Given the severe damage Electronic Arts withstood from Sim City, I could only hope–pray–that Electronic Arts and Maxis might be able to save their flailing image with the release of Sims 4. On the bright side, I know the Sims is a journey that has been decades in the making, but after dozens of expansion packs, stuff packs, and endlessly quirky stories to make the game truly addicting, The Sims 4 is bereft of the same components that made the Sims truly, well, Sims.
Ever since trailers and further details were released for the game, Simmers responded in backlash due to the removal of at least 80 significant elements of the game that have been featured in past installments, or expected to be featured to build off of the vast world Sims 3 had. The withdrawal of major items goes beyond toddlers and pools. Family trees, dishwashers, graveyards, ghosts, aliens, most careers, customization skills in Create-A-Sim, even the open world well received by Simmers in its third installment had been reduced to annoying loading screens. The list of removed items, disappointingly, goes on even longer.
However, as a faithful Simmer since The Sims 2, I tried not to let the removed items and 2.2/5 rating on Amazon and Metacritic’s 3.5 rating for the game discourage my purchase. I desperately hoped maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought… an obvious mistake.
First and foremost, I don’t want people to get the impression I absolutely hated the game, because there are a few redeeming qualities about The Sims 4. For one, due to the removal of content, the animation in the game is so much smoother and more fluid in comparison to The Sims 3. The cartoonish look of the Sims are also reminiscent of Sims 2–a nice touch of nostalgia for old fans. While pushing and molding Sims into shape in Create-A-Sim was a bit of a pain, it became easy to adjust and to some extent, fun, even, given how life-like you can make people within the game, alongside new “real” emotions. Plus, Sims 4 isn’t as damaging on the PC, thus making room for speedy loading screens and less annoying gameplay, notwithstanding the frequent glitches in its finished product.
However, those few goodnesses I found in Sims 4 became overwhelmingly outweighed by the nuisances found with it. While the removed features are more obvious reasons to dislike it, there’s the reduction of lot size and city size–compared to the over 125 lots in Sims 3, now reduced to less than 25 in Sims 4–to make gameplay come across as, inevitably, limited. Having to stare at the loading screen just to travel to each building (there are no vehicles or cars in Sims 4, either), only to enter a museum, library, or a park, was ultimately disappointing. What happened to the city halls, police stations, hospitals, or science centers for weird experiments and anecdotes featured in past installments? Where is the excitement that made the past Sims games so addicting?
The problem is: there’s so little to do in The Sims 4, the game becomes boring incredibly fast.
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Most importantly–perhaps the thing that irked me the most about this game–was the the removal of story progression. What I had loved about Sims 3 was how not only was my Sim getting older, but other people were going through their “lives” too, so they didn’t come across as game filler to add a layer of realism to it. Yes, there were bugs, but Sims 3 was at least able to compensate with a balance of material to keep the game interesting to hold off fans for five years. Now, I get the true sense that Sim neighbors are NPCs (non-playable characters)–which is definitely not the greatest feeling to have while playing.
I didn’t know it was possible for a game to leave me so frustrated, disappointed, or upset–it all leaves the question, why didn’t they try harder? Considering all the years that have gone into the franchise, it seems pitiable that they’d diminish the sentiment that made Sims fun all for the sake of making money. As aforementioned, The Sims 4 becomes quickly boring and quickly frustrating–not to mention, glitchy–with a game formatting that has a likeness to Facebook’s Sims Social, and a further lack of customization and things to keep the game remotely interesting to hold us over until the first expansion pack. The installment of emotional states affecting Sims’ lives is interesting, and the animation is smooth, but those pros aren’t enough to compensate for the game’s negatives.
Overall, very disappointing.
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