Assuming you have taken the plunge and decided to send your sims on a world adventure, you get the option to travel from either a computer or from the telephone. Personally, I find the latter to be easiest as a sim always has their phone on them at all times. Toddlers and babies must stay at home. For those wicked players who wanted to have their toddlers to check for firetraps or to distract the mummy while the rest of the party made their escape, that is out of the question. Children and older can go adventuring. You book where they are going, how many are going and how long they are staying. The length of the stay depends upon the visa points that have been accumulated per country. The default trip length is 3 days although Sims are free to come home earlier if they choose. From my own gameplay, I have only sent one adventurer at a time. However, I expect the principle to be the same. They either get into the car and start driving or a taxi comes for them.

A new loading screen comes up, accompanied by music relating to their destination and a few tips about what adventuring involves. Each trip does take time to load up. A few minutes, in fact, and it does not seem to get shorter the more often you go there. Enough time to psych yourself up for visiting a whole new world or get quite a few ideas about the place you are going ... and sometimes hints about places you are not going to.

Unless a sim is a seasoned traveller and have a Level 3 Visa for the country that they are visiting, they are limited to living at base camp, which is a place where our sims can sleep and have basic amenities to keep them going. It is not a hotel. Outside the base camp is a notice board from where our sims can seek adventure.

Base camps look different in each country. On the left, we see the base camp in China and on the right we see the base camp in France. These are the good ones as the base camp in Egypt is just a few tents and shacks. Whatever the country you are in, your sims are going to be roughing it.

Adventures come in the form of opportunities and can be found on the noticeboard or sometimes from a phonecall. A sim, who lives locally and for simplicity's sake I will call the patron, wants our adventurer to do something for them. One of these opportunities can comprise a complete adventure or a complete adventure can be made up of a long string of them. These adventuring opportunities can be very varied. Some can be quite simple, such as taking a photograph of a flower, or relaying a message from one sim to another. Other ones involve going on a scavenger hunt for a patron who wants various items. Yet another I have played involved some martial arts sparring with a local green belt. However, with all three countries, the first adventure involves exploring a local tomb.

For tomb exploration, it is advisable for sims to stock up on the essentials and that entails a visit to the market. Each town has one and they can be easily found on the map. The first opportunity always entails going to the general store. Like the base camps, they all look different but have similar purposes. The market comprises of several shops, each offering a different service. One deals in books, one deals in relics, another one provides food but the most important one for adventuring newbies sells goods that cannot be bought at home.

I am pleased to find that the shops in the markets are not like the rabbit holes of Sunset Valley and Riverview. Although a similar interface comes up for buying things, you actually get to go into the store and either interact with the storekeeper or their cash register.

Tents, dried food and several Shower In A Cans are some of the basic but essential provisions that are necessary for extended adventures. Dried food is not that essential if a sim has an inventory full of fruit and vegetables from home, though, as they can eat what they already have. Nevertheless, it is useful to stock up just in case.

Adventuring is exciting in its own way. Compared to something like the "Tomb Raider" series of games, it is a lot simpler but there are still puzzles to solve and a sim wants to come out of there alive. It is simple in that if a sim gets the option to investigate part of a wall, it means there is probably a secret door behind it. However, the adventures are still challenging in themselves. Our intrepid sim adventurers can come across piles of debris that need clearing before they can proceed. There are pressure plates that need to be kept down in order for a doorway to remain unlocked. If a sim is on their own, how do they proceed? That's what you will have to find out. As well as secret doors, there are traps of various types to deactivate or get past as easily as possible. There are also water pools that can hold various riches and secrets or just be useful to jump into in the event the sim happens to have caught fire. Yes, it can happen. Actually, I will go out on a limb here. It will happen.

Although challenging in its own way and sims having exciting adventures, the general feel of it will differ somewhat from adventure-focussed games like "Tomb Raider". Lara Croft does not have to stop for a shower or to have anything to eat, nor does she need to have any sleep during the course of getting through a level. Our sims, however, do. After some heavy adventuring, they will get tired, they will start to smell and get hungry. You will not find shower facilities, snack machines or a mattress in a tomb. That is why our adventuring sims should have the means to sort things out themselves. There is usually somewhere in a tomb where a sim can set their tent up. Somewhat unrealistic, but this is the sims and we should be prepared to accept some quirks like this. In a similar vein, I would always recommend that adventurers go to the toilet before going out on what could be a long adventure, though. Getting the "steel bladder" lifetime reward might be advantageous in this case.

Successful completion of opportunities and reporting back to the patron is similar to completing opportunities back in Sunset Valley or Riverview. The adventurer is rewarded. As well as simoleons, the reward can come in visa points or ancient coins. Visa points accumulate over time and the greater the class of visa, the longer the sim can stay if they come back again. Ancient coins are local currency that is only valid in the countries of adventure and can only be spent on special items for sale from a special trader.

Each sim has an adventure journal in which is kept a summary of their activities. However, it does not include detail on specific adventures and where a tomb may not have been completely explored. From conversing with my colleagues, one thing that we have learnt from our adventuring at TSZ is to make notes. It is too easy to forget where we have seen something or need something. Sometimes, a place deserves a second or third or even fourth visit as there is more to be found than we may initially realise. A sim's actions in one country can even influence events in Egypt or China. In this case, that rock in this Egyptian tomb that is blocking access to that treasure chest cannot be broken without a special axe from China. I have to make notes to remember to come back once I have that axe.

I find adventuring to be strangely addictive. Once I have completed one opportunity, I am checking my sim's needs to see if they can immediately get on with the next part. I have come across the same adventure thread in Egypt about two or three different times, though. However, I am nevertheless pleased with what there is. Sadly, though, every trip has to come to an end and our sims go home to recount their glories. Alas, they cannot return immediately but I know in my case, my adventurers are happier abroad now than they were in Sunset Valley.