Just as a disclaimer, I am still learning the game. Unfortunately, I don't have as much time as I'd like to invest in it, so I haven't even played through a full generation. I'm just gonna apologize in advance for any inaccuracies I may accidentally state.
So if you like the Sims, I'm sure you've already seen how amazing the Create a Sim tool is in this latest version. Just in case, though, let me reiterate: IT IS AMAZING! It's also very user friendly, so that's a nice change from the advanced options of the Sims3 version of Create a Sim, which made all my Sims look like something from nightmares (OK, I mean, I may have made my Sims 4 sim look like a man, but now she's a hot man instead of a creepy horror side show!). I know you can go to YouTube and watch all kinds of sims wizards do amazing custom things in the Sims 3, but that's never how it worked out for me
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| My sims looked more like this |
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| I mean, check out this Nigel Thornberry that someone made - SMASHING |
The build functions also have some new goodies, for instance: Can I get a hallelujah! You can put the stairs next to the wall! Also, I'm digging the pre-made rooms, they make things pretty easy. And, oh my gosh! the kitchen islands can actually be made into islands. I know that there was a hack in the Sims 3 that let you place objects wherever you wanted, regardless of boundaries of the other objects, but other than that, you could never have a true kitchen island. BOOM! now you can have the island, and it all connects, and you can set up some bar stools, and I like it. AND you can change the height of the windows, so nice. Plus, the foundations have been updated, so there are a ton of patterns, and you can have them at different levels in case you wanna make, like, a split level house. But again, the advanced design tool is missing from this part of the game as well. At least everything has been updated, so the preset options are wayyyyyyy better than in the Sims 3. I feel like I'm decorating my house, not my grandma's. Hopefully, we will get that ability to customize back in future expansions. I'm not really sure why it was taken out in the first place.
One thing that I actually really do not like is the interaction between your sim and the world. In Sims 3, you could switch between the world view and your sim's house very easily. In this Sims, there is no switching back and forth. To move your sim around the world, you have to first click on the road, then click travel, then a new screen loads so you can get to the world map, and then you can finally click where you want your sim to travel. This is obnoxious, and you have to deal with two loading screens. Plus there aren't very many places to travel ... there's a total of about five, really (and the houses). I'm hoping that as more expansions come out there will be more places to move around, but the world is pretty small so I'm not sure how it will work. To make matters worse, when you travel with one sim, you no longer have the capability to control the other sims you leave behind. So, you find this out, and you're like, "oh, that's ok, I'll just queue them up a bunch of actions and then switch back and forth between the two groups. Problem solved, I'm so smart". NOPE, once you switch, whatever actions you've made them do are cancelled. Poop on a stick. Of course the game does run smoother with this set-up, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Unfortunately, I don't know if they plan on changing this part back, they may keep it this way.
The aging mechanic in this game has changed a lot, too. Every day brings your sim closer to their birthday, but once their birthday comes, they don't automatically age up. One of your sims must bake a birthday cake, and then the aging sim must interact with the cake in some way to age up. This is kinda cool, because you get to control at what point your sims age. I'm assuming that this also means if you do not want your sim to age and die, then it doesn't have to. At this point, I have not played through a full generation in the game, though, so I don't know for sure. Along those lines, the new options for the sims lifetime are definitely a negative change in my opinion. You now have the many varied choices of: short, normal, or long lifespan. Not much personal input there. Before, you could actually dictate how many days the sims spent in each portion in their life, but now there's no option for that. So, if you liked the children, but didn't like the toddlers or teenagers, you could extend one portion and shorten another portion. I suppose you can still do an early age up with the cake, but I don't think that option was something they needed to take out of the game.
If you make a baby sim, however, you will notice an odd thing about the new sim society: there are no toddlers. I mean, your toddler didn't really do much before anyway, except make life more complicated (kinda like real life). But it is weird that your sim baby just skips an entire life stage, like, nope, not important, fuck learning to talk and walk. I am happy that potty training is no longer necessary, though.
I have heard a few people say that the game is a bit glitchy, and yeah, I've seen a few. But honestly, there were way more in the Sims 3, and I kinda expect a bit of glitchiness in any game this new. While playing, I've personally only had to witness two times when it glitched on me. Once, my sim got frozen in place for about an hour sim time, and another time the bowl my sim was eating from got glitched onto her hand in an awkward way (thankfully I haven't experienced the creepy baby glitch). I may see more as I keep playing the game, but I also expect that there will be some patches coming out to smooth out any of the big ones.
Okay, so in all the commercials for the new game, they advertise that the new sims are so smart it's weird, and it's kinda true. New emotions, new interactions... overall the game is just better. I don't want to tell you all the emotions and ruin your experience of the game, but seriously this new one is better. It just is. The emotions they have now are on a much wider spectrum than the old happy to sad/mad emotions, which depend on their 6 bars and then small buff/debuffs that the sim receives. And that can be easily overcome by having a well decorated house. There are a TON of emotions this time around, and their emotions are affected by their jobs/ school, by social interactions, by their current action, and even, weirdly, by certain decor. And the emotions will affect game play, so just like in real life, they are actually important. Seriously, though, in the Sims 3, your sim dies and all the other sims are like, "I'm in mourning, but I'm still really happy, 'cause, man, the decor in here is off the charts. But don't worry, I'll cry out every 4 hours or so, so you know I'm still mourning". I'm actually a bit worried about what's gonna happen this time when my sims finally die.
The game is overall much more realistic as well. I already mentioned that the clothing and build functions are modernized. You can no longer can socialize at work/ school without affecting performance, which means your sim will actually have to get friends. They may even have to leave their house! WHAT! You mean, I can't just hang out at work and talk and still get promoted? .. Bummer. Speaking of promotions, they are harder to get this time around. There are actually requirements for promotions. You know, kinda like in real life. They have also increased the amount of decisions that you make for your sim while they are at work and school, which makes the game a bit more interactive. Your sims move smoother and more realistic, and they do things, and you're just like, I do that shit too! Like make phone calls on the toilet. And when you tell them to get out of bed, they actually get up instead of wasting an hour complaining about how you ruined their sleep. Tough shit, my alarm wakes me up all the time. Not to mention, if you don't make your sim workout they will get fat. They will get fat rolls on their back. But, not only do they gain weight, it's a slow process. They don't go from fat, to normal, to skinny, to muscular. They slowly put on weight, and they slowly lose it, just like freaking real life. It's awesome. You can slowly see muscles coming in. Obviously, this makes me super excited because I help people work out for a living, and I love seeing their results happening.
One thing that was added to the game, that I really think is awesome, is that now children have lifetime wishes and a special set of skills. The child's wish is like a normal kid's wish. I'm not sure what they all are, my sims only had one kid, but her goal was to be the smartest kid in school. They also have special skills: motor, social, mental, and creative. They can level up to 10 like normal skills, and then they unlock normal skills related to the category. For example, maxing the mental skill (child), unlocks the logic skill (adult), but maxing the motor skill doesn't unlock the athletic skill. Even when the child skills are leveled out, however, it doesn't seem to add to the regular adult skills. I'll need to play through more at the child level to really figure out what happens if you don't max all the skills and other stuff. Side note: When the children play the violin it sounds horrible.
Lifetime wishes have multiple stages now, too. So you have multiple mini goals, which finally culminate in your sim achieving their lifetime goal. I think it makes you more invested in the end goal, and makes it seem like more of an achievement. Plus, it adds a little bit of complexity, which I like.
But so far, what has really made the game worth it for me are all the little ridiculous things that have happened. I don't want to tell you guys all of them, cause discovering them makes the game so awesome, but I'll let you in on a few of my favorites:
My child sim was bullied at school and she came home angry. She had to use the toilet when she came home so I clicked on it and saw the option "Take an angry poop". After I finished wiping the tears from my eyes from laughing, she took that angry poop. She took that poop, her anger emote went away. Ridiculous. I died. So keep in mind, everyone, next time you're mad - the solution is simple: just go poop.
As a personality option, your sim can be a bro. This is hysterically awesome to me. Maybe it just hit me in my giggle box at the right time, but I'm giving it up to EA for expanding the game and making it so interesting. Also, I made my sister into a bro sim. Her interactions are fantastic.
Awkwardly, your sims now get feedback from their partners about how good is the woo hoo, and it affects their emotions. The other day my sim got embarrassed, cause the woohoo wasn't that great.
And for all of you who are missing certain things from the Sims 3, keep in mind that there are bound to be a ton of expansions coming out for this game. This is just the base game so far, and look how amazing it already is. I can't wait for the new expansions to come out. My personal favorite was the seasons expansion, and I can't wait for more.
If you've been playing the new sims, let me know what your favorite parts are in the comments!
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