Game review: The Sims 4 (2014)
gaming·@deadspace·
0.000 HBDGame review: The Sims 4 (2014)
<html> <p>The game which I will be reviewing today is one that comes from most definitely one of the most well known video game franchises of all time, one that I'm sure most of everyone reading this is familiar with, it's called The Sims. This is the 4th title in the main line of the series, though there are literally dozens of other sims games available to play besides the main 4. The sims 4 was developed in collaboration with EA Maxis and The Sims Studio. The game was also published of course by EA, something which I'm sure comes as no surprise to anyone reading this. The Sims 4 was released back in September of 2014, and was made available to play on the PC. It has also been ported over for the Playstation 4 and Xbox one several months ago, making it so you can now play it on basically all of the main console systems. </p> <p>I wasn't sure if I really wanted to write this review if I'm being completely honest, as I'll be up front now that it's not exactly going to be a happy one with lots of praise for the game like a fair share of the games I've reviewed have been. I played quite a bit of the Sims 3, probably anywhere from 175-250 hours which might not be a lot to some of the Sims fanatics, but for me that's a pretty decent chunk of gameplay. I was somewhat excited upon hearing that they were developing a new Sims, as my fiancee is heavily in love with the game series, and I too enjoy it a bit. So, not only would I get a new game to binge out on but so would she. </p> <p>However, I started realizing that the game was probably not going to live up to my expectations after seeing updates of it on youtube, as well as reading articles about the development. It basically goes the same way that EA takes most of their games these days, meaning that you're paying for a lot of DLC's for content that should've been in the game when you originally purchased the game. Upon release, I decided I was going to hold off on getting it myself, however, my fiancee ended up purchasing it and giving it a try. Her reception upon playing it for a dozen or so hours was fairly lukewarm. She found some things she enjoyed, with other things she disliked. And, I have to say that's pretty much where I am with the game as well. </p> <p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CLFLU5G.png" width="2048" height="1152"/></p> <p>For anyone who is unaware of what the Sims games actually consist of, the premise is a pretty simple one to understand, and it always is basically the same type of gameplay with each game. The game will put you into an open world simulation where you get to create a digital avatar and control every aspect of their life, including what they do for their day to day life. <del>You sick little monkey. </del>Hell, if you really feel like it you can just trap them in rooms with fire and murder them. You can create either a single sim, or a whole family of them which you'll control until they pass of old age, where in then you can control their offspring if you've started a family. </p> <p>Compared to the past titles in the sim series, the character creation process within this game has been dumbed down quite a bit, and is far more basic than it ever has been in the past games. While it maybe makes it easier for people who have never played a Sims game before to create their character, I was slightly annoyed with this and wish it wouldn't have given such simple options for editing the characters. It's really not that difficult of a thing to do, and it really made things feel less creative and more limited. A positive thing is that they've cleared things up for the traits and careers and made everything pretty out in the open, where you'll know exactly what your career path will be and what you'll have to do.</p> <p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/rmcjFZL.jpg" width="1920" height="1080"/></p> <p>There's been other changes to the game as well, though most of them aren't things which I would consider great for the series. One semi positive addition is the emotion system which has been added into your sims as you play. This emotion system has created full fledged moods for your sim to experience, based upon the events that are happening to them daily and what they're doing. This has been used somewhat in past games, but much more in depth with this new game. There's a lot of new ways to help boost your sims mood up, with things like smartphones being brought into the game for example. You'll easily be able to tell what your sim is feeling, and it's one of the few interesting things in the game trying to figure out what you can do to fix the mood issues. </p> <p>Now, I'll start touching base into some of the negative things which I'm not really a huge fan of. Things like the fact that they've removed a lot of the clothing options as well as building options for your home compared to what we've had in the past. Again, I think this was due to the fact that EA has become obsessed with microtransactions and DLC's, since they get so much more extra money out of their games this way. Of course, I'm assuming that they designed the game to be this way so they can put out DLC's for you to buy clothing packs or item/event packs to add more content to the game. I can't say they had this in mind for sure, but I feel that it's a good guess. I'm not a big fan of this, and think the game was left a bit unpolished just for the extra cash. </p> <p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/KB0UgWo.jpg" width="1920" height="1080"/></p> <p>Another set of issues that can be found within this game is the fact that they've really taken two steps back in their ability of world building. The Sims 3 did a great job at letting you explore the world around your sim, and actually having you feel like you live in a city with communities all over the place for you to find and mingle with. This is definitely far lacking in comparison, and it really feels like a way less populated world available for you to explore. It's also lacking quite a bit of places to explore to make things worse. It doesn't matter where you travel to in the game, each area feels quite isolated from one another and you never really feel like there's a booming population to the areas you're in. Combine this with the irritating loading screen times, and I definitely wasn't anywhere as happy to explore around as I used to be. Seriously, the loading screens make you feel like you're playing a game in the early 2000's. </p> <p>Sadly, these aren't the only issue which I found with the world building of the game. As there are a lot of key elements missing in this game which were present for the past iterations of the Sims games. Beyond removing a lot of the exploration elements of your local neighborhoods, they've also removed things like the toddler part of raising your sims which obviously makes sense to have when raising children in game. Other things we had in the past few games such as the random events like break ins and garbage rummaging weirdos have also been entirely removed from this game. There are smaller pieces of the game which have been removed as well, such as locations you could typically meet other sims and places where events could take place. I personally feel that this is a negative, but I guess it could be up for interpretation. </p> <p>There's one last thing I would like to address, something which might be something people get upset with while playing this game. The AI still isn't really done very well for your Sims when you try to let them go on autopilot. This is something which has been a reoccurring issue with the Sims games, and by no means is just a sole issue within this game. Of course, I did hope that with this game they may have improved upon the AI in some ways from the past titles in the series. However, I was let down as the AI is still the same as it always has been. I tend to keep a close eye on my Sims, so it never got to be too angering since the AI wasn't an autopilot too often. However, the moments where I did either let them or had to let them go on autopilot I often found myself annoyed with the fact that the Sims just aren't smart enough to really deal with anything on their own. While not being a huge, glaring issue it's still a bit annoying and could irritate people new to the series. So it's worth mentioning in my opinion. </p> <p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/uGaOER4.jpg" width="1920" height="1080"/></p> <p>While this newest game features some higher end looking graphics and has a few new gameplay elements added in comparison to the older games, I really think playing the previous titles can be more entertaining and engaging than this title in particular. It's missing a lot of core elements that made the Sims a really fun experience, and has taken out a lot of the customization elements of the game unless you're willing to purchase DLC's to fill in those gaps. While this game isn't the worst thing ever by any means, I really think it is a mediocre sequel to the Sims 3 and I can't say I'm all that impressed with the changes to the game. I'd recommend it if you're looking for a simulation game to play and don't have anything better, but personally I'd go back to the older titles if it were me. </p> <p>Thanks for stopping by to check out my game review. Appreciate it! <br> </p> </html>
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