Hugh Hefner realised the importance of the Playboy rabbit logo himself when he first wrote his Playboy Philosophy in 1962. “We first became aware that Playboy was developing into something more than a magazine when readers began purchasing Playboy products in considerable quantities,” he wrote. “Everything from cufflinks, ties, sport shirts, tuxedoes and bar accessories to playing cards, personalized matches and stickers for their car windows –all with the Playboy Rabbit as the principal design and principal motivation for the purchase.”
This logic still seems to apply some 43 years later, as the Playboy logo has been plastered all over Playboy The Mansion (PTM from here on in) which is essentially a more risqué but less satisfying version of The Sims.
There are two modes of play – Mission and Freeform play, but they’re essentially the same game. Freeform play allows you to take your own pace in building up your magazine empire whilst Mission has little goals that you must achieve to proceed in the game. I found the Mission play to be a lot more interesting as you’re given a lot more to try and do, and you get a sense of satisfaction once you’ve completed the goals. The gameplay just isn’t deep enough to keep you satisfied in Freeform mode.
Unlike the Sims, you don’t get to create your own avatar in the game but rather are given the avatar of Hugh Hefner to guide through his loves and career. Thankfully this is the young Hef, at the age he was when he created his empire, and not the wrinkly viagra swilling old man he is now. Furthermore you don’t get to make your own house, but get the choice of two ‘Mansions’ – old and modern – and this is pretty much decorated for you. You start with a reasonable amount of money, so any you can proceed to make rather sweeping changes, plus buy rather good items right from the word go. Thus, some of the more enjoyable aspects of the Sims have been removed from the gameplay right off the bat.
Luckily the other aspects of PTM are reasonably well put together so that you’re kept interested. The main goal of PTM is to build a magazine empire, and to do this you’ve got to make a name for yourself by throwing the biggest parties and hiring the best staff. A magazine is only as good as those who contribute, and Hef needs help running his magazine – after all, he’s off socialising with all the playmates! So to get your first edition to the stands you need to hire a journalist, a photographer, and a Playboy Model. These can be found in the Roster Menu, accessed by pressing down on the D-Pad. This is essentially your little black book, where all the people you can meet at a given time are located, and is divided up into those you have in the Mansion, Available Staff, Celebrities and Inner Circle.
Under the Available Staff menu there is a list of people available for hire, and those with the most stars are the best; they’ll take the best pictures, they’ll pose well and write excellent articles and interviews, but are also the most expensive to hire per month. Once you’ve hired your staff, its time to put them to work. Each magazine needs six items of content – a cover shot, centrefold, pictorial, essay, interview and article. For the pictorial and article all you need to do is ask your photographer and journalist to do one, give them a wad of cash, and off they go. For a centrefold, you need to find your playmate and ask for a centrefold.
Taking the photos is real simple. You choose your location (The Mansion, Upper Floor, or Pool) and place your model. A Camera lens appears on the screen, and you can put the model in a wide variety of lingerie, both full body and topless. You can change the colours of the clothing, accessorise with jewellery, and then get them to pose by pressing the Y Key. In pose mode, they seek out any props – bed, couch, shower, etc and drape themselves in that suggestive playboy manner. And then you can proceed to take photos of the floor, and publish them.
Yes, the girls do not even have to be in the photo as it depends on the skill of the photographer and model as to whether it is a good photo, and nothing to do with the actual shot itself. This is very disappointing, as there is the whole rigmarole of buying props to pose on, and dressing your model up (or down) when in the end it means nothing to the overall quality of the shoot.
The cover shoot is done in the same way as the centrefold, but like the essay and interview, require you to be friends with Celebrities. This is where the party throwing comes into play. You have to invite certain celebrities to parties and get to know them well enough to ask them for a centrefold, essay or interview. Each person has 3 Drive Meters – Leisure, Entertainment, Professional – and 3 Relationship Meters – Casual, Professional and Romantic. The Drives are modified by the surroundings, and that’s why it’s important to buy things for the house, such as games, bars, bookshelves, food tables, stereos and so on. On the whole people will satisfy their own Drives, but you can also order a person to follow you and get them to use an item if you notice their drives are low. Certain items, such as the Trampoline or Staff Desk can also increase a celebrity’s star rating by increasing their various stats, although I found it better just to fire those with low stats and star ratings and hire new people, as there are no penalties for firing people – they don’t even dislike you!
The Relationships Meters are modified by the way you talk to people. When Hef meets someone, he can concentrate his conversation on the 3 relationship meters, and when one of these gets high enough, they become friends with him. Fortunately Hef is one very charismatic person, and he doesn’t have to try hard at all to get these meters filled. After a few chats, most people are very friendly with Hef and agree to do what is asked of them. It is here where you can invite people into the “inner circle”, which means celebrities will just come over for a visit and hang. This is good for getting essays and articles from a variety of people when you are low on money, because they don’t expect expensive parties or invitations.
Of particular note is the Romantic drive, which only females have. Get this high enough, and you get the option to have sex with the person Hef is chatting to. If only it were this simple in real life, as only after a few presses of the D-Pad you can be doing the horizontal boogie with people you just met minutes before. Sure, we all know that Hef is a ‘playa’ even today, but I’m confident enough to say he never found it this easy. There is no challenge here at all, and it lessens the experience. If it was difficult to pick people up and go for some rumpy pumpy, then it might actually be something worthwhile, but it seems vacuous and like taking photographs, is rather disappointingly implemented. At least the animations are funny.
Once you have your content, it’s time to put the magazine together. Pressing up on the D-pad opens the Magazine Menu, and here you choose your content, and choose your market. The Market is an interesting concept, as it forces you to examine your content a little more carefully as the game goes along. There are various sectors – political, musical, sport, and so on, and by having the right articles, you can win a higher market percentage and make more money. For example, if politics is of interest in a particular month, getting a scientist on the cover, interviewing a politician, and having a pictorial of national monuments will do better than an article focusing on sport.
As markets change over time, it’s good to have a wide range of celebrities with different interests around so you can focus on different markets and maximise your profit. You can also determine your ad content and cover price, which also affect profit. This part of the game gives a depth that are lacking in the relationship and photo taking sections, and if they were as well conceived as this section the game would be better for it. It’s still a little on the light side, as it would be nice to be able to manipulate the readership more, but as it stands it’s surprisingly deep, compared to the rest of the game.
Another disappointing aspect of PTM are the graphics, particularly the character models. The characters all look too similar, and it is difficult to discern one from another, especially when throwing the bigger parties. Any “real life” celebrity retains some semblance to their real life counterpart, but the sameness of the characters diminishes their impact. The rest of the art is fine however, and the mansion can look rather cool in photo shoots. The sound is all in Simmish – I would have loved to hear some of Hef’s pick up lines, or some of the Celebrity reactions rather than the muted nonsense that is there, but that’s a minor quibble. The music, on the other hand, is superb. There are 8 stations to choose from with a wide variety of styles and tunes featuring everything from hiphop to jazz to rock, plus you can add your own stations with Custom Soundtracks.
Conclusion:
Playboy The Mansion just doesn’t have the inches to penetrate the market it’s after. It’s too limp to be a real contender in the simulation market. Sure, it’s got boobs and sex, but they’re too easy to get these in this game. Much of the fun in getting into a sexual relationship comes from the thrill of the chase, and in PTM that chase is three or four clicks long and then your prey rolls over. If it were a little more difficult to get what you wanted the game would be much more alluring. The empire building aspect is quite engaging, but it doesn’t go deep enough to keep you stimulated for very long.
Pros:
Boobs and sex galore!
The magazine market aspect is surprisingly in depth.
Excellent music score
Cons:
Way too easy to get what you want.
Not enough depth in other areas of the game.
Character Models look too similar
Some bugs with navigation and animation.
70/100