Real Lives

The Good
Real Lives is a simulation game that allows you to live the life of a person in any country in the world. Although intended as an educational game, Real Lives can be enjoyed by just about anyone with an open mind and a good imagination. That's because Real Lives is mostly text based, with the only graphics being a map of the world with your location on it, so if you must have flashy, elaborate graphics, Real Lives is not for you. But if you enjoy text adventures, social studies textbooks, or just something wildly original and different, give Real Lives a try.

Each game can range from two minutes to a couple hours. Under normal circumstances, when you start a game you are placed in a random city in a random country, born to a random family with a random income, and given a random gender and a random name. It's all very random. Just like real life. If you're a control freak, you can use the game's built in character designer to select your country, name, and attributes (covered later), but the randomness is more realistic and fun.

Every person in the Real Lives world has attributes, including you. These are Intelligence, Artistic, Musical, Athletic, Strength, Endurance, and Appearance. Three special attributes, Happiness, Conscience, and Wisdom, don't follow the same rules as the former ones. While the ones mentioned first you are essentially born with and can't change very easily, the latter three change based on many things. Your Happiness changes based on your family situation, your income, your home, diet, and consumer spending levels, etc. Your Wisdom and Conscience change based on the decisions you can make in the game.

The only way to advance time in the game is to age a year. While aging, several events can take place, such as getting or catching a disease, someone in your family (or you!) dying, a disaster striking your country and possibly affecting your family, getting a raise at your job, and many other things. As you age, you are given more choices. For example, when you turn 8, you can choose what leisure activities you want to do, which increases your attributes. At 13, you can get involved in romance. At 18, you can go to college, move out, or get a job. Between years you can seek a romance, change your job, leisure activities, or expenses, ask for a raise, and more.

Occasionally you are prompted to make a decision. For example, you may see a drunk man on the street, and you can help him for a conscience boost or not. You may be prompted to spend more money each month, and saying no boosts your wisdom slightly. Your conscience and wisdom eventually effect you romantically, educationally, and career-wise.

The sheer amount of things the game simulates is amazing. Looking in the options menu reveals 62 different types of events that can occur when you age. You can turn them off though. For example, if you're not interested in your character being raped, you can turn that event off.

All these gameplay elements add up to a truly original and engaging experience.

The Bad
There is very little I didn't like about Real Lives. My main gripe, though, is that it's hard to keep track of your family. You only have access to the status of family members who are living in your house. For example, you keep hearing about how your sister's having twelve children, but since she's not living with you, you can't easily keep track of all of them. Also, the only time you can see someone else's attributes is when you see information concerning someone, such as "You've met a girl named (person) and would like to get romantically involved," and click the Learn More button. Except for that, you can't see anyone else's.

There is also no sound or music whatsoever, and while that's not a problem for me, others might be bothered by it.

The Bottom Line
This review marks the debut of my special review system, where I rate games in 10 categories.

Gameplay: The gameplay is definitely fun and well designed, and always keeps great new experiences coming. However, there are some interface quirks that make it hard to keep track of. 945/1000

Graphics: Very simple, and they do their job. The game looks more like an Office program than a game, but that's okay in an "Educational Simulation." However, this limits the game's market. 760/1000

Sound Effects: There is none. It doesn't need any, but I have to take off some points for the whole "market limiting" factor. 700/1000

Ambient Sound/Music: See above, though it's less of a gripe here. 800/1000

Programming: The game runs lightning fast, as it should. But there are a few minor bugs. 970/1000

Originality: Sure, The Sims simulates life, but has it ever done it like this? There's nothing else like it. 1000/1000

Emotional Impact: The game really opens your eyes to what life can be like for people around the world. It borders on touching. 1000/1000

Story/Presentation: The backstory is already in place: real life. Too realistic for some, though. 998/1000

Replay Value: The game has virtually unlimited possibilities, and can be played for months. Not months straight, though, as after playing it for about three hours it gets a bit boring...until tomorrow. 910/1000

Personal Slant: Bugs and graphics aside, this is one of the most fun games I have ever played, and I'm not even trying to learn from it! 1000/1000

OVERALL: 9083/10000