My Sims 4 Review Part 2: General Gameplay, Emotions, Careers & School

Welcome back to my review of the Sims 4. This is Part 2. To read Part 1, go here.

General Gameplay

As far as general gameplay is concerned, I really like the layout and graphics and the game runs very smoothly on my laptop. There is an option for 'laptop mode' so the game is more laptop-friendly which is very helpful for those of us that don't have desktop computers. The layout of the display is more compact compared to previous Sims games and gives you a bigger window to see your sims and their surroundings.

The Aspirations panel is the first tab in the bottom right corner. Something new they added to aspirations is that you have mini objectives to complete in order to earn points towards their lifetime goal. This is pretty interesting and gives you things to accomplish in order to earn rewards. Below is an example for the Computer Whiz aspiration. 

Children have their own aspirations and goals to complete before reaching the teen age. These aspirations (only available to children) are Whiz Kid, Social Butterfly, Rambunctious Scamp and Artistic Prodigy.

The 'Simology' panel and the 'Needs' panel are the last two tabs in the bottom right corner. They are pretty much the same as TS3, just a little more sleek looking. I really like the new look of these.

The Sims 4 added some new skills to learn, along with many of the usual ones. One of these is the Comedy skill which can be learned by telling jokes, being funny and watching the comedy channel on the television. These new skills are pretty fun to play around with since they are different. It'll be interesting to see what is in store as they reach higher levels of these skills.

There are several new foods in this installment of the series as well. Here are screenshots of what sims can cook. This is just for sims with level 2 cooking skill. More experienced cooks can cook more. I love that there is more variety with the foods, but I'm not a big fan of the fact that to get a birthday cake you have to have sims cook it themselves and add birthday candles to it. It's a neat concept but I think we should still have to option to buy one in buy mode (for those that are lazy like me :P)

The phone menu is also pretty much the same as TS3 except you have a travel option to travel to community lots.  I don't like having loading screens, but at least they are pretty quick. The only services available at the moment are the maid services, adoption services and pizza delivery. This means there aren't many NPCs (so no firefighters, matchmakers, etc).

Overall, the general gameplay is pretty fun, but it's far from perfect. Adding in story progression would make a big difference in the dynamics of the towns. As of right now, sims in other households will age if the option is turned on in the options menu but they won't make major decisions on their own (ie. marriage and having babies). After the original inhabitants start getting old and dying off, there aren't as many children and teens in the neighborhood which makes it seem a little unbalanced. 

Multitasking is something new to the Sims as well. I personally love it. Sims can carry on conversations while cooking, watching tv, playing video games, etc. This saves some time when trying to build relationships and taking care of your sims' needs. In the first picture below, you can see Zoe chatting while having a drink at the nightclub. In the second picture my sim, Jay, is playing video games while chatting with Zoe who is sitting on the bed and eating cereal.

Emotions

I love the emotions that were added to the game. They make interactions more realistic. If someone is happy, they're going to want to cheer others up. If the sim is embarassed, they're going to be acting insecure. If they're flirty, he/she is going to try their hardest to impress the people they find attractive. Each emotion unlocks certain interactions they can use. For instance, flirty sims can do sexy poses and happy sims can brighten people's days. Overall, I think this is a fun element added into the game, and it's definitely brought on a whole new way to play.

Careers & School

I feel that the careers in TS4 are lacking. There is very little to choose from, and some of the classic careers aren't included (like the medical career). This is pretty disappointing, and I'm hoping more will be added in a patch or later EP. To find a job, your sim can use their phone, computer, or you can select 'Join a Career' under the career tab.

After selecting one of these options, a window will pop up with a list of careers to choose from. The screenshot below shows the window. The only career not shown is the Culinary career.

Like the aspirations, sims have objectives to meet in order to get promoted in their careers. This can be difficult and time-consuming, especially if you have large, hectic families. Thankfully these aren't too different from TS3 requirements, and are pretty easy to complete (for the most part).

Schooling for children works the same way. They must complete objectives to get an A in school. Most of these objectives include gaining skill points like crazy. I have mixed feelings on this. I like that it is a challenging because it seemed a little too easy in TS3 but I don't like it because it is difficult if you have a lot of children at once like I tend to have.

This concludes Part 2. Keep Reading for Part 3 which will cover romance, pregnancy and babies. :)

My Sims 4 Review Part 1: CAS, Build Mode, Neighborhoods & Community Lots

I'm very excited to finally have The Sims 4! Sure, it feels like things are missing, but most base games for the Sims do. Here's the first part of my review of the game so far. These are just my opinions, of course.

Create-A-Sim

I have to say the new CAS is my absolute favorite aspect of The Sims 4. I love how you can literally drag the sims faces/bodies to how you would like them, down to the tiniest details. To me the biggest downfall of it would be the lack of Create-A-Style like The Sims 3 had, leaving you limited color options for eyes, hair and clothes. Other new features for the CAS include the ability to choose various walk styles that you can use to match your sims' personalities, and the ability to create twins/siblings/children of your sim(s) that resemble your sim(s) but are not completely identical to them. For example, when you create a twin, the twin may have a slightly different face or a different eye color, instead of like in TS3 where creating a twin would literally just duplicate them. In the photo below, my original sim is on the left. I randomly generated a twin (shown in the middle) and she came out slightly different (eyes and lips are shaped differently). On the right is a randomly generated sibling, again she resembles the original but varies slightly (eye color and nose shape, for example).

 .

When creating children, you can either use two created sims, and generate a child or just one sim and the other parent will be random. In the photo below, I have an example of what my couples child would look like on the top, and what my female's child with a mystery sim would look like on the bottom.

Here are some screenshots of the aspiration categories, walk styles and the traits you can choose from.

Build Mode

Build mode is something I haven't played around with too much but I do love that you can pick up, turn and move already created rooms if you decide to you want to move it elsewhere or change the items around, etc. And, if you're an awful builder like me, the pre-created rooms are a great way to build the layout for a house. You are able to place the rooms, adjust the size and take away or add items as you please, which is a nice time-saver. Using just the pre-created rooms (except the hallway/entrance area), I was able to create a decent little house. I like this version of build mode more than the previous sims installments. My main complaint is that it takes a little while to get used to the setup and camera angles in this mode. The lack of pools and bad lighting indoors are some negatives as well.

Neighborhoods

The neighborhoods in this game are gorgeous. Willow Creek is a beautiful and lush neighborhood, while Oasis Springs is a desert-type neighborhood. While I love the look of the neighborhoods, I don't like how few lots there are in each. Each neighborhood is divided into several smaller sections, however, only about half are residential. Hopefully EA will add more lots to the neighborhoods at a later date.

 Community Lots

The community lots in the game are pretty cool but I wish there were more variety in the types. Right now there are two gyms, a few bars/lounges, a couple parks, a library and a couple museums between the two neighborhoods. I would have liked to see restaurants/cafes, grocery stores and the school. What I do like about the lots are that they are pretty populated with townies. It's very rarely that I go to a lot and it's empty, unlike in TS3.

That concludes Part 1 of my review. Stay tuned for the next part!