The Sims have always been something of an anomaly. The game play really is unlike anything else on the market, putting you in charge of a virtual household and the residents that dwell within. Whilst many players quickly devolve into seeing how much pain and suffering they can inflict on their poor subjects just as many attempt to provide the best life possible for them. Most interestingly it’s one of the very few games where the player base is predominantly female, representing a staggering 60% of the total. This is not to say it’s squarely aimed at that demographic, far from it, as it appears to have widespread appeal across all the world. The latest release, predictably dubbed The Sims 4, comes 5 years after the release of its predecessor and brings with it a vast number of improvements to the tried and true franchise.
As with all previous The Sims titles you’re the mysterious god that floats about the world that the Sims dwell within, guiding their actions when their less-than-stellar AI behaviour falls short. Depending on how you crafted your Sim they’ll have different wants, needs and career paths in life and it’ll be your job to ensure that they can meet all of them. Along the way you’ll interact with dozens of other Sims, forming relationships, breaking others and engaging in other humanesque behaviours. What kind of Sim will you create? The rich and handsome playboy that could have everything he wants? Or the struggling single parent who wants nothing more than to see their child succeed? All of this, and so much more, is possible within the world of the Sims.
The Sims has never been a graphical masterpiece, preferring simplicity so that the game would run well on almost any PC that you could throw at it. The Sims 4 continues this tradition as the graphics, whilst vastly improved over its predecessors, are still fairly rudimentary. There’s been improvements in the lighting engine, higher polycount models and better textures to be seen everywhere but they’ve still been heavily stylized to give it a cartoony feel. The Sims 4 keeps the same visual aesthetic that the previous titles had with the clean interface design that favours solid, clear cut colours. Overall it’s pretty much what you’d expect from a Sims game so no disappointments here.
Like the previous Sims titles The Sims 4 puts you, initially, in charge of a single Sim that you craft through a rather detailed process. In there you select traits, characteristics and aspirations which define who your Sim will be in this world. Then you’re given a token amount of money and let loose to find a property or lot that you want to purchase. You’ll need to make some tough decisions here though as your choice of house, and the fixtures contained within it, will have a direct effect on how your Sim fairs. Once you’re in your new house you’ll unlock a veritable cornucopia of different things to do, all of which have some form of impact on your Sims mood, desires and needs. All of the activities that you’ll do will feel familiar to long term Sims players although the breadth of what’s possible has increased significantly.
One thing that I feel bears mentioning is just how well designed the new interface is. My vague memories of The Sims 3 reminded me that it took quite a long time to figure out where everything was, drastically increasing the time it took me to get anything done in that world. By comparison The Sims 4 interface is amazing with everything being readily discoverable and being incredibly easy to use. The search and rooms features on the construction menu are fantastic, allowing you to easily track down the exact product you’re looking for without wrestling with the interface. After about an hour I was pretty confident I had a grasp on pretty much everything with the few finer points covered off in help tips whenever I came across them.
The core game play aspects of the Sims series are present in The Sims 4, giving you a variety of different objectives complete. Whilst there are some staple things you have to accomplish in order to keep your Sim happy, like feeding them or making sure they use the bathroom before its too late, you’re pretty free to pursue whatever you want at your own leisure. I primarily like to produce career focused Sims and so my playtime usually revolves around that. However if that’s not your style there’s plenty of other things to keep you occupied although, honestly, I couldn’t really tell you much about the things outside the career focused ones.
And yes getting someone to move in with you is a career choice (don’t have to leave the house for the social need, score!).
Like most Sims games it’s pretty easy to cheese your way through certain things if you make a few key decisions in the right way. For instance, if you’re so inclined, purchasing the best sink you can get means your Sims barely have to shower as simply washing your hands will keep them going for a very long time. Similarly you can eliminate a lot of wasted time by cooking party sized meals and just eating them over and over again. Indeed your Sims don’t seem to get tired of eating the same thing repeatedly and once your cooking skill is high enough they’re just as satisfied with eggs on toast as they are with a gourmet blackened salmon dish.
In fact that’s probably my biggest gripe with The Sims 4. Whilst there might be a huge variety in what you can do it all starts to feel really samey after a not too long period of time. This becomes all too obvious when you’re trying to befriend someone and you’re constantly spamming all the different options with the results usually being the same gibberish response and a ++ in the friendly column. This is usually when most people start to unleash their sadistic side on their Sims, removing doors, making prisons or denying them food and facilities until something horrible happens. I’ll admit that I was too attached to mine to do anything (I even enabled cheats to reverse the aging of one of my Sims, forgetting that you can turn that off in the options menu) but I can’t say I wasn’t tempted.
There seems to be a lot of gripes circling the Internet regarding the features that have been taken out, like toddlers and pools, as well as the somewhat unusual decision to not send out review copies. I think most of these criticisms are valid as whilst there does seem to be a lot to do in The Sims 4 it does feel a little limited compared to my vague memories of its predecessor. In all honesty it didn’t affect my playthrough too much (although I’d love multiplayer in this) but then again I wouldn’t consider myself the biggest Sims fan out there. Indeed I doubt I’ll barely touch it past this review as I’ve pretty much done all I really wanted to do in it.
The Sims 4 is an evolutionary step forward for the Sims franchise, bringing with it all the trimmings you’d expect for recent release of this classic series. The graphics, interface and overall playability has been greatly increased making it much less of a chore to get into than previous entrants into this series were. There’s an incredible amount of depth to the mechanics that made it into the game however the criticisms around lack of content and certain features do feel like valid concerns to me. Overall I enjoyed my time with The Sims 4 and whilst I won’t be sinking many more hours into it I’m sure fans of the series will get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
Rating: 7.5/10
The Sims 4 is available on PC right now $89.95. Total play time was 8 hours.
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