The Sims 2
Cover Art
Developer	Maxis Redwood Shores
Publisher	Electronic Arts
Directors	Matt Brown	Charles London
Producers	Tim LeTourneau	Margaret Ng
Designer	Charles London
Programmer	David Gregory
Artists	David Patch	Goopy Rossi	Leo Hourvitz
Composers	Jerry Martin	Mark Mothersbaugh
Series	*The Sims*
Platforms	Windows; Mac OS X; Game Boy Advance; GameCube; Nintendo DS; Mobile; PlayStation 2; Xbox; PlayStation Portable; Java ME
Release	September 14, 2004
Genre	Social simulation
Modes	Single-player, multiplayer

The Sims 2 is a 2004 social simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in The Sims series, and is the sequel to The Sims. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on September 14, 2004, and a port for MacOS by Aspyr was released on June 17, 2005. Eight expansion packs and nine "stuff packs" were subsequently released between 2005 and 2008.[c] In addition, versions of The Sims 2 were released on various video game consoles, including the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo DS, and GameCube, and mobile platforms, including the Nokia Ovi Store. Unlike the original, the handheld and console versions are more storyline-based. The three handheld versions of the game are completely different among themselves, unlike the home console versions of the game, which are virtually identical to each other. A sequel, The Sims 3, was released in June 2009.

Like its predecessor, The Sims 2 allows the player to create and dress characters called "Sims", design neighborhoods, and build and furnish houses. Players manage their Sims from birth to death, forming relationships in a manner similar to real life. Sims have life goals, wants, and fears, the fulfillment of which can produce good or bad outcomes. First incorporated in the console versions of The Sims, The Sims 2 was the first PC game in the series to incorporate a complete 3D graphics engine of the game world. This allows the player to get 360º views as opposed to the fixed 2D isometric view of The Sims. Genetics are also a new game mechanic; children in The Sims that were born in-game were randomly generated. Although gameplay is not linear, storylines and scripted events exist in the game's pre-built neighborhoods.

The Sims 2 was critically acclaimed, and it has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. It was also a commercial success, selling one million copies in its first ten days, a record at the time. It contributed to The Sims series reaching 100 million copies in April 2008. By March 2012, the game had sold 13 million copies over all platforms with over six million PC copies, making it one of the best-selling PC games of all time. The game was re-released on Steam and EA desktop in January 2025 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of The Sims series.

Gameplay

From the neighborhood view, the player selects one lot to play, as in The Sims.^[1] While there are both residential and community lots, Sims can only live in residential lots. Sims can travel to community lots in order to purchase things like clothing and magazines, and to interact with NPCs and townies. The player can choose between playing a pre-made inhabited lot, moving a household into an unoccupied pre-built lot, or constructing a building on an empty lot. One novelty from The Sims is foundations. The player switches among the Live mode (default) to control Sims, the Buy mode to add, move, or delete furniture, and the Build mode to rebuild the house and make structural changes. Although the Buy and Build modes cannot be accessed when on a community lot, the lots can be built on by using the neighborhood view. It is also possible to import neighborhood terrains from SimCity 4.^[2][3]

The game contains some time-bound social challenges that provide a reward if successful. Sims can throw parties to gain aspiration points or invite the headmaster over for dinner in order to enroll their children in private school.^[4] Some expansion packs have new mini-games like running a Greek house in University, or dating in Nightlife.^[5][6] In Nightlife, each date is a challenge to keep both Sims as happy as possible while accumulating aspiration points.^[7][8] Various other expansion packs introduce supernatural characters which Sims can be turned into, such as Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, PlantSims, and Witches.^[9][10]

Sims

Sims socializing, including an alien Sim

The main part of the game is to lead a Sim from the start of life to death. A Sim will be born when a female Sim and a male Sim try for a baby several times. The mother will spend 3 Sim days (each day lasts 24 minutes though time can be sped-up) pregnant before giving birth to a baby. During Pregnancy, the belly does not expand gradually. Instead, every day, it pops to a bigger size. Players can name the new Sim upon birth. The baby's appearance and personality will be based on the genetics of its parents (though the baby's appearance is hidden until it becomes a toddler). Babies can also be adopted by calling adoption service on the phone, even by single parents, old age sims or same-gender couples. The baby will change into a toddler in 3 days, and 4 more days for the toddler to change into a child. After 8 days, the child grows into a teenager, and will live 15 days before changing into an adult. After 29 days, the Sim will become an elder. An elder will eventually die; the length of this final stage depends on the aspiration bar when they become an elder.^[11]

Babies, toddlers, children, teens, and adults can be advanced to their next life stage at any time during the 24 Sim hours before they will grow up automatically. For babies, this requires using the birthday cake. Toddlers, children, teens, and adults can use the "Grow Up" self-interaction. If the university expansion pack is installed, teens have the option to go to college, where they will be young adults for approximately 24 days. Aging can be disabled via cheats. Poor choices can have consequences.^[12] Players will need to build up talent badges, skills, and relationships with other people, so that they can be successful in their career.^[13] A player will also need to make sure a Sim is happy and well by fulfilling wants (including lifetime wants, avoiding fears, and fulfilling motives). Pregnancy, toddlers, teens, and elders are new stages of life. Young adult is a unique age added with the University expansion. Teen Sims will become young adults once they are moved to a university, and will be adults once they leave campus, regardless of the reason.^[14]

Create-a-Sim

Create-a-Sim tool in *The Sims 2*

In The Sims 2, Create a Family is entered by clicking the "Families" button in the lower left-hand corner of the neighborhood view, then clicking the large "Create New Family" button. Clicking the button labeled "Create A Sim" will expand a tab which has the "Create a Sim" and "Make a Child" icons. "Make a Child" will be grayed out unless the family contains an adult male and adult female. Clicking the "Create a Sim" icon will generate a random adult Sim, who may be male or female which can be edited by the player. As opposed to The Sims, any age besides baby or young adult (which must be made in the University Create a Student tool) may be created. Instead of having to choose from already finished faces which include hair, it is now possible to alter the facial structure (e.g. widening the nose, thinning the lips, elongating the chin, and so on) and choose any hairstyle to go with it. Different eye colors and an additional skin tone is available for the Sims as well. If Sims are older than a child, their aspiration and turn-ons/offs (Nightlife or later) may be determined. There are ten personality traits which are: sloppy, neat, shy, outgoing, lazy, active, serious, playful, grouchy, and nice but only 25 personality points which can be assigned to those traits.^[15]

In The Sims 2, all personality points must be assigned. Additionally, there are twelve pre-set personalities, one for each zodiac sign. A zodiac sign will be set which matches the personality the player has selected for the Sim. A sim also has one of eight Aspirations which is a lifetime goal that strongly influences their Wants and Fears which are: Grow Up (only for toddler and child Sims), Romance, Family, Knowledge, Popularity, Fortune, Pleasure (Nightlife or later), and the Grilled Cheese aspiration (Nightlife or later, and can only be set as a Sim's main aspiration if they use the ReNuYuSenso Orb machine and it malfunctions). The Sims 2 comes with The Sims 2 Body Shop,^[16][17] which enables users to create custom genetics, make-up, clothes, and Sims, with the help of third-party tools, such as Microsoft Paint, Paint.NET, Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, and SimPE.^[18][19]

Social Interactions

There are several new social interactions introduced in The Sims 2. These new social interactions can create memories and can be related to certain age groups. Social interactions can come up in the Wants and Fears panel and can be dependent on the Sim's personality and aspiration. Sims with certain personalities may not want to complete certain social interactions.

• Influence^[20]

  Influencing social interactions are introduced in the University expansion pack. A Sim is able to influence another Sim to complete a social interaction or a chore. Sims gain influence points by completing Wants and can lose influence points by completing Fears. The size of the influence bar depends on the number of friends the Sim has. It also can grow in size with business perks from the Open for Business expansion pack. Influence was also in the Nightlife expansion but added nothing.

• Chemistry^[21]

  The Nightlife expansion pack introduced a new feature, Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs. Teenagers and older are able to choose their turn-ons and turn-offs. These and other factors such as aspiration and personality, determine the chemistry that one Sim has with another in the form of lightning bolts. Sims can have up to three lightning bolts with another Sim. The higher the chemistry is that a Sim has with another Sim, the greater the chance for social interactions to be accepted. New turn-ons and turn-offs are introduced with the Bon Voyage expansion pack.

• Fury^[22]

  Fury is introduced in the Nightlife expansion pack and occurs when one Sim gets angry at another. During this time relationships with the Sim who is furious are harder to build. Also, the Sim who is furious may pick a fight or vandalize the home lot of the Sim they are furious with. Fury can be caused by another Sim burgling the Sim's house, getting fined after calling emergency services when there was no emergency, fighting, cheating on (the cheater or the Sim that was cheated with, often both), and more.

• Reputation^[23]

  Reputation, which is found in the previous Sims game The Urbz: Sims in the City, is reintroduced in the Apartment Life expansion pack. A Sim gains reputation by interacting with other Sims on community lots. Sims with higher reputations are more likely to gain perks such as free objects and job promotions.

Careers

There are 25 careers (counting all expansion packs) that come with the game that require skills and a certain number of friends in order for promotion. Each career track has ten levels.^[24] Success in these careers unlocks career rewards and higher salaries plus bonuses. Sims also receive chance cards. Correct answers to these chance cards creates rewards for Sims while incorrect answers could cause a Sim to lose its job. Nightlife and Apartment Life allow Sims to gain promotions through social interactions with other Sims.^[25]

Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods may be customized with decorative objects, as shown here with Strangetown.

The Sims 2 ships with three pre-made worlds, known as neighborhoods for the player to explore, all with a specific theme and storylines. These worlds are Pleasantview, a continuation of the playable neighborhood from The Sims, featuring many of the same families, such as the Goths and the Pleasants – Strangetown, a small desert town themed around the supernatural, with aliens, mad scientists and haunted graveyards. The final neighborhood, Veronaville, is a European-themed town based on the works of William Shakespeare, with its central plot being a loose, modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet.^[26][27] Aside from these pre-made neighborhoods, players can create and populate towns of their own, using built-in presets, or create their own entirely using SimCity 4, since SimCity 4 maps are compatible with The Sims 2. Additionally, although SimCity 4 has powerful tools for terraforming, only the middle section of the map is usable in The Sims 2.^[28][29]

Expansion packs add several new neighborhoods, such as university towns, a shopping district, a downtown area and several vacation destinations. Seasons adds a fully-fledged neighborhood, a rural small town called Riverblossom Hills,^[30][31] Free Time adds a hobby-themed town named Desiderata Valley, while Apartment Life adds Belladonna Cove, a bigger, more metropolitan area featuring apartments and high-rises.^[32]

Comparison to *The Sims*

Graphically, The Sims 2 is more detailed than The Sims and lets players view its world in full 3D. This is a change from earlier Sim games, such as SimCity 2000, which used dimetric projection and fixed resolutions, as the camera was in The Sims. In The Sims, Sims are 3D meshes, but The Sims 2 introduces far more detail in mesh quality, texture quality, and animation capability. A Sim's facial features are customizable and unique, and Sims can smile, frown, and blink. The player can adjust a Sim's features in the in-game Create-a-Sim tool; for example, noses can be made to be very large or very small. Texturing is achieved through use of raster images, although it appears more lifelike. The GameSpot review wrote of how The Sims 2 is "powered by an all-new 3D graphics engine so it looks much better than the original game did."[37]

The Sims 2 characters pass through seven life stages — babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, young adults (only with University), adults, and elders — with eventual death of old age, while babies in The Sims only become children before ceasing to age further. The aspiration system is also new to The Sims 2. Sims can become pregnant and produce babies that take on genetic characteristics of their parents, such as eye color, hair color, facial structure, and personality traits as opposed to The Sims, in which the baby would take on random appearance and personality. Genetics play a major role in the game, and as such, dominant and recessive genes play a larger role than they did in the original game. A player can also aspire to have a Sim abducted by aliens. Males then have the chance to become impregnated and produce after three Sim days a half-alien child. Some of the other additions to gameplay are career rewards, a week cycle, the cleaning skill (which was a hidden skill in The Sims), a variety of meals (depending on time of day), exercise clothing, body shape affected by diet and exercise, and houses built on foundations. Cutscenes were another new feature in The Sims 2. There are cutscenes featuring first kiss, woohoo, child birth, going to college and graduating in The Sims 2: University, and alien abductions.[38][39]

Made by internalscripter, ripped from wikipedia. citations got added cause of this!