AsThe Sims 4turns ten-years-old this month, I’ve inevitably begun to think about what this means to me as a player. A decade is a long time to play one game, especially when its predecessors were superseded in half the time.
Over the past decade, you could say I’ve had an almost co-dependent relationship with The Sims 4. It’s always been my comfort game, just as the last three Sims were; a place I can go when I feel overwhelmed, frustrated, angry, or confused. I’ve also used the game to calm my anxiety, ease my depression, and evenunderstand my late in life Autism diagnosis. However, it’s not all been plain sailing.
Early Game Woes
When The Sims 4 launched, I found the transition difficult. Like many others, I found that going back to basics after playing with DLC for so long was rough.
I frequently jumped between The Sims 2, 3, and 4 for the first couple of years. I’d love to say I also included the original Sims in this rotation but I didn’t, mostly due to it being the Dark Souls of simulation games. If you so much as blinked, your baby would be on a barbeque while your other Sims chatted to Grim before he removed them from this mortal coil. Not to mention the fires. I accidentally caused more blazes than serial arsonist Norman Price from Fireman Sam.
However, as the first few pieces of DLC and some major updates started to round out The Sims 4, finally adding basics like toddlers, pools, retail lots, aliens, clubs, and an early peak for worlds, Windenberg, I edged more towards The Sims 4.
Vampires, Pets, And Seasons, Oh My!
Between 2017 and 2018, The Sims 4 was well fleshed out with a strong catalogue of DLC. Cats and Dogs added pets and vets, while Seasons finally removed the eternal summer and brought rain, hail, sleet, and snow alongside some good old-fashioned new deaths. Oh, and holidays. I guess they’re important as well, although I was more distracted by the lightning powers and bees…
Those who loved playing with families fell in love with the Parenthood game pack, which added a huge amount to how Sim’s interact on an emotional level, with the addition of moody teens, manners, advice, and acne amongst others. And for players in the mood for a dangerous escapade, rather than an exploding diaper, there was Jungle Adventure with its unique temples and beautiful vacation world.
Top this off with the introduction of fame and fortune through an interactive acting career, set among a celebrity-filled world with a catalogue of gloriously over the top outfits and decor, and we were feasting.
There was also the StrangerVille pack, which added an X-Files-style mystery to unravel.
I was fully into The Sims 4 at this point and loving everything Maxis gave us. It wasn’t just a game to turn to in a crisis, but one regularly played and enjoyed. That was until thecracks began to appear with Realm of Magic.
Spellcasters And Star Wars - A New Hope?
Bringing a bit of magical wizard flair to The Sims should have been a highlight, but instead it was the first time I began to encounter some serious bugs.
As I was testing out the spells, I was repeatedly getting stuck in stairs and losing progress, while several things just didn’t work as they should. The initial high wore off quickly as the issues continued to go unfixed until I ended up dropping the pack altogether.
While Discover University was an enjoyable pack, and also the focus of my first and, so far, only in-person visit to EA, it was followed by Star Wars: Journey To Batuu, an event which marked a sad day for the vast majority of players.
The idea was solid enough, but the world seemed more focused on recreating the theme park version of Batuu, and less concerned with offering any depth to the storyline. It was as flimsy as the fake buildings spread throughout the world. While there is some fun to be had with lightsabers and droids, Batuu is more of a phantom menace.
The Only Way Is Up
After a disappointing trip to a galaxy far, far away, things started to look up. Snowy Escape added a beautiful world, new activities, and stunning decor, while Dream Home Decorator ticked all the boxes for my perfect pack as someone who spends hours in build mode. While I still found myself having to forgive some quite major bugs in the decorator career, these were at least fixed promptly as the way was paved for Cottage Living.
The countryside pack was reminiscent of earlier triumphs as it added a good range of gameplay activities, as well as unique build items and clothing. It was a step in the right direction, but the good vibes were short-lived.
Left At The Altar
My Wedding Stories will likely be remembered as the pack so bad they delayed the release after review copies had already been sent out. As a recipient of an early code, I can confirm that it was incredibly difficult to review since somuch of the pack just simply didn’t function.
There was a week’s delay and emergency patches, which helped somewhat, but many bugs remained for an extended period of time, and a few small ones still persist even now.
Ultimately, the wedding story was the kind of event where a fight breaks out, and the couple end up on Jerry Springer taking lie detector tests to uncover affairs and find out who the dad is.
While we’ve not hit another low like this since, it’s a blot on the game’s copybook which has been hard to recover from.
Renting Time
Since then, expansions have been a little hit-and-miss. While For Rent was a great idea, it was another new mechanic that came loaded with bugs, some of which still haven’t been patched.
Horse Ranch had a beautiful world, but the gameplay being entirely centred on horses was far too niche for many. Likewise, Lovestruck adds some depth to romance, but it’s lacklustre in the clothing department — unless you want to go out dressed as a peach or eggplant.
At this point, the game is a decade old and is starting to show cracks from two major issues that come with age, a lack of ideas, and an increase in bugs as more and more new features struggle to work together.
Same, Same, Go Away
There are currently a lot of mutterings about The Sims 4 becoming “samey”.. I was feeling those Sims blues too, but looking closer at the game, that sentiment couldn’t be further from the truth.
When Lovestruck launched, I asked about how the team keeps things fresh and Senior Game Designer Josh Contreras told me “We look for items that are going to give [players] as many options as possible. Other times, we modify the aesthetic of a commonly used item to fit the world we’ve created.
“We have a series of systems in place to ensure that the items we are offering with each pack are both a solid fit for the pack and don’t feel too similar to existing items.” - Josh Contreras, Senior Game Designer
When going through the game’s content, I discovered how true this is. While there are a handful of clothing staples and hairstyles that are very close, there are always notable differences.
Into The Future
Despite its old age, The Sims 4 is looking in healthier shape at ten than The Sims 3 did at five. It now has an astonishing 15 expansions, 12 game packs, 20 stuff packs and 31 kits. Just don’t think abouthow much it all costs…
In comparison, the first Sims, which was released in 2000, had seven expansion packs and a life cycle of around four years before The Sims 2 launched. This first sequel had eight expansions and eight stuff packs, smaller DLC that focused on items rather than gameplay. The Sims 3 followed five years later in 2009, with eleven expansions and nine stuff packs.
By the time The Sims 3 gave way to The Sims 4 in 2014, it was struggling. Many players couldn’t run all the expansions at once, and were left picking and choosing. In contrast, while The Sims 4 does undoubtedly have issues in places, it has always remained playable - at least for me - with every single DLC enabled at once.
The Sims 4 at this point is like a stuffed toy I can’t bear to part from. It may be a little rough around the edges, but it still holds a lot of memories. Other people may consider it too old or worn out, but I still love it, even the threadbare parts.
