The Sims 3 World Adventures Review

by Rosana Kooymans

1. Introduction
2. Traveling Basics
3. Special Objects
4. France
5. China
6. Egypt
7. Build Mode
8. Buy Mode
9. CAS
10. Traits
11. Skills
12. Conclusion

1. Introduction

I recently received a copy of The Sims 3 World Adventures from EA. We usually have a fan event, but this time we didn't. So instead we got a copy of the game to write a review. Even though I had some trouble getting started (and even more trouble continuing due to bugs in the game), I managed to play quite a few times so I can give our members an idea what the game it all about. I will share my personal experience in this review. There's a possibility you may not experience the same things.

When I first installed World Adventures and started to play the game, I was amazed by the graphics. The three locations are absolutely stunning! I'd say the most beautiful is China, with all the beautiful trees and pagodas. And the neighborhood decorations. I've visited France before in real life, and I have to say that the France location in the game really made me think back of my visits to France in real life.

I love how EA managed to create Sims that really fit in the location they're in. Especially Asian like Sims. I personally think this is very hard to make, but EA did a very good job there.

2. Traveling Basics

Traveling is done by using the phone, computer or newspaper. You just choose the Travel option. It then prompts you with the choices for China, Egypt and France. The first time you visit a location, you can only go for three days. China is the cheapest, then Egypt, then France. I personally think 3 days is not enough. I will explain why. When you first visit a location, your visa level for that specific location will be at 0. To get a higher visa level, you need to travel there more often and do many adventures (complete them to gain visa points). I've had about 6 visits to Egypt because the adventures kept on coming. And you don't get a proper chance to finish them in time. The adventure won't get lost, but you do have to wait for 2 Sims days until you can go back on vacation again. And it's pretty expensive too. So for most regular Sims families it's not easy to do.

When your Sim arrives on the location, he or she will be in front of the base camp. This is also where you can find the adventure board. Check this board to start adventures. Don't hesitate for too long. Especially trips with visa level 0 will only last 3 Sim days.

You can definitely tell that EA has spent a lot of time making the adventures. They look awesome and some are hard to complete. If you are into story telling games, this expansion pack will definitely be one of your favorites.

In World Adventures, your Sims can buy a vacation home in China, Egypt or France. However you will need visa level 3. Sims with lower visa levels will have to sleep, eat and wash at the base camps or other camp sites. Each location has a variety of camp sites.

Locations come with locals. You can learn a lot from locals, for example local songs. When you ask a Sim to teach you a song, he or she will sing this first and then your Sim will repeat it, badly. Then the teacher will sing the song a second time, and when your Sim sings the song the second time, he or she will know the song. Your Sims will randomly sing the songs from that point on. At least that's what my sim did!

3. Special Objects

With World Adventures, there are quite a few new objects that you can only buy on the three locations. There is a scooter. I found out I could not buy this from the catalog when I was looking for it. It seems you can buy the scooter in France and Egypt, but I didn't see it in China. You can buy cameras too. All the locations offer the cheapest camera. For the other two, more expensive cameras, you need to travel to Egypt, as the other two locations don't offer these more advanced cameras. You can read more about Photography in this review, at Skills. Each location has specific objects. For example, in Egypt, you can buy a snake charmer basket. And in China, you can buy martial arts equipment. You can also buy incense holders in China and Egypt. There's a lot more for you to discover.

Some items like a tent, shower-in-a-can and foods such as dried food are something you should carry with you when exploring tombs. Some tombs get really hot, and sometimes you spend days in these tombs. You will need to sleep and eat there. Plus sometimes you come across a hidden trap which can set your sim on fire! So make sure you have a few of those shower-in-a-cans with you! As for your tent, as long as you carry it with you, you can place it somewhere in the tomb, where there's enough space. After your Sim is full of energy again, put the tent back in your inventory, just in case you forget about it. You don't want to lose it.

There are 5 different type of merchants on the local markets. A food merchant, where you can buy food obviously. A general merchant, this one sells items for camping such as tents, shower-in-a-can, dried food and more. The relics merchant sells vases and other goods. You can buy special books (recipes, novels, skill books) from the books merchant. And the fifth type is the special merchant. This person usually walks around the local market. You can buy items from this person if you have a certain visa level and you will also need anchient coins. You can get these coins by doing adventures. You get them from Sims when completing adventures, but you will also be able to find piles of ancient coins in tombs.

Sometimes you will need special objects from different locations on your adventure on another location. If you won't have these special items, you won't be able to fully explore certain tombs.

In World Adventures, there are many new things. If your Sim loves to collect gems, metals and metereorites, you'll be happy to hear that a bunch of new ones have been added in this game like turquoise, alabaster and tiberium. Explore the three different locations to find these gems and other items.

4. France

The first thing I noticed in France were the cute houses all in the same Mediterranean style. I still have to figure out how some of the homes were made. I saw some really cool things I haven't tried yet. France has the most exquisite mansions like the Chateau du Landgraab and Champs les Sims Castle. A typical French thing to do are nectar making. Read more about this at skills.

5. China

When I saw China for the first time, I was so amazed with the graphics. I am never truly amazed. But this time I certainly was. The screens I made do not show enough how beautiful the neighborhood truly is. You have to see this with your own eyes. You'll be amazed too, I'm very sure. China has lots of nature (green grass, green trees, and some red ones too, water, waterfalls). You instantly feel like you're in China. Even when you've never been there in real life. Like on all the other locations, you can do adventures when in China. Be sure to check out the material arts academy and visit other beautiful locations like Temple of Heaven and Dragon's Maw.

6. Egypt

I spent most of the traveling time in Egypt. My Sim visited this place at least 6 times. Like I mentioned before, you have a visa level of 0 in the beginning. But as you travel more often, and complete adventures, you gain more visa points. These visa points will eventually increase your visa level. A higher visa level means staying longer on locations. My Sim started doing an adventure, which led to another, and another, and another. So I personally feel I cannot stop until I've finished what I started. The adventures itself are very cool. However after doing 10 adventures in tombs, you kinda just want to get it over with. It's not something you can do with each of your Sims. And you have to think twice before going to a location with a large family. It's hard enough sometimes with just one Sim.

While you are in Egypt, I strongly advice you to visit the pyramids and other tombs. They're extremely well made, beautiful and extensive. Oh and one more thing: beware, there could be mummies down there!

7. Build Mode

So what's new in build mode? Let's see. We now have basements, actual basements. There is a special tool to create basements! You drag the mouse to create the basements, pretty much like you would do when you use the room tool, under walls. Funny thing is that you can build several stories in the basement. Good for storage! You may not always want to carry that heavy tent around in your inventory. The solution is storing the item in your basement! The basement can be as big as your entire lot.

Something else that made me go oooh while playing, you can now change colors and patterns on staircases and fences. That's so awesome! Before World Adventures I was often building a really great house, but then I could not get the fence to match. Same with staircases. You can now style these just like all your other styled objects.

With a Chinese location, you would expect pagoda roofs. And that's exactly what has been added! There are several type of new roofs. And you can change the curvature too! A few new roof patterns/colors have also been added.

There are lots of new trees in the game to beautify your homes! And there are themed doors and windows; French, Chinese and Egyptian.

There are not much new walls and floors. Also only a few new patterns. But all the new items go great together.

Now I don't want to spoil this surprise too much. But I have to share this with you. You can create your own tombs if you want to. You can do this at your Sims home. The most logical way would be to create a basement and start from there. But in theory you can also do this above ground level. You will need a cheat for the special objects. Control + Shift + C as usual, followed by buydebug. Entering this cheat will give you a new category in your catalog with special items. When you place a trap of some sort, make sure you change the settings so it will really become a trap. Otherwise it won't do anything. Click a trap you want to adjust with Shift and Control. We will add information about creating tombs on our forums at a later date. Until then, try some of these things yourself in your game, just make sure to test it thoroughly.

8. Buy Mode

What can one expect from World Adventures when it comes to furniture? Well matching furniture and decorative items of course! One of the items I loved was the sofa shown below. And I love some of the decoration items. You should also check out the displays, which can be found under surfaces. You can place the displays anywhere you want (in your home, in the garden, in the basement) and store special items on them, like vases and other relics. I won't share everything here. I believe it's one of the most fun things to do in a new pack, to see what new objects have been added!

9. CAS

I'm not too impressed with the clothes that have been added. The clothes are very nice, but I would have liked more, especially more casual clothes. In World Adventures, there are mainly traveling clothes. Really nice ones at that though! You can view some of the clothing and hairdos below. Please note that toddlers and kids only got one new complete outfit. There are a few new hairdos for kids. Teens have a little more. But adults have most of the new items. Elders have cool clothes and hairdos too, just a little less than the adults.

10. Traits

Installing World Adventures will add some new traits for your Sims to choose from! Of course, for existing Sims, you can always use a cheat to change the traits. Adventurous, Disciplined and Photographer's Eye are the 3 new traits you can choose from. There are a few hidden traits as well but I suggest you play the game yourself to discover what they are exactly!

11. Skills

In World Adventures, there are a bunch of new skills you can develop! For starters there is photography. You can learn (part of) this skill from a book and of course by purchasing a camera. There are three different cameras. The cheapest can be bought on each travel location. The other two can only be bought in Egypt. Taking photographs costs money. The more expensive the camera, the more expensive it will be to take a photograph. But the photos will also sell for a lot more when made with a more expensive camera. You can take pictures of everything and anything. But taking the right pictures will get you lots of Simoleons!

Nectar making is something that can be done in France. You will need to harvest some grapes or other fruits first and these have to be added to the nectar maker. Once you are in France, you can visit a nectary where you can purchase a nectar maker for your Sims home. You can also purchase nectar racks at the nectary. You can make all kinds of nectar. Just try it out with various fruits and see what's possible. After you've made nector, be sure to keep it in a nectar cellar so the nectar can age well, just create a cellar at home and put some nectar racks in it.

Martial Arts is a skill you can learn in China. You will need martial arts equipment like training dummies and board breakers. You can purchase these items in China, so you can continue practising the skill at home. If you practise really hard, you may achieve a skill level where you can meditate and levitate! Almost each new skill level gives you a new color belt. You start with white, then yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, black and finally black and gold.

Gardening and fishing were already in the base game, but both skills have been extended in World Adventures, with new fish and new fruits.

12. Conclusion

This is not how I would usually write a review. But then again this was not a usual expansion pack like we were used to with The Sims 2. This pack actually adds a whole new gameplay to your game, which makes it impossible to explain it thoroughly after playing it a few hours. I hope I've told you enough to get you excited about this game. I tried not to tell everything there is to tell, because that would probably spoil some of the surprises in this game. Before I started playing this game, I was not excited at all. I personally didn't feel like there was a goal for my main family in The Sims 3 anymore, as they had achieved most important things available in a Sims life. This expansion pack adds a whole new world for my sims, a few of them actually! I would love to hear what you think! I would like to take the opportunity to thank EA Netherlands!