The Sims Castaway Stories

The Sims Castaway Stories is the third game (and possibly the last) in the stories series, The Sims Stories, developed by Maxis and EA Games. The plot circulates around a group of Sims which survived the sinking of "Solomon Queen".

The game was released on January 29, 2008.

Official description
This time your Sims have washed up on a tropical island!

''Help them make a new life in an unexplored paradise in this easy-to-play, laptop-friendly version of The Sims. The Sims Castaway Stories features two great ways to play. In the new and engaging directed Story mode, explore the island, build a shelter, learn to find food, and make your Sims' lives as fun and comfortable as possible. You even unlock rewards along the way as you achieve set goals.''

Features

 * Play through the twists and turns of your Sims' tropical adventures.
 * Tell your own stories -- create multiple profiles and tell a different tale every time.
 * Simple shortcuts and an auto-pause function let you start and stop whenever you need to.
 * Two fun ways to play -- directed Story Mode and a classic open-ended mode.

Neighborhoods
The Sims Castaway Stories shipped with two pre-made neighborhoods and a Tutorial neighborhood. There are no playable Sub-neighborhoods.


 * Learn to Play
 * If you are new to The Sims, check out these tutorials for a few basic guidelines on how to play.


 * Shipwrecked and Single
 * Very little is known about this remote tropical paradise. Its location isn't recorded on any chart or map. Wild animals prowl it's dense jungles, from the ominous volcanic crater to the wide sandy beaches. Lost and alone, can you survive long enough to find other castaways and meet Island Natives?


 * Wanmami Island
 * Wanmami Island is home to the local, the lost, and the long-range mariner. Rising majestically out of the vast blue ocean, the island looks inviting enough. There are numerous suitable places to make camp, and nothing particularly dangerous or ominous is visible from the water. The natives named it "Wanmami, after the fevered whimpering often heard from shipwreck survivors washed ashore on the beach.

Careers
There are three careers in The Sims Castaway Stories, each with a different general ratio of food to resources. Food is the amount of fish, coconuts, bananas, and papayas your Sim family has collected. Resources are the castaway version of simoleons and is used for build mode, buy mode, and buying on community lots. As in the Sims 2, castaways receive chance cards while they are working which can affect their career level and skills. Unlike in any of the other Sims games, in this game every career and level in that career starts and ends at the same time, although there are some differences between Adult, Teen/Elder, and Pet career times.

Cheats
Many of the cheats found in the Sims games as well as custom content that modify game behavior will not work in this game. However, most new meshes and recolors will work as well as some cheats.

Reception
The Sims Castaway Stories was generally well received. GameRankings has an average score of 77% based on 7 reviews, while MetaCritic has a score of 73%. PC Gamer (US) gave the game an 83%, praising the low system requirements, the music, the original setting, as well as the low retail price, but noting that there are a few bugs and long loading times. IGN gave the game an overall score of 7.3 out of 10, stating "The Sims Castaway Stories is the first game in the entire series that really feels different despite being based on the same engine and principles", but also saying that there is little to no replayability. Some critics enjoyed the game less than others, however. PC Zone said "By peddling this sort of single-minded crud to children EA are creating a new generation of absolute morons who won't be able to think one step ahead of themselves."

Comparison to other games in The Sims series
The clock format used in the game is represented visually instead of numerically. There are 8 orbs representing the 24 hours of the day, with 1 orb being equivalent to 3 hours.


 * The currency used in the game are Resources rather than Simoleons. Sims can choose a career as a Gatherer, Hunter, or Crafter in an effort to earn Food and Resources. All jobs have the same working hours and Sims are to work daily. However, there are no penalties for missing work.


 * All of the objects, clothing, and building tools available in the Sims series are designed to fit the Tropical and Tiki themes. Also, most of the icons used in the game are also designed to fit into the theme.


 * If a Sim wants to go to a community lot, they must go through a portal and go to adjacent lots, or they can simply use their map for instant travel.

The Sims Castaway allows multiple player profiles to be saved, saving the need to delete profiles to reset the game.
 * Unlike the other releases in the The Sims Stories series, The Sims Castaway Stories offers one 24-chapter story, compared to the Sims Life Stories and Pet Stories which offer two 12-chapter stories. Moreover, some of the rewards are not directly delivered to the main character. They have to dig at the shore to unlock them.

Barter Mode
In The Sims Castaway Stories, buy mode is turned into barter mode which is pretty much the same only there are 12, by function, object categories:
 * Survival - shelters, fire-places...
 * Seating - rock chairs, table chairs...
 * Surfaces - tables, coffee tables...
 * Beds - king-sized beds, small beds, hammocks, cribs...
 * Mirrors - small and big mirrors
 * Lightning - torches and candles
 * Cooking - stoves, old-fashioned dishwashers,grills, refrigerators...
 * Plumbing - toilets, showers, barrles, toddler potties...
 * Storage - storage trunks
 * Nature - decorative rocks, skeletons...
 * Decorations - totems, paintings, native decorations...
 * Fun - toddler objects, singing stones, arcade games, poker table, geyser...

Trivia

 * In The Sims 3, the "Action World" channel on TV shows the trailer for Castaway Stories.
 * This is the only Castaway game (Along with PSP and DS) that are reigon free and can be played on any reigon. The PS2 and Wii versions are reigon locked.
 * It is also the only non-handheld version that is reigon-free.
 * The Sims Castaway Stories features a lot of gameplay options from The Sims 2 expansion packs that have been released before Castaway Stories.
 * There are animals from Pets; monkeys, leopards, skunks and parrots and pet careers...
 * From Nightlife - attractions, turn offs and turn ons and furry...
 * From Seasons - fruit gathering (coconouts, bananas, papayas), rain and thunder, fishing, body temperature, weather machine, bug collecting, Marco Polo game...
 * From Bon Voyage - sea swimming, digging in the sand, geysers...

Gallery
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