The Sims 3 Review

Introduction
Are you bored with your own life or do you want to be that famous person you always wanted to be in your life? Is this impossible for you to achieve in real life? Luckily you can simulate the perfect life you always wanted with the Sims!
Get ready to lose time and escape your own life in the Sims 3. Can you believe this game has already been out for eleven years! The graphics still hold up very nice and compared with the Sims 4 some of the functions are way better in the Sims 3.
I have only two of the many expansion packs on Origin, I have many expansions still in DVD form. There are so many possibilities in the Sims 3 it is endless. I have installed the cat’s and dogs expansion and the ambitions pack.
Having the cats and dogs is the best thing in the Sims 3 it has the best function of any sims expansion ever. You will be able to control your cat and dog sim to do whatever you want them to do. Next to earning simoleons from letting your sim work your cat can catch fish that you can sell! You can also let your dog collect minerals to sell them. You can live out your dreams or be an evil influence and torture your sim! Do you want to build four walls around your sim and watch him die? Go ahead. We have all tried it one time. Did you know there are many ways your sim can die?
There will be no story section in this review as there is no story in the Sims 3, you create the story that you want!
You can even create the world as you see fit but I never really used this option.

What did I think of the Sims 3 before playing?
It has been so long before I started playing the Sims 3 I don’t really know anymore. I started the Sims 3 in the time you still had to buy the DVDs for expansions.
What did I think of playing before starting again this time? Creating your sim in the create-a-sim is the most wonderful tool in the Sims series ever. You get to re-create how you look or how you want to look!
Do you want to be someone completely different? In the Sims 3 you can do whatever you please but for me, the most important tool is to disable the aging progress. I was really looking forward to creating a new family in the Sims 3 for this review.
I re-installed the origin version and started working on my female sim who owns a dog named chomp and a cat named Krab. In my mind, my new sim just moved out into her own crappy apartment and works a low-end job to pay the bills.

She is a bit of a loner so she only interacts with her pets and is a horrible cook and eats black mac and cheese. She is so poor she does not own a Television or computer yet. Every time she thinks she maybe has enough money something breaks or the cat needs something new! Finally after saving a long time she managed to gather the funds for the computer! Oh no, Chomp has caught flees, now we need to buy a new bath for him to get rid of the flees on Chomp.
As you can read, your mind will go on a wild ride while playing the Sims 3. This is an amazing feat that the Sims 3 manages to do perfectly.

Gameplay elements

Create-a-sim
This is the most important gameplay element in the Sims 3, without this tool the Sims would not be what it is today.
Get ready to spend hours in this mode while you create every part of your sim to the detail. Here are some examples of what you can do in the Create-a-Sim.
The most important thing is to create the personality traits of your sim. What do you want your sim to be, a neat freak or a slob? There are many options to choose from when creating your sim.
These are the personality traits that I picked for my sim, Good sense of humor, neat, cat person, lucky and good kisser. This seemed to be a good fit for the sim I was creating in my story.
You will also need to name your sim and choose the age of your sim. My choice is usually to choose the young adult option and stop the aging process. You can change the aging process in the options menu.
You can change all the clothes in the create-a-sim, having more expansions means you will have more clothes and items to choose from. Many people will love creating the perfect sim but you can also choose to create a random sim!
Your sim will also have a dream in his or her life along with normal wishes when playing the game. Completing these wishes will grant you happiness points that you can use to buy new perks. These can be used for special skills. For example: a steel bladder so your sim almost never has to pee.

The other option is to create a cat or a dog but you will need to own the cat’s and dog’s expansion. You can even choose the personality for your cat or dog! You can also create a horse!
My cat has the personality traits, non-destructive, neat, and hunter. You will need the hunter personality trait for your dog or cat to earn simoleons for you. Cats and Dogs can learn new personality traits called traits while playing the game.
Krab has learned to be adventurous by fishing and exploring the world! The other trait Krab learned was playful by goofing around with Chomp my dog.
This is the most wonderful thing of the Sims 3 that EA removed in the Sims 4, the ability to control your pets and use them as normal sims. This is one of the reasons I like Sims 3 a lot more but the Sims 4 has a lot more modern gameplay mechanics, that is quite a bit of a conundrum. I hope both will be merged in Sims 5!

Skills
Skills are the foundation of the sims series along with the create-a-sim. Do you want to be good at your job? You will need higher skill levels. You can train yourself to be charismatic or have really green thumbs for gardening.
One of the basic skills everyone will need in his or her life is cooking, your sim will also need this skill. Otherwise, you will be eating black mac and cheese like my sim forever! Even the dog Chomp was disgusted by it! Ordering pizza every day is also not very nutritious.
To level up your skills you will need to find the appropriate equipment that fits the skill you want to train. For example: if you want to learn cooking, cooking some food might be a good idea. Leveling your cooking skill will also learn you new meals to cook.
For other items like training fitness or charisma, you will need special equipment that you can find in the buy modus. Some of the equipment is very expensive like the treadmill, my sim wants to start working out but she is to broke to buy the treadmill and too lazy to go to the gym!

Building mode and shopping mode
After you have decided what you want to do with your sims family you will need a house to live in! There are 2 options you can choose from, build a house from scratch, or buy a house. When building a house from scratch you will need to watch your funds and not go wild in spending all your simoleons, you will need to keep some simoleons to buy furniture. The best thing to do is to buy cheap items first and upgrade as you get more simoleons. You will need to go to construction mode and place some walls to start building. It is important to not forget windows for natural light. The tools are straightforward and easy to use. You will have set up a house in no time!
You will need to go to the buy window and then you can select from a wide array of items to purchase for your house. The general rule is, the more expensive an item is the better it is for your sim.

I decided to go for the other option since I normally build a house from scratch, this time I decided to go to a house that was already built! When deciding to move into a house that is already been build you have two options. You can buy it unfurnished or furnished. I went for the furnished option which means I could just jump in and play but there were no animal items. I went to the building mode and rearranged some items and replaced some furniture that I did not like. I emptied one room and decided to buy some animal items for my sims Chomp and Krab. It was some cheapskate items but it would do for now! In the end I had 11 simoleons left, just enough to fill a food bowl. Below you will find a picture of my personalized Sims 3 house!

What are some other examples that you can do in build mode?
You can build pools or even create a basement to lock the neighbors in and watch them perish. What? I would never do that. How about creating a pool and when your sim goes swimming remove the ladder!
If you want some decorations like rocks and trees you can also find these in construction mode, the Sims 3 will let you build your dream house at top speed if you have the simoleons.

Careers
Your sim will need a job to earn simoleons to be able to keep paying bills, yes indeed, you will need to pay bills! This also means that if you don’t use the lights and other electrical components all the time the bills will be lower. When you have more household appliances and items that use water or electricity. The bills you need to pay, go up! When your Sim goes to work he or she will leave and time will go very fast Unless you have other Sims to control in the house. If you own the ambitions pack you can go along with your Sim to their workplace. One of these jobs is ghost hunting where you need to vacuum up ghosts. Yes, I have one time made a Sim with a green hat and called him Luigi and he had become a master in vacuuming ghosts.
You can choose many paths in career and most of them even branch out when you reach a high enough level. For most jobs, you will need specific skills to unlock the next level.
There are also ways to earn income without going to work but this will also require learning new skills. You can create paintings and sell them in the buy modus but there are many more ways to earn simoleons.

Actual gameplay
The most important of the Sims 3 is of course playing the actual game after you have created your sim(s) and building your house. Have you decided on a career yet for your Sim? You can always change your career, this is even easier to do if you disable the aging process
your sim will have six bars that you need to keep in the green zone or your sim will become sad or grumpy. Doing certain activities will give you good moodlets that increase the happiness of your sim but these moodlets can also be negative.
Having a dirty house will make your sim feel dirty! Some moodlets are harder or easier to get depending on the personality traits of the sim you created. You will need to keep your sims happy and decide for them what they are going to do.
You can adjust in the options menu if your sim has free will or not. If you have free will activated doing nothing means your sim will take care of himself as best as possible but this is not an exact science.
The bars are different for pets but it comes down to the same principles, keep your sim happy and don’t let them die unless that is exactly what you are trying to achieve. In the Sims 3 you can speed up the day after you have selected what your sim is going to do and pause when you are thinking.

Hunger
If your sim is hungry, the happiness will go down very fast because your sim will get hangry. All you need to do is cook something in the kitchen and eat your dinner. You also eat a quick meal or have a snack.
If you stop your sim from eating and the bar goes completely empty and you keep waiting for a few hours your sim will die. This is a slow and painful death for your sim! In my opinion, this is fun to watch.
Bladder
When the bladder bar is almost empty it may be time to direct your sim to the bathroom to find the toilet! If you don’t do this your sim will pee in his or her pants and your hygiene will go to zero. Your sim will feel very ashamed and be very unhappy.
Energy
your sim needs to sleep often to keep the energy bar filled, a sim that is sleepy, and starts cooking might burn him/her self and might meet the grim reaper. You can see how well your bed will function in the buy modus.
When your energy bar is completely drained your sim will crash and fall asleep on the spot. To prevent this without sleeping you could drink some coffee.
Social
Being social is also important but having your social completely drained is not a huge problem but it will mean your sim will be very sad and lonely. The best way to remedy this and keep your social up is interacting with other sims or by playing with your pets. You can always call another sim on your mobile phone. (yes it also existed as a function in the Sims 3 in 2009)!
Hygiene
Hygiene is important for any living creature! Washing your hands will help a little bit for your hygiene but the best way is to take a bath or a shower. You can have a completely drained bar of hygiene and your sim will be fine but not happy.
Fun
Your Sim also needs to have fun in his/her life without fun your sim will become very bored and sad. There are many options to let your sim have fun but the easiest options are watching television or playing games on the computer.
Playing with your pet also works for having fun!

There are a lot of options when it comes to entertaining your sims or keeping your essential bars high to make your sim happy!

Sound and graphics
The sound is perfect for the sims and having played so many hours in the sims I still love it. The sims speak a made-up language called simlish which is a very important factor for the Sims gameplay.
There are a few rendering issues with some of the fur on the pets but it mostly just made me laugh seeing a cat or dog without its fur.
Have you ever heard Katy Perry sing in simlish? The sounds the sims make like my dog Chomp and cat Krab are very lifelike! Our own cats search from where the meowing sounds come from.
I think the Sims 3 is one of the best games regarding sound effects and music. All the sound effects they had to make for this game are insane! It has to be a massive list!

What did I think of the Sims 3 after playing?
The Sims 3 is a game that I will always keep coming back to, this game was wonderful when I was 15 years old and it is still awesome now that I am married and 26 years old.
The Sims has always been a part of playing video games when growing up and I don’t think that is going to change anytime soon. The Sims 3 has held up very well with the graphics and you can barely say it is 11 years old.
The gameplay is amazing and the possibilities are unlimited but the Sims 4 is indeed more dynamic. In my head, they are two completely different games even though the concept is the same.
I barely scratched the surface of all the possibilities in the Sims 3, you really need to play and explore the Sims 3 for yourself! Adding more expansion will add an immense amount of gameplay to the Sims 3.
It really depends on what I want at the moment from my Sims gameplay if I choose to play the Sims 3 or Sims 4.  

My personal rating for the Sims 3 is a 9.7

Pros and Cons

Pros
– The graphics are still really good after so many years.
– Creating your own sim can be really fun and entertaining.
– There are many career paths and things your sim can do.
– You can create your own house or eventually even a castle if you are interested in doing so.
– You can control your cats and dogs with the expansion of cats and dog’s expansion.
– With the ambitions pack, you can become Luigi the ghosthunter.
– There are many more expansion packs really worth it in the Sims 3.
– You can be evil and release your anger on your sims.
– Get ready to escape your own life and live the life of your dreams.

Cons
– Why is it so hard to go through a door with two sims?
– Minor rendering issues but nothing too bad.
– Really there is enough space on the stairs for two sims!
– Get ready for the longest loading screens ever, it can take up to five minutes or longer for your game to load.

I really loved revisiting this game from my childhood, thank you Dmytro for requesting the Sims 3! I recommend this game to everyone looking for a nice simulation game.
I give this game a …drumroll…

9.2!

The game has truly held its ground over the years and is still within the same league as the Sims 4! Depending on what you are in the mood for you can choose which Sims game you want to play.
Please leave your thoughts in the comment.
You can purchase the base game here:
I hoped you liked reading this review and I hope to see you in the next review.