Worth Buying The Sims 4? A Review of Features, Pros and Cons

Table of Contents

• Create-A-Sim and Build Mode Improvements
• Enhanced Multi-Tasking and Emotional Depth
• Missing Core Features from Previous Games
• Is The Sims 4 Worth Buying?

Create-A-Sim and Build Mode Improvements

The Sims 4 begins by taking you right into Create A Sim the first time you play, and it's quite telling that it doesn't initially take you to the neighborhood view. The Sims and their personalities really are the focus in The Sims 4, as opposed to world building or sandbox exploration, so you may as well spend some time making them smart or weird or whatever marketing taglines you can think of.

When you're psychotically ruining their face and body shape, there's no relying on sliders to do the job anymore. All you have to do is click and drag, pinching and stretching their flesh every which way like a deranged plastic surgeon on mescaline. When it works, it's great, and I've found that with enough practice, you can create all sorts of convincing likenesses, so making yourself, your friends, your celebrity crushes, your worst nightmares, they're all just a mouse click away.

Endless Customization Options

You can name them, choose their gender, voice, age, traits, ambitions. You can even change their default walking style now, if you want to make them prance around like a moron. And when you're psychotically ruining their face and body shape, there's no relying on sliders to do the job anymore. All you have to do is click and drag, pinching and stretching their flesh every which way like a deranged plastic surgeon on mescaline. When it works, it's great, and I've found that with enough practice, you can create all sorts of convincing likenesses, so making yourself, your friends, your celebrity crushes, your worst nightmares, they're all just a mouse click away.

Intuitive Home Building Tools

I highly recommend building your own home in The Sims 4 because the new build mode is incredible. Even if you're no good at designing homes, it doesn't matter because rooms are so malleable and simple to create that it's a piece of cheeseburger-shaped cake to build them. Rooms and even the entire house can be picked up and moved as a whole unit. You can place pre-made rooms inside and around other rooms. Everything is adjustable in ways that satisfy me completely. And there are plenty of additions that really spice up the look of houses and lots, little details and features that make each building pop.

Enhanced Multi-Tasking and Emotional Depth

Along the bottom-right in The Sims 4, you can expand your Sim's needs, their traits and detailed statistics of their entire life to date, their current inventory and more. Then over to the left, there's a section that shows your Sim's bank account, some controls for their phone and home lot, any queued actions, and their current emotional state.

Emotions are another significant addition to the Sims series, and they replace the vague Mood Meter of games past. While Sims have always acted in ways that implied certain emotions, now it's made explicitly clear how they're feeling at all times.

More Lifelike, Dynamic Gameplay

Another new feature of their day-to-day routine is the ability to routinely do more than one thing at once throughout the day. Sims can now perform many actions simultaneously without having to stop the previous action. This means that keeping your Sim's social needs fulfilled is easier than ever. And the significance of this addition cannot be understated. It just feels most of the gameplay feel more dynamic and lifelike, and takes away so much of the tedium of micromanaging all their actions and priorities.

Missing Core Features from Previous Games

When you look around the neighborhoods in The Sims 4, it may appear that there are all sorts of places to explore, but it's an illusion. What you see onscreen is the ENTIRE explorable area of this neighborhood. The stuff immediately surrounding it is only set dressing.

If you want to go somewhere else besides your home lot or the surrounding public land, you have to go through a loading screen that can last 20-45 seconds. It's a pain to go from one area to another in The Sims 4, and makes me want to stay in one area far longer than I normally would.

No Open World or Cars

The open world from The Sims 3 is totally gone in the latest game. It may appear that there are all sorts of places to explore when you look around, but it's an illusion. What you see onscreen is the ENTIRE explorable area of this neighborhood. The stuff immediately surrounding it is only set dressing. There are no cars in the game, except in the background as decorations, and the trains and steamboats you see are the same. They're just there to look nice and do nothing.

Loading Screens and Other Omissions

If you want to go somewhere else besides your home lot or the surrounding public land, you have to go through a loading screen that can last 20-45 seconds. It's a pain to go from one area to another in The Sims 4, and makes me want to stay in one area far longer than I normally would. In kind of an odd choice, many of the hirable services are no longer available from the outset, and all you have are maid services and pizza delivery.

Is The Sims 4 Worth Buying?

Fun Gameplay with Significant Shortcomings

Is The Sims 4 worth buying or not? Yes! Asterisk, asterisk, holy crap, asterisk. It's fun but it is not amazing, especially for the price. I would recommend just holding off until the price comes down quite a bit, and I think you'll be happy that you did. From my point of view, it's worth about half the asking price, considering it started wearing out its welcome after several days of play. But I also truly think that there's some great stuff here, like the build mode improvements, the multitasking, and the ability to really get creative with lots, seeing as they're all sectioned off now and can be way more complex. I can see this being a far greater game to play in the future, but as it is right now, it needs a lot to merit a whole-hearted recommendation. If The Sims 4 was the first or even second game in the series, it'd be totally awesome. But it's not.

FAQ

Q: How does The Sims 4 compare to previous Sims games?
A: It lacks some core features from The Sims 3 like open world and pools, but enhances gameplay in other areas like emotions and multitasking.

Q: Is The Sims 4 worth the $60+ price tag?
A: Not in its current state. It offers fun but limited gameplay that wears thin after extended play. Better to wait for a sale.

Q: What are some key improvements in The Sims 4?
A: Greatly upgraded Create-A-Sim and build modes, new emotional depth, and simultaneous multitasking during actions.