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Playboy moves its empire onto the console market in what could be described as an adult version of The Sims. As Hugh Hefner, at the beginning of his empire, you have an empty mansion, money to burn, a magazine to publish, and parties to throw, among other things. Gameplay is either mission based or free-form. The mission-based game gives you a checklist of items to accomplish that are meant to bring you more money, fame, and women and the freeform version, well lets you basically hangout and dictate your life as you see fit on a much looser timeline.
Early mission phases include building an upstairs office and hiring staff, a necessity to successfully publish the magazine each month (i.e. journalists to write the articles, photographers for the centerfold shots, etc.) Of course mingling with the ladies is a must as well; sadly it is a boring and repetitive affair. Using menu choices, you can talk business, romance, and more with the ladies (you can also talk to the fellas to build business contacts) in incoherent dialogue akin to what the adults speak in Charlie Brown cartoons. Your ultimate goal is to find a suitable Playmate for the magazine and to score, which results in a PG-13, horribly animated sex scene.
For the first few missions or so, it ain’t that bad. Meeting people, throwing parties—it’s kinda fun, and watching Hef break dance, well that’s priceless. But I’m not going to sugarcoat this one, the idea may have sounded good in the concept phase, but the overall promotion of the game speaks much more highly than the experience itself. The quality and long-term playability just isn’t there. Partly because the Sims does the whole "sim-life" experience better (sans nudity of course) and that only leaves The Mansion’s other selling point—sex and nudity—to cover the slack.
Despite its M rating, Playboy: The Mansion is clearly trying to be a game for the masses. Its passing glance at nudity suggests this, though this might well be the reason it fails for so many. Who exactly is the game targeted at? Surely it isn’t the Playboy magazine fan eagerly hoping to bask in tons of digitized nudity. And surely it isn’t the average Sims player, who might cringe or scoff at the option to have the ladies walk around topless in the mansion and in the photoshoots. Not to mention, that the game provides a limited environment with which to grow, character models that are redundant and poorly animated, and the overall feeling of, what am I doing all this for?
One of the main problems with the game is its poor graphics system, which borders on PSOne level. Graphics aren’t always the main reason to embrace or hate a game, but because of the content and scope of the game, they are considerably more important to The Mansion than to say a quirky Japanese game like Katamari Damacy.
If you want fan-service, give Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball or Rumble Roses a shot -- even The Guy Game has videos. The fruits of your labor here culminate in pixilated scans of Playmates from years ago, and in stunted, lame animations of girls who are much, much hotter in real life, all of which take a lot of work to "unlock" in what could take you about 2 minutes to find on Google.
Because the game is so limited in scope (no expansions at this time, the mansion isn’t that big, and character interactions get old fast) and because it is a Playboy game, people are expecting what they should expect, and the ultimate truth is that is does not deliver. Not on gameplay or content. Had they wanted to go the route of the Sims and truly embrace a larger game base, they should have done the PG-13 thing and kept the nudity out.
As it stands, you get the nudity, forcing it into an M rating, but really no payoff for all your efforts spent building the perfect magazine or making new contacts at a party. The bonus points unlock outdated cover and interior shots of playmates we have already seen. No new content, no videos…and the animations of "hooking up" are poor and would be better left out completely.
Bottom line: Playboy: The Mansion tries too hard to avoid its core existence—the provocative presentation of beautiful women. The concept is interesting, playing the life of one of the most coveted people in the world, but the execution is just not there. Give this one a rent and see for yourself. If you’re into interior decorating, or schmoozing with guests, you might get a little fun out of this for a short while. Definitely don’t get this for the nudity, because it is poorly presented and not worth the effort. Sadly, Hef forgot the Viagra for this one. Skip it, pay the 12 bucks for a subscription, and go play The Sims. |
