Like most gamers with a PC, I was at one point addicted to The Sims. I loved occasionally cheating to get loads of money and then giving my architecture and interior decorating skills a go by building my Sims a creative mini-mansion. I loved the huge variety of mods available, and I loved creating custom characters to represent real-life counterparts, then sticking them in unbearable situations. I loved The Sims, and I thought loving the sequel would be a sure thing. But when The Sims 2 finally arrived, I was sorely disappointed; it was a good game and well-produced, but the micromanaging aspects had become too detailed and I felt myself absolutely swamped from the beginning. A few hours later, I just gave up and let my brothers go to work trying to understand it.

The Urbz: Sims in the City comes dangerously close to that feeling of insurmountable frustration, but manages to save itself through some saucy reinvention. This is still The Sims at the core, no doubt about it, but taken in a fresh new direction. I think The Urbz is the next logical step in the progression; it’s where the franchise was destined to head and what should be strived for in the future. By narrowing down the focus from family to individual, Maxis has created a game that actually asks the player to identify with their avatar—something the previous two games didn’t do. Finally, I have an excuse to not make my character dive into a pool before deleting the only exit, dooming them to a horrible death by drowning.

The game starts with that typical Friends-era fantasy that affordable apartments can actually be found in a trendy area of a large metropolis that looks suspiciously like New York. Players choose an initial district to move into, which dictates their overall personality. Initial visual appearance is also decided here; you can’t be a spikey-haired leatherdaddy living in the ritzy Diamond Heights district. As the game progresses and your reputation grows, the other districts will become available and only a subway ride away. Each area has residents who must be dealt with in a specific way, as well as exclusive jobs and shopping.

Naturally, I started off in The Foundry area, home to the emo artists with rail-thin bodies, long bangs and black plastic eyeglasses. It’s about where I live in real life, so Maxis has already given me a certain level of comfort. Unfortunately, the first few virtual days of The Urbz were downright terrible. Sure I made some friends, swapping gossip, tickling the opposite sex and sharing jokes with anyone who would approach my depressing singer/songwriter, but life in general was very hard. Despite getting a low-paying job as an amateur sculptor, I couldn’t raise the money for a basic toilet from the nearby shop. Thus, my apartment was bare and impractical as an actual place to live.

Also, the radio kept playing bad Black Eyed Peas music that my moron Urb always wanted to dance to. After a late dinner, I was very tired but also had to use the bathroom with great urgency. The plan was to get on the subway, go to The Foundry district, use the public restroom and return home. Unfortunately, my character disagreed. He thought the better idea would be to fall asleep on the ground outside the coffee shop, where a nice police officer found him and charged us 200 Simoleans for the violation. Who can afford that as a starving artist? I dictated he go home, where he fell asleep on the couch because we can’t afford a bed. The next day our job netted enough for a toilet, but that evening the landlord came by and noting we had not paid our rent, decided to take the couch. That night, my little guy fell asleep on a bench in The Foundry. Guess how that went.

So what can be learned from this story? For one thing, The Urbz largely keeps the gameplay from The Sims intact in terms of what’s required. The status indicators have returned, telling you when your counterpart needs to sleep, be fed, entertained or cleaned up. Failing to keep these meters decently in check will result in some embarrassing (and potentially expensive) violations. The game tosses in another meter at the risk of a cluttered interface to show your growing notoriety. Gold stars dictate positive interactions, while red stars show negative.

Any press is good press, so they say, but because I am not that big a cynical hate-spewing polemic in real life, I mostly racked up gold stars for friendly chatter. Just be aware you can pull off some truly horrible things and be known as the biggest jerk in the city. As you gain power, you earn new ‘social power moves’ to impact a whole room of people with your supposed awesomeness. People will also teach you new things to do to socialize, including lighting belches on fire, comparing cell phones and drunkenly making out with the girl next to you. All of which are really obnoxious things to do and should not be attempted in real life, except maybe the last one.

You are also encouraged once again to become a consumer whore, decorating increasingly larger apartments with better appliances and stylish art. More important than your apartment, however, is your style. Sims now keep track of who’s wearing what, and you’ll find interacting much easier if you become stylish and trendy. There’s no trust fund to sap, though, so you’ll actually need to find work. The Urbz offers nine different career paths, the more advanced of which require career skills obtained through practicing in your spare time, ala the original Sims games.

Basically, The Urbz is a Sims game for the Friendster/MySpace age, placing an obsessive level of importance on being noticed and being socially hip. I’m not sure if I agree with the morals behind the game, but at least it’s a new direction. Unfortunately, like anything fresh, The Urbz falls victim to a slew of problems, some of which weren’t even issues in The Sims. Like the nine play areas or districts: sure they look different, but they’re very small and even combined the game’s universe feels very restricted. Also, the actual gameplay of these sorts of games is beginning to feel old to me. All this networking with other Urbz gets old because it has no real substance, and that charade is the center of the game, so when socializing gets tiring the whole structure begins to crumble.

Having a job for money is a fun idea, but the minigames are mostly simple affairs and don’t require much thought. The big problem is that all these elements combine together to slowly begin to suggest, “What’s the point?” If you like The Sims, though, or merely found the family aspect overwhelming, then this is a must-try experience for you. I still enjoy The Urbz even with its warts, and look forward to Maxis polishing this idea up for a sequel more than I anticipate the possible existence of a Sims 3.

The caricature visual style works well within the context of the game. The Urbz obviously strives to create more of a cartoon environment than anything too realistic, so while the objects and apartments contain a certain amount of detail, the outrageous animations immediately set the tone. The camera can be zoomed and maneuvered with the C Stick, and all the people and household items still look good up close. The framerate occasionally stutters a bit and nothing in The Urbz is knock-your-socks-off amazing, but the clean and sharp style gets the job done.

I’m not sure exactly when and why EA and Maxis made a deal with the Black Eyed Peas, the band famous for their “Let’s Get It Started” single, but their influence is all over the game, including the soundtrack. Radios can be tuned to stations with their music or other genres, all of which now sound decently professional. I actually prefer having the in-game radio on for background music, whereas it was chopped-together nonsense in previous Sims games. Speaking of nonsense, the Urbz still speak Simlish, that delightfully nutty brand of chatter that defies comprehension. By now you either like it or have slowly learned to ignore it, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

If the gameplay suits you, then The Urbz features theoretically unlimited replay value. Although the game is constructed in a bit more linear direction, where you unlock new districts and challenges as you go (somewhat like the console versions of The Sims), you can always go at your own pace and continue earning and spending money long after you’re obligated to. Not to mention the further possibilities of playing through the game again as different characters, experimenting with new starting districts and family structures.

Throw in a GBA-Gamecube linkup that allows you to load your portable Urbz into the bigger version, and you have a game large enough to keep your interest so long as you’re willing. But once the gameplay starts to feel repetitive—and after a few hours, cracks in the façade will begin to show—then you’re in trouble. That’s why I suggest renting The Urbz and giving it a thorough playing through. If after a few days you’re still having plenty of fun with this admirably inventive new Sims game, then go for the full purchase. That way you won’t regret anything, except maybe hearing “Let’s Get It Started” around five thousand more times than is safe for human consumption.