Without hyperbole, the Sims is the biggest computer game ever. It crosses every arbitrary marketing category you can think of – Age, Sex, Country, Income, and appeals to both the hardcore and casual gamer in a way that no other game can begin to touch. The move to consoles with essentially the same gameplay as to the PC version was a gutsy move, but it just didn’t sell as well as it did on the PC. EA and Maxis have decided to take a different route and rather than opting to simply port it’s the inventively named sequel The Sims 2 to consoles, they’ve invented a whole new game.

Enter the Urbz: Sims in the City. Taking its cue from the exclusive ‘Get a Life’ mode featured in the original Sims for consoles, the Urbz presents a much more goal-orientated gameplay than the Sims. The open style gameplay, the non-story focus that has defined the Sims franchise has been hamstrung, but that’s not a bad thing.

Like the previous Sims, you get to make your sim from a range of templates, which are quite mutable and customisable. The Sims have always has a “simness” about them, but this time they seem a little funkier, and more like a caricature akin to those Bratz dolls. Unlike the other games, you don’t get any clothes apart from the ones you’re given when you start. Furthermore, instead of choosing a neighbourhood, you and up to four other user controlled sims move into an 98th Ave, 3rd Floor Apartment, provided by your friend will.i.am. Yes, the will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas. Real Urban. It’s a very small apartment, and you have a few items in your inventory and $300 to spend.

The focus in the Urbz all about building your reputation throughout the city in order to become a big “playa”. To gain rep, you meet urbz and talk to them. The more urbz you talk to and the more often you talk to them, the more your rep builds. It’s the same principle as the “social need” in the Sims 2. To meet people you move a cursor with the left and when an urb is highlighted, press A to interact with them. You can move the camera around to get a better angle using the right stick. In fact, this is the way you interact with all objects in the game, and hasn’t changed much from the previous consol version. It’s relatively easy to use, although sometimes you can feel a little lost. In addition to this, there is a new interface tool in the form of the XAM. It’s an in-game PDA Phone that is used to display messages, to call other Urbz, and to keep track of your inventory, goals and relationships. Pressing the X button pauses the game and brings this device up.

When talking to any urb, you get a range of options that appear green, yellow or red, and this tells you how successful the option will be. This makes the game rather easy. It takes all the guesswork out, and you can build your reputation really fast just by choosing the green option all the time. Certain urbz will have skills to teach you, or tasks for you, and you have to be on friendlier terms with them to unlock the social moves or the tasks. One such task requires you to change another urbz’ appearance. To do this, you have to get friendly enough with the urb to invite him to join your “crew”, and you can then control them when you’re in the same district, or invite them to a new district. The higher your rep goes, the more things are unlocked – new social moods to show off to your friends or to gain new ones, new equipment used to boost your skills for working (more on that later) and new districts of the city.

But you’ve got to be able to walk the walk to talk the talk, and you’ve got to look stylish when doing it. At the start you don’t choose personality or starsign, but your social group. There’s a whole range of stereotypic “urban” groups here: There’s the ravers, with their glowsticks and neon that hang in Japan-inspired Neon East. There’s Kicktail Park where all the skater dudes hang out and grind the scenery. The Foundry is where all the arty types read Kafka and make Sculptures. The punks hang out at the Central Station train station, whilst the bikers like to hang at Gasoline Row. The hiphop and R&B lovers live on the rooftops of Skyline Beach, whilst it’s a lot more chilled over on Cozmo Street. The high rollers gather at the South Side Bridge, whilst the rich and gorgeous like the dizzying Diamond Heights. At first, only the district belonging to the crew you want to hang with is open.

Each district has own unique feel, and to get anywhere you need to fit in by buying new clothes and accessories to match the look of the locals. Each district has a bouncer guarding a VIP club that everyone who’s anyone hangs out at, and to progress through the game you have to get by that bouncer by being popular enough with a high rep, and also have to be dressed to impress. Clothes in the style of the district can be bought in each area in easy to find shops. But to buy the clothes, you need money, and luckily each district has a specific job for you. For example, at Kicktail Park, there’s a skate ramp you perform tricks on. At the Foundry you make sculptures. At Cozmo Street you’ll be working in will.i.am’s bar, whilst Diamond Heights offers modelling. All these jobs are completed in the same fashion – by following a sequence of button pushes on screen. These are really quite simple, even on the higher stages of the job. There’s three stages to each job, and to progress in a job you need to build up one of 3 skills – Artistic, Mental and Strength. These are built up with devices that are unlocked and can be purchased at cash registers throughout the city.

Unlike the other Sims games, building and object acquisition is no longer that important. Your apartment is more of a place where you build skills with the special items, sleep and shower. You can decorate it with items purchased from cash registers in each district of the city, including wallpapers and so forth, but you spend so little time there it doesn’t seem worth it. Your urbz’ needs, which like previous games need to be satisfied, are really easy to satisfy. Sleeping is quick – a few hours will fully recharge you, and your hunger and fun quotients deplete slowly and replenish quickly. Furthermore, in each district there’s a bed and wardrobe and sink anyway, so you can pretty much spend your whole time in an area without needing to go home.

The graphics of the game as mentioned before are quite stylised. The locations aren’t huge, but they are bright and colourful, even in the Artsy and punk areas. The Urbz look different from each other, but sometimes it is hard remembering who is whom, especially when they’re all partying in the VIP rooms. The interaction between the Urbz is often cute and humorous in that way only sims are. When as social move is activated, the camera zooms in and looks quite cool, and the animations are fun if somewhat a little cliché, like the ‘techno’ move which suits the ravers to a tee! There’s a little bit of slowdown when there’s a lot of urbz on screen, and the camera can sometimes get stuck looking at odd things when it’s zoomed in on a social, but it’s nothing too extreme. There are loading screen when ever you change location, clothes (either via a wardrobe or shop) that take almost too long however.

Sound wise the game is really good. Each district has it’s atmospheric sound – the Foundry sounds industrial, Central Station has trains and a tannoy, and so on. The Urbz speak in simmish of course, but in an interesting move EA has licensed music from popular artists the Black Eyed Peas, who re-recorded nine of their songs in simmis!. Will.i.am also recorded the other music in the game, which touches on popular existing tunes but gives them simmish lyrics – you’ll recognise quite a few tunes and find yourself humming along. There’s a range of music to suit each District

Conclusion:
The re-focussing of the gameplay makes it easy to pick up and play, and you can spend an hour or two with it without getting bored or feeling too involved. The mini-games, whilst repetitive, are fun, and it beats clicking the mouse button and waiting for a skill to increase. You won’t be sitting there for hours waiting for your urb to sleep, or get home from work, or shower, and so forth. The goal oriented gameplay may put off hardcore fans of the original games, having the Sims and all the add ons, as well as Sims 2 on PC, and I find the concept refreshing.

I would have liked the building and object acquisition to be a little more worthwhile than it is, as that is a big aspect of the original and brings out the interior decorator and architect in all gamers. The game does hold your hand a little too much, making it rather easy to play and to succeed, but all in all this is a game that is well suited to console gamers, as well as those who like the Sims franchise.

Pros
Much more goal orientated gameplay, but still has The Sims feel.
Oozes a unique and cool style in all aspects of the game
The music is a crack up

Cons
Building and Object collecting have been greatly devalued in terms of gameplay.
Can be a little too easy
The loading times seem a little long

83/100