The Sims: Livin' Large (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 8.1 (4.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Andrew Park
• Reviewed on: 08/30/2000
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 08/27/2000
• Originally published on GameSpot: The Sims: Livin' Large (PC) Review

The Sims: Livin' Large is the official expansion for Maxis' extremely popular strategy game, The Sims. For the most part, Livin' Large adds more of the same to The Sims: more character skins, more career paths, more home furnishings, and more of the original game's quirky, sarcastic humor. The expansion makes very few major changes to the way The Sims is played, but these few new features - and the many other minor additions the expansion contains - should be enough to recommend it to any fan of the original game.

In Livin' Large, as in The Sims, you create a household of tiny, partially autonomous computerized people, or sims, and you conduct their lives as you see fit. You'll order them to do things like eat meals, watch television, use the restroom, and look for jobs. If you meet their needs for food, rest, and amusement, they'll be happy and may lead productive lives. Abuse them, deny them restroom privileges, or starve them, and they'll become depressed and uncooperative and may eventually die. It may not sound very interesting in theory, but it's as intriguing in practice as it was in The Sims. You can also order your sims to meet and speak with other sims from the neighborhood. This sort of simulated social interaction was easily the most engaging part of the original game. Depending on your sims' disposition and astrological sign, they may get along well with their neighbors or may be completely ostracized, which can wreak havoc on your sims' self-esteem.

Thankfully, if your sims' household falls completely apart from neglect (accidental or otherwise), you can start a brand-new household in a brand-new neighborhood. Livin' Large contains five different neighborhoods in which you can establish a sim household. The first two are partially populated by pregenerated sims that inhabit pregenerated houses; the other three neighborhoods are completely empty and can be filled with custom houses and sims that you design.

Designing custom houses in Livin' Large is just as enjoyable as it was in The Sims, if not more so, since Livin' Large includes every single one of the house-building objects from the original game, plus many new options. You can choose from a variety of new wallpapers, carpets, and furnishings; all of these can be selected and placed in your sims' home quickly and painlessly, since Livin' Large uses the same intuitive and easy-to-use building and buying interfaces as the original game. And nearly all of these new items, like the Vibro-Matic bed, the robot housekeeper, and the stained-glass windows, have the same sort of witty and humorous descriptions that items from the original game had. As in the original game, it's worth the effort to browse through all the household items for sale, just to read the amusing descriptions of the new items.

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