The Sims 2 University – PC – Review

They grow up so fast, don’t they?  First you’re clapping and
cooing over their cribs when they’re infants and then they’re tying their shoes
on their own.  Next thing you know they become teenagers ready to go off to
college and thanks to The Sims 2 University we’ll see them do just that.
The world of The Sims have seen expansion packs before but this is the first
time we’ll be able to take part in shaping our teenaged Sims into adult Sims
parents can be proud of when they finally come home.  How good is this expansion
pack to the brilliant sequel that is The Sims 2, you might ask?  Let’s
just say that campus life is a challenging good time.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years The
Sims is a strategy game that allows you to create a family that interacts
with everything you put in front of them.  They live and breathe and have
desires and needs that require you to fulfill them or they live unhappily or
even die.  In The Sims 2 we come to see the family unit expand by
watching couples give birth to children who grow up to become adults themselves
but with The Sims 2 University we get to play a role in making them
successful adults with skills they learn outside of home.  You can take your
created Sims from the main game or create your own to send off to college.  With
a choice of attending three different campuses–Sim State University, Académie
Le Tour and La Fiesta Tech–your journey to make something of your young Sims
becomes the main priority.

First off the campuses are different from one another so choosing
the right one is a question of how driven you are to push an outstanding career
for your created Sims.  Sim State University, for example, is dedicated to high
standards of learning and thus the right choice for those that desire their Sims
to become the next Stephen Hawkings or the next Al Gore.  Académie Le Tour is a
more traditional college with world-renowned professors.  It’s the school you
turn to if your ambitions lie in the artistic categories such as the culinary or
paranormal field.  Finally comes La Fiesta Tech, what you might call a party
college (think UC San Diego or any college in Hawaii) with more slackers and
students longing to be the next Picasso or the next Paris Hilton minus the
wealth (which means you’ll try your hand in anything in the show business
field).

Whatever campus you choose you’ll find similar goals that have
you keeping an eye on your basic needs but also your scholastic requirements.
That means if you have an hour to get to your next class you better hustle and
if you have an exam to study for tomorrow you better cram in the library.  Yes,
this game simulates the learning process rather accurately so you’ll be more
than occupied dealing with studies and making an impression on your professors
who you can turn to after class.  Miss a class and watch your grades slip and
this make the semesters drag on forever.

You start by selecting a dorm and then immediately your own
room.  The dorm you decide to claim as your new home will fill up with NPC Sims
that you can meet and interact with on a daily basis.  Friendships will form,
romances will bud and it doesn’t get any better than this.  Unlike the core game
where you can ignore your neighbors, The Sims 2 University will force you
to interact and talk to others since you’ll find yourself eating your meals with
other students living in the dorm or use the communal shower.  This, of course,
leads to friendships and love interests but best of all it leads to options like
forming your own rock, country or jazz band with fellow roommates.  You can buy
a guitar, piano, bass or a drum kit and play and practice with your friends
until you’re good enough to play some venues around campus.  It’s a great way to
earn creativity points and Simoleons (Sim-speak for currency).

You can also join a fraternity or a sorority if you choose to go
Greek.  This allows a more social Sim to interact more with fellow students and
join some truly, well, tame parties.  How tame, you might ask?  Well, lets just
say the kegs in these parties aren’t filled with beer and the streaking that
goes on in the halls of your dorm really feel, well, unexciting.  Add some water
balloons, a lengthy pillow fight and joy buzzers and you’ll feel as though
you’ve just enrolled in Disney University.  The parties and pranks don’t have to
be R-rated but as a game attempting to simulate the college life it has to at
least portray it more accurately than this.

At least the game got the student life right.  You’ll not only be
attempting to earn a scholarship or study hard enough not to repeat the semester
but you’ll also have to get a temporary job because–let’s face it–college
isn’t cheap.  You can pull a few shifts at the local coffee house or espresso
bar and you can play in a band for well-earned tips.  Yet it’s all about earning
that degree in any of the eleven majors you happen to pick (everything from
psychology, art, literature or physics are available to you).  Earn a degree in
your chosen career and you’ll even be rewarded with four cool new items such as
the Resurrect-O-Nomitron that can bring dead Sims back to life or the
Laganaphyllis Simnovorii (a dangerous Sim-eating plant).

Visually, nothing has changed so The Sims 2 University
looks exactly like the main game.  The characters are still neatly rendered and
they still go about their business all around you.  You’ll still encounter a few
bugs here and there that leads to Sims getting stuck in corners or a few
instances when they twitch like crazy when two or more characters block their
path.  The buildings in this game, somehow, look a bit better than The Sims 2.

As for the sound, the game’s music just keeps getting better and
I’m beginning to like the 60s-inspired rock tunes and the tunes with lyrics (or
course, by lyrics I mean it’s all done in Sim-speak).  There’s a better
assortment of tunes and that’s a good thing since every dorm, frat house or
sorority has a radio on.  It’s not bad stuff at all.

The game might not portray the college life accurately but The
Sims 2 University won’t fail to make higher learning so much darn fun.  Yes
there are some rough spots that make the student life seem like work and yes its
not easy surviving each semester but overall this is a refreshing way to build
up your teen Sims into the resourceful adult Sims that will make up your
neighborhood in the core game.  Consider this expansion pack a Must Have.

#Review Scoring Details for The Sims 2 University

Gameplay: 8.8
It’s The
Sims 2 in a campus setting filled with specific areas of interest, loads of
NPC characters and things to do like go study in the library, join a sorority or
even form your own rock band. 

Graphics: 8.2
The few bugs
and graphical glitches don’t really take away from the game’s overall great
visual appeal.  The characters still look great and watching them interact with
the world around them is still gaming gold.  You can be as creative as you want
and design your pad (no design tools available for dorms) anyway you like and it
will still look good.

Sound: 8.5
The new tunes
sound appropriate to the college scene and listening to a newly formed band goes
from awful to amazing are actually brilliant.  You can still expect all the
characters to speak in the usual Sim Speak but that’s okay.

Difficulty: Medium
The daily
rushing from class to class and then head for work half zonked will feel
strangely familiar.  If that weren’t enough your Sims still have to study and
worry about grades slipping.  It’s hard but then again college never was easy in
real life.

Concept: 9.0
The new
add-ons to the game go beyond the usual new item, jobs and wardrobe choices
(although the man-eating plant is great for removing rivals and Sims you
dislike) and that’s a really good thing.  Minus points for the tame parties.  I
mean kegs filled with fruit juice?

Overall: 8.6
As far as
expansion packs go; The Sims 2 University is a great addition to the main
game and one that just adds more goodies to explore.  While the Sim campus life
is pretty tame in this game you’ll still find enough to see and do in this
game.  If you love The Sims 2 then you’ll really like The Sims 2
University.