Sim Animals - hands-on impressions
A little later than planned, here’s Tom’s final report from San Francisco - this time he’s talking about EA’s forthcoming Sim Animals. Take it away, Tom…
The final stop on our MySims-themed tour of EA’s Redwood studios was to see SimAnimals. Of all the games we saw in San Francisco, SimAnimals was probably the game that was closest to ethos of the original Sims. Just with, well, animals. And you can throw bears.
Yes, I said throw bears, but we’ll get to that later. The game begins right in your own back yard. A small area of a large forest which spreads out behind your house. Much like Viva Pinata, you have to attract animals to your park by tending to the area and its ecosystem, which is entirely organic. For example, if a beaver comes along and eats into a tree, the tree will decay. Then that beaver will use the wood to build a dam on the river, which eventually forms a lake. With a lake come ducks, and so on. As your park grows, you must keep all your animals happy by feeding them, keeping them safe and having fun with them.
‘You’ are represented by a floating hand and you use the Wiimote or stylus to direct it around the world. At first, the animals don’t trust you. Which doesn’t surprise me, I’m not sure I’d trust a giant disembodied white glove hovering in the air either. So your floating appendage doesn’t have much of a rep, and sure enough, if you feel like it, you can grab an animal by the scruff of the neck, spin him around and toss him into a lake. If the animal doesn’t trust you, he won’t like it. A bear we saw started taking great big swipes at our demonstrator, producer Byrt Martinez, after he dumped poor Yogi on to a rock, for instance. However, if you’ve built up a rapport with that particular animal, he’ll treat it as a fun activity. Much of the game is focused on building up your relationships with all the animals in your park, by feeding them and tending to their needs.
But just as important is building relationships between the animals themselves. There is a friend system at work, where you can introduce animals as youngsters and they will become friends for life, Baby animals are much more trusting, so you can introduce a wolf and a squirrel for instance, and they will become pals. With the added benefit for the squirrel that the wolf won’t try to eat him later in life.
Squirrels, however, can be trained to be lethal fighting machines with enough dedication on the player’s part, according to producer Rawson Stovall. If an animal gets into a fight and wins, they will become stronger and more aggressive. Apparently, if a squirrel gets into enough fights he could become strong enough to defeat a bear. “The squirrel will never eat the bear, of course†says Stoval, “it’s not crazy.†Really? Watching a squirrel kick seven shades out of a big grizzly sounds pretty mental to me, but also sounds like a lot of fun.
Creative director Charles London refers to SimAnimals as a toy more than a traditional videogame, which pans out during the demo. This is where SimAnimals is similar to the original Sims ‘dollhouse’ ethos. There are challenges and guidelines to drive up the ‘Happy Bar’ (yes, that’s an official term) of your forest and plenty of species and special plants to unlock, but on the whole you’re left to your own devices to cultivate your forest and play with the animals.
There’s also a co-op multiplayer mode for up to four players on Wii. Where each cursor can go off and do their own thing in the world. Brilliantly, each cursor has their own level of trust with each animal, so if your bratty little brother comes into your park and starts chucking your favourite badgers around they will, thankfully, still be your friend.
The version I saw at Redwood was still a little rough around the edges, but it was a fairly old build, according to London, and the team has until January to polish any blemished areas. I didn’t get hands on with the game, unfortunately, but what we were demoed looked like an enjoyable, relaxing park ranger sim. How far you can take this remains to be seen, I get the feeling there is more to be revealed, but the game’s appeal will rely on your attitude to freeform simulation. Fans of Viva Pinata and Animal Crossing will certainly want to keep their eyes on this one.
As the day at EA drew to a close and we were fed pizza and SimAnimal themed gummy bears, I reflected back on what I’d seen and played. No one game blew me away, but all of them were perfectly pitched at the target audience and expertly made. And, perhaps most importantly, each title had a definite feel-good factor. They may not end up being anyone’s favourite game of all time, but I’d challenge even the grumpiest so-and-so to not potter around in any of the MySims worlds without a grin plastered on their mush. Are these guaranteed sellers a demonstration of perfect corporate know-how from EA? Maybe. But if they’re putting smiles on faces while they’re making their billions, then I wish them all the best.
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