The Sims 4 Review

So, exactly five years have passed, or to be more precise, five years and four months since the release of the now previous version of the game The Sims 3. On September 4th, Electronic Arts released The Sims 4. Needless to say, all fans of The Sims were eagerly awaiting this date.While there used to be a large number of expansions that made the game even more beautiful, now to spend money on EA Games buying them is much easier. Oh, sorry for starting with criticism, but it’s EA Games, and they always treat players like this.

In a person, everything should be perfect: the face, the clothes, the soul, the thoughts…

If we’re talking about Sims, everything is perfect!.. or almost.

Inside the known box, I found not only the game itself (by the way, on two DVD discs), but also several pleasant surprises. Firstly, I got a booklet called “Creator’s Guide” with attractive illustrations. Secondly, I discovered a Plumbob crystal from SteelSeries – it connects to the computer and during the game, the color of the crystal reflects the character’s state. By the way, if the developers had made it wireless, it would undoubtedly be better! Oh yes, the game activation key in Origin was also in the box.

How can you play Sims without Sims? You can’t. I’ll start with their creation. With the help of the mouse wheel, you can change absolutely everything: from the top of the head to the toes, including even the calves. You can even adjust the lips “manually” and lift the cheekbones – you can even make a copy of yourself: it will all work out! But there is no possibility to create a mole anywhere other than above the lip. But is it necessary when you can choose the character’s gait, voice, shoulder width? By the way, the torsos of the men in the game are drawn much more carefully than in previous versions, which is unlikely to leave the girls indifferent.

What else did the creators of the game delight us with this time? I won’t keep you waiting: the choice of clothing! Yes, there is not a huge assortment, but the old wardrobe has already become quite boring. And here you can find slippers with bunnies, and all sorts of dress styles, even Galaxy leggings.

When creating the first two characters, they automatically became relatives, but not married, so they got to know each other on the plot. To my happiness, I was able to “befriend” them very quickly.

So, when the family had a child, I immediately discovered the opportunity to “grow” a schoolchild from a baby at any moment! Even right after birth. And so I did.

One beautiful evening, the child was having fun in the so-called children’s laboratory and accidentally started a fire. All the residents of the house panicked and ran out of the house, waiting for something (life-like, isn’t it?). I sent the head of the family – a very athletic husband and sociable father – to extinguish the fire. I thought it would be easy for him to put it out, but no. Desperately trying to put out the fire… the character caught fire himself… Then I sent the pregnant wife to help… and she easily saved her beloved husband and their home. The whole family was in a depressed mood for almost a day after what happened, and the wife felt like a hero, and her crystal was blue. By the way, from then on, only she extinguished the fires (it was very dangerous during the children’s games in this laboratory), while the alarm was just beeping.

Someone asked the question: “What does the blue color of the crystal mean?” I will answer. This color symbolizes an inspired character who will perform the specified actions faster.

One beautiful evening, I felt like building a public area. Specifically, a park. To successfully complete the area, a certain number of specific items need to be placed on it. The only difficulty that caught me off guard was the monkey cage. Honestly, neither searching for items nor searching on Google helped me, so I had to build a “basic” area.

When managing the sims, I immediately discovered a glitch: when trying to enter the house, the characters would freeze for 10-20 seconds and then suddenly end up where they were heading! And often, the skill capsule doesn’t disappear and remains with the character until the game is restarted. Or it disappears when the character goes to work, for example. When starting the game, the melody doesn’t always play immediately. And then the sound appears when the Play button is pressed. I haven’t noticed any more bugs.

By the way, now you can do multiple things at once. For example, read a book and talk to someone. Strangely enough, once my sim went to the bathroom and drank orange juice at the same time.

Creating a second family, I wanted to quickly get to the action, so I bought a ready-made house with furniture… Which I later regretted! All the furniture was cheap (what else did I expect for 13,000 simoleons?). At first, my character didn’t like the refrigerator, which ruined the mood. And in the morning, after an uncomfortable sleep on a cheap bed, I had to “settle” for a small red-orange crystal.

For some reason, the game creators decided that a pool is no longer needed in version 4. I don’t know about you, but I used to build pools on every lot. Only fountains are left, where you can’t swim.

And yes, the color palette of furniture and wallpapers is once again limited. Such a game simply cannot live without the variety of a builder.

Community

Many criticize Sims for the lack of a plot. In the game, there is indeed no specific goal that the player must pursue. Usually, players start by creating a family, then they begin to fool around (drowning someone in the pool, creating characters with specific appearances), and then they create beautiful (and not so beautiful) interiors. Some players spend time on websites and communities dedicated to this game, where truly remarkable things happen.

What do community members do? Of course, they ask questions that arise during the game and answer them. It’s not that interesting. Community members share screenshots of events from the lives of the characters, photos of beautiful locations. Contests for the best photos related to a certain theme are also held there.

Players create famous people or characters from movies.

Community members give each other tasks. For example, in a given house layout, you need to create rooms that correspond to certain parameters. This can be a description of a family that is going to live there, the hobbies of the characters, or the presence of certain items in the interior.

Or they ask you to create a family (a whole dynasty), develop specific skills for third-generation Sims, and achieve a high-level career. Meanwhile, other players complete tasks and post screenshots of their progress.

P.S. You might get the impression that only fourteen-year-old girls engage in such tasks, but no! More often, among the participants of these competitions, there are twenty-year-old girls.

Step back or what?

In my opinion, the 4th Sims game is more similar to Sims 2 than 3, and I will explain why. In Sims 3, we were enticed by the ability to take walks throughout the entire city. Now, it’s like before: if you want to go further away from home, you have to call a taxi. And the city map is quite small: 5 districts with a few buildings in each. But there are two cities, and you can move from one to another by taxi. The fourth installment is a platform for future improvements. There are already three available expansions, and there will be more that will bring back the lost features from previous parts.

*

If I ever let my children play Sims 4, I might have to hear the question: “Why do the characters take pictures of food on their phones and post them on the internet?”

*Updated 26.11.14 After the update with the appearance of the pool, my game categorically stopped minimizing. There were no buttons on the keyboard that could make the desktop accessible to me. But with the release of the next update on 25.11.14, minimizing the game became possible again. However, the “nail lag” item remained as it was.