The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack

I didn't run out to grab The Pets Expansion Pack for The Sims 2 as I did with other expansions. I still had bad memories of The Sims Unleashed Expansion Pack for the original game, The Sims.

But I have many pets myself, so it was only a matter of time before I broke down and bought it.

This was much better! Like human sims, you can create your own dog or cat sims, or use the pre-existing ones that are installed in the game. Dogs and cats have relationship scores with the people they know, as well as other animals. They will react based on simple personality traits and past relationships to other sims in the game.

Once set, those traits don't change, but there are other pet tendencies and learned behaviors that you can influence with training like tricks/commands, whether or not they destroy furniture, sleep in your bed or on chairs, greet strangers with a snarl or a wagging tail, or if they do their business in the right place or not.

Pets can also be put to work, earning a limited living based on what they've learned. But you cannot control pets without using cheats or hacks. Instead, you have to interrupt a sim to correct whatever the pet is doing that you don't want them to.

The most maddening thing is the tendency for roaming dogs to enter a lot and destroy flowerbeds or dig holes. If you have The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion installed like I do, and are trying to get into the garden club, you might want to set another sim as a lookout for stray dogs during the inspection. A hole in my front yard torpedoed my top score in that mini-game more than once.

The special sim type in Pets is the Werewolf, who unlike regular dogs can go after the burglar.

I have only three families in the neighborhood I play with pets. Other than that, it just didn't turn out to be a must-have addition to my digital families. If someone you know is just loopy over all things pet related, this will still appeal to them, but for me it became more of something to complete my collection and round out my sims' pixellated lives.

The neighbors' dogs destroying my sim's yard was a little too much like reality though. Someone should create a custom no dogs allowed sign that actually works to keep critters from wreaking havoc in the flower beds.

I bought the Pets expansion pack in December of last year and I was really excited to try it out. Unfortunately it has been a huge disappointment - it isn't much fun at all. You can't control your Pets and if you have even a medium sized family - such as husband, wife, one or two kids - having to feed the pet, wash the pet (if you have a dog), play with the pet, teach the pet tricks, etc gets to be a bit much. I find that my families inadvertantly ignore thier animals because there are more immediate things to do, like build skills for work or network to make more friends or help the kids with their homework. The one thing I do like about having a pet is you can get them a job and they can bring in decent money. Some pet jobs make $800+ simoleans per day, which is a nice chunk of change to add to the family funds.
Besides cats and dogs, you can also buy a bird cage and put an exotic bird in it. You can teach the birds to talk, which also fills your Sims' social meter and builds the charisma skill. I'm not so great at taking care of the birds though, because I've had so many of them die on me when I forget to have someone feed them.
You can also buy a womrat, which looks alot like a ferret - womrats don't really do much and you don't gain anything by having one. They're cute, that's about it. I've had a few womrats die on me too.
When the cats or dogs die the Grim Reaper comes for them just like he does when a Sim dies - I can't say I've been sad to see any of my Pets go. I recommend this expansion pack to animal lovers who would enjoy adding a dog or a cat to their game. Otherwise I really don't feel that Pets adds enough to the game to justity buying it - save your RAM for something fun like Seasons or Nightlife.

Sims 2 Pets is my favorite expansion for Sims 2. a Definite 10 out 10! Adopt a pet, a dog, Cat, Fish and more. Teach your pet tricks and talents! If you have a dog or a cat you can get them a job and send them out to work for you! NO MORE LAZY CATS!

Tons of different breads, create your own dog or cat just like you would create your sim. Custmize their collars, fur, eyes and more.

Pets need love too, so got out and get Sims 2 Pets Today. You won't regret it!

i was kinda disapointed but its still fun, kinda hard to mange ur animals but still fun, but... they should have more animals other than dogs cats birds womrats, i was thinkin bunnies and on the offical website every1 else agrees...but its still fun kinda disapointment

I loved this because it's making it more realistic which is what I LOVE about the Sims (I'm into that life simulating stuff) and it's alot of fun to have pets around! Put I get overly tired of them destroying the furniture. So it all most becomes a pain but I guess pets can do that.