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Impossible!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: October 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is such a let down! It's nearly impossible to play. For one thing, you can accidently ruin the lives of other Sims by hiring them to work for you. How do teenagers go to work and to school? How do adults keep their 'real' jobs? They don't, and the adults show up as unemployed if they're staff and don't get paychecks or get called to work when you play their lot. Also, if you have this game without other expansions, it overrides the basic Sims2 wants for your sims, and you end up with business-focused sims (from child to adult, and regardless of their aspiration)which is really annoying. All the expansions have this annoying tendancy though, so if you have them all it balances out. I bought this the day it came out and have been kicking myself ever since.

Needed more!!!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 14
Date: March 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have had a great time playing this game so far but it can be annoying. One thing I found that stunk was that when you use the boolprop cheat at a store and then choose one of your workers to raise his/her mood they well stop working for you. I hate leaveing at 9 in the morning for your store and then coming home at 6 and its 9 still at home. I hope the patch come soon cuz these bugs suck. I am very upset that there are not hardly any new items. For the price of the game we should have gotten alot more. It is also very hard to run a business. It is a ok game but needed more work done on it. It realy is not much it is not realy worth that much money. I know I may of not of bought it if I knew there was just this in new stuff. I would just wait for the next Sims game to come out or wait for the patch but if you like to do alot of work then in all means buy it. Good luck and have fun if you do buy it.

Great fun except for some major bugs

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 253 / 272
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There are some things I just love about this new expansion pack. It's great to be able to easily choose the formal wear when our sims get married, I was getting really bored with that default wedding dress. As a result I've downloaded many beautiful wedding dresses from the fansites. And finally we're able to change appearance for the toddlers without needing a hacked mirror. Yay! Thanks Maxis. Also with this expansion we now get a twins cheat AND a food to increase the chance of twins. Maybe now there will be a slow down to the influx of all the twins threads on the BBS. Maybe not, but a girl can hope can't she?

The businesses are really neat in some ways but I'm not so much into the tycoon thing. It's very challenging and sometimes it seems frustrating to let your sim have a social life outside of their business. It is fun though.

It's a shame about the bugs emerging. They're so bad that they could potentially toast neighborhoods that gamers have worked so hard on. Here's just a few I've seen around-

-Sims getting "stuck" while at their community business. When the taxi arrives to take the sim home the sim won't get in the taxi. Instead the sim waves his or her arms in the air and yells like there's a problem. You have to wait for the first taxi to leave, then call for a taxi to take the sim to another community lot and then home. Supposedly this happens when you save on the business lot. I didn't save, just did some remodeling of the lot and this happened anyway. Thankfully I had not taken the sim to the business in his car, otherwise he could have been lost in some sort of limbo until we get a patch.

-Bakeries are really messed up. Dessert items disappear from the owner's inventory, making it difficult to restock. You can only make desserts during certain hours. In real life bakers start before sunrise so sim bakers should be able to also. And like the other review mentioned the sims who buy the desserts cannot eat them. What's the point of a bakery then?

-The new Mission furniture is beautiful but seems to have some problems. The loveseat shows as black and doesn't have any of the color or wood options like it's supposed to.

-Some business lots completely disappear like they never existed. Gone, poof. I'm not sure what's doing it but it could be related to problems with assigning uniforms. It hasn't happened to me yet (knock on wood) but I'm definitely not assigning any uniforms until more information's out. Hopefully this will be addressed in the future patch too.

I know there's a couple other bugs I'm forgetting at the moment. At least it appears that Maxis is right on top of this and will hopefully have a patch in just a short amount of time. I'd recommend if you love the sims like me go ahead and buy the game but watch out for the problems. Read the BBS over on the official site to stay updated on the bugs and the workarounds. Others may want to wait (hopefully just a week or two) until the patch comes out.

More Fun and Variety with some more Frustration.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 50 / 56
Date: May 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm still not tired of playing Sims 2 and it's in large part due to the immense replayability that the original game had plus the additions of these expansion packs. Open for Business adds a number of new things to a game that already has loads of replayability and variety.

Pros:

-New Items
-Ability to run a home business (despite the negatives below, I do have to give the sims team kudos for adding this ability).
-Ability to buy real estate and own community businesses.
-Ability to hire townies
-robots

Cons:

-Bugs! What does it take to get some clean, well tested software these days?!
-Running a Sims business is quite challenging. I play pc games as a way of resting and relaxing from a hard day's work. Running a sim business in Sims 2 at times feels more like work than play especially once the business starts having loads of customers coming in.
-The number of townies available to hire doesn't keep up with the business' needs.
-As with the other expansion packs, I felt the price was a bit high for what was added.
-The "own 5 successful businesses" lifetime aspiration. Running one is such more work than play, but 5? Any Sim of mine that comes up with that aspiration, gets their head stuck in the ReNu gadget for the purpose of getting a new one.
-As pointed out by others, sending someone to work a full day at a community business and then having them come home at the same time that they left is kind of wierd (of course we already had that with the original game and Nightlife with Sims going to community lots. University at least kept the Semester clock running).

Despite the fact that the Cons got more space than the Pros, above, I think this is, overall, a good addition to the Sims 2 lineup. If you want to fully enjoy the business operation side of this expansion, I would suggest creating a new neighborhood, associate it with custom University, Downtown and Business neighborhoods (that way you don't have to deal with all of those pre-made sims) and then run only one family. Keep the initial family members employed at the standard jobs that came with the original game, getting promotions and rewards and then build up a large income and pool of friends. Once that is accomplished, then you might get a younger member of the family to start a business with a good supply of capital and Townie friends to hire. That takes away the two most challenging/frustrating parts of running a sim business and allows you to concentrate on the fun aspects of the game. That's my two cents anyway. 4 stars for fun (the "work" as opposed to "play" frustration that running a business gives at times in the game led me to take a star away), 3 stars overall (Lost two stars due to bugs and price).

Now I will spend even more time gaming ...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 15 / 19
Date: March 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the coolest addition to the SIMS series in my opinion. It really glues you to the game as you want to see how your business strategies work out.

I would just recommend that the games are better tested. It does not annoy me too much, but when you get into it and then you run into a bug it tears you from the mood and the suspense of being inside the game.

Good, Clean Fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: July 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The Sims 2 OFB Expansion Pack is probably more for simmers who like a challenge and who have experience playing the Sims and the Sims 2 games. Open for Business can be extremely tricky and boring if you are one of the simmers who rely on cheats and boolprop tricks, or if you are new to the games. DO NOT use this game as a starter...anotherwards, don't just think you can try it for the first time without playing the Sims 2 first. If you happen to be experienced in the game, then it's a great challenge and can have great rewards if you are patient.

Okay...., but kinda boring

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: December 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I think it takes too much time to stand around in a store waiting for customers to buy, hiring employees, and building customer satisfaction. It gets pretty dull quick. I like the new floorings and decorating stuff, but it is seriously lacking in new objects. This was the last of the expansion packs I bought because I think I knew it would not be as fun as the others. One high note though is the "shopping music" that includes the songs you heard on the old Sims version. LOL. It was a nice trip down memory lane.

Very difficult to play.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: January 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am addicted to the Sims1 and Sims2 games. But the Sims2 Open for Business is very difficult. This game could be fun, but it takes a lot of thought. It is for the very serious gamer with lots of time on his/her hands. I am sorry I spent my money on it.

Great for the first twelve hours...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: May 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Overall, I've been extremely impressed with the quality of these new Sims 2 games. I love The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack and my recently purchased The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack. I mean, those are great. But, with this one, I think they went too far.

First of all, I couldn't wait to start my own business...the online reviews gave promises of haircutting salons, flower stores...everything. I opened up my game and was ready to play. When I got going, however, I had a lot of trouble making these stores they had talked about. I couldn't figure out how to give someone a makeover, though I tried many times.

The main problem with this game is that it is JUST TOO HARD to maintain a store. You have to hire employees who don't come in when they're tired. I choose to run businesses from home in little shacks next to the house so my people could go to bed when they got tired. I ended up getting hooked on the cheat: boolprop testingcheatsenabled true/false, which allows you to make all of your Sims happy or gives you forty friends, and basically every cheat you could ever think of. (NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN HOOKED ON THE BOOLPROP CHEAT, DO NOT DO IT. IT TAKES AWAY FROM THE POINT OF THE GAME. I'M TRYING TO STOP USING IT, BUT IT'S REALLY HARD BECAUSE IT MAKES THE GAME SO EASY.) Anyway, it's just too hard to run a business.

I decided to stop making businesses and now I'm just using the regular occupations. It's a lot more fun and manageable. Plus, the newer games, like The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack and The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack add great new career tracks, like law, education, music, etc. They're great.

I've found that this game was a total waste of money. As you get addicted to the Sims, you just keep throwing down the dollars for whatever new game comes out. That's what I did for Sims (1). This time around, though, I'm considering which ones I really want. I didn't get The Sims 2 University Expansion Pack or The Sims 2: Nightlife Expansion Pack...they seemed like a waste. Sims The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack is a fun addition and The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack is one of the best ever. So, get one of those. Skip this one...it's not worth your 29.99 bucks or whatever unreasonable cost they gave it.

Fun new addition to the growing Sims 2 library

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 169 / 170
Date: April 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Before the Sims 2: Open for Business, Sims owners could be in control of every aspect of their sim's life, save for one: work. They would make relationships, gain skill points, go to college, even become vampires, but for a few hours every day they would dissappear from view, leaving a hole in the day for the game's players. Well, that's not the case anymore. With Open for Business, you can now govern their economic ambitions, too. What it becomes is a fun, if more challening than expected, mini-game that tests the micromanagement skills of Sims players.

You can open up any number of business types: from bakeries to furniture stores to salons. You can even charge sims to just come over and hang out at your place if you want to. The flexibility is there for you to sell almost anything (because that's essentially what it all comes down to); I personally found it easiest and most profitable to sell televisions and artwork (somtimes in the same store), but you can do whatever you want. You can hire managers to do the work for you, you can buy real estate and sell it, you can sell cars; there truly is a lot to do in the game.

Now there are some game imbalances to take notice of. First of all, you need a truckload of cash to start a business. Without cheating it's usually quite difficult to pull the money together to start even the most basic of businesses. It would have been nice to have some sort of investing process, where you could invite others as investors or even stock owners, but as is, it's a pretty basic business simulation. The second imbalance comes when you do eventually create a successful business: it's so successful that you have more money than you know what to do with. Granted this isn't really a gripe, but it's certainly in stark contrast to the beginnings of your business.

The actual running of the business can be one of two things to different players: a fun, challenging break from normal sims gameplay or a boring, tedious excercise in micromanagement. I personally felt the former, but I could see why it could be tedious. Not only do you have to worry about your own needs, you need to worry about giving your employees breaks, and making sure your customers are happy. Also, they are in constant need of reminders why they are in the store in the first place; the sheer number of times I used the "sell" command on various customers is staggering. However, this is all exectued quite well, and it is really rewarding to see repeat customers coming in everyday to buy your cakes and pastries (although it gets a little suspect when they buy a new television every day). I enjoy the challenge and feel that most people will. It's a departure from the guarranteed-to-win dating mini-game from Nightlife, also.

I also have to mention the awesome robots that have been re-introduced to the series. You get to build your own robots from the ground up, from cleaning robots to fully functional Servos that work as people without needs (with the exception of the occasional recharging).

Other people are having trouble with bugs in their games, but I have yet to run into any (other than standard Sims 2 bugs). I did find it particularly difficult to run some businesses, though - i never could get that trendy new nightclub/salon off the ground. Oh well.

Pros:
Great new mini-game for Sim owners
Adds a lot of new content and options
Fun
Rewarding businesses
Robots!

Cons:
Lots of micro-management
Some might find the challenge a turn-off
Buggy for some people
Slight game imbalances

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