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Playboy: The Mansion
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this game >
Game Info
Publisher: ARUSH Entertainment / Groove Games
Developer: Cyberlore Studios
Genre(s): Strategy, Simulation, Role-Playing Game, Empire-Building
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Release Date: January 25, 2005
Summary
Now you can be Heff! Playboy: The Mansion blends state-of-the-art social simulation with traditional role-playing and empire-building gameplay. As Hugh Hefner, you build the Playboy mansion and magazine into a dynamic cultural icon and powerful brand. Rub shoulders with stunning women and stimulating celebrities as you pursue the ultimate Playboy lifestyle. Grow famous and gain exclusive access to the Playboy Archives, including footage of the world-famous Playboy Mansion. This is the ultimate lifestyle game, allowing the gamer to "Play Hef" and live the good life. The player is in charge of running the Playboy Empire and must put out a magazine each month. In order to generate content for the magazine, the Virtual Hef will throw incredible parties with celebrities and rockstars in tow. The social management of the parties will enable the player to acquire content for the magazine, including the unique, sexy Photo Shoot feature which the gamer will use to get his or her cover shot. With a broad depth of gameplay, and a simulation experience of the ultimate lifestyle, PTM lets a gamer Play Hef, build the dream and live the good life. [ARUSH]
Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central
Also On The Web: 1UP Preview ActionTrip Preview BonusStage Preview Boomtown Preview Frictionless Insight Preview GameSpot Preview GameSpy Preview IGN Hands-On Official Website PC Arena Preview Playboy Video Preview
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Computer Games Online RO
Yes, it lacks certain features, but it shows potential. On the other hand, exactly this kind of simplicity makes it more accessible to everybody.
Read Full Review >Warcry
Some of the celebrities in the game also make it interesting. Who wouldn’t try to get next to Carmen Electra or the celebrity playmates that make appearances?
Read Full Review >Total Video Games
It's neither the best management title on the market [nor] can it rival "The Sims 2," however it does throw up an enticing mixture, which can be enetertaining in doses.
Read Full Review >AceGamez
Limited in engrossing gameplay and adult content; there is barely anything here to justify that 18 rating and it would have been more interesting if the game had taken more risks, showing more of what really goes on at the Playboy Mansion (and it's more than just photo shoots!)
Read Full Review >Yahoo! Games
The learning curve is considerable. Beginners are sure to be put off by the sheer volume of information presented. The game's interface -- all icons and indicators -- will also be uncomfortable for casual enthusiasts.
Read Full Review >My Gamer
If the developers could have found some way to incorporate all the aspects of the Playboy franchise, the possibilities for this game could have been endless. Instead, you get a game chocked full of mediocrity and in this genre of video game, mediocrity does not cut it.
Read Full Review >Inside Gamer Online
Playboy: The Mansion isn't bad – nor is it as good as it could have been. Every time the sunshine wants to break through the clouds, the game comes to a dead halt, a sure sign of rushed development and reliance on a known license.
Read Full Review >IGN
Suffers from a dire lack of sex appeal. It fails to grab the attention of Sims fanatics while failing to seduce the average gamer. The business aspect is the most entertaining part of the game, if only because it lets you do something besides try and bed a clone army of big-breasted bunnies.
Read Full Review >GameZone
It’s fun to play for a while, though it grows old quickly, and the only real urge to keep playing is to unlock historical Playboy covers and centerfolds.
Read Full Review >Play Magazine
I don't wanna sound like a perv, but the first time I got the "Have sex on a couch?" command, well... all I can say is buy a couch early on; Hef likes to get his groove on. [March 2005, p.58]
WHAM! Gaming
A well-meaning but often humdrum knockoff of "The Sims" and a tycoon-style business game that's not helped by its lack of a truly "adult" presentation.
Read Full Review >Worth Playing
To be fair, it hasn’t broken any new ground, didn’t dazzle me with its graphics, and included that same annoying pseudo-speak that all of these games seem to integrate.
Read Full Review >BonusStage
The lack of any real strategy or its ultimately repetitive gameplay, leaves me wanting more, a whole lot more.
Read Full Review >Game Informer
Unlike "The Sims," which allows you to build your own destiny from the ground up, Playboy: The Mansion is done in by the very fact that all you can do is be Hefner. [Apr 2005, p.117]
Game Chronicles
Speaking, dancing, and, um, *intimate relations* are all pretty well animated and humorous in a cartoony way.
Read Full Review >GameSpot
Despite the bacchanalian context, this Sims-style strategy game comes off as cold and mechanical, capturing none of the devil-may-care attitude you'd expect and casting Hef's idyllic lifestyle as a hollow grind established purely for the sake of selling more magazines.
Read Full Review >ActionTrip
So overall, Mansion is not a bad game, but it is very unstable and it becomes repetitive as you put more time into it.
Read Full Review >eToychest
If topless girls are your thing and you can ignore the flagrant bugs and lack of content, then go for it. Everyone else, go back to the Sims.
Read Full Review >Play.tm
It's a shame that Playboy relies so heavily on such repetitive gameplay tasks. The setting is interesting even if you have a social life and have seen an actual naked woman.
Read Full Review >PC Gamer
A good-looking game - more so if you're into softcore porn (to paraphrase Tom Wolfe, it's a "one-handed video game") - but "The Sims 2" still looks better and beats it by miles for depth. [Apr 2005, p.66]
Stuff
The game's sole bright spot, sadly enough, is managing the magazine. When tracking market trends to increase readership is more thrilling than talking a cotton-tailed hottie into straddling you in the Grotto, you know something is very wrong.
Read Full Review >GameSpy
What starts off so promising at first glance ends up being a pretty shallow experience. It seems everyone's heart was in the right place -- if only the game could have followed them there.
Read Full Review >Gamer's Hell
You have a great deal of commands at your disposal, but it only takes 10 minutes to go through them all. Once that’s done then you are basically saying the same thing to everyone you meet.
Read Full Review >Xequted
It’s just too bad that the tongue-in-cheek events are few and far between; more of them might have made Playboy: The Mansion feel a lot more fun and a lot less sleazy and dull.
Read Full Review >PC Gameworld
Scores marks for trying to take "The Sims" on and adding new elements. Looses them again for bad implementation and general rough finish.
Read Full Review >Loaded Inc
Let's not beat around the bush (no pun intended), it's the so-called titillation factor that gamers will go for. Remember, when you start looking deeper than the brand and packaging, there's little substance. Oh, the irony.
Read Full Review >Sydney Morning Herald
Furnishing the mansion with tacky knick-knacks while schmoozing potential bunnies gets dull.
Read Full Review >Boomtown
The pathfinding, especially in tight environments, can also be quite bad and the game is really in need of a lick of paint in just about every department except the music, which is an impressive mix of contemporary and classical compositions.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
Sex and nudity often work well in movies, but video games laced with sex never rise above mediocrity, and Mansion seems decidedly underbaked.
Read Full Review >Game Revolution
For a while, it is rather enjoyable to cruise by and experience the closest thing you’ll ever have to being anything like Hef, but you'll quickly long for deeper gameplay or a more real sense of progression. Use that $50 on 3 years’ worth of Playboy subscriptions instead.
Read Full Review >Jolt Online Gaming UK
Underneath all the tedium, the bones of a very basic business simulation can be found, but there’s a lot of joyless digging to be done to get to it. We’re not entirely sure who will actually enjoy Playboy: The Mansion, as the business side is unsatisfying, the networking is mind-numbing, and the sex is a sad cop out.
Read Full Review >PC Format
As an alternative to "The Sims," only the abundance of nipples saves it. [Apr 2005, p.104]
Read Full Review >Computer Gaming World
The game plays a lot like "Sims 2" - just without the charm, animation, possibilities, freedom and, and ability to generate a desire to keep it installed. [Apr 2005, p.84]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this game is 4.3 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jimmus Maximus gave it a3:
Terribly dull. I don't know many people who want to BE Hugh Hefner. I would love to be in Hugh Hefner's position, however. At its best, this game is like a management simulation with bikini-clad bimbos. At its best, it's a weak attempt at seeing nude cyber-chicks. If you want more nudity, and more fun, just buy the Sims 2 and download a nudity texture. At least you won't need to waste hours and hours for a payoff.
Anton gave it an8:
Good game, like the sims... only better!
Justin M. gave it a5:
Not great, not terrible. sims clone, with topless chicks.
