The Sims 2: Seasons

The Sims world has always been an unusual one. At times the game can come across as eerily familiar, at other times, totally fake. Take those endless sunny days. Reminds me of the song: Blue skies / Smiling at me / Nothing but blue skies / Do I see…. It’s as if Irving Berlin grew up in Strangetown or something.

Sure, there’s nothing wrong with great weather all the time, but really, some days, especially now, as we’re creeping into winter, you just don’t feel like sunny blue skies all the time. Sometimes you need some atmosphere. If you’re anything like me, your neighbourhood has morphed from the clean cookie-cutter families that you started the game with, and has morphed into something much messier, with alien vampires, and houses where people have extra-marital affairs with their robots. (OK, so maybe not…) What I’m saying is that vampires need moody atmospheres, they need drizzly rain, and thunder and lightning!

Other reviewers have commented that The Sims Seasons doesn’t add that much gameplay to the game. Come on! This is the biggest breakthrough since working sims were allowed to take days off! Finally, things feel interesting and, while still not what you would call “realistic”, there’s a more complete feeling about the game now. What do I mean?

Picture this: your sim is standing at the sink doing dishes. Suddenly the sky gets dark and there’s a huge boom and then a crack of light through the sky. One of the maple trees in the back garden catches fire. Your sim rushes outside to see what’s going on. Or this: your sim child wakes up early on a Saturday morning, looks out the window and sees their first snow. Forgetting about breakfast, they run outside to make snow angels, and throw a few snowballs at some unsuspecting neighbours passing by.

What’s more, these new seasons give you bonuses to certain aspects of the game. Winter, for example, is the time to reinforce family bonds, while Springtime, of course, is the season for falling in love.

And there is some great new gameplay, including gardening and fishing. If you play the new neighbourhood, Riverblossom Hills, you’ll notice that most of the houses set up here are built with these new features in mind. Most will have a fishing pond in the backyard, around which you can gather with your mates and fish for Rainbow Trout and the odd boot. There are also fruit trees that you can tend, and harvest fruit from. You can plant a range of veggies in garden plots and glasshouses, and then sell them, or put in your fridge and get a bonus to the meals that you make. Plus there’s that snooty Garden Club with their incredibly high standards. If you get in, they’ll judge your garden. If you do well, they award money and other prizes. Sweet!

And no Sims 2 expansion would be complete without the inclusion of a new sort of being. This time we’re introduced to Plant Sims, fervent gardeners gone wrong! Plant Sims can spawn babies (no other partner required), or become impregnated via normal means. Their needs are few: sunlight, water and love. And they’re pretty darn cute as well. Mine seem to love having water balloon fights outside in the sun.

In addition to all of this, Maxis has also included six new careers to the game: education, adventure, law, journalism, music, and games. (I particularly like the starting role for the Gamer career path: Noob.) Each also have their own new career reward. I won’t give them all away, but just as an example, the music career grants an awesome guitar that would make Alice Cooper proud, and the adventure career grants you a mysterious tiki god which can affect your needs.

So yes, another Sims 2 expansion. Some will groan and roll their eyes, while others will look eagerly towards discovering more of the Sims world, as well as how this new expansion pack will interact with features from other expansions. I can say without a doubt that this has entertained me far more as a whole than any other of the Sims 2 expansions.

Without wanting to sound as if I’m blathering on, there have been plenty of delights so far, including watching a penguin discussing tennis with my snowman, having a party as a Plant Sim and shaking my “Spores of Happiness” around the room, going on an ice-skating date, having my education sim schmooze with the principal flawlessly, and even just watching the seasons blend from one to the next.

If you own The Sims 2, you should buy this expansion. Simple as that.