HomeVideo GamesThe Sims 3: Into The Future - Expansion Pack Review

The Sims 3: Into The Future – Expansion Pack Review

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sims3feppc2dpftaus_jpg_jpgcopyIf you have like myself been following every single The Sims 3 expansion pack since the game launched back in 2009, you must admit that our Sims have done some interesting things over their many lifetimes. They may have taken a job as an elite detective, explored long-forgotten crypts in the desert, fought off zombies while planning for their final exams at University and maybe retired on a houseboat while performing as a magician on the side. We are now at the 11th and final expansion pack for The Sims 3… and given there may the greater part of a year before we see The Sims 4…. it better be good right?

It is time for your Sims to see a future that they would otherwise never see… diving through a time portal into the futuristic world of Oasis Landing where they can meet their distant relatives, obtain new modes of transportation and even turn what is a suitable future into a dystopic or utopic one. Along with a number of build and buy options, it may not offer enough freshness to tide you over for a whole year – but in terms of sub-neighborhood environments it is one of the more memorable ones. Fortunately this time around Maxis learn’t from Island Paradise that it is better basing an expansion pack around a sub-neighboorhood rather than making the only practical option to enjoy an expansion pack having to move all your Sims from their current world.

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Many earlier expansion packs pretty much give you access to the content at your leisure, and then let you make your way from there. The Sims 3: Into the Future however snaps into action the moment you boot up your world, with the appearance of a mysterious portal somewhere in your neighborhood. Upon finding it the Sim is greeted by time traveler Emit Relevart who entrusts him or her with the Almanac of Time and access to the future. While completely optional, the quest line also continues on from this event which helps introduce you to the expansive region of Oasis Landing. Other additional quests are also enabled if you decide to say… play the evil card and turn the future into a dystopian nightmare. While Into the Future unlike University or World Adventures is primarily about the futuristic objects than a particular gameplay feature, the decision to include a number of features such as descendants, career paths and quests played to its strength.

The setting and items present in Oasis Landing seem to be drawn from a more modern concept of a futuristic world, where the Sims still enjoy doing everyday activities but enjoy a number of stereotypical and unique perks of living in a futuristic environment – such as hologram televisions / wall projections, hover boards, dream beds and the new instrument the Laser Rhythm-a-Con. All of this is directly available from the Buy Mode so you don’t necessarily have to visit the new world, but there is quite a lot of interesting content here to warrant a look. While I wouldn’t call myself a Sims 3 architect by any account, some of the residential buildings in Oasis Landing are really interesting to look around, and showed a lot of potential for those wanting to use the build mode tools available to produce a unique house or set of houses.

For those who like myself acquired Into the Future for the new content, the most important skill your Sims will learn is “Advanced Technology”, which when increased gives you greater ability to use futuristic objects and the Almanac of Time. Reaching Level 1 will give you access to a series of quests to change the future – with the dystopian future resulting in mystery and crashing meteors and the utopian future producing a world of rainbows, colour and endless hugging. These are merely colour and action changes, with none of the actual buildings changing much. Other additional perks include additional dreams via the Dream Pod which can randomly (for better or worse) alter moods, traits, items and more depending on your dream selection and better use of the Advanced Tech Food Synthesizer – for those who dislike the amount of time it takes Sims to cook.

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The second primary skill is Bot Building, an enhanced and customisable version of the long-running “family robot” Servo. Initially you can use the “Create a Bot” feature (Similar to Create a Sim) to individually design your Plumbot from a number of options, and then edit their personalities through trait chips – either purchasable or treatable through materials found by your Sims. It is a fun system that offers a lot of replayability, but can take a while to acquire the resources to build your ideal PlumBot.

While your actions in the future may very well be wiped out in the blink of an eye, it is your actions in the present that can have an impact on the future. The paradox theory indicates that if I were to travel back in time and accidentally land on top of an ancestor, that might result in them never having children and therefore down the line never having my parents giving birth to me. This isn’t possible in The Sims 3: Into the Future due to only jumping forward in time, but turning the idea around, even simple actions such as having a dream, gaining a new job or running out of money can wipe out future generations. It is possible to save them if you know how… but I will let you figure that out for yourselves, otherwise get used to potentially a new family every time jump. You can also fulfill one of a number of major goals which will see your Sims immortalized as Legacy Statues in the future – ranging from The Renowned Philanthropist who won the lottery and donated a chunk of them to future innovations to The Lustrous Entertainer for introducing the modern world to the joys of the Laser Rhythm-a-Con.

This is a lot to discover in this final expansion, and ends the 11-expansion long The Sims 3 franchise nicely. It is a shame however that it has taken them so long to get to the point, and while Pets and Seasons still remain individual expansions and quite possibly will once again for The Sims 4, it is new ideas such as this which shows that the developers are thinking outside of the box. It may not offer as much in terms of gameplay as other expansions, but The Sims 3: Into the Future sets out to offer a newly themed environment and delivers!

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Unfortunately the experience is not flawless, and aside from the fact that eleven expansion packs can bog down the loading speeds considerably, travelling into the future didn’t seem to like more than one family at all. Going into the future with a group of eight non-related Sims resulted in only one Sim having any descendants. On the other hand. going into the future with a different household resulted in them overwriting the decendants of my first family temporarily – living in the same house and all that. This may come down to the limitations of the game system however, and wern’t too major in comparison to other bugs (At least it isn’t swarms of zombies appearing during the daytime, as once was possible in The Sims 3: Supernatural).

When you finish with The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 you were more or less left with a modern-day neighborhood with other areas you can visit mostly based on modern day areas such as vacation lots, a nightclub district and a movie lot. While not preempted by any earlier expansion, Maxis have chosen to end the series with something unique and memorable, and for the most part The Sims 3: Into the Future has fulfilled that goal. I now bid The Sims 3 adieu, and I look forward to recreating the same Sims, potentially for the fourth time in the next installment.

Overall for The Sims 3: Into the Future I give it the following grades:

Gameplay: B
Replayability: A-
Personal Opinion: A-

Therefore, I give it the overall score of B+

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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