The Sims 2: Castaway – Review

As a long time love of all things Sims, I looked forward to reviewing Sims 2 Castaway. The continual release of Sims expansion packs and spin-off games never fail to impress me and always seem to sell well in general. People clearly love Simming and why shouldn’t they. With The Sims 2:Castaway being released on every possible format under the sun (other than PS3 because let’s face it nothing gets released on that), let’s take a look at the Wii version and see if it can live up to high expectations.

At the beginning of The Sims 2: Castaway you get to create your ‘crew’ – this is essentially the character creation section where you make the character(s) that will become stranded. You can choose gender, occupation, overall look and physical attributes. There isn’t much new here as Sims games go, but that’s good as you can throw a character together in next to no time. Occupations chosen will dictate what sort of island skills that Sim will have. I personally prefer the ‘ranger’ because let’s face it when you’re stranded you want someone who knows how to make a house with marble columns in it out of some bamboo and vine. The story then continues that you are shipwrecked and wash up on a deserted island. You lose your crew but your aim is to find them at a later point and of course try to get off the island. Now, there are just too many obvious Lost jokes here, so I’ll avoid them, but let’s just say at the beginning you have more skills than say Charlie and less than Kate.

You are taken through the tutorial on the first beach you arrive at and here you’ll learn how to collect food, construct furniture, shelters and more. You can also learn to fish, make tools and start fires – all the essential skills needed on a desert island. From here you can go exploring and like any Sims game, you need to carry out certain tasks to ensure your Sims well-being. The tasks are similar to all the other Sims games, only here your social meter is boosted by buddying up with some chimps. Yes, the chimps are a captive audience and will even help you gather food if you’re nice to them. Overall, there is plenty to do and the goal-oriented focus of the game really keeps it trundling along. You can of course choose to take your time in trying to get off the island, by creating excessively or meandering through the desert, it’s all up to you and your own personal preference.

One of the most disappointing aspects of The Sims 2: Castaway is the lacklustre graphics. Even on a component connection on a high def TV the graphics in the title appeared blocky and jaggy in places and really showed the age of the engine powering them. They were bright and engaging however and the interaction between objects and your Sim was fairly good. Still, it does feel a little dated, especially on the Wii and would have been nice if there was a little more depth to the graphics.

The sound in The Sims 2: Castaway was of course the same as most Sims games. It was gentle easy to listen to background music with the usual Sim speak. There’s nothing here overly to brag about, but you get the stock standard Sims tunes and that’s good enough for most Sims fans.

As always in any Sims title, there is the chance of playing either a male or a female character. This of course means you can have chicks hooking up with chicks, guys hooking up with guys, as many strong Amazon women as you like and it’s all fine. For any female gamer out there, the Sims games are always a good place to start if you’re looking to play a female character and this is no different.

Overall, The Sims 2: Castaway is a fun game that allows the players to take the usual Sims games in a slightly different direction. If anything, it’s most closely related to The Sims 2 Pets in it’s style and gameplay. The need to complete tasks in order to progress and to keep your Sim happy is definitely fun and entertaining. The difficulty level is just right for both seasoned Sims players and newbie’s so it’s a game that anyone can pick up and play. The controls leave a lot to be desired at certain points and the wiimote intrusion can be annoying, but just remember it plays better if you point it away from the screen. If you’re looking for a game that you can explore and not take too seriously, you could do far worse than picking up The Sims 2: Castaway.

Review by Tracy