In this expansion pack, The Sims 3 gameplay takes a different turn from usual. As the name suggests, World Adventures involve your Sims in adventure. There are three locations to choose from – France (Champs LesSims), China (SimShala) and Egypt (Simhara). At each location, Sims can accept opportunities for adventures, such as delivering goods to NPCs, and exploring underground tombs. Sims can also learn new skills such as Martial Arts and Nectar Making.
Martial arts training - image taken from Gamespy.com
Overall, I think this is a good value-for-money expansion pack because it is jam-packed with not only new features, also new items. Sims now have the choice of becoming a Master at Martial Arts as their lifetime wish. Also, the opportunity to explore tombs also add a new dimension to the previously less serial gameplay. Although the exploration is relatively easy to complete, I still see it as a cross between The Sims and a simple RPG adventure game.
What I liked:
- The new basement function. In Sims 2 and Sims 3 basegame, to build a basement we have to lower terrain, and always run the risk of building a non-functional basement. With the expansion pack, building a basement is easy – just click and drag.
- Curved roofs. There is a new roof type that is curved, like Chinese temple roofs. There is also option to add sculptures on those roof corners.
- The adventures. It was fun to explore tombs and collect relics and money bags for cash.
- The new items that were added, such as the circular arch commonly seen in ancient Chinese architecture. Also, they brought the door locks back! (This was something I complained about in the review for the base game).
Tomb exploration. Image taken from gamespy.com
What I didn’t like:
- The adventures are not exactly replay-able in the sense that it lacks refreshness after the first time you solve it. After which it only becomes laborious to have to explore the same tomb the same way for another family.
- The visa system whereby length of stay is dictated by the number of visa points a Sim has – and visa points can only be earned from adventure completion at each site. This brings us back to the previous point – in order for my Sim to stay longer at each country, I have to replay some, if not all, the adventures and explorations even though they are the same.
- Slow travelling pace; some tasks involve a Sim move from one side of the country to another. In France and Egypt they ride scooters and in China they ride bicycles. Yet many locations are only accessible by foot.
All in all, World Adventures opens up new gameplay styles and enrich (more literally and metaphorically) our Sims’ lives. However, it’s not a must-have. The base game itself is a lot of fun already. Furthermore, this EP is more expensive compared to the EPs for TS2. If EA is going to price future EPs this way as well, it will take a lot more effort in development to ensure players find the EPs value for money. Even World Adventures is a little pushing it; I was feeling rich the day I bought it. On other days, I might have passed on it.
