Desperate Housewives: The Game

In the early 2000s, Desperate Housewives was a major hit series that aired on ABC. It was chock full of drama, mystery, and a star-studded cast who became household names. Naturally, due to the show’s popularity, game developer Liquid Entertainment created and produced Desperate Housewives: The Game in 2006, for those who couldn’t get enough of the soapy drama.

What’s it about?

Desperate Housewives: The Game is based on the hit drama series with a new lead character (you) who just moved to Wisteria lane with her family, a son, and husband. Your customized character comes with a bevy of secrets and a mysterious past that you uncover as the gameplay progresses. The game is centered around this customized character rather than the original housewives from the series. However, you do meet the housewives from the TV show and have some interaction with them.

Quirky gameplay

Desperate Housewives: The Game looks like a replica of The Sims with a similar structure and design. You can choose different dialogue and responses which can determine your ‘personality’ in the game and unlock “missions” and tasks with certain responses and interactions. It’s very simple and mainly a “one-click adventure” sort of game that even non-gamers can maneuver through pretty easily. With this in mind, it can come across as boring or monotonous for experienced gamers.

Apart from that, the storyline is engaging as it’s modeled like a season of the show itself complete with dramatic plot twists and witty humor. You complete mostly linear tasks, move from point A to point B, and have mini game options to kill time such as taking care of your garden, cooking meals, or playing online poker. There is also a lot of real-life product placement in various parts of the game.

Is it worth the hype?

If your guilty pleasure is the TV show, it’s quite possible you’ll enjoy the game version. However, it is not without a few pros and cons for the typical gamer.

Takeaway

Desperate Housewives: The Game isn’t exactly top-tier gaming but it’s a great fan service. It’s not a bad time sink if you like games in the style of The Sims, and would take approximately 10 hours to play through to the end. It definitely captures the essence of the original TV series and fans can appreciate the way the similarities are integrated into the gameplay.

Pros:

• Sticks close to source material
• Easy to play
• Storyline is basically like new episodes of the show itself
• Simulation role play design with many customizable features

Cons:

• Due to the simple nature of the gameplay, it can get boring for serious gamers
• Graphics look like any run-of-the-mill computer game
• Some of the game tasks are a bit tedious (lots of back of forth between places)

It's A Beautiful day on Wisteria Lane. After getting up, I pop outside to collect the mail and promptly seduce the mailman before taking him upstairs to 'collect his special delivery'. I then head to the shopping mall in my underwear, slap my husband's female assistant around a bit, bribe my son, break into my neighbour's house, steal anything lying about to sell in the pawn shop and round the day off by sleeping with the gardener.

That's pretty much a normal day in the life of Desperate Housewives, a Sims-style game inspired by the massively popular TV series. You play the role of a new neighbour, complete with as-yet-unidentified shady past and a husband, son and gorgeous house to match. Each day is broken down into separate tasks and although none of it's exactly taxing stuff, consisting mostly of go here and talk to so-and-so, the game does feature plenty of the trademark outrageous stories that make the TV series such a success.

While these stories, the good character likenesses, excellent Danny Elfman score and glee that you'll feel the first time you royally screw a neighbour over will at first draw you in, the shallowness of the gameplay quickly starts to show through the cracks.

Rubbish gardening/cooking minigames, a lack of official voiceovers, the occasional stutter in play and the fact that your slutty actions have little impact on the overall game means that while this will appeal to fans of the TV series and perhaps the odd Sims dabbler, anyone else is likely to love it on the first day but then dump it on the second. Just like the mailman...