14 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
A GREAT Add-On!
Date of Review: Sep 4, 2006
The Bottom Line: A good game. It can be hard work, but definitley worth it!
The Sims 2: Open For Business is the first expansion pack I've actually liked the look of enough to buy, and so far I've really enjoyed it.
It's pretty straightforward with what you can do on this game. Open your own business! This is, of course, much more complicated than you'd first assume. Sims have the option to have a home business, or to purchase a lot to have their business. Personally I tend to have them own their own lots due to the fact that my computer doesn't like having lots of visitors in one place, but having a home business can also be useful as you get to oversee what's going on the entire time and your Sims are able to take control themselves.
So, you've decided to create a business. You've decided where you want to have it, but what are you going to sell? Well, the great thing about this game is - pretty much whatever you want! You can have Sims cook food to be sold, beauty salon, paint paintings, build things, a resteraunt, a night club, a fitness centre. If you want your Sims to work by themselves you are able to make toys, robots, or sell flower arrangements. All of these also increase the fun of your game - the robots (in particular Servo, who was available back in the original Sims and can do pretty much everything!) can help run your house for you, the toys can please the kids, and the flowers are nice for your Sims to look at. There's also the risk that your Sims products will be faulty, and an insane robot could soon be running around the place wrecking everything. If you'd rather you can buy standard objects (usually at a reduced wholesale price) such as computers or furniture and sell those.
The art of running a business isn't THAT simple though. Though you don't HAVE to, chances are you'll want your Sims to hire some employees for their business. This includes restockers, cashiers, and salesmen. This means that you then get even MORE Sims to look after, as your employees will get depressed and refuse to turn up for work if they aren't treated correctly. You get to pick which Sims you want to hire (from looking at descriptions of a few available ones, to picking random Sims you happen to come across), assign them jobs, and even pick their uniforms.
As your business grows you'll also get points, which you can buy rewards from. You get to pick which rewards you want, and they vary from cheaper wholesale prices to better recognition for your business.
One of the better new features of the game is that your Sims can now lock doors. You can allow only your Sim to be in one room, only your household Sims to be allowed in, etc etc. You can even lock Sims in rooms to keep them where you want them if you'd like!
Overall, this is a good game. The ability to run your own businesses adds a lot of fun to the game! Though this can be complicated and very infuriating at times, I personally find it to be very enjoyable.
