The Sims 2 is the 2004 successor to the mega-hit 2000 'Life Simulator' game The Sims, developed by Maxis and published by EA Games. In The Sims 2, the characters are incredibly lifelike, much more so than they were in The Sims. The Sims 2 is a 3D game whereas the original game was only in 2D and had a fairly remote isometric view that didn't let you get close-up to your Sims, and that also didn't afford very good camera control.
With this sequel, you get surprisingly lifelike 3D character models to whom you can zoom in the view as close as you like, even filling the screen with a close-up of your selected Sim. Camera control is now third-person rather than isometric, affording a much better view of the Sims and their surroundings. The character model animations were created by live actors whose movements were captured into a computer system that transferred those movements to the way the models move in the game, giving your Sims uncannily lifelike behaviour.
The gameplay consists of creating characters who can look any way you like, dress any way you like, and have personalities corresponding to a selection you choose among various character traits. You can create adults, senior citizens, teenagers, children and babies. Having created your Sims, you put them together in a family (up to eight Sims per family) and move them into a house. The game comes with many houses already built and furnished in the Neighborhood you choose to play (the base game comes with three pre-made Neighborhoods), or you can install other houses from a selection in the Houses Bin within the game, or even build your own original architectural creations.
Once settled into their home, you need to teach them to look after themselves, by telling them to read books on cooking, cleaning, mechanical know-how, and so on (if you don't at least teach them cookery, they will continually set fire to the kitchen when cooking, which can result in their being killed; be warned!). Little by little they will learn, and much of their learning is autonomous rather than only by telling them to read: for instance, the more meals they prepare on their own, the more cooking skill points they gain.
They speak to each other in 'Simlish', a gibberish language created specially for the game so that it can cross language barriers and be playable all over the world without having to localise the language for each country. But you can tell what the characters are talking about by watching balloons that appear over their heads with pictures and symbols of the topic they're discussing. Sometimes these are really funny, such as one Sim gossiping with another Sim about one of their friends having had some humiliating experience or other.
Each Sim has a heads-up display showing you their Wants and Fears, and from those, you can choose actions for them to take in order to fulfil those Wants and to avoid their Fears. Wants will include getting a job of their 'choice', and you can direct them to apply for the job. Once employed, they start bringing in the Simoleans (the Sims currency) and can pay the bills (if they don't, the Repo Man will come and confiscate their belongings) and buy food, necessities and a few luxuries.
Sims also make friends and fall in love. Sims like having 'Best Friends', and this is a frequent Want. When Sims fall in love, they can move in together or get married, and have babies by indulging in what the game's makers delicately refer to as 'WooHoo'. When they become parents, they need to learn about parenting and to make sure their children are well fed, happy, and doing well in school otherwise, much like the Repo Man, a Social Worker will turn up and confiscate the children!
Sims like being happy and comfortable, and you can increase their contentment level by having them play games, socialise, and get comfy in comfortable chairs, beds and hot tubs. They also need to keep fit, and you can have them do so by providing them with gym equipment and a swimming pool.
But playing 'The Sims 2' doesn't simply consist of sitting around telling your little people what to do. The beauty of this game is that your Sims have free will (provided that the 'Free Will' option is enabled in the game, which it should be by default) and they will very happily just run amok doing whatever they feel like doing, which makes for some really funny moments. Basically, once you've set them up with all the basics enumerated above, you can mostly let them do what they like, only intervening when necessary, such as if they decide to stay in the hot tub for 20 hours without eating, sleeping or going to the toilet the whole time and their comfort level has therefore gone way into the red (if they get to 'bursting' point and don't get to a toilet quickly enough, they will actually 'have an accident' in which they 'go' on the floor in front of everyone, and then look very embarrassed about it afterwards! Awwww.).
Over the years there has also been a series of Expansion Packs, which add a huge array of extra features that massively enhance the gameplay of the base game. These consist of 'Nightlife' which adds the ability to go on dates and to own and drive cars, 'University' which lets your teenage Sim go to college and (hopefully) get a degree, 'Pets' which, as you may guess, lets your Sims have pets, 'Open for Business' which lets your Sims own and run a business, 'Seasons' which lets them have seasonal weather, go fishing and grow their own crops, 'Bon Voyage' which enables them to go on holidays abroad, 'Free Time' where your Sims can develop new hobbies and interests, and 'Apartment Life' where they can live in apartment blocks, get involved in helpful social networking, and meet witches (yes, really: witches, complete with tall peaked hats, spellbooks, cauldrons and flying brooms).
I have all of the expansion packs and can say that I've never played something that kept me so absorbed and entertained for such large chunks of time; it's like having your own personal sitcom, and you can easily lose track of time, look at the clock and be horrified to find that three hours have passed and you thought it had only been half an hour. I've created Sims based on friends and family who look remarkably like their real counterparts, as well as having downloaded dozens of celebrity Sims and fantasy characters, plus hundreds of items of custom clothing, hairstyles, accessories, furnishings and more, from fan sites full of impressively talented artists such as Mod The Sims (http://www.modthesims.info/), Sapphire Sims 2 (http://www.sapphiresims2.com/index.php?) and Insimenator (http://www.insimenator.org/smf/)
You can also exercise your own creativity and create clothes and skins using the separate 'Bodyshop' app that comes with the game; easy once you know how . This game is also ideal for making machinima videos (animated films using game models as characters) and I enjoy making funny videos with the in-game 'movie camera' as well as just doing the straightforward gameplay. I've even had friends make a request that I add them to my game and see how 'they' get on in my neighbourhood, which is great fun.
All in all, I've come to love this game and spend many happy hours in my neighbourhood of cute and funny little people and fantasy characters. Very highly recommended.