The Sims 2: Life in the Apartment, complete test on PC

It was believed that we had done everything, but no: The Sims persist and Maxis sign a new add-on rather unusual, since the mixture any new opportunity to move into an apartment and that of practising witchcraft, already explored Abracadabra within reach of the first episode of Sims. So what relationship between the magic wand and to sign the lease? No, but this should not prevent the offspring of Will Wright to have fun and do make to their head once more.

Touch the mat to the nearby

The main innovation brought by this add-on is the possibility, as the title suggests so well, to live in an apartment. If up to four families can live on the same field, we can not control one, while neighbours are considered as NPC with whom it will be possible to interact. The buildings available in the new district Belladona range from small studio at the student standing duplex. Note that it is impossible to build apartments without going through the cheats. A half-dozen lots préconstruits can be installed in other areas so that everyone can enjoy life in an apartment, Montsimpa to Veronaville. However, before the eyes bigger than their stomachs and move into a luxury residence with a swimming pool and jacuzzis to all floors, it must be remembered that there is a rent to pay each Monday. To alleviate our Sims can always take a roommate (one) through a classified ad. But beware: they are totally autonomous and the player has no control over them, just as animals Animals & Cie. And, as in real life, we may also fall on a fairy of the homeless as a nightmare on the streets. Fortunately, it is possible to put them at the door and resume a life of solitary with a single click. You can not say that life in Apartment revolutionizes the basic gameplay, which sent more than ever warmed up. After hearing the promises of Sims 3 and its open neighbourhood, it is inevitably disappointed that the temporal paradox own the Sims 2 is also de rigueur in buildings: one family with which one plays ages, the other living in a sort of parallel dimension where time did not exist. For the rest, interactions with neighbours no different from what it was already possible to make on the lots.

When you arrive in town …

Fortunately, even if it may seem strange, La Vie en apartment is not limited to apartments. Maxis has indeed added a few features here and there that are supposed to come spice up the lives of our Sims. First, if one searches in the interface increasingly overloaded after each extension, we end up falling on the indicator of popularity. A simple gauge that allows us to know in a split second if that Sim is appreciated or not by its citizens. A Sim People may be pistonné to get a promotion, or even benefit from a reduction in his rent. On the contrary, an unpopular Sim will eventually have problems with neighbours. To raise or lower the gauge, just go into a community and interact with other Sims. It might even be rubbing five new communities of citizens, as the nerds or sores, each with its preferences for hobbies and subjects of conversations. An interesting concept, which should give the impression to evolve in a real small town, but sealed by the “difficulty” out of home, this from the very first episode: between the time of loading and bars that need s’étiolent inexorably, to carve out a good reputation is really long and tedious and, ultimately, not really profit compared to the efforts. In addition, developers have played the card fanservice adding small claimed more horns and a screaming by fans of the Sims 2. Among others: a new view on the ground in construction mode to see through the eyes of a Sim and admire at the same time the new ceilings, the possibility of raising or lowering objects that hangs on the walls and a handful of new furniture varied, with some good ideas as the retractable bed, the park puppy, the giant screen, hélipad the library that hides a secret passage, and some returns, as the spiral staircase, the bed vibrant and drinks. These small more sympathetic, but giving the unpleasant impression of having been dumped in bulk in a data disk that serves as a catch-all. And so far, nothing that really justifies a purchase.
I put a spell on you …

And yet, La Vie en Apartment proposes a new interesting experience for Sims, or at least for those of Sims 2, but did not even mention the case of the game: it is witchcraft. Already explored by The Sims first name through the extension Abracadabra, it signs here his big comeback in a form quite close enough. After being initiated by a witch, a Sim can start to turn in the performance of magic and follow one of three ways: the light, that of Shadow, and the balance. By studying one of these schools of magic, Sim then unlocks new spells that can be launched in producing ingredients through its magic cauldron. And following the alignment of these sorts, they are beneficial or evil: you can fill a Sim joy, to induce vomiting, bees to launch its continuation or to remove all the leaves from the garden, or even invoke a servant to the household. What forget the bills and work for a little while. The players benefiting from the add-on Pets & Cie may even invoke a familiar take the form of a cat and spectral who will act as the cat-dit, small needs less. In terms of additional places for neighbourhoods, it is still far from Magicland of Abracadabra, since there are only a palace of Light and Dark Castle to meet the high-witch of these two alignments. The return of the magic still saves this extension allowing the player to depart daily, but does not forget the aging game engine, which seems no longer able to go very far.