Playboy: The Mansion is a “god-game,” where you play from above, controlling Hugh Hefner first and foremost. But you also have direct control over building, remodeling, and upgrading The Playboy Mansion. Think of it as Hugh Hefner meets The Sims. The models are nicely detailed -- not overly so, but well enough as the game is primarily played from an overview vantage point.

The camera system takes a bit of getting used to, but allows you to zoom out to be able to observe more of what’s going on or to close in tight on Hugh and what (or who) you’re doing. In Centerfold and Covershot mode, you’re the photographer and you have to capture the perfect shot of the “hottie du jour.” Just like a real photo shoot, you get to select the wardrobe (with topless being an option), right down to the jewelry and shoes, as well as the location (basically, anywhere you like in and around the Playboy Mansion). Unlike a real photo shoot, you are unable to direct your model in any way; you’ll simply have to try to catch her in the pose you want. This makes it feel a bit less like a model shoot and a bit more like a mature rated version of Pokémon Snap.

The voices in Playboy: The Mansion are unintelligible sounds that sound almost like speech. They sort of insinuate the emotion without being intelligible. The music played when you turn on a radio (at a party, for example) is a pretty wide variety of songs in different genres. That helps to break the monotony, including the song used as Playboy: The Mansion’s theme song, “Playboy Mansion” by Prince Charming (found under Rock).

Many a guy has wished to be in Hugh Hefner’s shoes -- surrounded by a bevy of beautiful babes and celebrating with celebrities. However, when they think of filling his shoes, they probably don’t consider what it takes to wear his various hats. Enter Playboy: The Mansion, a porn-mogul simulator that makes you remember the mogul aspects.

While it’s true that you’ll get to see (computer generated) babes bounding around bare-breasted, you’ll find that it takes a bit of interaction to work them to that point. Furthermore, you’ve got a magazine to make, and while some people may perceive Playboy as almost “magical,” it doesn’t magically publish itself. You’ll need to hire (and manage) your staff to make sure you have (talented) photographers and writers, assign topics for pictorials and articles based on the photographer’s and writer’s interests so that the content is decent, convince celebrities to agree to give you interviews, essays, and cover shots, or for that matter simply stay civil with each other at your parties! You’ll have to make sure that your people do what they’re supposed to, and you’ll need to keep an eye out for those who are given alcohol and handle them delicately when they get smashed at your party. Luckily, you have a couple of good advisors and friends that help you get started and try to keep you pointed in the right direction.

To be successful, you need to build up the Playboy Mansion as you construct your empire. You need new and exciting locales for your photo shoots, and you need to keep having bigger and better parties. That means you’ll need to expand and upgrade your pad. This part works much the same as The Sims or Singles. There’s a building mode that you can go into that allows you to spend the money you’ve earned to build, remodel, decorate, and accessorize with everything from wallpaper to art to furniture to a grand piano... even a trampoline! Be warned, however. The same money that you could spend on that huge trampoline will be needed to pay your staff at the end of the month.

Sounds like a whole lot of work, huh? Changed your mind about wanting to be Hef? On the fence about it? Well, there is the fact that (if you play your cards right) you get to make out with and even have sex on couches (well, sorts) with these girls at your parties. Hugh Hefner’s parties are a bit wild, and this is carried over into the game. Mind you, the “sex on the couch” is more like a lap dance, but at least you can have several girlfriends at once -- think of it as a “Playa Boot Camp.” You’ll need to work hard to keep your girlfriends behaving civil with each other and other guests, but the rewards of forming a romantic relationship between them can be quite pleasantly amusing.

As is typically the case with god games, a lot of the difficulty comes from micromanagement issues. Can you keep your staff doing what they’re supposed to do and put out good content while throwing bigger and better parties with more and more famous people, and publish bigger, better, and more profitable magazines -- all while juggling several girlfriends? The fur will fly!

In addition to managing minutia, you also need to develop a skill for photographic composition, and possibly more important, timing. You’ll need to catch that perfect shot of your model, whether it be for the cover or for a centerfold, and although you can take pictures as long as you want in a given photo session, you can only keep one at a time. That means that instead of taking a hundred pictures and then choosing the best one at the end of the session, you have to decide (within a few seconds of taking a picture) whether the new picture you just took is good enough to replace the one you took previously (without being able to see the old one again and compare them). If you choose to keep the new picture, then you can try to take a better one and replace it, or end the photo session and keep that one. This makes taking good covers and centerfolds more difficult than it should be, in my opinion, but you can always keep taking pictures until you’re really happy with the one you took last.

One thing that help makes things a bit easier are the unlockable cheats. These are bought with points that you gain as you progress in the game, and some of them can help tip things in your favor. Other unlockables are available too such as cover art and centerfolds, but these don’t help you in-game. If you want to sneak a peek at some of these non-functional bonus items, you can make sure your game is saved where you want it, then purchase and check out the artwork without saving, and then reload your game. You will have your points back and available for more sensible purchases, having already seen the artwork.

I guess I was expecting a bit much for a Mature title, but I was a bit disappointed to see only partial nudity. This was a bit silly, since one of the activities that you can engage it is “sex-on-the-couch,” which is essentially a topless lap dance or couch dance. This is a limitation I really simply didn’t expect in a title such as Playboy: The Mansion.

Another pet peeve was the photo shoot mode’s lack of direction and inability to capture several shots for later selection. Without the ability to direct a model’s actions, it feels less like a photo shoot and more like trying to catch a good shot of the elusive Bigfoot. You have ever so slight control over the model by placing them where you want to start the photo shoot. If you place them in front of a couch, they’re apt to sit and lay on it in a variety of sexy positions. However, I couldn’t for the life of me get a model to do the same thing with a chaise lounge next to the pool. (ARGH!) If you try to set up an area for a particular shot and it’s not done in a way that the game recognizes, the model is likely to try to wander off to find a spot she deems better suited for the shot. I’ve actually had to place objects to obstruct a model’s path to keep her where I wanted to take the picture.

In the end, Playboy: The Mansion has much the same allure as The Sims with a naughtier feel, perfect for the micromanaging perv on a night in. It’s a lot of fun, albeit a guilty pleasure.