So I said I wasn’t going to buy it. But then I bought it.
I had read about how “downgraded” Sims 4 was going to be – and still being very much into the Sims 3, I figured, why waste my time? It actually kinda sounded awful. But then I read a review that said that yes, the world is smaller, there’s not as much stuff – and that was a good thing, as it didn’t feel so overwhelming. Reading that put me back in the mindset of like, old Sims 1 and 2 and piqued my curiosity.
I had some money I’d been squirreling away, planning to use it for Elsa – but I spent it on Sims (I was going to wait and use birthday money, but now I’ll use birthday money for Elsa).
So far, after playing for a couple of days… the bad:
1. Crashed once, which is not terrible all things considered. Sims 2 was way buggier and crashed all the time for me.
2. Had a sim completely disappear right before dying. No Grim Reaper, no death animation, no gravestone, it was like she never existed for the other sims. Weird.
3. The controls are very different and hard to get used to, and hate how you have to rotate now.
4. No color controls/color picker for objects/hair, etc. Seems like that would be easy enough to have in there.
5. Cheats. Some of the cheats are missing – namely “make friends for me,” unless I’m missing it somewhere.
With that out of the way, here’s my list of good:
1. The Sims looks awesome. SO MUCH better than Sims 3. Their face structure and facial expressions are vastly improved. I’ve seen people complain about the cartoony, flat look of the characters and world – but I like it.
2. Smaller world. Like I said above. I really like that there’s not 100 some odd lots to figure out what’s where. I can’t tell you how many times I need to go buy a book for a skill and couldn’t figure out where the dang bookstore was on the map. There’s not as much stuff to sift through when building a lot or a sim (and I didn’t even have any of the “STUFF” expansion packs!). Honestly, I tended to stick with the same set of objects in Sims 3, and rarely dug through everything that was available.
3. Smart phones easily at hand – text another sim, find a job, etc, much quicker and faster than before.
4. Interactions. The new interactions are great. The different interactions and options they get when feeling a certain way is a lot of fun. (I’ve had two sims die of embarrassment already, which I guess says a lot about me.)
5. Updated clothes. FINALLY some clothes that don’t look like some weird generic version of what we were wearing 15-20 years ago. There’s actually cute, modern stuff.
6. FAST LOADING! HOLY WOW. This is the fastest loading Sims game I think I’ve ever had. With Sims 3, I had to get it started, then go off and make a sandwich while it loaded. And even then when I came back it usually wasn’t done. Even shutting down took like a full minute to save and shut down. Sims 4 I can hop on and be playing within a minute. It’s amazing.
7. Sim builder is awesome. Being able to just click and move parts of the face to change their look is top notch.
Wants for future:
1. More hairstyles/clothes. I love what is currently available. I want MORE! And I feel like the face editing could easily be extended to hair – start with a basic style and move the bangs around, length, etc. That’d be rad. (But, if they did that, they couldn’t sell us more hair styles in the Sims store, so I guess we won’t see that)
2. More job options. I don’t mind that the sims “disappear” when they go to work/school (nor do I mourn the loss of professions), but the options now are really basic. I’m sure they’ll add more with expansions, but even getting a batch of new jobs in one expansion pack (like “Ambitions” did for Sims 3) – it would still feel kinda bare. It could use more. I mean, there’s no politician job branch for my Hermiones or Leias! LOL (sidenote, the fact that one of the empty lots is called “Potter’s Splay” about made me snort my drink up my nose when I initially put my Harry Potter family there.)
3. More personality attributes. Another section that feels bare. I’d say there’s not enough negative/strange attributes. I like to make a lot of different characters, and it’s already feeling repetitious because “normal” sims are boring.
4. Pools. Yeah I miss them. Not a ton. It’s not a dealbreaker. But I’d like to have them back in some form.
5. Ghosts. C’mon, you gotta have scary ghosts walking around and disrupting sleep and scaring the sims who are left. That’s the best part of the survivor games…