Review: The Sims 3 World Adventures
April 13, 2010
Overview
The Sims 3 World Adventures is another installment from Electronic Arts in a long string of Sims games. In this new incarnation you are allowed to travel the world and visit three exotic destinations including China, France, and Egypt. Tend to your personal needs, garden, get a job, make friends, and travel to foreign destinations in this simulated world.
Features
In this version of the Sims, You begin by selecting the appearance of your Sim or importing a Sim directly from Sims 3. There are multiple slots for different saved games, and of course iPod music access is available in the option menu.
Your Sim will need to work on maintaining 6 different aspects of life including Hunger, Energy, Bladder, Hygiene, Social, and Fun. Most of the gameplay is spent pursuing these goals. Food is available from stores or from eating at a best friend's house. Energy is gained from taking a nap in any bed. Bladder and Hygiene are taken care of in the bathroom. Social needs can be met by chatting with other Sims. Fun can be found in many actions, including playing Sims 3 on the computer in your Sim house.
You will need to get a job in order to earn money. You start out by earning 100 Sim dollars per day. There will also be other options available to gain money through side jobs such as kicking over another sim's garbage can to get revenge for a friend. Gardening is a fun way to gain ingredients to complete your recipes, and gain some side cash. In order to keep your garden growing, you need to buy fertilizer and a watering can.
Travel is pretty expensive and can be accessed by visiting the airport. While you travel there is a mini game that requires you to keep the view out of the airplane window in focus, but the mini game is tough at first. You will be spending a lot of your time in foreign countries that you visit taking care of a lack of hygiene and sleep if you don't succeed.
There are also four more mini games available as you play through the game including exploring ruins, bartering, language games, and repairing house hold electronics. While visiting other countries there are a few things available that are not available in your home town, including unique ingredients and foreign furniture to bring home.
There are three historical sites that you may click on to take a tour in each country. Also featured are a number of goals. You can have up to 4 in your action bar, they become available as you play.
The Good
The Sims genera has been added to with another playable incarnation of this series. One of the coolest features for Sims 3 fans is the option to import your character from the other Sims title. The world is fun to experience and figure out when you are succeeding.
The house that you begin with is quite large with two bedrooms, a garden, and a few extra rooms. While on tour at the various tourist sites, the game shares real life facts about the site that you most likely did not know, and the cut scene of the tour is quite fun to watch.
The Bad
The cities are pretty small with a total of about 12 unique buildings each, and the fact that there is only three other countries will have you bored fast. Every time you decide to go in a house, talk to other Sims, fly in a plane, go to town, go home- you will find yourself at a loading screen.
Only the beginning city is available to live in, which is quite limiting. While traveling in the city, your Sim looks like a single color human figure who slides along the map instead of taking steps. The flight mini game is pretty tough to complete and will waste most of your time in other countries because you will need to sleep and shower. Fishing is not included in this version of the Sims, which was a great source of money in other versions.
Money can be tough to earn at a good speed, but one way to earn some extra cash is to garden and sell the vegetables to the supermarket. You can not have kids or pets in this version of Sims which was a source of a lot of fun in other versions. There are very few unique people to meet and interact with, and they are always the same each time you start a new game.
Verdict
If you are a fan of the Sims series, this game is a reasonable addition to the library, if however you are not a fan of Sims or have not tried it out yet, this newer version does not have a sufficient difference or upgrade to make it a worth-while app.
Fans of the computer version will also likely be disappointed. Casual gamers might feel like they could just go live their own lives and be just as satisfied, without the load times. This app is over-priced and under-produced.