The Sims 3: Ambitions Review

21 Jun 2010 at 12:19:05 by Tim McDonald
Systems used to review this title: (PC)

Expansion packs for The Sims are like taxis in London: there's one along every minute. Not counting the achingly boring Stuff packs, or the three games themselves, there have so far been 16 expansion packs for the franchise. That has to be a record of some sort (and/or proves that The Sims is a money-spinning travesty, depending on your perspective.)

This 17th pack, Ambitions, promises us a grand new feature – the ability to follow our Sims to work – and packs in all sort of incidentals, which in this case are mostly tied to new skills. A typical Sims expansion pack, then, which befits an expansion on our Sims 3 review.

When last we left our hero, Tim McDonald, he was living in a house with/being slowly driven insane by politician Tamer Asfahani and itinerant busker Andy Alderson. Since then, his two housemates have been mysteriously killed in a mysterious house fire that remains a mystery and definitely had nothing to do with Tim McDonald, who had a solid alibi for the entire event. Fortunately, this mystery provides an opportunity for Tim McDonald to don his trenchcoat for non-flashing purposes, and sign up for the new Private Investigator profession.

Professions – the new career equivalents that let you control your Sims at work – range through the aforementioned private detective through firefighter, ghost hunter, architect, and stylist. The big difference between these and careers is that your Sim doesn't just vanish off into the ether when he arrives at work; rather, your work tends to be spread throughout the town.

Private detectives need cases and, following an ill-advised marketing stunt that involved writing his contact details on a particular body part and then getting up to his old tricks with his trenchcoat, Sim Tim was phoned up by a small child demanding to know where their toothbrush had gone. Before you start dialling the police, I'll point out that this was in fact his first case, and he had nothing to do with it.

As far as careers go, being asked to hunt down a pint-size mouth scraper is not the most auspicious start, but beggars can't be choosers and so Sim Tim was off downtown to talk to the brat first hand and find out who the likely suspects were (and yes, I have been restraining myself from writing this as a very bad Raymond Chandler homage.) This initial interview led to a comment that the toothbrush may have been taken in revenge for the theft of a sandwich perpetrated by the half-pint employer.

Sim Tim next went to talk to the aggrieved sandwich owner, who wasn't going to say anything without either a better relationship with our heroic detective or a cash bribe. Being that Sim Tim is as much of a hateful sod as real Tim, we went with the cash option, only to learn that there was, in fact, no missing toothbrush: the entire thing was a scam concocted to con a bribe out of Sim Tim. Thankfully, Sim Tim is as much of a hateful sod as real Tim, so he left with both job experience and the joy of making a small child cry.

And that, in some ways, sums up Ambitions. You have more direct control over your Sims as they go about their work, and it's all humorous and well-written, but there's still nothing overly new. When investigations get more complex, your Sims will be scouring trash cans, staking out houses, dusting for fingerprints and the like, but these are still just more options to click, and if you really need money they can wander down to the police station to do some low-level police work for one-off cash. Firefighters rush into towering infernos and spend their spare time maintaining equipment down at the firehouse. Ghost hunters track down spirits and poltergeists, head out to emergency calls at houses, and wait for you to click on the ghosts and select the requisite option to zap and capture them. Distressingly, the more interesting ghost hunter cases – called Paranormal Investigations – have your Sims vanish, in the usual manner, into an inaccessible building for a set amount of time, while status windows inform you of what's going on inside at preset intervals. Telling, rather than showing.

But then this is the Sims, so disappointing though that is it's to be somewhat expected, and the other professions and new skills let you muck about with the town in a far more interesting manner. Stylists are requested to perform makeovers, with Sims demanding, say, a selection of new outfits. Architects are requested to redesign rooms of a house within a certain budget and with certain requirements – a living room might need two couches, a TV, a stereo worth at least 300 Simoleons, etc. Interesting though this is it can get a bit repetitive, but I have no doubt that the opportunity to interact with the town in this way while thrill plenty of fans, and ruining people's houses and haircuts is a nice little bonus for virtual sadists.

Other new features include an inventor's bench, which lets Sims create new objects – ranging from toys through air fresheners to a robot - out of scrap, attained either by rummaging through the junkyard or trash cans, or, hilariously, by using the new "detonate" ability on pre-existing items. Then there's sculpting, which can again have amusing results, and we've finally got the ability to ink up our Sims with a very simple Tattoo system. All but the latter, as far as we could find, tie into some brand new Opportunities and the new consignment store if you want to use these skills to get cash, or can simply be used as supplements. It's all very nice.

But that, really, is the crippling problem. It's nice. It's not exciting, or ground-breaking, or inspired, but nice. There is honestly nothing in here that singles out Ambitions as an absolutely must-have expansion, and continuing the theme of vague disappointment, there are plenty of reasons not to. Chief among these is that the AI of your Sims doesn't appear to keep up all that well with the new Professions, requiring your hand-holding to ensure that they complete their objectives rather than, say, strike up a conversation and then watch TV once your ghost hunter turns up at a haunted house, and this micromanagement will definitely cause problems if you're trying to run a family rather than one Sim. Other issues are throwbacks from the engine that may not be a problem if you have a water-cooled ninja of a PC, such as the pop-in and slowdown that occur when jetting your view around town – which, obviously, you'll be doing constantly.

This is unlikely to dissuade hardcore fans from the expansion, and that's fair enough – they'll probably enjoy the additions to their game. Indeed, even casual fans will have some fun with this, but it won't take long before boredom sets in, and those hoping for something a little more substantial will find themselves disappointed. There's nothing inherently wrong with the pack but there's far too little depth here to justify the asking price, and considering the possibilities afforded by letting us take our Sims to work, that's almost crushing.

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