The Sims 4: the review

The Sims franchise goes a long way back. The first iteration of the life simulation game par excellence was released in February 2000, when Simcity creator Will Wright decided to launch another sandbox game, this time focussed on virtual people (whom he called the Sims). Since then, due to its huge commercial success, the game has spawned two more iterations, countless expansion packs, console versions and spin-offs. September 2014 is the launch date of the fourth iteration, The Sims 4. A new era has just begun, as new gameplay and features are introduced, players are creating new sims and houses to share, modders are trying to figure out the inner mechanisms of the game, and a batch of new-born fansites is populating the Web.
Whenever there's a new release fans have great expectations because of the leaps taken in the past between iterations. The Sims 2 introduced full 3D gameplay and generational play, and The Sims 3 introduced an open world, personality traits and fully customisable textures. However, when a new iteration comes, there are also features cut off from previous games, because development time is always short. When The Sims 2 came out, despite the magnificent improvements, the game felt a bit incomplete. Suddenly we had no access to the improvements of The Sims expansion packs. We had no proper venues to hang out at, no pets, not many activities for the sims to perform and no magic. The same happened when The Sims 3 came out, there was no weather, there were fewer activities for the sims to perform, fewer animations and very little original base game objects. It's only natural for a Sims game to feel incomplete at first, while expansion packs gradually add more content and open up the gaming possibilities. With this in mind, let's see how The Sims 4 fares in the present scenario.
To test the game, we created the Prestes family in Create-a-Sim. This is Arehim's family (the blog mascot, check this post), she's got a husband, Berlé, and an adult daughter, Ana. Create-a-Sim is very flexible for sim creation, but it requires a bit of practice. For the first time we managed to create a version of Berlé that actually resembles his real-life counterpart. Basically, in order to create the wanted sim, you grab and drop the body part you want to edit. It feels pretty much like messing with play-dough, and there are a lot of possible shapes. At last, fine-tuning the body shape is allowed, and that's a huge addition.

Arehim in a playful state of mind

Having created the family, it was time to build them a house. Berlé is an angler, so we chose an empty lot near a fishing spot in Oasis Springs. The game comes with two worlds: Oasis Springs is a desert type one, while the lush Willow Creek is loosely based on New Orleans. Each world contains several neighbourhoods with a few lots each. The Sims 3 aimed for a fully open world, but several performance issues and the lack of resident sims made the worlds feel empty. Since the average computer is still lacking enough processing power to create a fully customisable open world with individual residents in a realistic way, The Sims 4 has reached a compromise. Neighbourhoods are smaller with only one active lot at each time, but a wide usable open area. The neighbouring lots are visually fully rendered, though, which means there are no more low-def visuals or grey absent textures. Even though there are now limits compared to what was previously a seamless world, the neighbourhood doesn't feel closed at all. The explorable open area is big enough to keep your sims entertained with both collectibles and usable objects such as picnic tables and grills. Also, there are plenty of sims around to make it feel populated in a realistic way. Besides, lots get frequented appropriately for the time of day. For example, we saw an influx of sims at the library during the day, while at night it felt deserted. The opposite happens to bars, for they are more lively at night. We now have loading screens when travelling between lots. The wait is not as long as it was in The Sims 2, it loads fairly fast.

A scene in beautiful Willow Creek

For the house building, we had to switch to build/buy mode. The game has now fused what were previously two independent game modes. The build/buy mode has introduced some interesting new tools, and much like create-a-sim, its interface is now based on the act of grabbing and manipulating stuff. There's still access to the previous individual tools, but now it's possible to grab entire rooms and place them wherever wanted. The roof customisation tools have also improved a lot, offering easy height and shape manipulation. It's also possible to customise the height of foundations with stairs matching their height accordingly. Unfortunately, it's no longer possible to add a room with a foundation next to one without.

The original Prestes' house in build mode

Having built the house it was time to furnish it. A search function has been added, so it's a lot easier to locate individual objects. The game features tons and tons of objects. Never a basegame has featured this many objects, having a lot to choose from. The Prestes like the modern style better, so modern furniture was chosen for the house. There are several styles of furnishings ranging from classic to modern. The customisable textures for parts of the objects (known in The Sims 3 as Create-a-Style) were removed, leaving several preset colour combinations to choose from. That's understandable from a performance point of view, afterall Create-A-Style was incredibly lagging in The Sims 3, to the point of being downright unplayable. What's not understandable is the fact that you can't choose preset colours/patterns for individual parts of an object The Sims 2 style. A colour wheel would have also been a nice addition. Also missing were lounge chairs. Sims can no longer relax outside.

Arehim is about to cook a meal

Now that Arehim's family had a fully functional house, it was time to live in it. Immediately the game started to feel different in a good way. Multitasking has been hugely improved, especially with conversations. Sims can now talk while doing almost anything. Also, it's possible to grab a drink while eating, or drinking while reading a book. Sims can now eat in front of the T.V. or read a book or use the smartphone while in the toilet. And these are just a few examples. Conversations also feel a lot more natural, and can take place between multiple sims. On one occasion, Arehim was at a bar telling a joke to multiple sims and they all laughed. Arehim was made to be a stand-up comedian, so she picked a job in the Entertainer career track.

There are several things a sim has to do in order to advance in the chosen career, as specified in the appropriate panel. One of the tasks for Arehim was to write jokes daily, so she picked up a computer and started writing jokes. Your sim's emotional state now has a huge toll on gameplay. It's a welcome addition that adds a lot of realism and encourages the planning of the game in advance. Sims' facial expressions will change according to the emotional state they're in, and so will the tone of their speech, walking style and idle animations. Sims produce better jokes if they're in a playful emotional state, so we had Arehim tell a lot of jokes to Berlé until she felt playful and then had her write more jokes on the computer. There's now a comedy skill associated with that, so obviously those actions improved her comedic prowess. The computers in the game are also more powerful than ever: they start with a lot of interactions, such as writing, playing games, chatting and browsing for stuff online. New skill and job-related interactions are unlocked as soon as certain levels are reached. As for Arehim, when she improved her comedy skill she was able to write comedy routines which she could then perform at a microphone. The career paths, though unconventional, are a lot of fun to play.
It's not just the computers that have improved interactions. There are so many possible things to do in the game that it never feels short of gameplay. There are tons of activities for your sims to perform, including three musical intruments each with an associated skill, playable songs and the ability to compose new ones.

Gardening is also possible in the game

There are also hologram games, playing cards, the return of the telescope and chess table, a microscope, a bonsai tree, space shuttles, etc. Even though there are no pools yet, the new activities feel endless. One of the activities that Berlé picked was fishing. There's a skill associated with that and as Berlé progressed, he gained the ability to fish with bait and to inspect the water to see what kind of bait is best for a particular spot. Berlé also has the lifetime aspiration of being mischievous, so he pranked a lot of sims. Lifetime Aspirations are an evolution of lifetime wishes from The Sims 3. Although this time a sim is not limited to a single aspiration, he/she can choose another one after he/she completes it. Completion is not required for the changing of aspiration, it's possible to change an aspiration at any time without losing progress. Aspirations are made of increasingly difficult goals which grant points. These points can be traded for perks such as new personality traits and special potions. Speaking of personality traits, Sims still have them. Though they can only choose a maximum of three at Create-a-Sim, they are now more relevant than ever. Ana is childish, so she gets to play with toys just like a regular child sim. Berlé is a glutton, and that makes him want to eat all the time, even when he's not particularly hungry. There's even a special animation for his eating, as seen in the video below:

He's also a loner, so when he's around sims that he doesn't know very well he becomes tense. Instead of just a moodlet, being tense is now a new emotional state and affects everything the sim does, from unlocking new interactions to a change in his intonation.

Berlé is noticeably tense

In order to try marriage and having kids we switched households. Save games now allow for an easy change between households, making rotational play a lot easier, like the way it used to be back in The Sims 2. But don't fret if you're a story progression player. Even though there's no real story progression like The Sims 3 has, the game allows for unplayed households and townies to age and die (via an option in the menu), and respawns new families all the time. There will always be townies of all ages for your sims to interact with.
We downloaded the previously shown in a trailer families of Babs L'Amour and Ollie Purdue. We then made them fall in love and get married. There's a dating system implemented in the base game for the first time. It consisted of a set of goals which you have to achieve in order to have a great date. If the date reaches the maximum score your sim is rewarded with an unlockable object. Like the console versions, there are objects you have to unlock by accomplishing certain gameplay goals. Unfortunately these objects are unlocked per household instead of per savegame.

Babs is on a date with Ollie

After dating for a while, Babs finally proposed to Ollie. A wedding was finally arranged at a downloaded venue purposefully built for that. The wedding, just like all parties had an option to be scored. It worked just like the dating system: fulfil the goals and you get a reward. It was a really fun party, but had a glitch: the guests didn't sit to watch the ceremony taking place (as shown in the video).

After the wedding another glitch happened: the groom didn't move in with his wife. They were married allright, but just living in separate houses. This was solved by inviting Ollie to move in.
After both sims finally shared a house it was time for Woohoo!! They decided to start a family early so they tried for a baby.

Babs and Ollie's first whohoo

Just afterwards Babs took a pregnancy test in the bathroom it was positive. Babs got pregnant on her first woohoo (what are the odds?).

Babs after she found out she was pregnant

Her pregnancy took about 3 days (one day per trimester) before she had her baby. Her belly got really big! When her baby girl thought it was finally time to come out Babs decided to have her in the hospital. The baby could also have been born at home.

Arehim checking Babs' belly size

After delivering, Babs became really fat, so she had to work out at the gym in order to lose that baby weight.

Gotta lose that baby fat, Babs

Babies stay in their bassinets all the time, but have several interactions such as rock, make silly face, coo at, etc. They can also be breast-fed or bottle-fed. There's no visible information on their needs, which makes taking care of them a lot more difficult. Sometimes they seem to cry just because. A baby then ages up into a child. For a lot of players  the absence of a toddler stage is a huge issue and hopefully it will be fixed in a future expansion pack.

Will this baby ever become a toddler?

Children are a lot of fun to play. They have a lot more interactions, can play musical instruments and have more toys. There are also child-specific skills and aspirations to be accomplished. Teenagers are similar to previous games. They still have homework to do and can advance in any adult skill. They also have the option of having a part-time job. The only drawback is that they are the same height as adults and thus it's difficult to perceive a sim's age-group.

In terms of graphics, the game looks stunning. It was a bold decision to choose the cartoony look instead of a more realistic one, but it worked wonders. History has a way of repeating itself as it reminds us of the time when The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was launched and everyone was expecting a realistic-looking Zelda like the on shown in a tech demo. The final game ended looking great, and awed both reviewers and players. It also runs very smoothly (it was tested on a two year-old laptop, full specs at the end of the review), with fast saving. The UI has thankfully been uncluttered and still works really well.
There are a few glitches, none of them game-breaking though. Besides, at the time of writing Electronic Arts has been delivering small patches in a timely manner, which is new in the series. We definitely approve of that!
Overall the game is very well structured, both internally and in terms of gameplay. The internal structure allows for transparency when it comes to modding. The developers have even provided an official document explaining how to tune the game and add new features. The game is very clear and precise and it can be told it was designed with expandability in mind. Future expansion packs will fit nicely. Also, returning to the initial issue, for the first time in the series the game feels a lot more complete. There's stuff to play for hundreds of hours before feeling the need of an expansion pack.
But let's get straight to the point: the game is incredibly fun to play. We've had the most fun playing the game we hadn't had in ages, it's really hard to turn off the computer and get back to real life. Despite some missing features and glitches, in the end having fun is the most important thing in a game.

9/10

Arehim threw a party to celebrate the game!

Tested on:

2x Intel Core i7-3610QM CPU 2.30GHz
16GB RAM DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M
128 GB SSD Hard Drive