The Sims 2 for the PSP is, to put it simply, positively bizzare. If you know nothing about this game, the familiar Sims-style character creation will lull you into a false sense of security. Next thing you know, your character is forced to live on a residential area that is built on top of a graveyard, and you'll be dragged into all sorts of uncanny and supernatural hijinks. Of course you can't forget that you got into this mess because your car mysteriously broke, and the mechanic that was supposed to fix it literally disappeared out of thin air, along with your car AND the mechanic's garage. All of this happened while you're getting tutorial'd by a spiritually passionate convenience store owner. This is only the start of a comical, slightly dark and self-referential adventure game that is definitely too strange for its target audience.
"Hold on", you might say. "Adventure game?", you might ask. Yes. This is not a straightforward Sims port, in case it's not clear yet. There are still Sims features here, like managing your sims needs, making your sims learn new skills, and socially interacting with other sims. But the game uses these mechanics, and adds a couple others, in the framework of an adventure game, where you play as a single character and complete various objectives. Think of Shenmue, but with sims. Heck, there's even a recognizable reliance on minigames, such as for the jobs that you'll be doing in order to get cash (whack a mole but with zombies, for example), or the Simon Says minigame for the aforementioned social mechanics. I find this blend of Sims and Shenmue-esque adventure to be a entertaining and novel experience, as it not only has fun ideas, but also executed quite well. For example, a big part of the game is learning other characters' secrets for mission-related reasons, and you can do this by getting close (or intimidate) them. This can be made easier by increasing your character's charisma (practicing speech with a mirror).
The gameplay loop can be quite simplistic and repetitive, and it can be easy to learn a bunch of skills quickly early on, which will make most of the objectives much easier. Despite that, the game just keeps throwing crazy stuff at you, and it's still fun to see everything this wacky game has to offer, even if it's not a very long experience.
The PSP's Sims 2 is like a baby's adventure game. Anyone can finish it if they want to. But giving this to children might irreparably devastate their growth and development, and turn them into literal goblins that speak gibberish. I guess it's subjective whether or not that's a good thing. I vote good.
"Hold on", you might say. "Adventure game?", you might ask. Yes. This is not a straightforward Sims port, in case it's not clear yet. There are still Sims features here, like managing your sims needs, making your sims learn new skills, and socially interacting with other sims. But the game uses these mechanics, and adds a couple others, in the framework of an adventure game, where you play as a single character and complete various objectives. Think of Shenmue, but with sims. Heck, there's even a recognizable reliance on minigames, such as for the jobs that you'll be doing in order to get cash (whack a mole but with zombies, for example), or the Simon Says minigame for the aforementioned social mechanics. I find this blend of Sims and Shenmue-esque adventure to be a entertaining and novel experience, as it not only has fun ideas, but also executed quite well. For example, a big part of the game is learning other characters' secrets for mission-related reasons, and you can do this by getting close (or intimidate) them. This can be made easier by increasing your character's charisma (practicing speech with a mirror).
The gameplay loop can be quite simplistic and repetitive, and it can be easy to learn a bunch of skills quickly early on, which will make most of the objectives much easier. Despite that, the game just keeps throwing crazy stuff at you, and it's still fun to see everything this wacky game has to offer, even if it's not a very long experience.
The PSP's Sims 2 is like a baby's adventure game. Anyone can finish it if they want to. But giving this to children might irreparably devastate their growth and development, and turn them into literal goblins that speak gibberish. I guess it's subjective whether or not that's a good thing. I vote good.