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The Urbz: Sims in the City

Die Ausgangssituation in Die Urbz ist denkbar einfach: Ihr übernehmt die Rolle eines Jugendlichen, der gerade von zu Hause ausgezogen ist, um sein Glück in der Stadt zu suchen. Wie bei den vorherigen Sims-Titeln von EA ist man für Aussehen, Wohnungsgestaltung, Verhalten des virtuellen Alter Ego und viele andere Dinge verantwortlich, die seinen Tagesablauf bestimmen. Dabei geht es viel aufgabenorientierter zu als bei den Vorgängern. Es gibt nämlich elf Stadtbezirke zu erkunden, in denen eine Vielzahl von Aufgaben zu erledigen ist. Geld verdient man mit diversen, teils abstrusen Gelegenheits-Jobs, die in kleinen Minispielchen ablaufen.

I have to be honest with you: I've never played any of The Sims games. It's not that I didn't think they were any good or couldn't understand their allure for some people, it's just that my tastes run more toward shooting aliens or pretending to win the Super Bowl. So when EA's new Sims spin-off, The Urbz: Sims in the City, landed on my desk, I had no idea what I was going to say about the game. Then I realized that, in some ways, I was the perfect choice to review the game. EA wanted to bring their celebrated franchise to a different type of gamer (namely the console type), and my fresh perspective might allow me to write a better review than someone who knows the ins and outs of the uber-popular PC series.

The Sims keep going on; now they have to keep on keepin' on. In the latest installment of the long-running relationship simulator, The Urbz: Sims in the City, the gibberish-spouting creatures have taken it from the relative safety of the 'burbs--provided you leave the ladder in the pool--to the buzz of the big city, with its neon lights and wide variety of city dwellers. As a result, the locations and other "Urbs" they meet have the tendency to be varied in appearance and personality, which isn't an unwelcome change from previous takes on the concept.

The Urbz shakes up the the Sims formula by adding a dash of attitude and streamlining the experience for console gamers. What it doesn’t do is successfully bridge the addictiveness of the Sims with the kind of gameplay the average console gamer appreciates. It lacks the challenge to keep you engaged and forces you down very specific paths to succeed. In another game this kind of linearity may be ok, but the Sims franchise has always been about one thing: options. Choose your career, choose your friends, choose your furnishings, etc.

The Urbz: Sims in the City is the latest title based on developer Maxis' incredibly successful PC game The Sims. And instead of restricting itself to tiny neighborhoods, the new game takes place in the big city. Maxis' bold changes to the original formula set forth by The Sims aren't all for the better, but they make The Urbz a very distinctive and surprisingly solid game. The removal of some aspects of the series and the emphasis placed on other areas suggest that The Urbz might be best suited to a specific audience, but it retains enough core elements to appeal to most any fan of The Sims.

The Sims may have been a PC phenomenon, but The Sims Bustin Out just didn't work on the consoles. Part of it is a difference in gaming style, for lack of a better term console games even the truly odd ones are pretty goal-based and organized, as opposed to the free-for-all play of most PC successes. After all, the quintessential PC experiences are sim games like, well, The Sims, and the massive RPGs that date all the way back to Myst. Now the Sims are taking on the consoles again and the big city in The Urbz: Sims in the City.

Pour être méchant, on pourrait dire que le principe des Urbz reste aussi superficiel que le sujet traité (les fringues et la cool attitude), mais c'est davantage le manque de renouvellement au fil du jeu qui dérange. On finit par toujours faire la même chose, d'où une lassitude qui se manifeste bien trop tôt. Dommage, car il y avait de quoi faire, en incluant par exemple des objectifs plus variés entre chaque quartier.

This really comes off as a nice idea, but one that is not quite as polished as it should be. Perhaps The Urbz 2 will rectify some of the issues found here? My advice, rent it, certainly do not buy...

All together this makes The Urbz a game to be bought only if one is a fan of the series or of games that last. It provides the classical Simmer gameplay, with minor changes to accommodate the hand held format, but do not hold your breath while searching for any major innovations with regards to the DS side of things. Nor should you look long at the technical aspects as the game falls some way behind other launch releases.

Les URBZ est un titre trop limité et faible techniquement pour s'imposer sur un créneau où les Sims restent la vraie référence. Malgré quelques rares bons moments, le jeu se montrera vite répétitif et seule la possibilité de relooker à volonté son personnage pourra à la limite séduire un certain public, l'espace d'un moment. Les joueurs confirmés et prudents se tiendront pour leur part bien à l'écart, surtout en cette période de fêtes de fin d'année où les véritables hits affluent.