The Sims 4 is formally 10 years outdated as of this week. That is an enormous milestone—it is the one sport within the sequence to hit double digits and nonetheless obtain content material updates, lasting twice so long as each The Sims 2 and The Sims 3.
But regardless of a record-breaking anniversary, it is onerous to really feel all giddy. A part of that is because of the truth that it is gone fully ignored by EA throughout its socials and information channels. Like, c’mon guys, not even a “10” graphic in your Twitter web page or daft in-game t-shirt to rejoice? Nothing? However extra so than that, it is an ever-growing sense of frustration with the place the sport is at proper now.
You’d suppose with all this time to cook dinner, it might be the definitive simming expertise. But as an alternative of ageing like a superb wine, it has been leaving extra of a bitter milk style in my mouth for longer than I would care to confess. Sure, The Sims 4 has been alive and kickin’ for a decade, however I believe the sport is all the more serious for its lengthy lifespan.
There is a lotta packs as of late
I can not assist however really feel like, because the years have passed by, The Sims 4 has change into more and more oversaturated. Whereas The Sims 3 squeezed out 11 growth packs and 9 stuff packs in 4 years, The Sims 4 presently has an eye-watering 79 packs in whole: 12 growth packs, 16 sport packs, 20 stuff packs and 31 kits.
That’s, to be frank, an absurd quantity. In fact lots of it has come from kits, the $5 mini packs that EA launched again in 2021. Nearly all of them are merely beauty choices bar Bust the Mud, the one gameplay-focused package presently accessible. That is type of no matter at this level, however there are nonetheless 48 further packs accessible for the sport, every with their very own gameplay options which might be actively working with (or towards) each different shifting half occurring within the sport.
Now life sims are rattling onerous to make—there is a purpose The Sims has gone comparatively unchallenged within the house during the last 24 years—however I really feel just like the complexity of the style is a consideration EA ought to be making because it continues to stuff a whole lot and 1000’s of strains of code into The Sims 4.
The sport has lengthy been accused of affected by a foul case of spaghetti code. I can not converse to the reality of that, however I can converse to an more and more buggy enjoying expertise that has killed my need to proceed dedicating my money and time to a sequence that has been in my life since I used to be a toddler. An expertise that’s getting so unhealthy EA needed to particularly tackle it and inform people it had “assembled a workforce” to cope with bug fixes. Which, should not it have been doing that already?
For me, my frustrations actually began settling in when My Marriage ceremony Tales launched in 2022—a sport pack that was speculated to breathe new life into base sport weddings, solely to hopelessly break the complete system after which depart it unrepaired for the next two years. Now, EA has actually simply launched a laundry listing of bug fixes that seems to have tackled the pack’s most obvious issues. I have never been in a position to confirm for myself but whether or not this repair has truly labored, however two years seems like too little too late.
It is not the one $20 pack that has been left to rot through the years. 2016’s Dine Out sport pack nonetheless recurrently causes points for me—the method of seating clients, taking their orders and getting them out the door takes up hours of in-game time, with them usually getting caught and their behaviour freezing up.
When this stuff price a lot rattling cash, it is onerous to not be a bit miffed by the entire thing. I do not even personal each pack, but I’ve simply spent a whole lot of {dollars} throughout each PlayStation and PC regardless of recurrently profiting from gross sales and bundle reductions. The whole Sims 4 expertise is a hopelessly costly enterprise, and I can not even start to think about how intimidating such a factor is perhaps for somebody trying to get into The Sims for the primary time.
The scariest half is, EA clearly is not achieved making an attempt to shove extra $5/$20/$40 DLCs in our faces. It simply revealed two kits and brand-new growth Life and Demise, and it looks like EA is pretty set on persevering with to help The Sims 4 alongside Undertaking Rene. I’ve to surprise what number of extra concepts it will possibly probably spin out into pricey DLC whereas persevering with to attempt to keep the integrity of the code it has been weaving into the sport for the final 10 years.
Is there even a repair the place everybody wins?
However actually, what is the answer right here? Put The Sims 4 to relaxation, begin yet again with a stripped-down base sport with some easy-to-sell $40 packs like Seasons, Pets and College that we have change into all too used to? As a lot as I wish to suppose we would see a Sims 5 that included core options that we have spent the final 20 years having to pay for, I additionally know higher than that.
People can level to mods as a simple band-aid repair, however that actively ignores our fellow Simmers who get pleasure from enjoying the sport on console. That is to not diminish the neighborhood effort—many elements of the sport are smoother due to the onerous work of modders implementing bug fixes—however the onus should not be on them to show The Sims 4 right into a extra playable expertise.
Both method, it seems like a lose-lose state of affairs. The Sims, as an entire package deal, is costlier than ever. Setting apart a whole lot of {dollars} and beginning once more looks like a friggin’ nightmare. Ideally, help would’ve winded down round 30 goddamn packs in the past, however we’re far previous that time now. I am not fairly certain the place the stopping level goes to be for EA, however I would be ecstatic in the event that they straight-up stopped including new packs and started working on fixing what’s already there. However bug fixes do not herald cash, and in a time the place growth is costlier than ever, it is doubtless a tough factor to justify.
I really like The Sims—belief me, I actually do, which is why I am being so onerous on it. It is a sequence that has given me hours of pleasure for the final 20 years of my life. Hell, The Sims 3 is the primary videogame I distinctly keep in mind saving my pocket cash for, simply to get the collector’s version with the plumbob USB drive. But when that is the trendy Sims expertise, I may need to say “dag dag” for good.