Having made
quite an impression on the PC crowd, Electronic Arts’ decision to bring The
Sims to home consoles everywhere was a really good one. It not only did a
good job of bringing us a great port plus a pretty darn excellent second
offering (The Sims Bustin’ Out is still a personal favorite), but
now they’re taking the series to new heights with The Urbz: Sims in
the City. Is this a new direction fans will fall in love with or is this
just simply a gimmick?
We’ve seen
the Sims step out of their homes and explore new locales with Bustin’ Out, but
The Urbz forgoes the usual emphasis on home and the conquest of Mister or
Miss Right for making your character the most popular Urb in the city. You
start off by selecting one of the nine different districts in the city, each one
with its own specific subculture and, naturally, its own lifestyle. The Neon
East district, for example, is composed of Ravers infatuated with glow sticks
and youthful Japanese fashion sense. The Kicktail Park district is composed of
skaters while the district known as Central Station is composed of punks in
leather and spikes. Then you create your Urb, choosing its sex, hairstyle and
body shape. Notice how you won’t be picking out an outfit for your character.
The reason is simple, you have to earn the right to dress like your chosen city
inhabitant and that means earning money (called Simolians in this universe) by
getting a job.
Each district
also has it’s own job-type and, like the first two games, you can work your way
up the career ladder. For example, in Neon East you can get a job in the sushi
bar and, naturally, work your way from the very bottom, then become an Assistant
Chef and finally become a bona fide Sushi Chef. The more money you’ll make the
more you’ll be able to afford the more expensive threads and thus make an
impression of the characters in the district. Yet a fancy wardrobe isn’t enough
to get you in the door of the most popular club in the neighborhood. You’ll
have to network and befriend people if you want to become a member of “the
crew.” As luck would have it, your friend Darius is great at giving you
pointers in how to earn Social Moves and how to befriend other popular Urbz.
While you get an apartment, 300 bucks and a few items to add to your apartment,
your most valuable tool is your cell phone/PDA – you’ll be using it a lot to
keep track of friends and opportunities.
As the
subtitle reveals, your Urb will be mainly interacting within the city. Sure you
can crash in your own apartment but each district has a place you can spend the
night, use the bathroom and grab a bite to eat … in other words, all the basic
needs that require attention can be attended to out in the city without you ever
stepping foot in your pad. This gives you a chance to concentrate on your
career, making friends, dating and gaining a reputation. Making friends is a
question of walking up to the person and choosing from the list of conversation
types (Ice Breaker, Network, Act Friendly, Act Mean, Act Romantic and Power
Social). Ice Breakers are a great introduction since Gossip and Talk allows the
other Urb to become comfortable enough with you to allow you to get romantic
with them. Once you’ve befriended another character, he or she will offer Power
Social options as well as Social Moves you can learn. The game leaves many of
the smaller decisions up to you such as who you’d like as a lover and who you’d
like to be mean to and, thusly, have as an enemy.
Yet going
from soda pusher to popular bartender and becoming friends with the main power
diva in town isn’t hard to do since much of what you’ll be doing is the same old
thing over and over again. Want to become a contract model, simply show up to
work whenever you’re asked for and make sure you’re bathed and wearing the right
clothes. Do you want to get into the coolest club in the district? Talk to the
most popular person around by simply following the same conversational formula.
Yes, this sounds utterly repetitive, but if you’re tired of being a classy Urb
you can simply move to another district and keep it real as a hip-hopper. It’s
like starting over and wowing a different set of people all over again. In a
way, you can keep playing the game forever.
One of my
biggest gripes, aside from the repetitiveness, is the fact that the clothing
options are very limited. For a game that stresses the importance of looking
fabulous, you’d expect the game to be overflowing with a wide variety of
garments and accessories. While the game does a great job of allowing you to
dress up in your own style while keeping with the style of those around you,
you’ll wish there were more choices. My other gripe is with the load times –
they’re pretty long. These complaints might seem unimportant and they don’t
really get in the way of the game’s main goals or exploration, but they could
have made this game all the more addictive.
Visually, the
game is pretty sharp looking and wonderfully colorful. The Xbox clearly gets
the crisper graphics and you’ll see this the moment you get close-ups of your
character. The animation is nice and fluid, and you’ll get a laugh or two from
watching characters interact with things (or dance). It’s cool to watch each
different subculture do what they do best (the Diamond Heights people love
posing for pictures). The locales have plenty of different buildings and the
clubs are so cool that you’ll certainly understand why you have to dress to
impress and know the right people. It’s not bad at all.
If you like
the musical styling of the Black Eyed Peas then the soundtrack will definitely
be up your alley. Each of the nine districts not only has their own appearance
but different music that suits the style of the people that make up that part of
the city. The typical Sims sound effects are back and so is the weird gibberish
that makes up their language.
The Urbz:
Sims in the City tries to be
different and succeeds but its repetitiveness keeps the fun from being both
fresh and stimulating. The Sims fans will appreciate the socializing
outside the usual home setting and making friends, lovers and enemies in a city
with much to do. Yet even the most hardcore fan (you know who you are) will
find changing fashion styles to fit the type of people you’d like to befriend
gets pretty old. This is a game long-time fans should definitely check out.
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Gameplay:
7.5
Your Urb is a tad more easy to
manage than your average Sim seen in previous console versions of The Sims,
and that’s a really great thing considering there’s about a hundred things you
can do in the city. You can stick with your own crowd of friends but if you
want a change of scene you can just move to another district and dress
accordingly. Your job can have you going against competitors as well.
Graphics:
8.0
Crisp and clean Xbox visuals make
this the best version to own and you just have to love the cute animations.
You’ll find the usual Sims-styled lag, but it’s nothing that gets in the way of
the action. Each district has its own look and therefore so does each Urb.
Sound: 8.0
You’d think a soundtrack that
consists of mainly Black Eyed Peas tunes would get seriously boring (and in some
instances it does), but each district has its own musical style so you’ll get
something different in each section of the city. Sim-speak is still kind of
freaky to me.
Difficulty: Medium
It’s all about putting yourself out
there and grabbing as much attention and street cred as possible while looking
your very best in the process. It’s whom you know that gets you in the door of
popular nightspots, and you’re nothing without money or a reputation. You’ll
have to step on a few toes to climb to the top so you‘ll definitely make some
enemies.
Concept:
7.2
The Urbz
does a great job of immersing you in the city
and its many inhabitants that form their own subculture. You can go punk for a
while before deciding to become the next Paris Hilton or P Diddy. There’s also
more smooching and less Martha Stewart-styled home decorating, although you can
design a neat pad and own a pet.
Multiplayer: 7.5
Two players can head out into the
city and outshine each another by getting better jobs, making more money or
becoming members of a very select clan. It’s a great way to work together or
work against each another.
Overall:
7.5
There’s plenty of fun to be had with
The Urbz but its appealing freedom to be whatever you want loses its
charm way too quickly. However, if you’re a fan of all things Sims and would
love to see them out of a home setting and becoming the ultimate social
butterfly, you’ll get a kick out of this game.
