The Sims FreePlay Review: SIMulating life and love on Windows Phone 8

We've poured on The Sims FreePlay coverage lately, and why not? Xbox Windows Phone games have go relatively deficient this year (though September saw enough of new releases). Information technology'south also a massively sized mobile entry in one of gaming'south most popular franchises… Non to mention, it'southward free to play so any Windows Phone 8 user with ane GB of RAM tin can get it (internet connection required).

And then again, the 'complimentary' feather in a championship'southward cap can also be a thorn in its side from a gameplay perspective. The Sims FreePlay embodies many of the free to play trappings typically perceived as negative past users, from time-based mechanics to dual currencies. Can the blithesome simulation aspects of The Sims survive all those grabs for players' wallets? Read on for our evaluation.

Building your virtual dudes and dudettes

The start thing you'll practise in Sims FreePlay is customize your ain Sim (virtual person). You don't have to engage in the customization, per se – the game automatically generates a unique body, outfit, proper noun, and personality during the creation procedure. If the result is unsatisfactory or too similar in advent to Kristen Stewart, just reroll and you'll go a new ransom Sim.

Playing with prefab Sims kind of misses the point of these games, though. A big chunk of the fun comes from recreating yourself, the people yous know, and whomever else you can call back of.

How does Sims FreePlay fare in character customization then? Well, it does take more face, hair, and vesture options than The Sims three for Windows Telephone. But hairstyles and facial options for men are withal in brusk supply. Yous can't customize trunk size or historic period either, severely limiting the ability to recreate real people within the game. That said, I did manage passable versions of myself and fellow Windows Phone Primal staffers Daniel, Rich, Sam, and Michael.

Calculation one Sim at a fourth dimension

Previous Windows Phone releases The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval only allowed users to play as ane graphic symbol at a fourth dimension, directly controlling that character. Surprisingly enough, FreePlay ditches that blueprint in favor of the mainline Sims PC games' mode of play. You lot start with only one Sim, simply you'll somewhen accept a whole boondocks of them to play with.

Edifice the town itself is essentially the main goal. You lot'll take to buy houses (premade or user designed) for all those Sims to alive and woohoo in. The game offers a sizable assortment of homes to cull from, though the actually nice ones are and then expensive that you probably won't build them until tardily in the game.

On tiptop of that, the town holds a number of spaces for businesses and attractions. Players tin actually visit some locations like the park, family unit heart, nightclub, and snow resort to engage with their Sims. Shops sell: additional wardrobe choices, pets (cats, dogs, and rabbits), and new objects for Sims to interact with. Businesses such as the recording studio, firehouse, and Metropolis Hall offer jobs for upwards-and-coming Sims.

All of these places produce small amounts of money and XP over fourth dimension.

Jobs, Hobbies, and Schoolhouse

Jobs keep your Sims busy as well equally bring in XP and money. Each career type offer several levels for characters to progress through. The higher the level they attain, the more money and experience they bring in. Sims can proceeds job feel both by attention their jobs (at which bespeak you don't interact with them until they're done) or by using job-specific objects similar burn hydrants, soccer balls, and mirrors.

Hobbies work a lot like jobs merely without the obligation of attention at certain times. Sims can fish, woodwork, swim, design fashions, and more than. Progressing through the different levels of a hobby actually nets rewards similar unique items, coin, and XP bonuses. Hobbies take their ain unique minigame aspects, likewise. Hunt for ghosts and the player will actually need to tap an evasive ghost 3 times to catch it; create a way and you'll have to stop a spinner on light bulbs instead of bombs.

Preteens Sims don't have quite the same work and hobby options equally adults. Instead of going to work, they must nourish school or use a written report desk. This allows them to move through grade averages instead of levels – excruciatingly slowly, I might add. Preteens get 2 exclusive hobbies: ballet and karate. Shame that the Achievements crave players to create iii preteens; a tertiary hobby would accept been appreciated.

Time…

FreePlay is a lot similar a regular Sims game. Players can feed, clean, and micromanage Sims to their hearts' content. Tell your Sim to watch television, browse the internet, call a friend, watch a movie, get married, or just have a latte. You tin can't exercise every single thing the big brother versions offering (no elderly Sims or death here), only it provides more than enough options for a mobile game.

This is a free to play game, however, so it needs a way to encourage users to spend real money and to keep playing and/or spending over time. The grab here is that every action takes specific amounts of real time to complete. Tell a Sim to have a shower and she'll exist unavailable for several minutes; transport them to work and they're gone for hours. It takes 24 hours to have a babe, and then another full day to advance information technology to toddler and preteen ages.

In fairness, virtually activities offer several variations with different time spans to cull from. Grabbing a snack from the fridge might take 20 seconds, while a meal takes six minutes. This lets you choose shorter times when you desire to pay more attending to the game and longer durations when you have less time for it. You'll eventually have so many Sims that you can bound between diverse shorter actions and keep far more agile than many time-based games.

…and Money

Initially y'all'll progress through the game chop-chop plenty to not simply go along decorated but too potentially go addicted to it. Eventually though, the rug gets pulled out equally things start taking longer.

In-game goals (sort of like the optional missions in Jetpack Joyride) might require you to perform an action on a specific day of the calendar week and fifty-fifty within a pocket-size range of hours on that day. Until that window comes up, y'all tin can't get a new goal and move on – unless you lot spent the precious Life Points earned from completing other goals and certain actions.

Similarly, new buildings cost more and more Simoleons (money) as your town grows. You'll come to a signal where it takes days or even longer to earn the money to complete those buildings and fill up out your boondocks.

In both cases, y'all tin can just keep playing and work on other aspects like earning XP, leveling up jobs and hobbies, etc. until you tin move on over again. Simply the publisher's intent is plain to encourage players to purchase Simoleons and Life Points with real money in order to shorten the grind. The currency packs you tin buy actually include more money as you lot level upward, so waiting until later on in the game to make a purchase is the way to go if you're inclined to spend.

See our In-App Purchase Guide for more details on the game's currency system and what IAPs it offers.

Achievements

The main Achievement that volition keep GamerScore hunters coming dorsum is for completing i,000 goals. That will have a couple of months at minimum; hence nobody has done information technology yet.

Unfortunately, FreePlay suffers from some Accomplishment glitchiness that can prevent random Achievements from unlocking. We item a partially effective workaround too as Accomplishment requirements and strategies in our 2-office guide:

• Achievement Guide Part one
• Accomplishment Guide Role 2

Overall Impression

The Sims FreePlay packs an amazing amount of the Sims series' content and fun into a free to play mobile game. There are then many things to buy; jobs, hobbies, and relationships to level; and goals to complete. You could play for months without completing information technology all.

The time-based mechanics could have derailed FreePlay. The game does get to a signal where yous'll really feel like hurrying things upward by making an In-App Purchase. EA has to turn a profit from FreePlay somehow, then nosotros tin can't fault them too much for making it grindy. Some players will lose interest when the grind really kicks in; some will keep playing without spending; and some volition purchase currency to speed things forth. Every bit long as EA keeps bringing high profile games similar this to Windows Phone, everybody wins.

• TheSims FreePlay – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB of RAM) – 427 MB – Free – Store Link

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/sims-freeplay-windows-phone-review

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