game started and I couldn't believe how bad it looked. It seriously looks worse then The Sims (part one) on my PC. Then I started playing, and couldn't stop. The game is a ton of addictive fun. The first time a monkey stole my 'friends' head I actually laughed out loud. There is always something more to do, and it's hard to stop before doing it. Slowly watching your little Sim go from eating berries in rags to wearing vines and leaves relaxing in a bamboo recliner under his leaf and bamboo shelter is very rewarding. Overall I think this a great addition to the Sims franchise, I just hope that non-Wii versions give you more options and better graphics. I will be keeping my eyes open for a PC version of this, but will be returning my Wii version rental without plans to purchase.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]
The latest in the stand alone Sims2 spin offs. This one lets you create all the fun of Survivor, Lost, Gilligan's Island and Castaway in EAs unique Sim way.
You start off by making a crew of people on a small boat. Different from other Sim games all these people don't need to be family. You can make young adults or adults, males or females. You customize each of them using a very restricted set of clothing, hair, body type and other options.
Once your crew is made you pick on Sim to be your starting character. Then you watch a little cut scene where the boat gets wrecked and you wake up on a tropical island. The rest of the game is played on this island.
You start off with only the most basic needs (hunger and bladder). You must fend for yourself using the things at hand. The first steps involve gathering wood and building your first fire. The a fishing rod and other simple tools. You will spend quite a bit of time harvesting materials to build things. As you gather materials you will get 'inspirations' to build new things.
The game is set up goal based, like other sims spin offs like The Urbs. It's not a sandbox, you have definite things to do, more like an RPG then a SIM. As you progress your sim will learn to build and create new things like replacement clothing, simple shelters, more complex tools, bamboo cots, a friend made of sand, etc. As you complete goals new needs are unlocked. Eventually giving you the full set of sim needs. With each new need a new set of plans is learned so you can build the things to fill those needs.
While playing you will befriend the local wildlife. This consists of a group of monkeys. These provide some good benefits as well as amusement. In the start they are your only chance for social interaction. Once befriended though, they are an excellent resource as they can be used to gather materials saving you time to work on other things.
Eventually you will find your other crew mates and form a 'tribe'. Instead of the usual job system each person in the tribe can be given a task, like Food, Fish, Gathering. Each day they will spend 1 hour doing their assigned task, working together to provide for the tribe.
The eventual goal is of course to get off the island after working through a ton of small goals like "get a chimp to gather for you" and "befriend a crew mate".
The interface is typical Sims with a few tweaks. The biggest change is the crafting and cooking system replacing the usual buying interface. Cooking actually lets you pick ingredients one at a time to make a variety of dishes (once you have more then a camp fire). Crafting lets you build all the things your Sims will need, with the right skills learned and materials. The skill system is a bit different as well as there are no 'training' objects. In this one you learn by doing. You want to raise strength, climb some trees and harvest coconuts. You want to raise creativity, how about making some new clothes out of those vines you harvested.
[glow=Green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]
As fun and addictive as most Sims Games. This one is hard to put down. There is always that one more thing to do before you quit. That one more thing to build, that one more herb to gather. This is more of a Gilligan's Island then Lost which makes it a ton of fun. Early in the game you can build a 'friend' out of Sand and he has a basketball head. The chimps on the island will often steal this ball (which reduces the 'room' of the friend, reducing your Sims needs). You then have to find it and replace it. The various things you make are all taken with a humorous edge. I personally prefer Sims games that are goal based, like The Urbs, and this is one of those. I always got bored with the Sandbox style Sims games, where when I have a goal I find I can't stop until I hit it, and then they give you a new one. They lost island feel is rather cool. The way you go from gathering berries to eat to fishing to frying up food for example. The way your sim changes as you play is great as well. You will actually see their hair grow long, a beard grow in on the guys, their clothes get tattered and dirty as time goes on etc.
[glow=Yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]
The controls on the Wii are just weird. You take a game that should be controlled by a mouse, and put it on a system that has a controller that works exactly like a mouse, but then make it so you use the Nun-chuck instead of the Wiimote for 90% of the things you do. It just doesn't make sense and isn't intuitive. Due to the number of things you 'need' to get done in a day, you almost have to make a large crew. If you only make one or two sims you will have a hard time later in the game trying to get everything you need to done (as the crew are the only sims you will ever meet on the island). As noted in the good, this game is addictive as any Sims game, this can be a bad thing when you have to work the next day
[glow=Red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]
The Graphics. It looks like they took the PS2 version of the game and just ported it to the Wii. I know the Wii is capable of more then this. The Sims (the original) looks better then this on my Wii. I'm not sure if this is a Wii only thing or if it's all platforms. Along with a low polygon count you also are so restricted in options when designing your crew that it doesn't even feel like a Sims game. You only have 4 colours to choose from for most thing, there are only like 8 different shirts, 8 different pants and you can't change the colours of those. There just aren't enough customizable things in the beginning of the game. I seriously hope this isn't the same on the other editions, since if you can't make characters you like, it's hard to get attached to them.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]
When I first started playing this I couldn't believe how limited I was in the choices I had to make my crew. Then the game started and I couldn't believe how bad it looked. It seriously looks worse then The Sims (part one) on my PC. Then I started playing, and couldn't stop. The game is a ton of addictive fun. The first time a monkey stole my 'friends' head I actually laughed out loud. There is always something more to do, and it's hard to stop before doing it. Slowly watching your little Sim go from eating berries in rags to wearing vines and leaves relaxing in a bamboo recliner under his leaf and bamboo shelter is very rewarding. Overall I think this a great addition to the Sims franchise, I just hope that non-Wii versions give you more options and better graphics. I will be keeping my eyes open for a PC version of this, but will be returning my Wii version rental without plans to purchase.