The Sims 4 Review: Perfect Life Simulator

The Sims 4 has three modes: Create a Sim mode, where you create your characters, build mode, where you build the house that they live in, and then you've got the live mode. 

Create a Sim mode in The Sims 4 is actually really good. Definitely not the best character creator I've seen in my life, but it's very intuitive with the ability to click and drag anything as well as tons of presets. 

Over the years, the game's had a lot of free clothing updates. When the game first came out, all of the outfits were horrendous. Luckily, we have some free extra outfits which aren't as horrendous. I'd say like about still 80% of CAS in The Sims 4 is pretty bad, though. I kind of feel like this was done deliberately to entice you to buy packs. 

I don't know how you feel about that. Men's clothing, I'd say, is particularly bad. Enjoy dressing your male Sims as fun dads, as that's the only look that you get out of the base game. Kids, toddlers, and infants will actually get a lot of quite good stuff. I think toddlers do look a little bit weird, especially the hair meshes, but for the most part, I honestly think the base game was enough for kids' stuff. I don't feel like you need any packs to add to that, which is maybe an unpopular opinion but true for me.

The Sims 4 is a very diverse game with tons of customization options. I feel like you can reasonably create any kind of person you using the base game alone. You definitely can't make really pretty Sims, and it does almost feel impossible to find anything that doesn't look like a little bit strange. I feel like you can kind of tell the clothes were made by people who are good at designing meshes in games but not good at fashion if that makes sense. 

In CAS, you can choose up to three personality traits. Definitely not enough, in my opinion. The traits that you do choose don't really have much of an impact on gameplay, either, to be honest. For example, if you select a Sim to have a good trait and they do good things, it puts them in a happy mood. But if you give your Sim the evil trait and you make them do bad things, it also puts them in a happy mood.

Both Sims are happy whether they're good or bad, and happiness has the exact same gameplay consequences, so there's not really that much depth to any Sims 4 traits, in my opinion. It's a little bit of a dead feature.

Building in The Sims 4 is very, very easy. In previous Sims games, building was almost like a very niche thing that a small amount of people did, but most didn't bother. In The Sims 4, it's really accessible to everyone. With a bit of practice, you can make a lot of different kinds of builds. 

The base game actually comes with a huge amount of stuff to build with, too. So, I own every single Sims 4 pack, so almost all of my builds are a total mass of all different things from different packs, but most of the fundamental stuff I use in almost every single build is like a base game object because the base game is very versatile.

As with Create a Sim mode, the build mode has been updated over the years with additions such as a pool tool, platforms, curved walls, as well as many new objects to decorate with. The base game is kind of split into two main styles: a Louisiana American style and a desert style. There are many different things in many different styles, although it does kind of feel like a jack-of-all-trades approach because there are a lot of different things from a variety of styles in the base game but not enough to create an entire coherent build. 

Although I feel like the Sims 4 base game build mode itself is superb, even if you don't own any of the packs, it's still very, very fun.

The Sims 4 has three worlds in the base game. Willow Creek is the main world that you all going to live in, the vanilla American suburban neighborhood, so you can live out your basic white picket fence fantasy lifestyle. Yes, I'm calling you out because you know it's true. There's Oasis Springs, which is like a big desert world, basically. I'd say it's a little bit more modern. And then we've got Newcrest. It was added as an update after many players complained that there weren't enough lots in Willow Creek and Oasis Springs. 

They complained that the worlds were really tiny, especially compared to The Sims 3's huge open worlds and the fact that you could even create your own world in The Sims 3. So Newcrest was added to overcompensate for that, although it comes with no lots. It's totally empty, and none of us can be bothered to build lots for every single lot in this world, so it's pretty much just like dead space. It's a paperweight world, basically.

Now, the problem with all of the Sims 4 worlds is like this closed-world closing neighborhood system. It's not an open world like The Sims 3, so if you want to travel between lots, you must go through a loading screen. Before you go into the loading screen, you actually have to wait for the loading screen to load. Then after the loading screen, you also load into the world. After it's loaded, there, it's like a three-stage loading process. You do have access to the general small neighborhood area around you, although there's nothing going on because it's like a closed-world system. So there's no incentive really to explore the world around you, and there's not really anything to do. There's a lot of set dressing in The Sims 4 worlds that you can look at, but you can't touch.

I will say most of the base game lots are extremely ugly. A major issue is that the base game lots haven't been updated over time despite the game receiving so many updates. Pools were added as an update later on. As a result, none of the base game builds have pools because they haven't updated any of the lots with them. The same could be said for platforms, terrains, curved walls, as well as many other things. I don't really understand why EA hasn't updated the world over time to reflect these updates, to make them actually usable and enjoyable by players, but they just don't.

There's also an issue with households. For example, almost none of the households have children or teens for literally no reason. Toddlers and infants were not in the base game upon release. They were updated, so none of the base game households have any toddlers or infants either. They have updated a couple of households over time with newer appearances, and The Sims team said they do this for every single base game household, but they've only done two so far, and it's been 2 years. So I think we can categorically say it's an abandoned project that they've forgotten about because they couldn't be bothered to do it.

The households that do exist have basically no storylines and no lore. They have no lives to live. They are all a part of their set dressing. Most of them don't even know each other, including people who should know each other. For example, in Oasis Springs, there's a Langra family, which is a very rich family. Now, the son of that household moved out to live by himself, but EA forgot to add him to the family tree. So even though technically he's the son of the Langra household, he could get romantic and flirt with his own mother because they're not related in the code of the game, since they forgot to do it and they haven't updated it over the 9 years that this game has been out. 

So incest is canon in The Sims 4 universe, again. I feel like they should just update the base game households to make them actually feel alive and give you an incentive to play with them. I don't know if it's laziness, I don't know if it's poor business structure, but it gives off a bad impression of the game. It really does.

So if you're new to The Sims 4, there are three different tutorial systems. Ironically, it's a little bit scattered and confusing. You always need a tutorial to know which tutorial to use. The actual basics of playing the game are very simple. It's just, you know, resolving their needs, getting a job, simulating basic aspects of life. I've done a couple of plays in the past actually where I've uninstalled every single pack and I've tested whether or not the base game is fun without any packs installed. 

I found that the base game is definitely fun to mess around with. I feel like you can simulate almost every single aspect of life you want to in a very basic limited capacity. But it doesn't go to any aspect of life in any kind of depth, and you do need a couple of packs to enjoy the game fully. But the base game itself, it allows you to get a job even though it's a rabbit hole career, meaning you don't follow them to work. You can live as a family, you can see friends, you can go to a bar, and most things, as I said, you can think of doing, you can do to a very limited capacity. But the major gameplay does come with the packs, and you do have to purchase those.

The Sims 4 doesn't really have any direction over what you do, and you have a lot of control over what you decide to do, which can be a good thing if you like having total control over everything, but it also can feel like a problem if you have no sense of direction. 

The game has whims, which are like short-term goals which encourage you to perform certain interactions based off your Sim's environment and traits. There are also lifetime aspirations, although these feel more like extended tutorials rather than actual aspirations in life. It's a little bit frustrating to me, anyway, that The Sims 4 has no direction because The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 did, and it made it a lot more fun because it felt like you had a little bit more of a path to go down if you're less creative and you don't like playing pretend. 

The Sims 4 is all about playing pretend and pretending something is there or pretending something is happening when it's not happening. In other words, EA rushed the release of the game and they didn't finish it properly, so it's got rocky foundations. But they marketed as "create your own story, be who you want to be," basically. It means that the game is very scattered and it doesn't have a focus.

Although one update that came to The Sims 4 over the past couple of years is scenarios. These are kind of like a challenge mode where you follow a set storyline in the game. I really love the idea of scenarios, and a lot of them are a miss because I think they're way too open. Some of the scenarios make you start with set Sims in a set household, and it feels like going back to The Sims 2 where you open up a household and they have life storylines and lore, and I really, really miss that. And I think the more linear side of scenarios is a really great challenge in the game. A lot of them are a bit too tutorial, and some of them are so open that they don't really feel like challenges.

I think there are some great scenarios in there to break up standard gameplay, although they have been implemented in a very confusing way. They weren't implemented that well. They've also kind of stopped updating them. So, unfortunately, they seem like another abandoned feature. But the ones that do exist are good.

Many Sims 4 players do this thing where we spend 2 hours in Create a Sim mode where you make your perfect household. If you're a builder, you might also spend a couple more hours making the perfect home. And then you proceed to spend about 10 to 20 minutes in the actual live mode gameplay, and then you turn it off because you're bored and exhausted. Everything requires so much setting up, there's too much open freedom, you don't know what to do, so you just switch off. And almost every single Sims 4 player does this, whether they admit it or not.

The Sims 4 is set up very weirdly. In previous Sims games, you just jumped straight into the world and opened any household. There were storylines to follow, there were always things to do. In The Sims 4, you can't do that. You can't jump into the world. Firstly, when you create a new game, you literally start in Create Sim mode, and you have to make a new household, whether you like it or not. 

You have to choose one of the ugly, horrendous houses, which means you have to build it and redecorate it. And then you have to build everything up from scratch. It's just so exhausting. The game doesn't really give you any incentive to explore the different townies, and the townies themselves, even if it did give you an incentive, there's no storyline, lore, or depth behind them. Everything just feels very much fake, like they're all just there as set dressing. The whole game kind of just feels like a setup instance if you know what I mean.

The Sims 4 gameplay is not very good. It's not severe, it is playable, and it can be enjoyable, but you will be disappointed, I feel, if you've played The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. Objectively, it has a lot less features and a lot less ambition. The Sims 4 is often described as an aesthetic game where you can take cute screenshots and enjoy the vibe, enjoy the look, but not enjoy the gameplay. You know, every Sims game has its own thing. 

The Sims 1 had chaos and adult humor. The Sims 2 had incredible gameplay and a really advanced social AI system. The Sims 3 had open worlds and unlimited customization. And The Sims 4 is pretty. That's the Sims 4's thing.

The Sims 4 has an outstanding build mode, in my opinion. Building is one of the most popular things to do in The Sims 4 right now, especially among Sims content creators. Create Sim mode is also very good. Not definitely like not the best character creator in the entire world, but for what it is, it's really, really good. And the amount of mods and custom content that you can get is endless, so you can really create a wide variety of characters. It's just the live mode, the actual gameplay mode, is very mediocre, in my opinion. 

Despite being a management sim, I just feel like it's less about household management and just more about enjoying the vibe or escaping real life, living in fantasy land. It doesn't really feel like there's much gameplay, and the gameplay that is there is just sometimes a little bit easy. You know, you make your Sims get a job, but the economy is so messed up, you don't need a job to make money. There are so many backward ways that you can earn money in The Sims 4, even just in the base game alone, that you don't even need a job.

In terms of performance, The Sims 4 is definitely a buggy game. Every single Sims game, to be honest, has been buggy. I just feel like it's an issue with simulating life, especially if you're playing on turbo speed modes. 

I would say Sims 4 Sims are pretty stupid. They are better than, you know, Sims 1, 2, and 3 Sims in many aspects. For example, they can multitask, which means they can sit down and talk at the same time or they can eat while watching TV. There are certain things you can do which involve multitasking, which are pretty normal. Sims are very terrible at socializing. Social events are a big no-go in The Sims 4. Any kind of event involving two or more Sims, it's not happening. Whatever you want to do, you're not going to be able to do it. No social event honestly has ever worked perfectly for me in The Sims 4, even just socializing in general.

Infants are also very, very buggy as the latest Sims 4 life stage, which was added roughly 8 years after the initial release. They weren't implemented very well and sometimes caused issues in the household. I would generally say though, most of the Sims 4 issues come from if you install a lot of packs. If you just have the base game alone, I don't think it's going to be severely buggy and glitchy. It's more so when you add all the different packs and it just becomes a mess. That's when the game doesn't handle itself very well, even if you have a very good computer. It's not going to run that well with multiple packs. But with the base game alone, it runs okay.

The Sims 4 definitely lacks a lot of ambition and care that previous Sims games had. When you think of certain iconic Sims things, things like, I don't know, burglars, many of these things just don't exist in The Sims 4. And the ones that do exist sometimes feel like an afterthought or they weren't implemented very well. The Sims 4, in my opinion, it's not really a Sims game. It's a life simulation game for sure, but it's not the Sims. It feels safe, it feels limited, yet unnecessarily complicated at the same time. It feels expensive with the countless DLC, and every time you buy a new pack, it gives you a bit of an opening boost for about an hour, but then you get over it.