The Sims: Unleashed Review

Let's get something straight - if you are not a hard-core Sims fan, you can immediately give "The Sims: Unleashed" a miss, as it is just another Sims expansion pack, which will take up another 950 megs of your disk space after a half an hour of installing itself, without giving any spectacular results. On the other hand, if you are a fierce fan of these little electronic humanoids, "Unleashed" will bring you a couple of interesting novelties. The main theme of "Livin' Large" was exotic architecture; "House Party" dealt with parties and brought new music. "Hot Date" introduced a whole new level of Sims communication and the improved downtown element; "Vacations" offered a short vacation for your Sims and the new "Unleashed" brings some pets to your virtual home.

You can now pet and feed stray dogs and cats, and your house and surrounding area will constantly be swarming with raccoons, rabbits, mice and other animals. You can always order a pedigree pet from your local animal preservation agency. The guys from the agency will also take care of the surplus raccoons or rats you may have, as the game still doesn't feature a shotgun. There's also a pet shop that will offer the more exotic of pets like iguanas, turtles, parrots, and alike. If you neglect your pet the agency will come to take it away.

Animals bring more new obligations like feeding them, taking them for a walk, cleaning them, and so on. If you cannot train your dog yourself, you can hire an expert to do so. Most of the 125 new items concern pets. There's the parrot stand, cages, terrariums, special pots. Each animal is capable of establishing a relationship with people around it, just like any Simsonian would.

"Unleashed" will also let you take care of your plants by letting you grow vegetables in your back yard. Once the vegetables are ripe, you can either put it in your fridge or sell it on the market. I suggest you keep a well trained dog to protect your crops from the pests.

"The Sims: Unleashed" also brings more places for your Sims. There is now 40 locations altogether. Each of the locations can be deleted or moved, regardless of whether they are residential or community blocks. There are also new structures like Internet cafés, beautiful parks for walking your critters, a market and an apothecary. There are also five new professional areas with fifty new professions. Your Sims can now be cooks, fashion designers, doctors and vets, professors and circus heroes. The game will, of course, give more attention to the new professions.

The graphics remained the same with no special novelties. The new items and creatures perfectly fit their surroundings. Still, the number of animals crammed on the screen seems a bit strange. OK, we had no pets in The Sims yet, and they do improve the overall atmosphere, but there seems to be too many of them now. Wherever you turn, there's some sort of a feline creature passing by; you have absolutely no chance to even throw the garbage out without bumping into several cats and dogs.

"Unleashed" brings some new melodies which sound quite OK. The new sounds are very cute, especially the cat's purr. I always loved the way that Maxis managed to catch the essence of communication and depict it using the non-existent Simsonian lingo. Animal voices are realistic, but slightly over done in order to sound a bit cartoon-like which makes them only more appropriate.

Animals have their own free will in real life, so I was quite glad to see a cat chasing its tail. (You did? Wow! You must be insane then - Ed) Animals will play, chase, hunt, and establish relationships. You can now pick-up a Simsonian of the opposite sex while walking your pet. This works in real life, why shouldn't it work in The Sims!

Whilst waiting for "The Sims: Online," "Unleashed" will prove to be a worthy title, but only for the Sims fans.

Maxis is an experienced company that has been way too long on the market to make a big mistake, so "The Sims: Unleashed" basically sticks to the proven concepts of the original game. Still, unlike "Hot Date" and "Vacation," which gave you a sort of a goal, this latest expansion pack somehow takes you back to the game's basics, with no particular goal in mind. Having as many animals as possible simply couldn't be the goal of this game as it is already swarming with them to begin with. This add-on is obviously the last one before the revolutionary and eagerly expected "The Sims: Online." I sincerely hope that they will redesign both characters and items which already look a little bit outdated. A couple of hundreds of polygons per model more or some facial expressions wouldn't hurt, would they?