This is the last part of my three part review of The Sims 3 expansion, World Adventures. In the first one I covered the adventures in China, the second one covered the adventures in Egypt, today we go to France. The setting is a beautiful French countryside called Champ Les Sims. In the distance you can see the Eiffel Tower but you can’t visit or interact with it. That was a bit disappointing as the advertising made it seem like it was a possibility. The disappointed left quickly as started to play…

Like the other countries, the Adventures starts at base camp located in a nice French style house in town. My first adventure was to go the forgotten burial ground. The concept of the adventures is the same as the other countries, just with a French flair. Traveling to France cost more than the other countries but the loot I found there was worth more and I made the most simoleans there.

In this adventure I encountered an underground hedge maze with lots of treasure and secret doors. There was a camping area with a skeleton of the poor guy who was here last time and couldn’t get out.

Some of the holes to inspect are in the ground and when she pulls her hand up they are covered in bugs. While I say “ewwww” myself, my Sim just shook them off and kept searching in the hole. I completed the first mission pretty quickly and leveled up my visa pretty fast so I had time to explore other things in the town.

My Sim visited the local wine shop and got to make her own wine which is called nectar. She added apples, grapes and cherries to the mix and stomped them then processed it. The nectar turned out horrible but she had fun making it.

While at the nectar factory she went exploring in the basement and found a pool of juice to explore. She back flipped into it and eventually found some relics at the bottom. Outside the nectar factory she went to pick grapes and found a very unique item. I have to say I got very excited when I saw it. It was a gnome, but not just a regular gnome…

.. it looked like a little Napoleon and it was laying on it’s side sucking it’s thumb. She picked him up, named him and put it in her backpack and took it home. The gnome was placed in her garden and we soon found out that it moves. The next day it was standing up straight like any other gnome and the next it was laying down again. I’m hoping to find a different gnome in each country. That would be so cool.

To wrap things up, I love this game expansion. It has added a whole new level of play to my Sim game. I have been immersed in my game for 5 days now. I now have a level 2 visa in China and almost to level 2 in Egypt. I’ve cleared so much rubble that I can now do it 35% faster. I’ve visited all the countries several times and learned new skills like martial arts (which should help in my next mummy fight). I found that the Sim does not age while traveling so I should have a long time to finish my adventures. I probably won’t uncover all the secrets or surprises but I am trying. I found that revisiting tombs I’ve already explored still reveal more treasure and sometimes new doors.

Martial Arts in China

If you like The Sims 3, you should definitely buy this expansion. If you’ve wanted to try The Sims 3, then be sure to pick up this expansion too. This is the best expansion pack I’ve played for The Sims. I hope they make more countries to add more adventures in the future. Merging the sandbox with quests and adventures is a pure win!

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]