[Gamer's Review] The Sims 3

Oh yeah. You read that correctly. I played the Sims. And what's more - I enjoyed it.

I recently had the opportunity to interview with EA: Salt Lake, so I decided to prepare for the interview process by diving into a game I’m only somewhat familiar with – The Sims 3. The Sims franchise focuses on the lives of simulated people as the go about their day-to-day activists. You, the player, effectively act as a deity that can control their actions and alter their world. As a side note: I've only played the game with NO additional expansions or "stuff" packs.

The Sims 3 cover art - www.wikipedia.org

Character creation screen | video.agaclip.com

In the Sims 3, there is a lot you can do. When you start the game, you first have to create your Sim(s). Here, you can customize everything from appearance to personality, by giving them up to 5 traits, which dictate a plethora of in-game actions available to the Sim ranging from what conversation options are available to how the Sim interacts with household objects. On my play through, I chose to create an aspiring musician, Luke, who has as much charisma as he has musical talent. He lives with his fiancé, Jamie, who is an excitable Sim aspires to be a top-level journalist, and Luke’s brother, John, who I created with the intention of being a good guy who eventually turns into an evil police detective, even though that didn’t pan out entirely.

After creating your Sims, you must purchase a house. The initial house I picked was just a simple small place that had no distinguishing features, other than its one-story design. At first, I didn’t really care for this aspect of the game, so I thought any house would do since I had to have one. Eventually, I came to really love putting additions on my house. I converted my one-floor dwelling into a two-story house that nearly doubled the value of it.

Live Mode: This dude is cookin'! | www.bit-tech.net

After purchasing a house, the actual game play begins. Now, you have three modes – Live, Buy, and Build. In Live mode, you simply watch your Sims live out their lives and controlling what they do next by queuing a line of actions for them to take. Sometimes, life necessities (such as using the bathroom or eating) may take precedence over your commands, but once that action is complete, the Sim returns to doing your bidding.

In addition to having life-long goals, such as Jamie’s desire to reach level 10 in the Journalism career, your Sims also have the simpler more immediate desires. These smaller wishes can be promised or dismissed by you and, if you complete a promised wish, the Sim will gain Lifetime Reward points, which can be used to purchase passive character upgrades, such as the “Attractive” trait, which helps when trying to gain friends quickly, or super-unique items like the Teleportation Pad.

Build Mode: I'm SO doing that next time I play | guides.ign.com

In Buy mode, you have the option to furnish your Sim’s house with a variety of objects including sofas, bathroom fixtures, and entertainment items like guitars or easels.

In Build mode, you can expand or contract your house. This includes adding doors, staircases, windows, wallpaper, and more to your home. Beware, this may cost a pretty penny so don’t just go building without any idea or you may find yourself out of Simoleons (the Sims currency) very quickly.

Seems like a lot of information doesn't it? Don't worry. The game does a great job of explaining how its mechanics work and offering additional insight where necessary. In fact, it's probably one of the best tutorial systems I've ever used in a game. Normally I just mess around until I get it, but the tutorials here take literally one minute to read and save me what would've been twenty minutes of aggravation and confusion.

The first two weeks of my Sims lives were the hardest, getting acclimated to cleaning up and organizing the house, increasing skills, and trying to maintain and advance in a career was a challenge.  Luckily, my Sims did it, for the most part. One of the most interesting aspects of the game was the reality that didn’t quite sink in when I decided which careers my Sims would take. Early on, Jamie wished that she’d marry Luke, and I promised she would. At this point, I knew I had to establish their relationship and improve their interactions so that one another would become closer. This was hard to do, however, when Jamie got home from work as soon as Luke left. By the time he returned home, she was already in bed so she could be ready for work the next morning. This provided a particularly interesting challenge and possible story line, as Jamie and John began spending more time together than Luke and Jamie. 

sims.wikia.com

The great thing about this game is the sheer amount of replayability. Granted, you will be using the same mechanics over and over through each play through, but you have the freedom to craft the story as you see fit. Don’t like how your Sim’s life is turning out? Try to spice things up by making your neighborhood mirror the script of a Desperate Housewives episode. Bored because your Sims just go to work and don’t do anything fun? Skip work. Skip work every day. See what happens. You have the freedom to do whatever you like and, what makes it all the more appealing, if something does go wrong, you can just start over and try it a different way.

One of the more controversial aspects of the games is the price and amount of expansion packs. While I certainly understand why EA does it from a business standpoint, it’s difficult to handle as a consumer – especially if you don’t purchase expansion packs as they come out. In order to get all the content and have access to everything I’d have to pay over $130. I guess that’s the price you pay for updates. One aspect that eases the blow is that fact that each expansion pack is essentially a new town – not just new careers or objects. In fact, most expansion packs completely overhaul the gameplay and make it new and exciting again. 

All in all, the Sims is an exciting adventure into a large world of endless possibilities and choices. It may not be for everyone, but I’d recommend you give it a try just to see if it captivates you because I think you’d be surprised.

For more information check out the Sims wiki at: sims.wikia.com and Carl's Sims 3 page at http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/

Thanks for reading!