The folks over at Digital Chocolate have decided to offer us a brand new game that tries to take on EA’s The Sims Social with a similar concept that offers a life simulation but with enough twists and different mechanics to consider New in Town a brand new game that really has a lot to offer to gamers all ages. Read on this review to see if New In Town is worth playing or not.

First of all, it’s pretty obvious that Digital Chocolate is trying to appeal to the female audience this time with their game, but this doesn’t mean necessarily that men won’t like it: I had, for example, a pretty good time with the game myself.

Just like the title suggests, you will be placed in the shoes of a character (that you create) that’s new in the “Big Town”. Fresh out of college and with plans to start a new life, you will begin your adventure in the game for fame and fortune and everything in between.

There are a lot of differences between New in Town and The Sims Social. For example, in Digital Chocolate’s title you can get a job – and actually switch jobs and get better paid ones as you learn more skills or get better at them. You’ll start low, as it usually happens in life, but with hard work and dedication, you will become a top paid employee that can afford whatever he or she wants.

This means that there are courses you should take to improve your skills, actually go to work and even hang out with your friends. They will be those who give you the missions in the game and keep the story going: interesting enough, New In Town presents these missions as Challenges that basically have you compete against your virtual friends (the Non-Playing Characters) to complete the missions. They also record their own progress, but I haven’t got beaten by them yet so probably it’s just a trick to keep you going and add some extra challenge, without making it impossible for the players.

Another interesting concept that has been brought in to New In Town by Digital Chocolate is that of real days: your character will have to eat and sleep and each day will give him or her a limited number of action points (as opposed to the classic energy) that you must decide how to spend: learn new skills to get better jobs but work less and get less money or work more but ignore your skills and increase the risk of being unable to get a better job: all these (and more, of course) choices that we usually have to make in real life are here in the game, adding to the challenge and realism.

One thing that New In Town doesn’t manage to do as good as The Sims Social is the home of the character: it’s not like the one in The Sims, where basically your main goal is to make for yourself a house as beautiful as possible. But that doesn’t really matter, since Digital Chocolate’s focus on other important aspects will make you forget about the ton of customization elements available in The Sims Social.

In conclusion, I can say that New In Town is a pretty interesting game that manages to bring in a very solid concept with many changes and improvements over EA’s Sims Social and will certainly prove a pleasant experience for all the gamers on Facebook. So head over to the game’s app page and give New In Town a try. And don’t forget to let us know what you think about it!