The Sims Deluxe Edition (PC Games)

Reviewed by Michelle from Auckland, NZ on April 30th, 2004

The Sims Deluxe edition is really just the original "The Sims" but packaged in a prettier box and with a few new objects and a desktop program.

While playing god to a bunch of people of your own design is extremely addictive and fun at first, after a while you will be left wondering "what more is there to do?".You find yourself simply helping your Sims to trudge along with the day to day grind of their lives and wishing that there was more to the game.

Also with the release of The Sims 2 later on this year the Sims Deluxe is starting to look like a rather poor atempt at getting the game revived and people to hurry and buy it before the new one comes out.

In the Sims Deluxe you have a very limited selection of house building/furniture/job choices and the game is much improved by the addition of the many expantion packs.

Although the game uses an outdated graphics engine, it still has a certain charm to the way it looks. You will be annoyed though that you can't zoom in very close to the game, with only three levels of zoom being available and none on them getting very close to things. Another bad thing is that the game, while looking 3D, appears to only be a 2D game with the usual 4 viewpoints. The sims themselves are 3D but nothing else in the game appears to be.

One thing I did enjoy about The Sims Deluxe was the music and general background noises. They were entertaining and I never tired of listening to my Sims babble on to one another.

All in all a well thought out game for it's time, and addictive to a certain point, but not much fun without the expantion packs.