I’ve never really been interested in the Sims games, so I don’t really know how they play, but My Sims Agents seems nothing like The Sims at all. Basically My Sims copy the Mii style and put their own Sims style on them. So what exactly is My Sims Agents, and is it worth playing?
The game keeps things simple when concerning the story. You start out as a detective who helps out people around the town with simple stuff. One day when helping somebody you run into a man named Morcubus who has stereotypical villain written all over him. At this point you know very little of him, but you soon discover he is part of a much larger plot. You are also made into a special agent, although many of the “cases” you perform don’t seem very special agent-like. Still, seeing as the game is aimed towards kids, it’s not a real fault as it keeps things tame and clean.
The meat of the game of course consists of you solving cases for various people. This is done by finding clues that will go toward one suspect or another in determining who is guilty or what is going on. Early on things are very simple, but as the game goes it gets a little more difficult, almost feeling like a bit of a fetch-quest at times. Some people will be in need of help before they can help you, and often you’ll end up running all over the place. It’s not that bad, but it can get rather annoying at times when you have to keep running back and forth. The game also gives you the option of recruiting other agents to do their own assignments. Basically each of the characters that can be agents have their own talents, and these are added to by various items you find throughout the game. By putting agents in certain offices at the HQ and arranging the rooms with the right items, you can boost certain attributes that will help them better complete missions. After you finish the game you have the option of continuing playing and letting your agents complete these missions, and after having done them all you will get the real ending. What’s annoying is that it takes time for the agents to get their cases done and at this point the only thing left you have to keep you busy is find special items that are hidden in areas you’ve already been to.
There are also various little “mini-games” that you have to play when doing certain things. For instance, when picking a lock or when repairing something. Early on these puzzles start out simple, but late in the game they can really make you think and may take a little time to figure out. It was nothing that halted my gameplay, but for younger kids the later puzzle may prove to be frustrating if they have trouble with them. As for the controls, they are very simple and seem perfectly fine. I never once had an issue here and the motion controls were clean and did exactly what I wanted them to. It seems that EA knows how to not push things too much in that area for a game like this that doesn’t need excess motion control. The little bit of platforming that was involved remained pretty simple throughout, only slightly climbing in difficulty by the end.
Graphics in this game are very much cartoonish. As I mentioned before, the characters are reminiscent of Nintendo’s Miis and thus everything is kept fairly simplistic, though there is more detail than is to be found in something like Wii Sports. Nothing comes close to pushing the envelope even for the style they chose. However, this style doesn’t necessarily need flashy graphics to make it work, so in the end it all balances out.
One real thing that annoyed me in the game was the voices. All of the dialog is in text boxes, but there are still voices. The characters, however, never speak any real words. Everything they say is gibberish, even though it shows the emotion that they should be portraying. To me this gibberish seemed very annoying and stupid. If they went through the trouble of doing all of this, why not just speak in English and eliminate the need for reading the dialog? I guess you could argue that it fits the style of the game, but it just seemed like a very weird choice to me. As for the music, though, that seems to fit well. It’s far from anything that you will remember or want to listen to apart from the game, but it does a decent job at setting the mood for each of the areas so I have no complaints there, just no real praise.
So, is the game worth buying or not? Well, it depends on a few different things. How old is the person who will be playing the game? Do they like games that involve puzzles and solving mysteries? The game seems aimed toward kids through tweens, and it’s made up almost entirely of exploring and solving puzzles. If that suits the player then they might enjoy the game. It’s not a long game, and I don’t see a lot of people coming back for much afterward other than the better ending, but it is a decent game. Though if you’re looking for something a little more meaty or less kiddy, then you can safely pass on this title without missing out on too much.
