Since its inception back in the early two thousands, The Sims has been one of “those” games; the kind that a player will either love or hate, irrespective of their usual gaming habits. Now in its 3rd incarnation with over a dozen add-on packs and 19 full expansion packs, The Sims remains one of the best selling games of the last decade.
The Sims 3 has been out for little over six months and already this past December the first of probably many, many expansions was on retail shelves.
World Adventures is the right kind of expansion. Instead of simply being a glorified content pack that EA normally mass produce and call a Sims Expansion, World Adventures introduces new game mechanics to the tried and tested Sims sandbox. Sims can now visit 3 new and exciting locations, each based loosely on real world location. There is the sandy Al Simhare Egypt, the mystical oriental Shang Simla China, or the romantic Champs Les Sims France.
There are actually very few items added to the existing catalogue. Basically a toilet, a bed and dresser, a fortune cookie machine and a martial arts training dummy. Another Sims IKEA pack this is not.
It also allows players to build a basement into their Sim’s houses, where they can practice their nectar making or become vault dwellers. Some new skills such as Martial Arts, Photography and Nectar [read wine] making are added to the mix. World Adventure also adds 3 new traits and 9 new lifetime rewards to help better prepare the player’s Sim for the adventures that lay ahead.
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The main selling point of World Adventures is that it allows Sims to go on, well, adventures. Once the player’s Sim arrives in the location of their choosing, an Adventure Board greets the player. From here the player can look for an adventure consisting of one of 3 types of mission, exploring a tomb to find an item, collecting items scattered around the town map and talking to local Sims about a specific topic. Once accepted the Sim can set off on his/her/their adventure.
When exploring one of the many tombs, the new gameplay mechanics kicks in and the game changes from sandbox playpen to casual adventure game where pressure plates must be stood upon, statues must be moved and walls inspected to reveal hidden passages. To discuss the specific topic with local Sims they will need to be befriended before they are willing to spill the beans. Collecting items on the map will have the Sim rushing across town , collecting the items which appear with big icon’s on the Town Map.
It is right here where the Sims World Adventures will lose many of the more serious gamers. The “puzzles” are painfully easy, and the design and layout of the tombs are samey and minimalist at best. Since the adventure mechanics are designed within the confines of the Sims engine, the traps, loot and switches are fairly easy to spot. Discussing something with another Sim is a trial and error affair, while item collection requires no input from the player other than clicking the big blue icon highlighting it on the town map. Micro managing your Sim’s action, while on one of these adventures will also mean pausing often to stop the Sim’s mind, or the Sim him[her]self, from wandering while the player looks for the next wall to inspect, rock to pick up or dialog option to choose.
The expansion also brings texture pop-ups to the game; something our original version of Sims 3 never had.
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What is wrong with World Adventures is also what is right with it. Though simplistic in design and layout, the tombs offers fun puzzles that are easy enough for younger or less experiences players, while still providing a challenge. The tombs also all have a distinct start with a reward at the end, so there is no “Sorry Mario, the Princess is in another castle” here.
Rewards vary from ancient relics, which can be sold for Simoleans or displayed in the player’s house, to ancient coins which can be used to purchase special adventure gear; such as skeleton keystones or high quality adventure snacks. Similarly, finally catching that sacred fire beetle for your Sim’s bug collection brings its own reward. And talking to other Sims can lead to interesting new friendship and even romances.
The 3 different types of missions, while a bit over used offers variety whether the player is exploring a tombs for ancient relics, catching sacred bugs or befriending the locals to convince them to let the player explore their basement for a long lost item. There is enough to do to keep followers of the series busy for days, even weeks.
Each of the 3 destinations feels distinctly different, from the Forbidden City inspired Shang Simla market to the Al Simhare pyramids and Champs Les Sims Nectary. Although the roads are not as well laid out as in the home towns, this adds a different feel to the locations, especially Egypt and China, making them feel more rugged. Each location also sounds the part, with Champs Les Sims having that stereotypical French tune playing and Shang Simla its own oriental chime.
Each of the 3 holiday destination are by no means small with more than enough sights to see and locations to visit, even when returning for the fourth or fifth time in order to get your visa level up.
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All in all, The Sims 3 World Adventures is a worthy addition to the collection of fans of the series, adding not just new items but also taking the brave steps in trying to change the gameplay a little bit. Though marred by texture pop ups and ghastly load times this is not enough to break the game.
Also, the visa system can become a bit of a problem considering adventuring is the only way to get the visa level up, which, in turn lets Sims visit locations for longer durations. This means the player will spend a good few hours in each of the locations, forced to adventure before being able to visit just to see the sights, which breaks The Sims mantra of “do what you want when you want”.
It would have been nice to see the designers try keeping the adventures truer to the location being imitated. Going tomb raiding in France is less convincing than tomb raiding in Egypt. Maybe in future we will see adventures routed much more firmly in the location, rather than sticking to the same all round.
This is one for the fans however, and if you didn’t like The Sims before then World Adventure won’t change that fact. However for fans of the series, if you haven’t picked it up already now is as good a time as any.
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