Okay, so I'm here to review the Sims 4. Wow, excitement builds, the fourth game in the series with new sims that are "so smart, it's weird!" As the dramatic music plays you can see a montage of sims with more cartoonish looks engaging in the same usual activities but with more or less vigour, depending on their mood.
Yes, ladies and gentleman, the Sims 4 is here and actually has been here for a while. The idea is, EA took out pools, toddlers, create a style, and the sandbox aspect of the game in exchange for a complex emotion system and a game that supposedly runs faster. And yes, the loading screens are like ten times faster than the Sims 3 (although maybe that's just because I played the Sims 3 on an older laptop).
So, your question is, is it worth it? And I am here to give you a long and complicated answer. You're welcome.
I am not a lifetime simmer but I did recently get a new PC laptop and I hope to one day be able to install the majority of the sims games and expansion packs on it, but who knows. I don't have that much time and definitely do not have that much money.
Back to the Sims 4. When I first started playing this, I really liked it. Before I got the game I'd watch Youtuber's Let's Play the Sims 4 series and I'd get all excited. And I do like the emotions system. It adds a lot of story to the game. But after playing the game for two days, I missed the sandbox part of the game a lot because every time my household was on different lots, keeping track of both of them was just impossible and I'd just have to trust their now opinionated self judgement on what to do.
I was getting bored with the new game, so I decided to create a bit of a challenge for myself.
I don't know how many of you have seen the Alice and Kev series, a story about a homeless father-and-daughter duo that was honestly way too touching and sad for a simulated game. It's the best. I decided to try that.
Now in Sims 3, if you randomly started sleeping in someone else's house they would shoo you out. You had to be careful not to overstay your welcome. In the Sims 4, however, that is not there entirely. Being homeless was the easiest thing ever. I invaded the BFF's lot and lived there the entire game before getting bored.
Another thing I discovered is if you have multiple games in the Sims 4, all your characters will still live on their lots in each others games. This sounds a bit confusing. I had two sims living on a blank lot in my first game, and then made a new game and had my new sim live on a different blank lot. I could still see my first poorly created roofless house and when I married into the BFF family I could still see their friendship with my created sim from my first game. This raises a lot of questions about whether the story goes on and if my sims from the first game will age up without me etc., but I'm not planning to invest enough time into the game to find out. Already I miss the Sims 3 a lot.
Personally for me, the good stuff and the bad stuff in this game do not add up and I prefer the Sims 3. But hey, maybe this will change when EA add expansion packs. A bit of university life and seasons would probably spice things up!
I do like the Create a Sim though. The click and drag thing works for me. And I haven't had a chance to miss Create a Style much because Create a Style did take forever to load, anyway.
xxMelissa P
