A decade after launch, I finally figured out how to make The Sims 4 fun

The Sims 4’s newest growth pack, Enchanted By Nature, launched earlier this month, including fairy-Sims, magical illnesses, and charming new clothes and furnishings gadgets to the sport. As a lifelong fan of The Sims franchise, I made a decision to dive again into the sport after just a few months of not touching it, absolutely ready to be disenchanted.

Most veteran gamers of The Sims 4 can in all probability perceive my trepidation. The Sims franchise lately celebrated its 25-year anniversary, and the final 10 years have been targeted on The Sims 4, which was launched in 2014 with barely any content material in any respect. The sport launched with out franchise staples like swimming pools or colour customization choices, and even toddlers have been lacking — your little bundle of Sim-joy would merely morph right into a school-aged youngster upon getting older up. EA remedied this by including content material to the sport over the subsequent decade by way of free base sport updates and new DLC within the type of growth packs, sport packs, stuff packs, and kits. As cool as many of those additions have been in concept, lots of them have been disappointing in follow, often as a result of bugs and underwhelming content material.

For a great chunk of its existence, The Sims 4’s gameplay loop has appeared one thing like this:

So once I fired up Enchanted By Nature, I wasn’t anticipating something significantly particular. I created a fairy-Sim named Nyx and loved mixing and matching the brand new growth’s clothes gadgets with garments from different DLCs to create cute, ethereal outfits for her. Shortly after shifting Nyx into her new house, she acquired a name from the Grim Reaper himself, providing her a job as a reaper of souls. (Sure, that’s an precise profession monitor. It was launched alongside final 12 months’s Life & Demise growth.)

After politely turning down Grim’s job provide, Nyx went out for an evening of ingesting and dancing at a bar for fairies, the place she met the love of her life, a fellow fairy named Nadya. Their relationship moved shortly, and never lengthy after becoming a member of the family, Nadya watched in horror as Nyx bought struck by lightning after failing to appease one of many gnomes dwelling in her home. (She survived, it’s fantastic.) Nyx and Nadya began getting severe, and determined to develop the household by having a “Science Child” (which permits same-sex Sims to have youngsters that share their genetics.) They solely ordered one child, however someway ended up with a pair of twins, whom I instantly was nightmare gasoline with slightly tweaking in Create-A-Sim. That is the form of inventive freedom and charming chaos I’ve been craving since The Sims 4 first launched.

Just a few hours into enjoying, I spotted one thing actually wonderful was occurring: I used to be having enjoyable. I wasn’t struggling to place outfits collectively (a usually widespread prevalence, since The Sims 4 did away with options from iterations of The Sims, like customized hair, clothes, and furnishings colours). The sport nonetheless has some technical quirks — Nyx appeared to catch a brand new sort of ailment each different day — however for as soon as, my gameplay expertise wasn’t totally slowed down by bugs. For the primary time since I picked it up a decade in the past, The Sims 4 felt full.

However that’s in all probability as a result of I personal all 98 of the sport’s DLC packs.

Yeah, you learn that proper. The Sims 4 has practically 100 DLC packs, ranging in value from $5 for a single equipment to $40 for a full growth pack like Enchanted By Nature. Now, clearly no one’s forcing you to purchase each DLC, however given the sheer lack of content material within the base sport (and the truth that The Sims 4 doesn’t permit full colour customization for clothes and furnishings like The Sims 3 did), you’re going to have a reasonably mediocre time attempting to decorate up a Sim or enhance a room in case you don’t shell out for some DLC packs. If you would like all of them, it’ll run you roughly $1,600, relying on what sort of gross sales or DLC bundles can be found on the time.

I’ve all the time been a little bit of a purist in relation to The Sims. I don’t actually mod my sport (except for utilizing MC Command Middle, essential mod practically all Simmers use) or obtain customized player-made content material, as a result of I hate having to fiddle with an enormous folder of mods after each single sport replace. I’ve performed this manner since The Sims first launched in 2000. I’ve purchased each growth pack for The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and The Sims 4. However there are some fairly stark variations between earlier iterations of The Sims and its present kind.

The principle distinction is that the primary three iterations of The Sims have been already enjoyable once they launched. Sure, I appeared ahead to every DLC, however they weren’t required for the sport to really feel full, as a result of up till The Sims 4, Sims video games have been already well-polished and satisfying at launch. The DLC packs of yore enhanced the sport, whereas The Sims 4’s expansions largely serve to fill in gaps that shouldn’t have been there to start with, which is a part of why there are so rattling lots of them.

For comparability, The Sims 3 had 11 growth packs and 9 stuff packs for a complete of 20 DLC packs. How on Earth did we get to the purpose the place gamers want a four-figure funds and practically 100 DLC packs to ensure that a sport of digital dollhouse to be partaking?

I’m lastly having a blast with The Sims 4. However the truth that it took a decade (and a frankly unhinged amount of cash) to get here’s a disgrace, and has me nervous about the way forward for the collection, which EA appears to be steering within the course of an MMO.