Editor’s Observe: Alongside the discharge of The Sims 4’s Lovestruck Enlargement Pack, we’re taking a recent have a look at the bottom sport in 2024, changing our authentic overview from 2014. You may learn extra about our review policies and philosophy here.
In 2014, whereas carrying a cardboard plumbob headband I’d swiftly made the night time earlier than, I lined up at a neighborhood sport retailer to choose up my pre-ordered copy of The Sims 4. With a create-a-sim wardrobe stuffed with Pinterest-pleasant style gadgets and a bunch of then-fashionable home equipment, The Sims 4 felt like a slicing-edge sequel at launch, one which mirrored these less complicated occasions. However what’s much more spectacular is that now, nearly a decade of updates later, it’s nonetheless the benchmark life simulator, providing a profoundly distinctive family sandbox that’s but to seek out steady competitors. Its ageing sense of favor and typically archaic techniques do imply The Sims 4 can’t coast on this legacy ceaselessly, even with an admirable free-to-play pivot again in 2022. However with a collaborative community of neighborhood instruments and a world of chaos at your fingertips, The Sims 4 maintains itself as an Imagineer’s dream nonetheless.
As Dr. Frankenstein so famously came upon, recreating life is stuffed with problems, and The Sims 4 leans closely into the mad scientist fantasy of all of it. It offers you with all of the instruments it’s worthwhile to construct a bespoke world stuffed with custom-made individuals who have hopes, goals, and infrequently questionable haircuts. By distilling the human expertise right into a pool of malleable metrics, you get the chance to play god with households of these digital avatars, guiding them as they journey the peaks and valleys of life, from beginning to loss of life and every thing in between. Whereas The Sims 4 definitely may have taken the punishing route of finicky and overcomplicated techniques, it as a substitute rigorously balances the complexities of human life in a surprisingly approachable method.
Past staying on high of their fast organic wants, like rest room breaks, sleep, and starvation, there are aspirations and fears to take care of, in addition to payments to pay, careers to nurture, and social lives to spin. Your omnipotence offers you the unfettered freedom to mess with the residents of your world, and it’s entertaining to haphazardly graft the frenzied whims of your creativeness onto the lives of its inhabitants. Whether or not you wield this energy for cruelty or kindness is completely as much as you, and the truth that most of your bigger objectives are self-pushed (like levelling up your music talent sufficient to change into a rockstar, or discovering your Sim a loving soulmate) makes it enjoyable to easily mess around nonetheless the temper strikes you.
You may select to make use of a wide range of pre-made households or design a customized family utilizing the Create a Sim toolset. As with people, Sims are a fancy mixture of bodily presence and character, and I like that this DIY course of permits you to make granular selections that can set each other than the gang. Pairing up character traits is a minigame in itself and permits for a forged of uncanny characters to take form in entrance of you. A sizzling-headed genius may fly right into a rage after they don’t discover the time to play a sport of chess, whereas a profession-pushed hopeless romantic may run into difficulties when perfecting their work-life stability. This engaging choose-n-combine course of extends right into a Sim’s likes and dislikes, with the quirks typically taking part in out in unusual and comical methods. A budding virtuoso may very well be made to cringe on the sound of a guitar, and it’s these small however significant interactions that add lifelike depth to those avatars.
Sadly, there isn’t equal subtlety when creating your Sim’s bodily look, particularly by the requirements of latest character creators. There’s a good pool of predesigned facial options to select from, with a extra curated look achievable by pushing and pulling at a handful of anchor factors to sculpt your Sim’s anatomical options. It’s definitely no Dragon’s Dogma 2, which admittedly isn’t an enormous shock when The Sims 4 first got here out simply two years after Dragon’s Dogma 1, however it’s noticeable in 2024. Even so, I used to be blissful to see that I may not less than create a various vary of physique shapes by way of its sliders and sculpting capabilities.
When you’re completed molding their type, your Sim will even want a wardrobe for the numerous conditions life throws at them, from figuring out to bedtime to fancy dinners. Sadly, a lot of the clothes choices and hairstyles in The Sims 4’s base sport now really feel ripped from a 2010s style journal relatively than any fashionable catalog. Whereas skinny ties, plaid overshirts, and gauche graphic tees had been welcome at launch, there hasn’t been a major replace to the default outfits throughout The Sims 4’s 10-yr lifespan. That concern leaves lengthy-time period gamers caught between spending money on pricey couture-targeted DLC packs or counting on fan-made mods to realize an appropriate style sense. That mentioned, there have been some free additions to Create a Sim which can be value celebrating, such because the introduction of medical wearables like listening to aids and glucose displays, in addition to a alternative of customisable pronouns and romantic boundaries to your Sims.
In the event you thought folks administration was The Sims 4’s solely draw, suppose once more. In addition to a god, you’ll additionally change into a metropolis planner, in a position to tinker with the structure of your neighborhood throughout three separate biomes due to a complete building equipment referred to as Construct Mode. You’ll stability monetary prices, well being and security, and elegance to comprehend your grand designs, irrespective of how absurd they could be. A rooftop rest room could be an eyesore for the neighbors, however in the event you like your restrooms with a view, The Sims 4 isn’t going to face in your manner.
Not solely are you able to flex your creativity one wall, window, and staircase at a time, however you can even fill your creations with esoteric bric-a-brac like encased scrolls or a group of creepy gnomes. And in case your constructing abilities peak out at swiftly crafted mountainside Minecraft properties, the approachable toolset and submenu of prepared-made rooms permit you to rapidly depart your mark while not having a level in architectural engineering – although having one definitely would assist.
The pleasure of constructing isn’t only for private properties, both, as you’ll additionally be capable to take a stab at business actual property. The place money circulation is the antagonizing power when constructing your Sim’s private residence, public tons as a substitute require minimal furnishings and facilities to meet their obligation. It’s a course of that retains you accountable whereas gently guiding you away from making ineffective, lackluster areas. The Sims 4’s sandbox mission assertion is all the time in body, although, and you may simply ignore the principles and get bizarre with it anyway. Nevertheless stifling the Create a Sim can really feel at occasions, it’s made up for by the meticulous instruments at your disposal in Construct Mode.
However simply since you can construct one thing foolish doesn’t imply your Sims will all the time be blissful about it. As an illustration, whereas setting up an affordable household residence within the desert locale of Oasis Springs, I reduce corners on bed room furnishings to save cash – a alternative that actually didn’t gel with the excessive-requirements that had been baked into the character of one in every of its occupants. That call led to a rampage of arguments with family members due to their bitter temper, spoiling relationships and threatening the destiny of the family. In the end, I used to be despatched again to the drafting board to wash up the aesthetics to keep away from watching my Sim’s social life fall to items over mismatched lamps.
This is only one instance of how The Sims 4’s techniques cleverly intermingle with each other, offering an unpredictable sandbox with so many reactive dynamics that delightfully get in the way in which of your finest-laid plans. The ensuing chaos from such cataclysmic social occasions additionally acts as an natural leaping-off level for brand new tales to develop, main you down scintillating rabbit holes chances are you’ll not have been anticipating. You have got sufficient management to information your Sims the place you usually need them to go, however you gained’t all the time be capable to brute power their lives into perfection, and that mitigates the boredom that may include getting every thing you need . (Though there’s nothing improper with turning on a couple of cheats and taking part in with out restriction when the temper strikes you, too.)
Maybe you need to curate drama on a broader scale than simply your family? Properly, The Sims 4 has a solution for that, too. A comparatively latest addition to the bottom sport is Neighbourhood Tales, which lets you affect the world by adjusting ambient life modifications for the Sims throughout your map with out having to instantly play as them. Profession modifications, accidents, and having kids are all features of actual life, and thru this course of, the households scattered throughout your sport can proceed to thrive (or not) with out you. Whereas loosening my grip on each particular person aspect of my Sims’ lives was an uncomfortable shift at first (and one you don’t should make if it doesn’t go well with you), it’s nice that this software permits Sims to flourish round your major households in a extra natural manner.
If studying the ropes through blissful little accidents doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, one other pair of helpful put up-launch additions are the information system and scripted situations, which might each assist clean over The Sims 4’s sharp edges the place vital. Not solely a boon for newer gamers, these enlightening techniques do nicely to get veteran gamers like me updated with the numerous small-however-impactful modifications which have arrived in free updates and paid DLC through the years. There’s a wise stability right here that maintains a common approachability by holding your hand once you need it to and letting go once you’re able to take a threat.
Talking of DLC, 10 years of developer help has left The Sims 4 with a copious quantity of themed expansions, with choices based mostly round issues like seasons, college, magic, and, most just lately, relationship. That is par for the course for this collection, and the standard of those packs is mostly high notch – however even with the bottom sport changing into free-to-play, it’s a disgrace that some paid add-ons now really feel like important elements of the Sims expertise. Including pets to your family or having a extra lively position in your profession come throughout as basic options that ought to be out there to everybody. I get that this has change into the enterprise mannequin, however it’s particularly irritating to see intrinsic human experiences like vacation festivities or the power to create cliques locked behind a paywall.
To that finish, I’d be remiss to not point out one in every of The Sims 4’s most outstanding property: its sturdy neighborhood of gamers. There’s a library’s value of consumer-generated tons and characters to take inspiration from or graft into your sport, typically solely a Google search away. Years of neighborhood ingenuity have additionally spawned a manufactured ‘laborious mode’ that presents you with hyper-particular duties to finish in the event you’re trying to find extra complicated situations. These (*4*)-esque challenges cater to all types of gamers and might contain something from constructing a house with minimal sq. footage to, my private favourite, trying to make your Sim have 100 infants of their lifetime.
One other constant companion throughout The Sims 4 is its dazzling soundtrack and expressive sound results, one thing the collection has lengthy been lauded for. Relentlessly optimistic and impressively orchestral, the rating’s mix of string, woodwind, and percussive instrumentals supply a comforting backdrop to the constructing menus and loading screens you’ll spend hours looking at.