There has been a lot of discussion lately on what Sims 4 is missing. Things that were in previous versions of the games, beyond toddlers and swimming pools, that you won’t find in Sims 4 (yet). Many people comment about how the game is sure to be a cash grab offering players extra features in DLC. It has stirred up quite a lot of controversy, and many of the discussions include reference to people returning to Sims 3 which has an incredibly robust world and is full of features. Of course that happens after so many expansions are released.
For myself, I am completely smitten by The Sims 4, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Are there things missing? Sure. Does it take some getting used to (especially the loading screens) yes, yes it does. Is the game fun? Incredibly.
I love that they have opened up things with the gallery features. Being able to create, save, and upload entire families, houses, or rooms, (as well as download others creations) is fantastic. There are some days I don’t really want to build an entire home, or I need some inspiration. The gallery feature makes this incredibly easy to do within game, and you don’t have to download items from an awkward UI before you load in (or from a web site, as example).
The worlds do initially feel smaller because there are loading screens between almost every location you travel to including your neighbours but now that I have played a few hours it’s starting to fade a bit more into the background and it’s by no means a game breaker for me. The locations you do travel to feel like they have a higher population of people wandering through and there’s loads of interactions to do. Plus there are collectibles in every corner of the map, fishing, dig sites, and frogs. I started breeding them and now my house is overrun. There’s a TON of interaction, and I can’t help but think that now that the major things are taken care of the dev team can focus on adding those little things that we all feel are missing from the game.
I have ran into one major issue, and that’s with the screen going black any time I build / purchase an item from the build screen. It has to do with dual monitors, and there is a work around that includes alt-tabbing and changing the resolution of the game a few times, then swapping it back to the normal resolution. I’m able to continue to play the game normally after this, and it doesn’t prevent me from playing (though I do need to ‘fix’ the game every time I play). Aside from that, I haven’t encountered anything major.
TL;DR? I’m loving the game. It’s fun, intuitive, and I’m willing to overlook the small things that annoy me. I wouldn’t go recommending the game to others quite yet, because I do think a majority of people may feel the game is too lacking, but I think that the game will be even more amazing in a few months time.