Sim: Ah, van vesua. Cummuns nala
Me: Uh. What?
Sim: Gerb woof em
Me: I don’t understand you! Just like I don’t understand your new game!
The Sims 4, the newest in a line of Life Simulator games developed by EA Maxis and their The Sims Studio. Bringing the Sims into the new generation almost 5 years after The Sims 3 with improved graphics, streamlined graphic user interface and new features like multitasking and drag and drop customisation to make this release the easiest to use yet.
Gameplay
Sim: Benzi chibna looble bazebni gweb
The Sims 4 carries on in its usual fashion of, make a person then control how they live just like any other simulator game would for their main purpose. Before starting a new game you will go into Create a Sim to make your own person to control, from there you choose a plot of land or a readily made house to move your Sim into, from there on out it’s a fight for survival and entertainment for your Sim as they go about their lives.
Create a Sim has become a more hands on process with the added feature of being able to mouse over a part of the Sims body then dragging that part to widen, lengthen, make them more square or pointed and their position, for example you can drag your nose down so it droops, your chest outward to have a bulky look or your eyes to become smaller. After making the body for your Sim you move onto creating their wardrobe, from everyday attire and formal wear to bathing suits. Besides the physical look of your Sim you also choose their traits and aspirations, will they be a music lover, a snob or even a nerd?
Once in the world of The Sims you have complete control over your Sim, placing them in a house then controlling their daily routine; going to the toilet, showering, eating, working out, getting a job or lazing around all day. Everything your Sim does changes their moodlets and needs, moodlets changing to them becoming sad with being all alone in a big empty house or even inspired to write a new song, needs being the major factor of your Sim’s health including their bladder, stomach and if they need to sleep.
What’s new and what’s gone
Sim: Awasa poa
A lot of people have complained at what is missing from this release that has been in the previous versions, some of the features aren’t too overwhelming of a loss, toddlers for one aren’t something I miss dearly. The biggest missing feature for me has to be the Create a Style and the customisations options you had for your Sim, as I would go about adding black and white checkers to several part of my Sims outfit back in the Sims 3 but now I am merely restricted to having a few pre-set colours for the different articles of clothing. This also extends to the colour options for clothes and hair, when you could select up to 4 different colours per part of clothing and parts of the hair, with highlights, tips, roots and main colour of hair, with now only being able to select 1 colour.
The world has also been condensed a whole lot from previous release, The Sims 4 only has your house, a few other houses and around 4-6 other buildings of use which are normal community buildings like a Gym, park or museum. Your Sim always disappears into the Aether for work and doesn’t really “go” anywhere, the same for community lots feeling too spread out and detail-less in comparison to what could have been done with them.
Besides what’s been taken out a few new features have been added in which are definitely welcome, the drag and drop in create a Sim being on one of them. Building a house is a lot quicker with the styled room’s options, simply pick a room design a place it down and you have a readymade functioning room in seconds without the need to arrange furniture or keep things aligned. Building manually feels a lot faster as well, with room shapes as options for walls so you can make a house with one mouse movement.
Multitasking, oh the multitasking, in previous games the closest you got to combining actions was sitting down and talking, in the Sims 4 it has been expanded so much. You can now join in group conversations, increasing your friendships with several Sims at once, talking and eating, talking whilst sitting as well as eating while enjoying some TV. You can increase your Sims needs so much easier with this new feature as you can talk while getting entertainment from another source, increasing both Social and Fun needs, cutting down on the time it takes to take care of your Sim.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
Sims: Delco webney
The Sims 4 is more about controlling you Sim then controlling the world it seems, almost all aspects about your Sim has been improved, from the Mood swings they go through, the things they can do, the multitasking, the aspirations and how the skills have been altered to needing more thought and materials. You can’t change the landscape or explore freely within the world before a loading screen to a new lot, the other Sims have no real Goals or Drive to them as they centre their decisions around you and the world seems completely flat. If you want a Life Simulator, that is what The Sims 4 has been more catered for, but if you want to change anything within the world and have the world change itself you might find The Sims 3 fits that bill more.
The game as a whole has been improved, from its greatly improved graphics, music and interaction options as well as the game running a lot smoother and having fewer problems then the last release. Options and menus’ information are easier to read and follow with their new sleek design and bigger emphasis on a number based system. The game is also a lot easier to get into, with quick tutorials and better control systems, newcomers to The Sims might find this release to be the best one to start off with.
Overall I give The Sims 4 a 3/5, it has vastly improved in the technical and graphical departments but it lacks in its enjoyment and feature list. The swap from Create a style to drag and drop has severely depleted the creativity when making your personal Sim and the fewer options for shopping make the game feel very empty and scrapping for choice. Downloadable content could fix the problems within this game with added items to buy, new clothes and styles, new places to visit and more, but that is already been done with The Sims 3 so it might be better to just stick with the previous release for now.
Sim: Firby nurbs
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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