The Sims 2

07.12.2005

Users 82/100

Genre: Role-playing (RPG) Simulator Strategy

The Sims 2 for PlayStation Portable delivers a unique third-person experience that blends life simulation with role-playing elements, offering a more substantial storyline compared to other versions. Players navigate various goals to unlock content while customizing their pre-built homes with furniture and decor. Interactions and jobs are executed through mini-games, maintaining a dynamic gameplay flow. In this version, characters do not age, marry, or have children; however, they can pursue significant relationships and WooHoo. Goals largely dictate relationship dynamics, with close friends potentially moving in as the game progresses. As players complete objectives, their sanity meter, symbolized by a Plumbob, increases, while failing to meet goals leads to rapid depletion, resulting in hospitalization or alien abduction. Unique to this version are "Sanity Points," awarded for completing tasks to unlock special perks, and hidden "Secrets" found in Strangetown, enhancing exploration and social interaction.

The game begins with the player's character driving through the Strangetown desert, presumably the "Road to Nowhere" in their car, when suddenly a flying green diamond (Also known as the Plumbob, the marker and logo of the Sims games) flies past the player and causes them to lose control of, and damage, their car. Fortunately, the player finds a gas station. The player takes their car into the garage. At that point the player takes control. The player is introduced to a vehicle mechanic named Oscar who, after a brief tutorial in teaching the player how to talk to NPC Sims, informs the player their car will only take a short while to fix. The player is then free to roam around the gas station, and after being introduced to some more NPCs, including Bella Goth, who claims to be abducted by aliens, completing tasks and being taught the basic objective of the game which is "Secret Hunting" for the store clerk. The player then exits the shop only to find the garage around the back has completely disappeared along with Oscar and their car, with only the foundation of the garage remaining. The only thing left from the disappearance is a cell phone, which the player answers and a man named Doctor Dominic Newlow offers the player a job, requiring him or her to get a ride into town and find a place to stay. The player informs Police Deputy Duncan about the situation who replies that he can do nothing about it and suggests the player find a place to stay. After having bought Bella's house for pocket change and getting donuts for Deputy Duncan (which happen to have been found in the trash), the player finally gets a lift into Strangetown's Paradise Place, only to find more tasks and mysteries.