The Sims 2: Open for Business
| The Sims 2: Open for Business | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Maxis |
| Publisher(s) |
EA Games (PC) Aspyr (Mac) |
| Designer(s) | Charles London Hunter Howe Amy Kalson Robin Hunicke |
| Series | The Sims |
| Engine | Pixomatic Engine |
| Platform(s) | Windows Mac OS X |
| Release date(s) |
Windows
September 4, 2006 |
| Genre(s) |
Life simulation game God game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 79.10% |
| Metacritic | 78% |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| GameSpy | 4/5 |
| IGN | 8.4/10 |
The Sims 2: Open for Business is the third expansion pack for The Sims 2, released on March 3, 2006, which allows Sims to run a home or community lot based business. Aspyr released a port of the game for Mac OS X on September 4, 2006. Although it is not a direct reimagining of Open for Business, The Sims 3: Ambitions introduces a related theme of following playable sims to work and creating salable items using numerous skills.
The main change to the core game introduced by Open for Business is a new neighborhood type — the Shopping District, the default one being named Bluewater Village (which is also the name of a British shopping center). A number of Sims live here, such as a toymaking family, a woman who owns a home-based flower shop, a family bakery, and a rich tycoon who owns a nightclub and an electronics shop.
Community lots are more flexible now, removing many of the gameplay restrictions that were present on them in the original game. Players can now save the game while their Sims are visiting community lots. Reloading their household automatically takes the player to the community lot where the Sims are located.
Like the previous expansions, new Wants and Fears and interactions were added, including a new Lifetime Want and several new interactions for children. Some changes to items from the base game are also present. For example, you can lock a door to just non-employees.
There are new objects in this expansion. While furniture styles and the build-mode selection have been expanded, the biggest difference is the addition of business-oriented items such as shelves, elevators, and crafting centers that Sims can use to create things to sell.
Several features from Nightlife and University, such as influence levels, turn ons and turn offs, are available to players without those expansion packs.
The concept of running a business is the game's main new feature. This is a new direction for The Sims 2, as it now includes elements of a business simulation game. The game allows the player to control various aspects of running a business including picking which products to sell, hiring and firing employees, crafting goods, and restocking shelves. The game also rewards the player for meeting several predetermined goals; also, a mystery shopper may visit the business and critique it.
...
Wikipedia