Wednesday 25 Nov 2009

The Sims franchise has always been aimed at girls. No boy worth his salt will even come close to this game, and most will not even admit that it is a game at all. Let’s face it, playing with dolls cannot be described as a game. Neither can dressing people in pretty clothes, designing their homes with colourful decorations or making them go to the loo. And now with this expansion pack they also get to go to gay Paris. Every manly man’s skin must be crawling by now. It is funny then, that I am having a hard time to stop playing The Sims 3 World Adventures!

For the uninitiated, and looking at the sales figures for the Sims franchise it is hard to believe there is anyone out there who has not played some version of the game or the other, The Sims 3 is classified as a life simulator. You control your little Sims’ lives with an incredible amount of micromanagement. You feed them, clean them, control their friends and their family, who they like, what they say. You also have to build their house, furnish it, get them a job and keep their schedules. It sounds like hard work, because it is hard work. But somehow, a bit of magic happens and it’s 1am and you are still messing with their little lives. You get sad when they get old and die. You rejoice when their first child is born, and you get angry when they make the wrong friends. There is no real goal and certainly no conclusion to the game, and even though this adds to its replayability, it certainly makes it all feel a little pointless.

Henry Junior, is that you?

Enter World Adventures, with its fedora and its bull-whip. This expansion adds everything the original lacked. Your little Sim now has a purpose, a meaning to their life, a dream to live for. This dream is to travel the world and rob as many tombs of their artifacts as possible! Yes, you are the Sims version of Indiana Jones, and to prevent copyright infringement I named my Sim Arizona Smith.

The game adds plenty of new furnishings for your Sim’s mansion, some in the world travel theme, others just your average new couch or bed. You also get more clothes and new books to study, and even a new career path or two. But surely this can’t be all of it? Initially it feels like it is a bit of a sham, you can buy all of these items and more online in the Sims store. You also get a few Simoleans if you register, which means you can even download them for free. So what is the point again?

But then your Sim picks up his telephone and dials the option to “Travel.” And all of a sudden you are presented with three new areas, all based on real life locations, there for your Sim to explore and live out his new found purpose. Since this is The Sims World, the new locations are a little different to their real world counterparts. France has a little town called Champs les Sim, Egypt has Al Simhara and finally Shang Simla is based in China.

I’m leaving, on a jet plane!

When your Sim travels to one of these exotic locations they can either travel alone or invite any family members along. Upon arrival they check themselves into a Hotel or Backpackers lodge and set up their Base Camp, where everything is run from. Here your Sim can recuperate, eat, sleep and complete adventures on the Adventurers Board. Each adventure has multiple tasks to complete, upon completion of which you get Visa points. These Visa points allow you to stay in better hotels, prolong your holiday and other special privileges.

On your different adventure missions you explore various locations and have to solve a few very easy puzzles to progress from one room to the next. Along the way you collect as many relics and artifacts as possible. Some of these artifacts are broken into pieces and you have to collect all of the pieces before you can put them back together. These relics can then be sold to fund your next holiday, or you can build a new room in your house to display the artifacts in once you return home.

The puzzles, as I mentioned before, are very easy stuff. Move a statue onto a floor plate, find a key for a specific lock, and search through rubble for secret doors. And since these expeditions can take days, you need to prepare yourself properly. Make sure you buy a tent to sleep in, Shower in a Can (unless you want the mummies to run away from your stench), and food to eat.

People of Townsville

The towns you visit also provide you with new recipe books so you can cook exotic dishes for your friends back home. You can also trade some of the less expensive relics for a few rare collectibles and claim them as your own treasure. Once your holiday time is up you will automatically be transported back home. And in true form of a great holiday, your Sim will be exhausted, too tired to go on another holiday.

The new locations also allow for some great Sims movies to be made. Simply browse through the YouTube to find a few gems, and a lot of junk. I have seen many a Mummy Returns and Indian Jones rip-off.

All in all The Sims World Adventure is a very worthy addition to any Sims fan’s collection. But then if you are an avid Sims fan you would have bought this already. The variety of gameplay elements, especially the new goal driven adventures, makes for a compelling visit to far off places. It also adds a bit of credibility for those manly men who have been looking for the right time to admit that they do play the odd game of The Sims. It is the best The Sims has had to offer so far. Until the inevitable second expansion, that is.

The good: Adventures!
The bad: A little on the expensive side for what you get.
The ugly: Running out of Shower-in-a-Can…ew!

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Contributor:	Oltman

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