Campus Life is like the sorority expansion pack for The Sims 3, albeit on a much smaller and less-detailed scale. The characters don’t age, and after a while they all look like Barbie dolls with different-colored hair. It has all the outward signs of a sorority but none of the heart. The designers of the game clearly received their information from movies such as “The House Bunny” and “Sydney White,” but it’s still incredibly addictive.
Here’s how the game works. You first customize your personal avatar, then she gets the great idea to build her own sorority! Now it’s up to you to make it the best house on campus. Of course, the only sorority you are really competing against is mean girl Prissie’s. To build your sorority, you work continuously to recruit new girls by hosting various recruiting events. These events range from luaus to movie and casino nights. As you recruit girls, you have to constantly upgrade your house by buying land and building new rooms.
To gain access to new recruits, you have to increase your style points by buying new clothes and increase your housing points by buying new furniture. Where does the money come from? Well, each girl has her own “career path” and donates the money she earns every three, six or eight hours to the sorority. To upgrade your sorority girl from a “link clicker” to “web developer” or “poker dealer” to “pit boss” you can take classes and earn school points. Throughout the game, you will receive various goals to complete. These range from making the campus greener to helping a runaway bride. Later in the game, boys even come into the picture!
Campus Life is simple. It requires no higher-level thinking, and is, by all standards, ridiculous. But beware: Although the game is free, they attempt to squeeze money from you by setting goals that require a higher-level currency called diamonds. The only way to really earn 199 diamonds, however, is by purchasing them.
For those of us who grew up on the original Sims, Campus Life is a blast from the past in which you can create your own virtual world for free and carry it with you at all times on your iPhone or iPad. It’s not quite the same, but it provides a quick fix for my Sims withdrawal. Plus, they just added pets. Who wouldn’t want an animated, doe-eyed Boxer?
