[typing]
When I play The Sims 3, 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 spooks spooked,
goblins gobbled, UFOs KOed, aliens alienated,
vampires evaporated and monsters remonstrated, it doesn't matter
because now we've got The Sims 3 Supernatural!
The seventh expansion pack for The Sims 3.
"Embrace the Supernatural"
with just about every 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!
Uhh, more moon!
MORE moon!
Full moon.
After the loading screen finishes mooning you,
you're taken to the the moon menu–
er, 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:
In fact, if you want to jump right into many of these,
you can do so with Create a Sim.
All of the new ones, 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 pointiness 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 state 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 dickload of new clothing and hair items since we're here.
Seriously, there's a lot.
Ten 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 whole gothic, supernatural, Addams 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.
Enough of that, on with 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 the same hunting, plasma-sucking, sunlight-avoiding,
Usain Bolt-ing actions from Late Night,
but they have a few new additions.
Now vampires can apply vampiric 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 award,
which of course means they'll never age or die.
Although, this also causes them to sparkle in the sunlight.
[groans]
You just had to do it, didn't you, SimStudio?
I thanked you guys for having some taste
and leaving out sparkly vampires from Late Night,
and now this.
What's next, brooding over underage girls and long walks in the woods?
The only way to atone for this is to create a Blade Sim for the next expansion.
Just makin' 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 zombification 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.
Might want to stop by the Sweet Treats House of Pain while you're at it.
There's plenty of candies 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 Sim's 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.
Hey, EA owns PopCap Games now, so why not?
Actually, there's even a set of Plants vs. Zombies content in the limited edition of Supernatural,
including a working pea shooter plant.
Plop this little guy onto your yard for some home defense,
where it will eventually remove zombification from a Sim if it hits one with enough peas.
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 jetpack.
Another big edition 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 affect the skills and mood of Sims around you for both good and bad.
Fairies are also great at creative endeavors like painting, writing and sculpting.
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 located 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 'em and slam in the back of my Dragula.
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 wandier wands
and magic...ier magic.
Like fairies, witches have a magic meter to keep up with,
and performing both good and bad spells with 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 wherever.
They also have the ability to ride brooms,
both on the road in place of a normal vehicle
or in a broom area 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.
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 Generations 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 collectibles journal to keep up with everything.
You can also just forgo a lot of the searching
by checking out the 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 live 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 friggin' rad.
Well, they could be more rad with a Michael J. Fox edition, but I digress.
Sims with lycanthropic 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.
[howling]
[coughing]
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 that I said they were rad.
These are probably the lamest of the playable life states, in my opinion,
because of all the lost potential.
The only real use I've 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 are normally awesome
because they're unpredictable and blood-thirsty monsters.
These... aren't.
Someone turns out to be a werewolf, who cares?
Just keep him 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 Hilda skeletal maid from The Sims: Makin' 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.
Eh, it's just a door. It acts like a door. It's a door.
But it looks like a bookcase, and that's awesome.
Fitting in with the witch's lair 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 Claaaaaw!"
Yes, I'm serious, so go-go gadget Pixar lawyers.
This one's ripe.
There's also a couple cool things I've always kinda sorta wanted
at certain times of day on Tuesdays.
Like grandfather clocks and rocking chairs.
You also get beehives. For keeping bees.
In 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. Heh-heh.
I found the favorite job of the person who came up with Katy Perry Sweet Treats.
Throw in even 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.
[sighs]
So, is The Sims 3 Supernatural worth buying or not?
Well, like always, the suggested retail price is $40 USD.
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 3 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 3.
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 whole-heartedly 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 expand 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 monster imagery as Bobby Pickett's "Monster Mash."
Not that I was expecting loads of gore or anything,
but, you know, more dire consequences for crossing 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.
Well, if you're into this kind of expansion.