Simple Fact: If you create a game that becomes wildly successful, spawns multiple expansion packs, and rakes in millions of dollars, two things are probably going to happen: 1) you’ll make a sequel and 2) remembering the story of the goose that laid the golden egg, you won't mess with what works.

Sequels to wildly successful games are themselves difficult to make, especially if they were out-of-the-blue successes like The Sims. Let's face it, if someone were to tell you five years ago that one of the highest selling computer games of all time would involve picking out wall paper and making sure your characters didn't publicly soil themselves, you would have gotten funny looks.

While Maxis' Sim games have generally done well of their own accord, the success of The Sims outshone even the venerable SimCity. So The Sims 2 is nothing really surprising; the core game remains unchanged while gameplay aspects and engine improvements bring the game closer to what this unique genre can really do.

A few features have been added, picked from the fan favorite features of the expansion packs; the flip side of this is that there's also a lot missing that the faithful who bought all those expansions have become accustomed to. Doubtless these features (and more) will be re-introduced in future expansions. This particular goose is more or less guaranteed to lay a few more golden eggs.

First and foremost, these aren't your same old Sims. A vast majority of your time will be spent dealing with these little avatars, so a lot of work has gone into making them more unique. The little guys have gotten an overhaul in the image department and are far more customizable than they used to be. You can tweak your Sims in almost every imaginable way, including facial structure, eye and hair color, weight, skin tone, body art, and a vastly expanded wardrobe. Best of all, users can design, share, and import their own modifications such as hairstyles, eye colors, and even their own fashions.

Alternatively, you can also package up your Sim for easy transfer to another copy of the game. So you can share your Sims with friends or the entire Sim community. The exchange board at TheSims2.com is laden with thousands of user-created Sims, including celebrities, fictional characters, or even representations of players themselves.

Like the previous game, you'll need to keep an eye on your Sims’ physical needs. They'll need to bathe, eat, sleep, and interact with others to remain healthy and sane. Their traits (governed loosely by their astrological sign) will indicate whether they will do certain things on their own or will require some coaxing. Messy Sims won't be inclined to clean up after themselves, while clean Sims can be counted on to tidy up. Of course, you can always let SimNature take its course by taking a hands-off approach (or take a more directly malign approach to managing them), and watch them wallow in their own filth.

As in the first game, your Sims can die if you're not careful. Their lives are also more streamlined. Sims spend a set number of days as a babe, toddler, child and teen before becoming an adult. Elder Sims don't have a set time frame between their adulthood and the grave, but their lifespan is heavily influenced by their health. Happy, healthy Sims with full aspiration meters have the potential to live deep into their golden years while unhealthy, unhappy Sims will have to rely on luck and the occasional fountain of youth to ensure their longevity.

Distinguishing these Sims from their predecessors is the addition of an Aspiration tied to them. Aspirations are sets of goals, wants, and fears that define how happy they are with their lives. A knowledge Aspiration means your Sim craves learning, getting skill points, knowledge based careers, and so on. If you meet their Aspiration goals, your Sims Aspiration meter fills up. Each Aspiration follows. At the coveted Platinum mood (Aspiration meter maxed out), your Sims are in a state of bliss that helps them excel in pretty much anything they do. But moods change constantly, and if your Sims is met with one of their fears (such as being rejected by a loved one, seeing a ghost, or losing a skill point) their Aspiration meters will plummet.

As a bonus, meeting aspiration goals nets your individual Sims points that they can spend on unique in game items (like a water cooler that can temporarily halt their aging, a thinking cap that helps your Sim gain skill points, or an Energizer that jolts your physical gauges to maximum). The Aspirations change the core of how the game is played only slightly. You now have goals to guide your Sims towards but this is different only from the basic tasks of work, school, and daily life in detail and how you go about accomplishing it. More importantly, it adds a lot of missing depth to a game that historically was tedious to play.

Overall, the core game is the same. You create a family (in the very loosest definition of the word, if you choose) and set them loose in one of three populated neighborhoods or in one of your own design. You can even import SimCity terrain files into The Sims 2 to make your own perfect neighborhood. These neighborhoods can vary, unlike the original game, in their terrain type and topography. You can create a three-story villa overlooking the ocean or a log cabin in the middle of an arid desert; it's your call. Terrain doesn't come into play other than height fields during construction of your house, so it's more cosmetic than anything else.

Your pack of Sims move about the home you bought or made for them and go about their daily lives. Maxis simplified the building tools, added the ability to have more than two floors (and basements), decks, multi-story windows, and other goodies that means making your dream home has become even easier. Anything from a cozy cottage to a lavish mansion are available to you, if you have enough Simoleons.

Lots can also have stores or social lots that your Sims can visit by Taxi. You can design these yourself, if you want to create a park or local shopping center, or you can use the ones built into the three starter communities. Owners of the expansion packs to the original Sims might be disappointed to find that while you have the ability to add community lots they are missing most all of the options available from Vacation or Unleashed. The functionality seem to have been included only as a way of expanding the base game towards future expansions (which is EA's bread and butter as far as The Sims franchise goes), but it's still a nice addition considering unique lots weren't introduced in the original Sims franchise until the Hot Date expansion (the third).

The goal of each Sim, apart from their Aspirations, is to work and earn money to get new stuff, support their family, and if they’re lucky, fend off the grim reaper. The career choices have been expanded, and careers have their own unique rewards if you manage to gain them. There are also non-career goals that Sims can pursue to support themselves: including novel writing and painting. Paintings will actually increase in value over time, depending on the skill of the Sim who created the work, with the price sometimes rocketing up after the painter passes on.

A larger number of jobs are available, a mixture of old favorites and expansion additions, and various additions to the game take some of the tedium out of gameplay. You can order groceries on-line, or by phone for home delivery, and social Sims who don't enjoy the social scene can chat with friends via IM or e-mail from their home PC. These little touches balance well with the addition of the aspiration meter, and add a lot of replay value to the game.

The game's engine has been moved completely into the third dimension, meaning you can swing the camera around almost freely during interaction mode (or completely freely in the first person camera mode). Pathfinding has been improved, and Sims are less likely to take odd routes through their home as they go about their daily lives. Still frustrating is the lack of an ability to assign certain beds or rooms to certain Sims, who seem content to crash anywhere they feel like it when the need for sleep arises.

The game requires a transform and lighting video accelerator, which, while it produces some nice lighting effects, said effects weren't really an absolutely necessary. The addition of screenshot and movie capture in the engine lets you become your own reality TV producer. Share your Sims moments with the world as large through on-line blogs (hosted by the folks over at The Sims2.com). For an example of what you can do with the in-game tools, take a look at www.thestrangerhood.com for the comedic stylings of Rooster Teeth (of Red vs. Blue fame) using the Sims 2 engine. It's, at the very least, a lot more fun than watching most reality TV shows.

Final word: it's like declaring water wet, people. If you liked The Sims, then The Sims 2 is going to be your cup of tea. If you haven't heard of The Sims, or never got into it because of the expansion packs you would need to buy, The Sims 2 is a good way to test drive the experience of creating virtual people and domineering their existence. Offering up whole new ways to run their lives and a smashing array of shiny new consumer goods, The Sims 2 is a worthy successor to the Sims mantle.