The Sims 3 Review

I was very excited to get my hands on the Sims 3 when it came out, especially after being addicted to the Sims 2 not long ago. I was pretty impressed with what the Sims 3 on consoles had to offer. Check out my review after the jump....

The Sims 3
Platforms: PC, Mac, iPhone, PC, DS, PS3, Xbox 360 (reviewed), Wii, Android
Developer: The Sims Studio Edge of Reality
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: October 26th, 2010

Let's start with creating your Sim. You pick their looks and their clothing, the same as always. But you also get to choose their workout clothing, everyday clothing, formal clothing, work clothing, swim suit, and night time clothing. You get to pick new clothing each time your Sim reaches a new age level as well.

You get to choose the parts of your Sims personality. Your Sim will have 5 traits. Some are automatically assigned, and you're stuck with them. I honestly did not choose for one of my Sims to be evil. But you get to pick most of them. The traits range from "Couch potato" to "kleptomaniac" to "lucky".

You can buy your Sim house already built, and from there you have the option to buy it furnished, for not too much more. The best part? The pre-built house actually looks decent. Of course you're stuck with the cheapest models of everything, but it still looks somewhat stylish. A new feature that I love? You can now place your things on an angle. You also have a little more variety with the items you buy for your household, as most items come in a few different colors.

I think the best feature of The Sims 3 is the ability to go places. You have a whole town you can explore, complete with restaurants, theatres, museums, a gym, a spa, more neighbors to visit, fishing, parks and a lot more. It's like a real town. You don't get to view the inside of too many of these places, which is an annoyance of mine, but they are neat to explore. You can also buy parts of the business, and be a part owner, and eventually completely own the business. I haven't experimented too much with that so far.

You can follow your Sim to work, but are limited to sitting outside the entrance of the building. But to make up for it, you have choices for what your Sims work ethic is like. You can make he/she work hard, barely work at all, work the average amount, suck up to boss, get to know co-workers, etc.

The goal of The Sims 3 is to complete your Lifetime Wish. Mine was to be the girlfriend of 10 different Sims, which I failed miserably at. I couldn't even get my Sim baby's daddy to commit, let alone 10 Sims.

The Sims 3 is based around a lot of little wishes as well. A lot of the wishes are pretty easy - like chatting with a ertain Sim, reading a certain book, playing with your child, buying something etc. Something that bothered me was that once you complete the achievement, a lot of the same ones would be suggested to you later on to do again, but you're still getting happiness points for your Sim, so it makes up for being redundant.

Gathering Lifetime Happiness Points are good to unlock Lifetime Rewards such as always throwing a good party or cleaning in half the time usually needed.

There are also 'opportunities' and 'challenges'.

Opportunities are, well, opportunities to do certain things. They can help out your career, your skills, or just be something special. You can accept or reject the opportunity. Some that I've seen so far are "Catch 5 fish then sell them to the Supermarket" or "Bake two batches of cookies and turn them in for a bakesale". You are often compensated with money, improved job performance, improved skills, or with the special opportunities, something special.

Challenges are things to complete over time in the game, not just in the lifetime of one Sim. They are things like: "Complete a lifetime wish" or "Buy a car" or "Bring somebody back from the dead". For some of the bigger ones, you will get your Xbox Achievements, for others you just get challenge points. Challenge points can be used to unlock Karma Powers.

Now you're wonddering what are Karma Powers are. My favorite is 'Super Satisfy', which immediately satisfies all of your Sim's needs. My second favorite is 'Bless the Mess' which is amazing after an earthquake as it cleans all messes and fixes all broken things around the house. I haven't unlocked them all yet, as there are certain challenges you need to complete, then you also need to spend Challenge Points before you can unlock them. There is one that allows you to bring someone back from the dead, as long as its within the first 5 days of them being a ghost. I know this one well as I have used it twice on my first Sim. It is entertaining to live life for a little while as a ghost though. My other living Sim at the time even socialized with the Grim Reaper for a little while. Not all of the Karma Powers are good. There are just as many bad ones, like causing an earthquake or putting a curse on someone.

The socialization is a a bit more impressive than what I was expecting. You can complain about dirty dishes or criticize someone's book. You can also socialize with other Sims using the 'special' option, which gives you options specific to your personality. Like if you're a 'flirt' or 'great kisser' you have a bit more romantic options under 'special' than your regular Sim would.

My biggest annoyance with Sims 3 is the slow speed at which the time goes by when the Sim is sleeping or at work. The time goes at the same speed as everything else, unless every one of your Sims is sleeping, then it speeds up a bit until one wakes up. Sometimes it's nice to have that time to plan ahead for your Sim, but mostly it left me bored for a minute or so.

I love that Sims 3 shows you 'moodlets', things that have affected your Sims mood like dirty surroundings or a great meal. It lets you know what to do to make them happy or unhappy in the future.

When you first start a game, the money comes in slow. If you keep an eye on your work progress, you can read books or upgrade skills that help your job performance. If you keep at it enough, you start getting nice raises and promotions.

If you're not making the money you'd like to be making, you have the option of getting a part-time job as well. Or maybe you have an artistic Sim. In which case, you can write novels which make you small amounts of money  (approximately $9 per chapter, starting out), but as your skill goes up you start making a bit more. With completed novels you get weekly Royalty Checks for six weeks, which is usually a couple hundred Simoleons. It adds up. A few other quick ways to rack up a couple dollars? Paint or collect rocks you see in your yard, parks, etc. The possibilities seem endless in this game.

With all the challenges, wishes and Xbox achievements left to obtain, I have a feeling I will be playing with The sims 3 for a very long time.

8/10