Each area has its own goals and jobs that you can complete. While on 125th street, the big craze is tamed ferrets, leaving you with the task of having to tame and box them. After taking the job, your Urb enters a mini-game that involves pressing buttons in sequence. The better you do at matching the sequences, the easier it will be to get the ferrets tamed, packed, and shipped. Other jobs include stripping bikes and packing the parts in boxes, or making piercings.
After completing bottom level goals, you can move on to bigger ones. These require you to build up your Urb’s stats in order to take them on. For example, in order to move up and take on the Master Piercer goal, you’ll have to build up your Urb’s strength. Performing actions in your apartment like riding an exercise bike can improve skills -- tasks fans of the Sims should already be familiar with. This works for The Sims, but I would have liked to see a more dynamic system in place that built skills up in a more natural way rather than plugging into a machine and tapping a few buttons.
Jobs are reflex-based, meaning the more accurately you press buttons, the better a job you’ll do. But they also tie into your Urb’s mood ratings. When making piercings, you’ll have to keep an eye on your hygiene and rest meters. A low hygiene rating means that people might get infections from using your stuff, which will end up costing you a paycheck or two. It’s also important to keep your rest up, otherwise you can fall asleep on the job. There are two ways you can do this; you can lay down for a bit, or grab a can of Red Bull. Each option brings its own baggage with it that you’ll have to weigh. Resting will cost you some time you can spend making things, delaying completion of the goal, and a can of Red Bull will give you a burst of energy, but it will go through you quicker than you can produce things.
Making these choices adds a shallow level of depth to performing jobs, which brings up the game’s major flaw -- it tends to get boring. The Urbz still presents the same addicting qualities as the Sims, but doesn’t bring quite the level of action required to grab the attention of a console gamer. Nearly all of the mini-games and other “action” areas of the game boil down to button mashes. This is entertaining the first time you take on the job, but gets old.
The game’s control scheme, which uses the same setup found in the other two Sims console games, doesn’t help in catering to an action-oriented audience. Instead of controlling your character, you instead control a marker that you can use to click on items. Clicking on objects will cause your character to interact with the object. Like the trait leveling aspect, a more dynamic system would have been much more enjoyable.
As a bit of side note, I’d personally like to thank EA for including support for the PS2’s hard drive by allowing players to save games on the HDD. Even though its a minor deal, it’s still nice to have the option and would be wonderful if other companies, like Sony themselves, would actually include the option.
The Urbz is a different direction for the Sims, but it manages to maintain the core addictive nature of the series. Action-oriented gamers may not enjoy the game, but fans of The Sims or those who want more low-key action should get what they’re looking for.