Review of The Sims 4

 After All, It's a Small World

I provided wide, swishy hips and a sneaky smirk to Jess, a nerdy IT industry genius, and over the past week, I've gotten to know her virtually. She has only WooHooed nine times, felt happy 232 times, finished level 10 programming, and given birth to two children with a man she met at a bar. Admittedly, I'm having a terrible time saying goodbye to her, so I'm making her take anti-aging pills. This is an issue I frequently run across in Sims games, and it's even worse this time around (because a lot of things are improved). However, The Sims 4's limited environment and lack of features haven't permitted Jess to fully enjoy her life. The fact that its sequel lacks the same sense of wonder that The Sims 3 did when I played it years ago, despite the game being entertaining, is a huge letdown.

I was instantly amazed by the appearance-customization choices when I created Jess. A Sim's gait, which can range from "tough" to "feminine," can be a great way to convey their personality. When their bladders get too full, they may slump or adopt an "I have to pee" gait. Overall, the new Create-a-Sim is incredibly user-friendly; you can precisely adjust a Sim's size and shape by pushing and pulling at various body sections. I firmly think that the body's more realistic representations of different body types were incredibly encouraging since I believe that there is optimism and beauty in all forms. Finally, I could give Jess substantial hips and thighs while maintaining a slender upper body.

But I was sad that I could only assign her four features in total—three if you exclude the trait related to her lifelong goal. That’s one fewer than The Sims 3 allows, or two if you have the University Life expansion. It turned out to be less of a problem than I’d imagined, though, because the addition of emotions makes a lot out of a little.

Trying to get Jess a date was my first brush with the new emotional axis of Sims’ personalities, a system that successfully supplants traits as a more realistic way for Sims to live and interact. I quickly learned that Jess, whom I gave the “romantic” trait, very easily swung into “flirty” feelings. Feeling flirtatious opened up a lot of enjoyable alternatives for interaction, such as sultry posing or a cold shower to get rid of WooHoo vibes. (Pro tip: Before you go right to WooHoo, try some of the flirtatious possibilities. In keeping with realism, Sims will get a greater mood increase thereafter.) However, she became "tense" when she didn't flirt for too long, which led to further activities.

The best part about The Sims 4's emotions is that they offer fresh Compared to only having static interactions based on personality qualities, contextual chances make a lot more sense to Sims, such as the ability to crack a self-deprecating joke when ashamed. Seeing an energized Jess "mop like mad!" was a lot of fun, and it was also heartwarming to hear her motivated husband share his ambitions with her. I'm really loving it today, although it took me about fifteen hours to properly understand the intricacy of Sim's emotions when I played with my group of Sims.

It goes without saying that to benefit the most from these encounters, you must socialize, and socializing requires leaving the house. This is the reason I'm so dissatisfied with The Sims 4's cramped, limited world—every trip, even to the neighbor's house next door, triggers a brief but startling loading screen. In this way, at least, it seems like a high-resolution version of The Sims 2. Although it isn't a deal-breaker, The Sims 3's continuous exploration of a complete town is jarring.

To make matters worse, there are just ten public locations to explore between the two open neighborhoods, and most of them are the same. There are two museums, two parks, two gyms, three different types of bars, and a library. The world is so small that it seemed like I would always run into the same few people wherever I went. I had assumed that Jess's job would allow her to socialize with new people, but no! To the best of my knowledge, coworkers—including the ones Jess allegedly flirted with—don't actually exist. Careers are total rabbit holes, matching the little neighborhoods. When it's time to leave for work, your Sim simply disappears from the curb in front of their home. It feels even smaller because I ended up keeping Jess at the house most of the time after we met and she decided that Jamari, her future husband, was the most eligible bachelor she would find because he possessed the "family-oriented" trait.

On the plus side, being a bit of a loner wasn't so horrible because of the enhanced SIM multitasking. Juniper, my second Sim creation, would cheerfully stroll up to Jess's door and keep her company while she worked on various computer projects. It would be possible for Jess to code while conversing with Juniper, eat while watching TV with Juniper, and text Jamari while using the restroom—possibly regarding Juniper. It follows that conversations flow similarly smoothly. Line cook Jamari would return home and prepare meals for Jess and Juniper while conversing with them both, effortlessly alternating between kissing the former and cracking jokes with the latter. Being able to step back from Sim interactions and observe where these more sophisticated dialogues go is very enjoyable. It's extremely pleasant not to have to micromanage Sim interactions at every turn. I've seen Sims repeatedly exhibit the "embarrassed" facial expression during conversations as a result of an inept romantic approach or a joke that nobody seemed to get.

Are you prepared to let go of your emotions? Also me! Regarding the purely objective aspect of The Sims 4, Build Mode has seen substantial enhancements in comparison to its counterpart in The Sims 3. The ability to customize counters and cabinets thrilled me in particular. You can have really cool half-counters to soften the edge of a kitchen or half-cabinets to go over the fridge. I promise it's awesome. The ability to pick up complete rooms and transfer them wherever on the property without demolishing and rebuilding them, as well as the push-and-pull tool (which functions similarly to body mod in Create-a-Sim) that lets you resize or move a whole wall section at once. Despite being cool if you're like me and don't feel like removing a whole house to add a porch, some of the new tools are a little odd. For example, foundations are now applied retrospectively to every construction on the lot. This excludes split levels and garages, but the latter isn't too big of a concern given that The Sims 4 doesn't have any automobiles.

The Sims 4 is meant to be a people simulation, and people often own automobiles, thus the absence of cars is a big concern. Additionally, Sims in The Sims 4 enter childhood at an earlier age than people do because there are no toddlers in the game. The Create-a-Style feature in The Sims 3 is likewise outdated, which disappointed my taste in interior design a little. Even though I was able to provide Jess and Jamari a cohesive, matching space-age home with the resources at my disposal, I still find it frustrating that I can't purchase a couch in the style I desire or sew stylish pajamas in my favorite design. while also picking a nice color. Pools, though, are perhaps the most conspicuous and ridiculous omission. For a decade-plus, they’ve been well-known as the most popular way to murder Sims, if you’re into that. Both build options and furnishing options seem really barren at this point, but knowing The Sims, that will be remedied in one way or another eventually (for a fee, of course). 

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