LGR - The Sims 3 Supernatural Review

Right .

When I play the Sims three , I'm normally looking to emulate real life , more or less , you know , play with the natural order of things and see what happens .

But it's inevitable that before long , someone gets the idea to take the natural and make it far more super while I personally prefer my spook's spooked goblins , gobbled UFO S K O .

Aliens alienated vampires evaporated and monsters remonstrated .

It doesn't matter because now we've got the Sims Three Supernatural , the seventh expansion pack for the Sims three .

Embrace the supernatural with just about every classic horror story cliche imaginable .

Yet with that trademark Sims twist .

This is not the expansion Droid I'm looking for , but here it is in my hands .

So I may as well drop the disc in and see what I get .

Supernatural starts off with a not so super looking loading screen that , whoa the moon , uh more moon , more moon full moon after the loading screen finishes mooning you , you're taken to the moon , menu , main menu to select an old game or start a new one .

Starting a new one gives you a chance to try out the new town with Supernatural moonlight falls in this town , the moonlight continually falls and is never once even tempted to rise .

It's not quite Mystic Falls , Virginia , but it still has an appropriately foggy murky small town Americana look that fits the whole naturally super vibe going on .

There is a metric crap ton of new junk in this pack .

But the main attraction is the new set of life states , vampires , zombies , fairies , witches and werewolves .

In fact , if you want to jump right into many of these , you can do so with create a sim .

All of the new one minus zombies can be chosen as well as two old ones , ghosts and genies .

This makes it easier to play as these beings .

Since you don't have to go out of your way to get turned into one through normal gameplay anymore .

You can also apply 12 new skin tones , adjust things like ear points and fingernails as well as choose a completely separate look for turned werewolves , essentially letting you have two Sims in one .

You can only choose one life at a time here though .

So forget any plans you may have for creating a zombie fairy werewolf , genie man bear pig may as well cover the dick load of new clothing and hair items since we're here .

Seriously , there's a lot 10 new tattoos , nine new accessories , two new facial hairs , 24 new hairstyles and 86 new outfits from Children to elders .

Way too much to show here .

So I'm not even going to try granted most of this fits in with that gothic supernatural Adams family esque theme .

So don't expect to see summer dresses and speedos .

Here you also get some new traits like night owl , supernatural skeptic and supernatural fan and no , that has nothing to do with whether or not you like Sam and Dean Winchester .

And after that , on what the life states with the first one being vampires .

Now you may be thinking what the cow weren't there vampires in the late night expansion .

Yes .

Questioner of the bovine .

You are correct .

And if you didn't have late night , you'll have them .

Now they can perform all these same hunting plasma sucking sunlight avoiding Usain bolting actions from late night , but they have a few new additions .

Now vampires can apply van Piri Sunblock .

So they don't fall apart in the sun , which almost makes being a vampire completely devoid of drawbacks .

Blood suckers also have the ability to hypnotically gaze into the eyes of Sims , admit to or deny their vampiric existence and intimidate and exploit weaknesses of lesser Sims .

So yeah , they're definitely a step up from late night .

Although most of their day to day life will remain the same .

They can also receive the immortal lifetime reward , which of course means they'll never age or die .

Although this also causes them to sparkle in the sunlight .

Uh We just had to do it .

Didn't do Sims Studio I thank you guys for having some taste and leaving out sparkly vampires from late night .

And now this what's next underage girls on long walks in the woods .

The only way to atone for this is to create a blade sim for the next expansion .

Just making that clear enough of the unfortunate sparkles .

Next up , we have zombies , although you can't make these guys from scratch .

Existing adult SIMS can become a zombie by being bitten by one .

All it takes is one infected bite .

And before you know it , you'll have an epidemic of walkers on your hands .

Another way to become a zombie is to make use of a elixir .

These are brewed by anyone with high enough alchemy skill , but we'll get to that later .

Once you are a zombie , you can shuffle around and snarl at people and if you're lucky , you might get a tasty chunk of live sim flesh .

You might want to stop by the sweet tree house of pain while you're at it .

There's plenty of candied sim flesh in there though .

It might be a bit charred .

So yeah , being a zombie isn't that great and it wears off over time .

So you can see why you're not allowed to create your own zombie sim , since it's about as permanent as a Kardashian marriage .

Well , at least under typical circumstances since zombies created by a potent zombie elixir or reanimation ritual will remain zombified until hit with a cure of some kind , like stronger elixirs and fairy dust .

However , another element to consider are zombie invasions .

Remember that lunar loading screen turns out the moon is a big addition to supernatural and now you have lunar cycles to keep up with .

You can either just look at this icon near your Sims portrait or buy a lunar dial to check the lunar state and read your lunar horoscope when it's a full moon .

All sorts of craziness happens .

Supernatural creatures go on high alert and zombies will start attacking your home .

Well , less attacking more sauntering by and messing around with your stuff a bit .

They'll also eat plants .

So if you have an outdoor garden , well , that sucks .

And yeah , you heard that right .

There's a zombie on your lawn eating plants .

E A owns popcap games now .

So why not ?

Actually , there's even a set of plants versus zombies content in the limited edition of supernatural , including a working pea shooter plant , plop this little guy under your yard for some home defense where it'll eventually remove zom application from a SIM .

If it hits one with enough peas and you can also play catch with the little guys , which I must admit is oddly endearing .

The next life state is the fairy and obviously the most notable difference from normal Sims is the fact that they've got magical freaking wings on their back .

You can't exactly go flying all over the place with these , but you can hover a bit kind of like having a weak jet pack .

Another big addition is the magic meter for fairies right below the lunar cycle meter .

You can use your fairy magic to perform all sorts of weird little stunts like playing slightly evil tricks on other Sims and transforming into a shrunken sprite form to pester Sims by tinkering with their bells or something .

You can also cast auras which affects the skills and mood of Sims around you for both good and bad .

Fairies are also great at creative endeavors like painting , writing and they age slower than regular Sims and they're also awesome gardeners and can even help plants magically grow faster .

They'll eventually run out of their magical magic juice though .

So you're stuck , either waiting for it to regenerate or looking for a magic replenishment elixir .

You can also find fairies hanging around in little fairy houses usually located in gardens like the ones at the New Arboretum community lot though , you can also just buy your own and use it at home as sort of a home away from home at home .

Homie .

The fairies are also able to level up their magical abilities the more they use them .

So there's quite a bit to do with these guys if you can deal with the omnipresent , constantly flapping neon Raver wings though I've heard you can just get rid of them , but that just seems mean witches are next on the menu and these are exactly what one would expect you burn through them and slam in the back of my dracula .

Both dudes and chicks aged teen to elder can become witches and these are essentially occultist magicians .

Their big draw is the ability to learn and cast spells either with magic wands or with their hands .

Once they're good enough , you'll start with a basic wand and skill level and with enough practice and money , you can progress to wan deer , wands and magic gear .

Magic like fairies , witches have a magic meter to keep up with and performing both good and bad spells will deplete this magic .

And it's pretty cool when witches meet up with each other .

Since then , a witch duel may occur .

It's rarely ever deadly and it's a cool way to test out spells and see who's the wickedest witch of the , where ever they also have the ability to ride brooms both on the road in place of a normal vehicle or in a broom arena .

That's totally not quidditch .

Nope , though , I sometimes prefer to have my witches use a bicycle when riding through Kansas just add the threat of getting pretties and little dogs and we're set for one oz some time .

Los Another huge thing to screw with is alchemy though .

Not exclusive to witches .

They do it better than anyone else .

This is pretty much like the chemical table from the generation's expansion just with a more magical slant .

You can concoct all sorts of elixirs from those that help to those that hurt from skill boosting potions to instant obesity .

It's awesome to throw these evil things at Sims and watch them squirm or mix it into their drink .

If you want to go for a more covert approach , alchemy also feeds into the existing collectibles mechanic .

Since many of these potions require weird items , there are a bunch of new items along with the existing collectibles .

So it's nice that they've added a collectables journal to keep up with everything .

You can also just forego a lot of the searching by checking out the new alchemy store community lot though .

It's expensive and they don't have everything .

So chances are you'll still have to roll your own for the best potions .

Finally , the final life state with finality is the werewolf , whether you create a jake team member yourself or become one by getting bitten or using a potion .

Werewolves are pretty freaking rad .

Well , they could be more rad with a Michael J Fox edition , but I digress Sims with like anthropic tendencies can transform into a werewolf at any time , but they're at the top of their game during a full moon .

I think it's a bit unfortunate that you can't go on a classic werewolf rampage through the town .

So instead you're left with the familiar parody creature .

You may be used to from previous Sims games , but hey , at least you can scratch the couch that's , that's cool .

You can also howl at the moon more or less , which doesn't do much of anything it seems except let people know that you're loud .

In fact , werewolves can't do much of anything special at all .

I mean , sure you can run around trying to bite people and turning them into werewolves .

But what's the point ?

You're effectively a glorified dog wandering around acting silly and you can form packs of werewolves if you want to .

But again , what's the point ?

You can't go around being evil .

And I've seen Robin Williams impersonators that are hairier and scarier than these guys , you know , really ?

Just forget .

I said they were ra these are probably the lamest of the playable life states , in my opinion because of all the lost potential .

The only real use I found for the werewolf is being sort of a companion to the witch since they can hunt out rare collectibles .

But yeah , you can do that on your own .

It's just maybe not as effective werewolves .

They are normally awesome because they're unpredictable and bloodthirsty monsters .

These aren't , someone turns out to be a werewolf who cares , just keep them away from the sofa and smack it with a rolled up newspaper every so often .

You're cool and that's all of the life states .

But Frick , there's so much more .

Another big addition is the return of the Bone Hill dust skeletal made from the Sims making magic , just buy her coffin .

And let her loose into your house to clean up the werewolf droppings and spilled fairy dust .

There's also a sweet sliding bookcase door that fits in nicely with the rest of the haunted mansion style decor .

That's just a door .

It acts like a door .

It's a door , but it looks like a bookcase .

That's awesome .

Fitting in with the witch's layer is the magic mirror though .

It's not on the wall , it's on the floor , which totally screws up the rhyme .

So whoever came up with that idea can suck it .

You've also got a whack , a mole machine as well as a claw machine called the claw .

Yes , I'm serious .

So go , go gadget picks our lawyers .

This one's ripe .

There's also a couple cool things .

I've always kind of sort of wanted at certain times of day on Tuesdays , like grandfather clocks and rocking chairs .

You also get beehives for keeping bees and hives handy , dandy stuff .

If you fancy ingesting bee barf or if you need things like honeycomb and bees for concocting elixirs .

There's also a gypsy caravan that you can visit which not only lets you get your fortune told but allows you to enter into the fortune teller career .

Oh , a career based on ripping people off and overcharging for useless stuff .

I found the favorite job of the person who came up with Katy Perry sweet Treats .

Throw in even more , more stuff like a new dark wave music type stone .

Skipping player to player , gifting monsters under children's beds .

A bush that grows potentially lethal jelly beans being transformed into a toad flying vacuum cleaners and more .

And you've got a seriously beefy expansion pack , huh ?

So , is the Sims Three Supernatural Worth buying or not ?

Well , like always the suggested retail price is $40 .

And for as much paranormal playtime as you get here , that's not a bad deal .

But here's the thing to consider .

Do you want horror fantasy in your Sims three game ?

Personally ?

I kind of don't .

Yeah .

Yeah , it's nice for a quick distraction from the same old routine and I'd have no issue with it being a standalone game .

But plant eating zombies and sparkling Vampires are not why I play the Sims three .

I want to play with life , not the undead .

Sure .

You can disable the supernatural creatures and Lunar Cycle and all that in the options menu which I must commend the developers for including .

But really if you're going to disable all this stuff , why have the expansion at all ?

It's for this reason that I personally cannot wholeheartedly recommend supernatural to any and every Sims player .

Yes .

It's a very well made pack with a ton of content , but a large chunk of that content pertains to stuff that's ripped straight out of the playbook of old monster movies and doesn't do much at all to it spanned the classic Sims formula , which is what I look for in an expansion pack and disregarding that due to its teen rating , it plays it safe with the horror and ends up as a watered down family friendly experience .

It's got all the terror and frightening imagery of Bobby Pickett's monster .

Mash .

Not that I was expecting loads of gore or anything , but , you know , more dire consequences for these supernaturals would be welcome .

But that's probably beside the point for a lot of people .

And if you want a bunch of supernatural creatures roaming throughout your towns , this is the expansion for you and I don't think you'll be disappointed .

It's packed to the brim full of very well made content .

And that's how an expansion should be if you're into this kind of expansion .