The Sims and Sims 2 Legacy Collection fumbled the ball. What was supposed to be a celebration of two cherished games in a beloved franchise ended up disappointing long-time fans due to a poor state of the ports during launch paired with a relatively steep price that might scare away potential newcomers.
When I say these collections are a port, that means exactly what the word is implying. This isn't a Dead Space situation for EA: both The Sims 1 and 2 are ported as they were released (for the most part) within the 25th Birthday bundle with a $40 price tag attached to it. Purchasing them separately will send you back $30 for The Sims 2 and $20 for the first game.
You might have seen opinions from veterans of the series already, and they're not happy for a plethora of reasons. For me, as a relative outsider of the Sims series whose experience with the franchise can be resumed to thoroughly enjoying the wacky Urbz: Sims in the City for the Nintendo DS, I can say that The Sims 25th Birthday bundle is a very serviceable package if you like playing life sims, although the price of entry and relatively constant crashes and issues make it hard to recommend unless you're a die-hard fan looking for an easy way to access both games on modern PCs.
While there are some Sims 1 fans out there, let's not beat around the bush and say that The Sims 2 is perhaps what the vast majority of the fanbase is interested in playing once more.
If you're expecting a significant graphical overhaul for 30 (or 40) bucks, think again. Some may relish the fact that The Sims 2 looks almost beat for beat the same but if you're someone trying to buy into the hype, the life sim will look somewhat outdated, despite the resolution bump which is a neat quality-of-life addition
The gameplay loop is fascinating, and that should be the main selling point if you're new to the series. If you've never had the joy of experiencing a Sims game, the sequel expands on its predecessor on almost every level.
As soon as you boot up the game, you'll get to choose from a variety of towns that will bring a unique vibe to your sims' life. From then on, the game can be as hand-holdy as you want, with plenty of tutorials to steer you in the right direction or none at all to let you bathe in the chaotic world of the unmitigated disaster that an unregulated save can turn into.
I love the level of experimentation you can get from simply navigating the menus at your own leisure. Sure, knowing exactly how to fulfill a sims need, from the basic ones all the way to fulfilling their aspirations and raise their morale, is fun.
But what if you start checking out the wide array of options you have at your disposal? Maybe get a loving husband flirting with a complete stranger? Sell all their appliances or perhaps start a fire in their kitchen to see their reactions?
Listen, I never said I was a wholesome do it by the book Sims enthusiast, so can you blame me for letting my intrusive thoughts win in a game that actively gives you the option to get a little crazy from time to time?
Whichever way you want to play, there are dozens if not hundreds of hours of content worth sinking your teeth into on The Sims 2 alone, with almost every DLC included in the Legacy Collection. Barring some licensed content that sadly isn't present and likely won't be added anytime soon.
If you fork out the cash to get the two games bundled together, the 25th Birthday bundle will offer a unique perspective into the series' roots. Although it's quite clear that the level of ambition and execution on core concepts for the series was vastly superior in the sequel, it's still worth checking out the first game as a novelty for any super-fan who perhaps missed it when it was originally released in 2000. If you don't care or have no nostalgia for it, there's hardly anything worthwhile if you own The Sims 2 already.
Sadly, despite enjoying my time with the games, I still ran into random crashes here and there that prevented me from fully getting hooked on the whole Sims experience. While they mostly made me have to restart the game, other users have had to deal with some wildly annoying issues that extend to performance and bugs that completely remove sims from their games.
At the time of writing, however, EA has pushed a few updates and has promised to keep tabs on the situation to help improve the experience for those who have purchased either game.
The Birthday bundle for The Sims could've been a perfect celebration of the series had EA poured more love into it. It stands as an okay port based solely on the fact that both games are solid to begin with. Plus, having virtually no other legal methods of acquiring them to run on modern PCs basically means these versions are the only way you can download them right now.
Would've love for EA to take a page out of the Capcom book. Fill the package with digital memorabilia, art work, insights into the development process, give the bundle some meaning beyond having the games be accesible easily.
With constant crashes still needing fixing, a somewhat expensive price tag for the one title everyone was looking forward to playing, and not much in the way of improvements to justify it, it's a hard sell on newcomers and even hardcore fans alike.
A copy of the game was provided by EA for review purposes.
