Laptop friendly and scripted stories. The Sims takes a turn, but was it in the right direction?
Let's be clear up front… The Sims: Life Stories is not an expansion pack. The next one is The Sims 2: Seasons, which should ship to stores today.
Until now, we've only had two core Sims games on the PC: The Sims and The Sims 2. The Sims: Life Stories is a new, stand-alone game, and brand, that does not interact in any way with either of the other core games. The question, of course, is whether you need this one if you've got the others?
Life Stories is billed as "PC Laptop Friendly" on the front cover of the case. Indeed, The Sims has historically been one of the worst resource hogs outside of first-person shooters, especially when you throw in all the aforementioned expansion packs. The idea here is that Life Stories can be played on laptops and under-the-gaming-curve PCs, which ordinarily would be unable to handle the game.
Life Stories was built on the Sims 2 engine, which means a major performance boost is no small feat. Every object and character in the game is three-dimensional, unlike The Sims 1, where only the Sims themselves were three-dimensional (everything else was a two-dimensional sprite). Lighting has color to it, and emanates from the sources they should; that is, lamps seem to give off light, rather than rooms being magically bright just because a lamp object is there. Mirrors can reflect what's actually in the room, and shadows are more than serviceable. Free Will, the option that turns on artificial intelligence for your own Sims, actually seems improved over the core game. Yet, no slow down.
So far, so good. Once you get into the game itself and explore its depths, however, you'll notice the price paid for the performance boost. You can only have the default "Four Corners" neighborhood, whereas in The Sims 2, you can have literally infinite neighborhoods. The Four Corners neighborhood is quite a bit smaller than anything in The Sims 2, and the house lots are significantly smaller as well. (The largest Life Stories lot is roughly one-fourth the size of the largest Sims 2 lot.) You also only have a maximum of four family members, which is half the cap in Sims 2.
Options in Buy Mode and Build Mode are also limited. There is a selection of beds, tables, chairs, and so on that you can buy, but you'll run through them pretty quickly. It's tougher to make distinctive styles, and nearly impossible to open community lots (shops and parks) that have any variety in them whatsoever.
Life Stories derives its name from the fact that it features a mode similar to the console versions of The Sims. There are two "Life Stories," where you'll be in control of a single Sim and guide him or her through their time in Four Corners. Their stories are pulled right out of a typical afternoon soap opera; whether that's good or bad is up to you, but both have their share of plot twists and humor.
The stories are all right and function correctly. However, while they prove to be a nice distraction (and will take you the better part of a weekend to finish), there's just something intangible missing from the fact that you aren't making your own stories with your own characters. This means the Freeform play is definitely the main draw, but again, with the limited family and house sizes, it feels lacking.
The sounds of the game, from the trademark "Simlish" voices of the characters to the music on the radio, is the same as you've heard all along. If you have some MP3s on you computer, you can have the game play those instead. While the sounds are sufficient, you'll be wanting your own collection pretty quickly.
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