Dating Sims

The Sims is an old franchise with millions of fans all over the world, and it’s not difficult to see why. The freedom to control someone else’s life is very satisfying and intriguing, not to mention the fact that you are also free to build houses and arrange them as you please. Granted, one might argue that the formula gets repetitive quite quickly, but Maxis managed to avoid this problem by constantly adding new content.

Dating Sims is a visual novel that allows you to take charge of a woman’s life and help her make the right choices in order to attain happiness. As it’s fairly obvious from the name, the game is designed as a Sims parody, and it uses in-game screenshots to convey the story. However, you can choose to ignore this fact and concentrate on the actual story instead.

You play as a girl by the name of Cara Maine, although you have the freedom to change her name at the beginning of the game. She just moved to a new city called Willow Creek, which is where she must make a new life for herself. Naturally, friends can help Cara get settled in quicker, not to mention the fact that you can also pursue a few love interests along the way.

As always, the goal is to make the desired choices and make the story follow the course you want to see the most. Don’t expect too much complexity, on the other hand, especially since the game is more of a parody than a serious experience. Even so, you can have quite a bit of fun if you don’t take it seriously, especially if you also happen to be a Sims fan.

Lastly, the graphics are nothing to write home about, given the fact that there is no hand-drawn original artwork. Instead, everything is designed using in-game screenshots, which are not so bad to begin with. They look a tad too static and lifeless, on the other hand, which may cause a few problems later on, depending on how patient you are.

In the end, Dating Sims is not a masterpiece of the genre, and the writing is not brilliant either, but the experience can be fun and rewarding if you take it as is. Hence, it’s all about how open you are to casual adventures that are easily forgettable.