Sul Sul! Welcome to It’s a Sims Thing. If you know me, I love all things The Sims. I’ve been an avid player and fan of the Sims franchise for most of my life, from MySims to The Sims 2: Pets to The Sims 2: Castaway to The Sims 3 to The Sims 4 and even The Sims Medieval!
Over the years, EA and Maxis Studio have released plenty of packs and add-ons for The Sims 4. But with so many releases, how much is too much? Quality is, more often than not, better than quantity. While I love the Sims team’s constant creativity and world-building, a major lack in the current pack experience limits players. Whether it’s paying for multiple packs that should have been combined into one or glitchy gameplay upon release, it’s safe to say there are plenty of packs I have a love/hate relationship with. Five to be exact, so let’s dive in!
When this pack was first announced, I had high hopes. I loved the idea of Sims shapeshifting into their werewolf form and a new spooky world to roam around. While this pack does feature some great new features and social scenarios, like the other supernatural expansion pack, The Sims 4: Vampires, the world is very small. One thing I will credit this game with is the werewolf gameplay on a full moon, which makes the game more interesting to play. The sheer panic that sets in is exhilarating at first but quickly becomes exhausting. While I admire the more realistic interpretation, the whole point of playing The Sims for me is that it’s a cozy game. After a chaotic day, I like to unwind and enjoy the game, not panic every few minutes that my werewolf sim is going to traumatize the whole household!
When I first heard about this new pack, I wasn’t thrilled at the idea of being able to rent out apartments and take on the landlord world. That was until I saw the world and fell in love with the new atmosphere. But boy, was I let down by this new pack’s playability upon release. Immediately, the pack had tons of bugs, and it took me forever to figure out how the rent and landlord game features worked. On top of that, despite having a much larger world to explore, there weren’t a whole lot of fully playable lots. Not only that, but the landlord feature took the fun out of the gameplay. Again, not looking to be stressed out playing a game. Although the deadly mold spores and infected, reminiscent to me of the infected in The Last of Us game series, are a pretty hilarious feature… Just as long as it doesn’t affect my Sims.
Oh, how I had high hopes for this pack! As a big fan of the Star Wars franchise, I was ecstatic to learn we would be getting a pack reminiscent of the land Batuu at Disney Parks. I mean, who doesn’t want to be a rebel or a Jedi and wield a lightsaber?! But with this fascination with the franchise, I was disappointed at how difficult it was to interact with this world. First of all, you can’t build OR live there… I mean, what even is the point?! Sure, it’s cool to interact with their world, but there isn’t much that would keep the gameplay new and exciting. Yes, there are quests to complete to earn badges and meet famed characters from the most recent films, Kylo Ren and Rey, but other than that, the pack truly lacked substantial content and features.
A pack that should have been a feature in the base game or part of a bigger pack reminiscent of The Sims 3: Generations. What started as an exciting, customizable, and highly interactive gaming experience quickly fell flat due to the typical bugs and, once again, lack of carry-over through the rest of the game. While it’s exciting to follow your teen sims to high school, it doesn’t make sense for there to be only one high school in one town. Unlike in The Sims 3 when you would purchase a new pack, for example, The Sims 3: Ambitions, which includes firemen, a fire station would be added to every world owned. So, in this case, it would make sense to have a school in each world. And without this pack, where do your Sims go to work and school?!? Plus, if you have more than one teen sim, you can only follow one at a time to school. As a whole, this pack had good intentions but made no sense.
And finally. Without further ado, the main pack that may be the bain of my Sims experience is…
The best things about this pack were the fashion and the location. Other than that, this pack is a total trainwreck. Immediately upon download, there were and still are so many bugs. What should have been smooth and simple gameplay became complicated and stressful. Which, in actuality, makes sense since it is a wild, sometimes stressful experience planning actual weddings. But in this case, it’s not quite the same; the buggy and glitchy gameplay isn’t the main problem here. An extremely tiny world with not much to do and too many steps for wedding events that never seem to perform swiftly. Not to mention the difficulty of getting a wedding cake to the venue without it spoiling. What should have been an enjoyable pack has become one that I only use for fancy attire and decorations. All in all, another pack that should have been combined with another.
While plenty of unneeded packs exist, I will forever love this game. Even when I want to flip my laptop off the desk and question, “Why did I purchase this pack again?” That’s the fun of gaming, right?! You win some, you lose some. What do you think about The Sims 4 packs? Is there a pack we should have included, let us know in the comments. We would love to hear your thoughts.
