Enough’s enough: After a decade of mediocrity, it’s time for The Sims 4 to call it a day

To buy the game in full now costs you over £1000

9 months ago

The Sims 4 gives me a headache. It makes me groan. It makes me roll my eyes and long for what could have been. After nearly a decade of playing the game, with an astonishing amount of hours dedicated to it, the fatigue is real. And the fatigue in question isn’t even the kind where you’ve had enough of a great game, it’s the kind of fatigue that makes you realise that actually, this game you spent hours of your life and a fucking fortune on was actually just a waste of time. Enough is enough with The Sims 4 – EA need to let it go.

Has The Sims 4 ever been good?

The Sims 4 launched to lukewarm. The game felt stripped back, bare bones. Features Simmers have enjoyed since The Sims 2 and sometimes even before just weren’t there. The game launched without swimming pools and ghosts, for god’s sake. What EA were thinking when they kicked off this generation of Sims without that is beyond me – but it’s safe to say that from then onwards the developers had an uphill battle to win fans back round. Especially after The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 had both been such iconic and very uniquely different games in their own right.

How did they do that? Did they release fan fave content packs bundled with amazing new features and value for money? No they did not. They drip fed content over the last decade of people gaming and split up features that previously came all bundled together into separate ones, meaning more money spent from the end user.

Not only did EA release the usual expansion packs and little stuff packs for clothing and furniture, but they also split things into Game Packs and Kits – and endless stream of things that require your cash. Do these enrich your game? That varies on pack to pack, and obviously you don’t have to spend anything on The Sims 4 at all. The base game is actually free right now, and to be fair to it comes with way more stuff than it did in 2014. But we all know The Sims is for all the details that you’re going to have to spend money on, and whilst not every pack is essential EA know full well most will delve right in.

We shouldn’t have to spend money on features that should be integral to a simulation game. Why are we paying money for the privilege of weather? Why is in depth family gameplay like what’s found in Parenthood and Growing Together behind a paywall? It doesn’t sit right with me, and makes The Sims 4 feel like it was a game developed to make money instead of being made as a game to be a great game with the fans in mind. It’s a shame.

The Sims 4 is beautiful but hollow

Make no mistake, The Sims 4 is beautiful. All of its worlds are gorgeous, glowing out of your screen. But you look deeper and there’s nothing in them for your Sims to even do. Yep, you can create gorgeous Sims and amazing houses. If you want to spend your time making Sims and houses you can have a great time doing so. But like all Simmers, you boot up the game and it never feels ready to make a dynasty or have meaningful gameplay when you get into the actual crux of the game. It’s too easy to progress in your careers. It’s too easy to make shitloads of money. It’s almost impossible for all Sims to not become friends with your Sim. There’s no depth.

I guess what I’m saying is that after 10 years nearly of The Sims 4, enough is enough of trying to pretend this was ever a great game or one that’s ever going to suddenly become good. EA need to let it go, let it rest, and focus on making The Sims 5 a return to form.

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@harrisonjbrock