Being a bit of a gaming geek, I’ll admit I was a tad bit excited to finally get my hands on the first expansion pack for The Sims 3 – World Adventures! As I’ve written before, this new game features forays into France, China and, my personal favourite – Egypt. Having played about in Heritage Key’s own fantastic virtual world experience, King Tut Virtual, I was looking forward to seeing how the new release from Electronic Arts would fare up.
If you’re not familiar with The Sims games, then I’ll give you a quick run down. You play a character (called a Sim) in a virtual town, and you manage their life for them. You tell them when to eat, sleep, go to work, indulge in a hobby, have a relationship, and even when to take a bath or use the toilet! If you’re a control freak (like me), then this is the perfect game for you.
The new World Adventures expansion pack adds on the three exotic destinations that your Sim can go to on vacation, and explore these new worlds. I opted to book a visit to Egypt for me and my Sim family (Yeah – I really was that busy) and the following day, a taxi arrived to pick us up (which I almost missed)!
On arrival in Al Simhara, Egypt, you get a sense of the environment pretty quickly. Street markets, ethnic clothing and some familiar sights, including the Pyramids, Great Sphinx and the Temple of Hatshepsut! Don’t expect any sense of realism and technical details though – the themes are based pretty much off generalisations. In reality, there’s quite the distance between Giza and Luxor (and no mountains behind the Great Sphinx either)!
And then the fun begins – on wandering around, you can pick up various artefacts and relics which you collect in order to be able to complete a mini-game. It’s similar to the digging game in Heritage Key’s King Tut Virtual exhibit – in Al Simhara, you can collect the beautiful Canopic Jars (which you can learn about in this fantastic video featuring Dr Janice Kamrin) as well as sarcophagus fragments – Yum! Collect them all, and you can start having some fun with mummies!
Exploring the enchanted tombs can be pretty dangerous as you search for hidden switches and stairways whilst dodging fireballs and poison darts. If that doesn’t bring out the Indiana Jones in you, then I doubt anything else will – you can even drag a Sim friend down to join you. Or perhaps a Sim you don’t like, if you’re feeling especially cruel (I’m a bad, bad person..)
If you start feeling drowsy from all this exploring and trying to work out how to get out the lost library, then feel free to take a nap inside a sarcophagus. It’s worth noting though, that when you wake up, you may have found you’ve been mummified while you were sleeping! Although you live longer as a result of having your vital body organs removed and wrapped up in linen, you are more prone to catching fire and you can’t move around as quick as you used to be able to.
After solving the various puzzles to reach the tomb crypt, you can also encounter a mummy who will happily take you on in a battle of fisticuffs. Be warned that if you’re not skilled in fighting (I’m not), then you’ll end up cursed. Which isn’t actually as bad as it sounds – you only have 14 days to live. Okay, maybe that is pretty bad..
To lift the curse and carry on as your happy self, you’re invited to make a journey to the Great Sphinx where you can be relieved of your impending doom. Unless you’re me and get distracted by the local falafel. Every night. For two weeks.
So after dying in a mystical circumstance, leaving my Sim reduced to a pile of dust, I figure it’s a nice point to write up some thoughts.
The new expansion pack is definitely fun and, although littered with historical inaccuracies, it’s most certainly enjoyable. However, I still do favour the online interactivity that Heritage Key’s King Tut Virtual provides as I can meet new people, and the detail of the replicas of King Tut treasures are simply stunning. And best of all – it’s free to visit!
You can purchase The Sims 3: World Adventures through links on our Publications page, as well as registering for your free account on Heritage Key, downloading the software and then visiting King Tut Virtual where you can invite your friends to join you in exploring the Valley of the Kings, the Tomb of King Tutankhamun and seeing some of the amazing treasures of the virtual world!