For The Sims: Castaway Stories, I believe we can dispense with the usual introductory summary of an add-on game's core title. If you don't know what The Sims is, and haven't seen any news or features of it since it debuted in 2000, then you really need to quit your job and start reading IGN more. The Sims: Castaway Stories is the newest game in the long-running franchise. It's a stand-alone game, needing neither The Sims, The Sims 2, nor The Sims: Life Stories to play. It's built on the The Sims 2 engine, although this is the first Sims game that truly feels different despite the coattails it is riding.
But before we tell you about the new features, we need to discuss the intention of the game. The Sims has always been a rather resource-heavy game that drained the life out of many a processor, especially when the series switched to an all-3D graphical appearance with The Sims 2. The myriad of expansion packs and "stuff packs" just made the game (and its technical requirements) that much higher. Personally, my Sims save folder is 1.11 gigabytes large, and that doesn't include the backups I frequently make.
So early last year, Electronic Arts came up with a solution: make a modified version of The Sims that is slightly dumbed down so it can run on machines that are below the gaming curve, especially laptops. To that end, The Sims: Life Stories, The Sims: Pet Stories, and now The Sims: Castaway Stories all succeed. We ran the game on a couple different machines, including a low-end rig that barely met minimum requirements, and it ran without a hitch (provided you keep the graphical settings low). So far, so good.
With the technical issues out of the way, what is there of the game itself? Naturally, The Sims is all about taking care of your little virtual people as they live their virtual lives, while you either play God by ordering their every action, or watch them act on their own accords with the Free Will option turned on. Again, nothing new, and nothing you haven't heard before.
However, what makes Castaway Stories different is the setting. Rather than housing your Sims in houses while they juggle work and family crises, your Sims now find themselves on a tropical island with no escape. Jobs in the game are replaced with survival options: you can tell your Sims to work as hunters, gatherers, or crafters. This will make their "job" on the island to go out and find food and the generically named "resources." The latter gives you the ability to buy items, and the former gives you the ability to avoid staring into the Grim Reaper's beady undead eyes for at least another few hours.
Strangely, despite being Sims players since literally day one, we were rather amazed at how very different the changes felt even if they, strictly speaking, were only name changes. That is, whether a shower costs 600 Simoleons (in the core game) or 480 resources (in Castaway Stories), you're still exchanging Item A for Item B. This isn't exactly the miracle feeling that will convert non-Sims fans to pick up the game, but regardless, there was something extremely appealing about the concept.
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