Disclaimer: SimsVIP is in no way responsible for any cases of insanity, disfigurement, dismemberment, death, demonic possession, Holy Inquisition, Exterminatus, summonings of Cthulhu, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, mummy rot, being eaten by a shark, spontaneous human combustion, spontaneous human implosion, lycanthropy, or halitosis that may result from reading this article. Side-effects mild and similar to sugar pill. Thank you for reading.
Opening
Let me start with this pic:
Yes. That is the kraken, passing under the test sim I was using to see if there were any major glitches with my IP install. Scared me a bit that she may be about to be eaten, but then I remembered he prefers boats. Still, that is not the most comfortable thing to see, but it was just too cool not to snap a picture of.
CAS and Build/Buy
Let me start by saying that this EP at first struck me as content-light. And then I got to playing around with docks, houseboats, resorts, and scuba diving… and realized the content is there, but it’s just not always obvious at first. Resorts and the new modes of sea transportation, including houseboats, definitely have most of the EP’s content. Scuba diving rounds out most of what is left. What content is left is surprisingly versatile.
Take, for example, the All-In-One Bathroom. Bathrooms, in my builds, usually take up a lot of space I could easily use elsewhere… up until the introduction of this thing. It probably will cause me to rethink some of my building strategy and use it a lot more in commercial lots, just to enjoy the full utility of it.
The water transportation is also incredibly useful for a lot of worlds outside of IP. Sure, you can only scuba dive in Isla Paradiso, but take a place like Sunlit Tides where collecting gems can require your sim to swim. Now, they just hop on their aqua sled and boat out to the island. Overall, this makes a lot of world *coughSunlitTidescough* a bit more usable when it comes to those areas out in the middle of nowhere.
Oh, and for kicks, here’s a pic of a ghost on an AQUAAA SLED! And one of a review sim on a speedboat.
And a lovely shot of my sim in one of the outfits you can design using this EP (note I am not entirely certain how much of the outfit is from this EP, but the top and shoes definitely are)
And, just for kicks, here’s a tiny selection of shots of a houseboat I built; note that I am still in the process of improving it, so it will be a bit before it’s uploaded (mainly, once I figure out where to put the weather control device…)
And now, to move onto…
Holy sweet mother of… I swear, that thing is stalking me!
Scuba Diving
That picture pretty accurately describes the first couple ranks of the scuba diving skill.
Note this isn’t a bad thing; aside from the seashells you can find, this method is actually incredibly relaxing to watch… as long as you don’t end up with something similar to this image making you cringe:
Have I mentioned this thing stalked me so much I named it? Yes, you’re looking at Fluffy! Fluffy the Kraken.
Ultimately, I found scuba diving to be relaxing. Except for the sharks, cave monster, and Fluffy constantly stalking me… it was pretty much a nice, relaxing activity. In fact, it felt like a vacation. And then it struck me: This is a vacation EP, and it was designed to avoid the Travel system for the actual vacationing.
In fact, you can blame the relaxing tone on why this review is so late. I was a little reluctant to give up my relaxing playtime to actually write for a bit, but ultimately managed to drag myself out of it. Being able to befriend a mermaid, discover an island, and then turn my sim into a mermaid also helped; after all, I was still exploring content.
I even discovered some treasures on land… along with one hilarious stranding of a group of people that I know I wasn’t responsible for:
I ended up with six of those gnomes and I have no idea what I would do with them all.
Resorts
Ultimately, for testing resorts, I decided to try out two different ones: A resort I built myself, and an existing resort near 5 stars. Just for a difficulty comparison.
The resort I built myself will never see the light of day. I’m pretty certain the CDC declared even looking at it a health hazard. Plus, my map tester somehow managed to cause a temporal paradox that negated his own existence while trying to draw a map of the place… So if none of you remember a guy named MonkeyDanceDanceRevolution posting articles on this site, you now know why.
Anyway, getting a 4.5 star resort up to five stars proved not to be too difficult… so, if you’re like me and can’t build by Euclid’s rules to save your life some days, that may be an easier shortcut for you.
Overall, resort management isn’t actually that complicated. It’s mostly point, click, adjust price or menu. Occasionally, you deal with a complaint or suggesting by adding something. And, always keep the max number of highest-end repair crews you can. They will make your life MUCH easier.
Naturally, I have pictures of some of my work to the 4.5 star resort:
For those wondering how I altered the pool that way: Close the resort, wait until people are out of the pool, then select the pool tool and hold down Shift to delete pool parts. You can easily alter it in the way I did that way.
Lifeguards
This career also fits in with the general theme of the EP and, overall, is not actually that strenuous. Overall, your sim is paid to be at a beach and go into the waves or help people who need CPR. Aside from those two activities, your sim can scan the beach for those in trouble… or just relax and enjoy their time. The second option may be better, depending on how the day has gone.
To get an idea, some days will be like this:
But most I experienced were like this:
Yes, that is a drowning ghost featured in a couple of those pictures. And my sim is laying on her special lifeguard blanket with her lifeguard umbrella right beside her.
Overall, a relaxing profession… unless you’re trying to unlock an island in a hurry. Then, not so relaxing.
Conclusion
Ultimately?
This expansion pack is a vacation pack for your sims to relax in and enjoy themselves. It’s also a very relaxing pack, and the houseboats can afford some privacy (and zombie security!) that makes them well worth the effort. Plus, the seashells from snorkeling and scuba diving are nicely decorative. Well worth the money to buy.
And, when you do buy, make certain to say hello to Fluffy:
