The Sims 4 is a bit of a mixed bag. I'm really tempted to give this two stars and say that it's a massive downgrade from the last game (which it is), but the improvements are so significant that it's hard to ignore. Sims feel less like dolls you can control and more like volatile people. Their emotions add so much to the gameplay. Building and character creation feel far less clunky, less like playing a ton of sliders, and more like sculpting with clay. And what I love the most: mod support is greatly improved over what was in The Sims 3. Compare some of the mods from that game to some of the ones you see in this game, and it's night and day. Oh, and the game isn't as slow, either.
But here's where I have to be honest with you: they took all of the gimmicks from 3, the stuff that they could have added more to and improved on, and just threw them away. Customization is more limited. There isn't an open world anymore; instead, worlds are composed of a laughably small number of spaces you can load into at any time. But what irks me the most is that this is the least content complete base game in the series. For reference: all of The Sims 3's DLC costs nearly 400 dollars. If you want to skip the cosmetic packs and go only for the content ones, it'll still cost you a whopping $219.89 full price. The Sims 4 is a little fairer in its pricing: cosmetic packs no longer cost as much as the content packs. The problem? Even when it's all on sale, there's still nearly $600 worth of DLC. Again, on sale. Off-sale, that price becomes almost a thousand. The DLC model is so egregious that this game has DLC for its DLC: you can't get a specific cosmetic pack unless you have a particular content pack. There's no way around it: The Sims 4 is more of a platform for EA and their version of Maxis to puke out as much downloadable content as they can. I got this game for free on Origin back when they were doing that giveaway, and I've been convinced ever since that the game should stay that way. If this is how EA is going to treat it, they really should.
But here's where I have to be honest with you: they took all of the gimmicks from 3, the stuff that they could have added more to and improved on, and just threw them away. Customization is more limited. There isn't an open world anymore; instead, worlds are composed of a laughably small number of spaces you can load into at any time. But what irks me the most is that this is the least content complete base game in the series. For reference: all of The Sims 3's DLC costs nearly 400 dollars. If you want to skip the cosmetic packs and go only for the content ones, it'll still cost you a whopping $219.89 full price. The Sims 4 is a little fairer in its pricing: cosmetic packs no longer cost as much as the content packs. The problem? Even when it's all on sale, there's still nearly $600 worth of DLC. Again, on sale. Off-sale, that price becomes almost a thousand. The DLC model is so egregious that this game has DLC for its DLC: you can't get a specific cosmetic pack unless you have a particular content pack. There's no way around it: The Sims 4 is more of a platform for EA and their version of Maxis to puke out as much downloadable content as they can. I got this game for free on Origin back when they were doing that giveaway, and I've been convinced ever since that the game should stay that way. If this is how EA is going to treat it, they really should.