Title: The Sims 3: Seasons
Developed By: EA Play / The Sims Studio
Published by: Electronic Arts
Based On: The eighth major expansion pack in The Sims 3 franchise
Sequel to: The Sims 3: Supernatural et al.
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Console: PC / Mac
Genre: Simulation
Audio/Subtitles: Simlish
Review Conditions: Physical PC Copy
Special Thanks: Electronic Arts Australia for providing me with a copy of this game to review
Over the recent years your Sims in The Sims 3 may have been pretty busy…. They have faced off against zombies, traveled to exotic places, mingled with supernatural sims of all sorts and perhaps even tamed a Unicorn. However the one thing that hasnt changed is the weather…. with each day being bright and sunny, with no prospects of snow, rain or thunderstorms or even a drought to go with not have either of them occur. While “Magic” in a Sims game has in the past been an indicator of the final game in the series, Electronic Arts and The Sims Studio have carried on by releasing The Sims 3: Seasons, bring weather, seasons and festivities to your neighborhood.
The Sims 2: Seasons wasn’t one of my favorite expansion packs, and aside from a few added goodies the seasonal changes just led me to permanently lock all my Sims in a winter wonderland (Actually thinking about it…. they still are in one). While The Sims 3: Seasons does include a similar feature set…. there are a few other additions which makes it in my opinion, a better value for money. With new festivities, equipment and items…. it makes for an interesting gaming experience.
As you can no doubt guess, the main draw to The Sims 3: Seasons is the implementation of seasons. The game follows the real life system of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, with each coming in at around a week in-game time although can be altered through the games settings. Each of these come with associated events which set them apart – so for example in Summer you can suffer from heat waves and head to the beach while in Winter school students can expect Snow Days, attend ice-skating rinks or dare to swim at the beach. Each season brings its own change to temperatures, visual changes and impact to a sims careers and daily routines. Just like the phases of the moon in The Sims 3: Supernatural, the seasons system attempts to alter your Sims everyday lives a bit each day, although unlike The Sims 2: Seasons, this expansion pack tries to impact both the individual Sim and the community at large.
There is only one new lot type in this game, the Festival Grounds. When present in your neighborhood, these lots will change to give your community new events to take part in. In Fall you can expect to see Pie Eating and Apple Bobbing contents, in Winter it serves as the perfect venue for ice-skating and a good ol’ hot chocolate while in Spring your Sims may prefer to head to the Roller Rink or try a love testing machine. The game comes with a number of grounds for you to place in your neighborhood, however advanced gamers are able to build their own using in-game tools.
In addition on the last Friday of the season (or last day if not plausible), the game throws in a community-wide “day”. These include Love Day (Based on Valentine’s Day), Leisure Day, Spooky Day (Based on Halloween) and Snowflake Day (Based on Christmas). These are fun little festivals although from experience are much more enjoyable if you are working with a smaller world and not the largest possible Custom World you can find.
The other major addition which is tied into seasonal changes is the weather. In addition to the normal “Sunny” weather type, you can also expect to see Rain/Lighting, Snow, Hail and Fog. Each of these have several degrees which come with additional risks, impacts and interactions. While it does still leave the feeling that some of these are more for aesthetics than actual gameplay, each do have some impact on your Sims.
It was a nice touch that they decided to bring back Aliens, who surprisingly had not made their appearance so far in this set of games. Another nifty new addition is the inclusion of a Blueprint Mode, which attempts to take out the guesswork of developing your Sims home provided you are conservative in what you want (I went in ambitious and honestly would have been better off building a square house. In this mode, a number of generic room designs have been included which you can simply pick up and prop down until you have a house that looks like what you want. It could have been a bit more indepth but it is a great starting point for novice developers.
The Sims 3: Seasons is about the community and the items. Unfortunately it felt that apparel in turn suffered. The expansion pack introduced a new category “Outerwear” which is supposed to encompassing new clothing such as Raincoats and Winterwear. Unfortunately there were not so many new clothing additions for non-Adult Sims, and quite often my Sims would go out in the snow wearing their raincoats and vice versa. I would have preferred a greater variety and the different clothing types to be selectable individually in Create a Sim. Another area I felt lacking was the almost obligatory new town included in each major expansion pack. While the game comes with a sizable selection of Festival Grounds and the previously released towns to receive an update to factor in this expansion… given the theme of the pack I think they could have come up with a very creative town.
There were no main visual changes to the game while they seem to have added a small selection of tracks to the games music selection. In my experience (With a sizable custom content collection), I personally had no issue with the install process and asides from the usual small bugs during gameplay I have yet to experience anything major.
Overall, while if you are not into the whole Seasons/Weather aspect there may not be enough in this expansion pack to warrant a purchase – both of these factors are well built into the game – both on an individual household scale and on a community-wide scale.
Final Score
Gameplay: B+
Replayability: A-
Personal Opinion: B+
Overall Score: B+
