REVIEW: The Movies (2005)

I used to be a big fan of Maxis' "The Sims", an innovative take on the simulator genre where you take control of the people inside a house you design and - depending on your mood - make their lives cushy or a living hell. I'm sure we can all recall the time we made a lesbian couple to live in the huge mansion we painstakingly fashioned over 4 hours of hard graft in build and buy mode, then trap them in the kitchen and set fire to the staff. The Sims opened a floodgate for games like it, and so we got countless other imitators leaping onto the bandwagon out of Simcity: and thus, The Movies came to be.

The Movies is a specific type of simulator, where instead of looking after the people, a household or even a neighbourhood, you control a budding movie studio starting off in 1920. Technically, it's reasonably accurate, starting off with static cameras, black and white picture and no sound; the technology of your movies expands with the timeline and you have the option to boost it with the research department.

You have to find Stars and manage their happiness by giving them entourages and trailers in accord with their celebrity. Stars and directors gain experience by working on specific genres and reviews of your movies will show you where they need improvement, which leads accordingly into The Movies' best gimmick.

By far this game's best feature is the ability to actually create movies, scene by scene. You can choose scenes, costumes, actors to do a wide variety of tricks on set, and even modify an actor's specific performance on a film. It's a laborious process but it is admittedly a great feeling to see a labour of love play out - albeit rather crudely - before your eyes.

The Movies is an interesting entry to the simulator genre, its gimmick is fresh and innovative and as I have quite a passion for early cinema and culture from the 20th century, this was a great play for me.