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In the context of the Sims games, open world functionality is that a player and their active household can explore much of the streets and terrains of worlds and neighborhoods that are not part of lots, and without particularly long loading times. It is predominantly associated with the The Sims 3 generation of games and spin-offs, with only a few other games in the franchise having similar functions. In comparison, The Sims 4 scaling it back to various divided neighborhoods within its worlds is a very commonly cited criticism of the game.

The Sims Bustin' Out (handheld)

In The Sims Bustin' Out (handheld), SimValley consists of circa 10 sections, the loading times between which are less than a second each. The player Sim is free to explore streets and some bits of terrain at will, and off-lot objects including bathrooms and barbecues are of high importance during the Story Mode.

The Urbz: Sims in the City (handheld)

In The Urbz: Sims in the City for Nintendo GBA and DS, the city of Miniopolis is divided into three districts: Urbania, Sim Quarter, and Glasstown.

The player's Urb initially begins in Glasstown, before being sent to Urbania. After the tutorial, they are restricted to Urbania and must complete story-based missions to access the Sim Quarter, before returning to Glasstown for the last section of the main story. Along the way, they will also visit the Bayou, Paradise Island, and Splicer Island.^{[URBZ DS]} Similarly to Bustin' Out, each district permits free roaming, with loading times between districts taking less than a second.

MySims

In story-based MySims games for the Nintendo DS, the open world follows a similar scheme to Bustin' Out and The Urbz for handheld, though buildings are modeled as opposed to sprite-based. The neighborhood is divided into different zones, each connected by roads.

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The Sims 3

Whereas earlier PC games in the franchise only allowed traveling directly from the home lot to another lot, The Sims 3 allows Sims to not only explore the streets, but to venture far off-path into canyons and trails to hunt for various collectibles, including bugs, gems, and space rocks.

The Sims 3 (console)

In The Sims 3, as well as The Sims 3: Pets, the neighborhood is divided into a distinct number of zones. These zones are traversable by accessing the Town Map and viewing a map tag, where the boundaries of each zone will then be highlighted.

Both Moonlight Bay and Sugar Maple Coast are comprised of 12 zones. Only one zone can be loaded at a time. However, in The Sims 3, when loading zones, the camera will often quickly pan over the entire neighborhood after the initial loading screen, revealing the geography of the world (similar to the PC version). This appears to occur more frequently when loading Build/Buy mode while in a different zone, far away from the home lot.

Developer commands in The Sims 3: Pets^{[note 1]} contain a free camera mode, allowing the player to zoom out and see the world in its entirety, revealing that the neighborhood is mostly intact, with lots culled out/in a low level-of-detail state. Forcing the camera around the edges of each zone can show the nearby district in a similar state during normal gameplay.

The Sims 3 (Wii)

In The Sims 3 (Wii), the player Sim is free to explore at least large parts of Vista Beach, including the streets and extensive beaches. Due to the game being extremely taxing on Wii hardware, short loading times of 1-3 seconds can occur frequently at random.

The Sims 3 (Nintendo DS)

In The Sims 3 (Nintendo DS), the player Sim can step off their home lot, and after some seconds of loading can explore large parts of Beacon Bay at will, including its various parks and at least one beach. There are however some shell-like community lots like Dance Club that require an additional loading screen to enter and leave.

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The Sims 3 (other versions)

The Nintendo 3DS games (The Sims 3 (Nintendo 3DS) and The Sims 3: Pets (Nintendo 3DS)) do not have open world functions, and instead use the same direct-lot-to-lot loading screen and gameplay mechanics as in The Sims 2.

The Sims 4

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References