Traditional gamers often found that the Sims didn’t really give them anything interesting to do. “What am I supposed to do” was the first question, and the prevalence of going to the bathroom didn’t seem like much of a thrill ride. Soon after, the question becomes “what is the point?” You can go to work, keep yourself fed and clean, even engage in social interaction and family building, but there wasn’t much in the way of reward for this, at least not in a traditional game sense.
You can blame the gamers, including me, for letting preconceived notions of what a game “has to be” interfere with a good time, but the truth was there. Many hardcore gamers had to know what the fuss was about and tried out the title but just couldn’t get into the Sims. The Happiness points and Rewards create a framework where fans of more traditional games can complete Wishes (quests or missions) and earn rewards (level up).
It took me a while to figure out why I was playing the Sims 3 more than any previous Sims release. The more intelligent Sims are great additions, but alone they didn’t explain it. Finally I realized what was keeping me up late: there is a real strategy element to getting as many Wishes fulfilled as possible while keeping your Sim happy enough to earn lifetime happiness points.
The Sims 3 doesn’t force this down the faithful fan’s throat. In fact, as we mentioned above, the more intelligent Sims and having a whole village adds a lot to the basic “do whatever you want” Sims experience, particularly just sitting back and watching. Those that like to customize Sims and build houses will also be very pleased. But the points and rewards are there for those that need more prompting and obvious reward, myself included.
While greatly expanding the facets of the game that have earned it leagues of followers, with more customization of Sims and houses, along with a whole village full of Sims to interact with, the Sims 3 adds a small, optional, component, that makes the game immensely more attractive to gamers like me that just can’t get points and goals out of their heads.
It’s a shame the graphics aren’t taking advantage of available technology. The game really could look better overall. Other than that, the Sims 3 is a step forward, offering fans of the series a drastically improved breadth of the open ended play and customization they love. For Sim-lovers, it’s a must buy.
The point and reward system is subtle and shouldn’t turn off the faithful, but adds a layer that will appeal to folks like me who just couldn’t see what the point of the Sims’ previous iterations was. If you’re a gamer who has generally found the Sims to be an interesting concept, but pretty boring when you get down to it, the Sims 3 might change your mind and is at least worth a look.