The Sims Castaway Stories is the third and final game in The Sims Stories. It was released on January 29, 2008, with a port for Mac OS X released by Aspyr on March 17, 2008. Despite sharing a similar name with , The Sims Castaway Stories is not a PC port of the former game. An updated version of the Mac OS X port was released on December 10, 2015 to the Mac App Store by Aspyr for OS X Mavericks or later. After the announcement of macOS Catalina dropping support for 32-bit apps, Aspyr removed the port from the Mac App Store on June 17, 2019, though it still remains available to play for users on older versions of macOS who previously purchased the game.
Features
The Sims Castaway Stories features the choice of either playing in a story-driven mode titled "Shipwrecked and Single" or a more sandbox "Wanmami Island".
Shipwrecked and Single
In "Shipwrecked and Single" mode, the player is subjected to a scenario-driven style of gameplay. The player must choose whether to play as David Bennett, Jessica Knight, or a customized Sim, who boards a cruise ship for singles named Solomon Queen, only to have it crash and leave them drifting on the ocean clinging to a crate. The crate happens to float onto land, after which the player is left to help the Sim survive. This game is very controlled.
Wanmami Island
Gameplay on Wanmami Island is much more open-ended, enabling gameplay reminiscent of more traditional Sims games. The player is allowed to design their own Family and start Jobs as in The Jobs 5, The Jobs 6 & The Jobs 7.
Comparison to other ''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. Most of the icons used in the game are also designed to fit the theme.
If a Sim wants to go to a community lot, they must go through a portal and go to adjacent lots or use their map for instant travel.
Unlike the other releases in The Sims Stories series, The Sims Castaway Stories offers one 24-chapter story, compared to The Sims Life Stories and The Sims 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.
The Sims Castaway allows multiple player profiles to be saved, saving the need to delete profiles to reset the game. However, sometimes this may interfere with one of the other files.
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."
