Tuesday 6 September 2005

Pic of the day: Photo of the screen. It looks sharper in real life, but actual size is slightly smaller than this, so you don't really get to enjoy your snazzy threads.

Urbz DS impressions

That would be the game Urbz, part of the Sims game franchise, for the Nintendo DS (dual screen) handheld console

When I bought this game as the first for my Nintendo DS, it was because I am familiar with The Sims and have enjoyed it from the very start. I expected Urbz to be a smaller, simplified game of Sims in a more urban settings, as I have seen it referred to as "Sims in the city". This is not exactly the case. Yes, there are Sims elements: The need bars, most notably. Your Sim need not only food a couple times a day, it also needs to rest, to pee, to talk with people, and to stay at home a bit. And of course Simoleons (cash) to pay for all the food and furniture.

But in the end, Urbz is really more of an adventure game. It reminds me of the old Sierra adventure games such as Kings Quest. Unfortunately, I did not like those. Well, I liked them at the start, but invariably they demanded that you do specific things in a specific order, or you would be stuck or even fail the game. In Urbz, you would be hard pressed to actually fail, and you get a list of rather precise goals on a detailed level (especially at first they are very simple and detailed). But the game is rather limited and limiting unless you go with the program.

Sierra boasted that they sold more hintbooks than games for their adventure series. Implying of course that people were pirating the games. Which probably happened a lot too. Personally I would not mind pirating a game that required me to buy a book of roughly the same price, but I suppose most people would have done it anyway.

These days you can find a FAQ on the Net, and there are a few FAQs and walkthroughs available for free. Needless to say, these are written after people completed the game, so it stands to reason that they don't dwell too much on the initial problems which face a complete newbie. In all fairness I did pick up such good advice as "Sell other things you pick up but not trash, you'll need it all later" and "Stay in jail for some days more than needed, because you get food for free and it is close to the hoops where you can earn money and the weights where you can build body skill". I heartily agree. But there are other show stoppers. One of them eventually stopped me.

The hoops "minigame" / work is a nice source of cash. But if you belong to the parent generation or above, you should at least save in a unique game slot before leveling up to the fourth level of that career. Because at that point, the speed of the minigame accelerates dramatically. From being comfortable with some concentration, it jumped right to zero chance. I suppose for kids this may not happen until level 5, but for me the career is dead at 4. Stone dead. Since that is the only source of income except picking up a few things along the roadside, I'm starting over. (Later in the game other careers open up, but this takes a lot of following the script, which I don't enjoy.)

My favorite part was anyway living the everyday Sim life, earning more cash and visiting the second-hand store every day. There are new objects for sale each day, seemingly at random, so you may find something for your house one day but not the next. (Unlike The Sims where you can instantly buy anything and place it in your home magically. This is more realistic but also more frustrating.)

***

Technically the game is not bad. The graphics are small, of course. The two screens are not all that big each; so if the developers want you to see a little of the surroundings, they need to shrink the characters down to the bare essentials that can be recognized. Actually the lower screen is used for extra info so you don't clutter up the main picture. (Although the need bars are in the main picture for easy reference.) You can call up many such auxiliary screens: A map / aerial shot of the city, scrollable, to locate buildings and such. An inventory screen. A list of reputation with people and factions. And of course the all-important goal screen, where you see what the script demands you to do next to advance in the game.

The music is OK, I guess. Unobtrusive. And at least it's not rap. Belatedly I realized that with its young urban image, there was a definite risk of rap. Not that I count that as music. I fully agree with those who suspect that rap may be involved in murders. At least in murders of people who play it loudly in the neighborhood. Anyway, the music is unobtrusive, instrumental and fairly upbeat. In fact, not too unlike The Sims. You need decent headphones to get the bass beat, of course, but it is there.

I started again with a new character, but then I was made aware of another game that seems to be more my style. More about that later, God willing. (Not that God really is heavily involved in my game purchasing decisions, I'm afraid, except the one time I tried to buy EverQuest. Oh man.)