NightmareCandle's Sims 4 Thoughts
It's been almost two weeks since release. I didn't want to be one of those people who played the game for an hour, then shared my thoughts on it, because...Honestly, I hated it the first couple days. It was confusing and felt empty until I actually got into it.
But now that I have gotten into it, it's the funnest one I've played so far. It's somewhat empty, of course, but what basegame isn't? It's been nearly two weeks and I'm not bored yet. That's a first for a basegame. Though TS2 doesn't count for me...I was like 9 when I played just the basegame. ^-^'
I've compiled a list of pros and cons that I've added to while playing the Cloxes or building. If anyone's still on the fence about getting it, I hope this list sheds some light on the game.
I think the pros outweight the cons, for me personally...but I would never have paid $60-70 dollars for the game. I got it for $45 on Mexican Origin (digital deluxe, too!) and I feel that price was perfect.
[+] = 16
[-] = 15
[+/-] = 2
The pros:
The graphics.
The graphics.
Like, really, the graphics are STUNNING. People complain their asses off about the cartoony sims, but I LOVE them. I'm just fine waiting for realism until it's an ACTUAL thing. Every game that's tried is uncanny valley right now. Sims 3 sims, sans CC, are just disturbing. Things like The Secret World, Battlefield, basically most current gen games...are close but not close enough. I'd rather have people in a people simulation that look cartoony instead of tried-too-hard-and-missed.
There's lots of skills to work on. And they actually have a point and are interesting, unlike TS3/2. I like seeing all the new things they can cook - and the fact that there's "normal food" and "gourmet" instead of just almost all fancy gourmet crap like TS3. And, though I didn't pay much attention, it kinda seems like the foodie interaction “Get Ideas from Cooking Channel” or whatever it is does result in new meals. (Clarification? I may have just missed a level up.)
The little career objectives are actually pretty damn cool. Gone is the days of “oh I'll just go to work in a good mood for three days straight even though I don't know any of these skills I need WHAM PROMOTION” and here is the days of “hey...I work in tech. I kinda need a higher programming skill to know wtf is going on.”
The interactions!
The romantic interactions gaaaaaaah I'm in love. They're all SO adorable. Cheek kisses, roses, massages, snuggling on the edge of beds, tickling...I could go on forever.
[-] (Only part that belongs in iffies) Friendly interactions though. There's very few of them to me, and they're basically just the classic "Ask about Day" "Talk about School/Work/etc." When you're trying to get their relationship or Social/Charisma skill up, you find yourself cycling through the same few interactions...just like every other game before this.
The ways you get them in certain emotional states are cute/cool/awesome.
You can brew different types of tea to get different emotions. Black tea for focused, Earl Tea for confident...etc. I love that. I didn't touch the tea pot until I knew about that. Plus, y'know, it's cute to watch them sip tea and eat their breakfast.
There are really quick and handy ways to get into certain emotions, like the psyching up in front of a mirror to get confident or taking a thoughtful shower to get inspired.
Or, have them "Ponder Moves" at a chess table before school/work - it takes about half a sim hour, but instantly puts them in the focused emotion unless they're something else outweighing it.
The animations!
Watching the livestreams, I was disgusted by how jerky the animations looked. In-game, they're adorable and wonderful. Some of them are way overdone, like the selfie faces squinting their eyes until they clip instead of close, but.
Loading times.
I know everyone hates the loading screens...And I agree that it would be better to have an open world...but it just didn't work for TS3. I see a chunk of people going “well omgz I never had a single crash or problem with it” Good for you. Everyone else did. It got to the point where I couldn't even play my game with just Overwatch and ErrorTrap. The loading screens alleviate that (but I do wish they were between neighborhood and not lot-to-lot) [EDIT 2/4/15] But they do get slower the longer you play. And that's with just custom content and a couple mods. Clearing your cache helps a bit, but I have found 15-20 second loading screens are the norm now, after 20 hours in one save.
Multitasking
It's awesome. At one point, Irynia needed to do some programming practice so she could get her promotion the next day, but her fun need was a little low. I had her do it anyways, but she also listened to the radio, thus making her fun need go up while she did something (I assume is) stressful.
It's cute to see them talk, sip, nom, and watch TV, all at the same time. The most multitasking I've gotten up to is four (Eating, drinking, listening to music, and group convo)
The iffies:
The emotions are certainly interesting.
[-] They bounce around a lot when in between. Like, the borderline between Flirty and Very Flirty. Yes, Flirty sticks around a long time (unless there's an uncomfortable moodlet, but that's all moods) but Very Flirty bounces down to Flirty every few sim minutes if you don't have a crazy amount of Flirty moodlets. I have yet to see sims bounce between totally different emotions though. Just the Emotion/Very Emotion.
[+] They add new depth. You actually feel for your sim when they're sitting there, sniffling over a bowl of cereal, because they're very uncomfortable. Or you'll see them bounding around with a peppy walk after a nap that made them energized.
[+] The emotion-only interactions are GREAT. Pee like a champion? Take an angry poop? Cry under the covers? Roses and passionate kisses? I love it.
Pregnancy - I love pregnancy. It's one of my favorite things to learn more about and to ogle my pixel people going through. So ofc I want to love it in TS4, and I do.
[+/-] I love and hate the random going into labor. It makes it more fun because you can't sit there and say “hey...they got pregnant at 11:00pm on Sunday. They'll give birth at 11:00pm on Wednesay.” ...it makes it more obnoxious because you can't go “hey...they got pregnant at...” I can't plan for things. :c
[-] POPPING. They fucking pop. The first sims game where you can literally adjust your sim's gut however much you want, and their stomachs don't grow, they go from flat to miniature beachball in half a second.
[+] Being able to still do things for the three hours they're in labor. No need to explain why that's awesome.
[-] Sims gain weight after being pregnant...It's realistic, but I don't like it. Add-on: They just gain weight constantly in general, doesn't require pregnancy, but pregnancy does put a few extra pixel pounds on them.
[+] They can still work.
[-] There's no way to call into work. If they're in labor, too bad, they're going to lose performance or go to work Very Uncomfortable. It seems the only way is to have A DIFFERENT sim in the household write an excuse note, but that requires a couple points in Writing. And I don't think you can do it more than once.
The worlds
[+] Being able to travel between them in awesome...
[-] ...but if that's one of their excuses for having like 5 community lots, only a couple of which are interesting, per world, they're sorely mistaken. The club/bar (depending on world) is interesting, and that's about it.
[+] Gotta admit, they're definitely gorgeous though.
Sim management.
[-] After three sims, it's rather hard to keep them all in a good mood unless you're swapping between them every few seconds. (I play with free will off)
[+] ...but it's a lot of fun to try anyways. And when you do achieve it, and you send all six of your sims off to work and school with high needs and in the correct emotional state, you're damn proud of yourself.
It keeps you on your toes. You can't just sit back, boop you need to pee go do it, boop you need a snack, boop go do this for three hours. They're gonna need something else in that three hours.
[-] The needs go down too fast. Like, seriously, you send them to take a piss, and then they have to go again in a sim hour or two.
Time
[+] It goes by pretty slowly. You can gets lot done at a time.
[-] ...It goes by pretty slowly. The first couple days (real time) I played, I felt like every sim hour was a day.
[-/+/challenge] But then sometimes it goes by way too fast. Your sim gets home from work, and then you're like “hey, I have 5 hours for them to do stuff before they have to be in bed for work again tomorrow...that's plenty of time!” No. It's not. By the time you get their needs/emotion good enough to work on their job objectives, it's bedtime.
I don't mind, because it means I have to wait longer to complete certain things, thus creating a more lasting game. I see a lot of people complain about time going by too fast. Meh.
The cons:
There aren't enough places/ways to drag the face. Like, if it was possible to slim down the sides of the head (not the face. Behind it, like over the ears) I'd be happy, but I can't.
Also, ankles. With adjustable calves and feet there should seriously be adjustable ankles. Srsly.
THE NEEDS. Oh my god the needs. It's obnoxious to not know that they need to pee until they're suddenly Uncomfortable because they're gonna pee themselves in two hours. I don't know about you, but a tiny yellow glow in the bottom corner of a 1920x1020 window is not enough for me. And with the moodlets hidden most of the time, I can't know they're about to go in the orange until they do.
Babies. And I'm not going to bitch about the fact that they're objects and boring - they're babies, they're supposed to be useless and just lay there. My complaint is that I can't check on them. At all. And that means I can't drag up their needs and pretend they don't exist. /sob
...Also, no need/relationship dragging. I'm dying over here. I'm bored out of my wits sitting here watching my sims go through 400000002 interactions just to become friends. Or, scrambling to get my sim's needs up because of [see above rant]
The dancing. It's horrifying. It's realistic. It's better than them all dancing like Commander Shepard, but it's horrifying.
You can't place floor tiles unless it's on top of a valid room. You can't make a balcony over another balcony without plopping and play-doh dragging a deck above it. Floor tiles can't extend beyond the edge of the room below it. Not even if you use columns. Yes, the game engine is THAT dumbed down.
Things I miss:
Moveobjects. It's insanity-inducing trying to place plants/flowers/anything without it, and some decorations.
Having slots to choose from. There's only a few places to put things on end-tables and such, and the things you can put on them generally take up the entire surface slot...even if it's a tiny basket of shower essentials or a set of candles.
Being able to adjust lighting/intensity in build/buy.
Fencing that can be used to border flat roofs. The only one that's low and simple enough has huge end pieces that hang half off the edge of the roof unless you put an edge or a frieze.