Review: The Sims 4 explained to parents

What parents need to know

The Sims 4 is the fourth installment in The Sims game series, developed by Maxis and published by Electronics arts. Create your characters and control them to make them live the life you want. Build houses and arrange them according to your desires. This game gives you a lot of freedom and will allow you to write multiple stories giving free rein to your creativity. In other words, play with life!

Create Your Sims

The Sims 4 is a life simulation game. First, you will create your character or “Sims”. Start with a personality quiz that will define his character and history (career, economic situation, skills). The “Create a Sims” mode allows you to fully customize: Male or female? Big or small? Slim, muscular or generously shaped? Benevolent or malicious? Active or lazy? You can even define his hairstyle and clothing style with a wide choice depending on the occasion: everyday outfit, evening party, sports. All the tools have been designed to create the most real and complex character possible. Everything you define in your Sims will have an impact on the lifestyle. You will see the reflection of their personality through their actions, their reactions, but also their social interactions with their peers. You also have a genetic mode that allows you to create a Sims whose physical characteristics will be based on one or two Sims. So you can create a whole family!

Sims 4 Create a Sims Featured Screen Share

Play the architects

Once you’ve created your Sims or family, all you need to do is install them in where they live. Initially, you will have 20,000 Simoleons. Choose to build a home from A to Z or to develop an existing one. The “Construction Mode” will give you the opportunity to shape your home according to your desires. You can easily define spaces, create floors, add or remove foundations. This mode is organized in three sections: the construction category, organized by type of construction (wall, roof, windows, floors, wall coverings…). An objects category by rooms (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom…) and an objects category by types of objects (lighting, surfaces, comfort, plumbing…). So use all your creativity!

Play with life

You are finally ready to move into “Life Mode”. Control your Sims’ daily lives and meet their needs. An urge or a little peckish? Make him interact with his environment to satisfy his needs. Find him a job to pay the bills and help him climb the ladder. Help him develop his skills: learn painting, cooking or gardening. Manage his social relationships: by having him talk to his co-workers, visit his neighbors or organize a party. Your Sims will also be able to meet their significant other and start a family. Different models of homes will be able to be explored, as you can control up to 8 Sims. You’ll see your Sims evolve from birth to death. Indeed, they can age and each age group offers a unique gaming experience. Toddlers will learn to walk while children go to school. Teens will experience their first odd job after high school and adults will build their careers and start their families. You will be able to see your home evolve over several generations. This is the story of life!

Sims 4 Lifestyle Featured Screen Sharing

Share with the community

The game has an online mode to share your creations in a gallery. You will be able to download houses or Sims created by another player or share your own! A scenario mode is also available to spice up the game a little. This option will allow you to start a new story with challenges to overcome and thus receive rewards.

The graphics of The Sims 4 look like 3D cartoons are very pleasant. We certainly look for a certain form of realism through the gameplay, but purists like this visual aspect that perhaps reminds us of the virtual version of a dollhouse. Since its first version “The Sims”, the visuals have evolved a lot and offer us a beautiful quality, beautiful colors and textures.

Since the release of the base game, many updates have taken place and the game has evolved a lot. Today there are many expansion packs, game packs, stuff packs or mini kits. This allows you to add new gaming experiences as well as new content to The Sims 4. The base game is now available for free and still offers us great possibilities before the release of the fifth opus. Then all you have to do is try it!

Details

Release date: 4 September 2014

Developed by: Maxis
Published by: Electronic Arts
Available on: PC, MacOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox series X/S

The gaming experience is quite different on console

Type of game: Life simulation
Theme: Play with life, daily life, avatar creation, house construction and decoration
Total Game Lifespan: Indefinite

Business model: Base game (free) and add-ons (paid)

Available languages: French, English
Number of players: Solo

Available in digital format (download on computer)

Violence, fear, nudity?

The violence is limited to cartoon humor. However, characters can be electrocuted by a catch or die in a kitchen fire or other deaths. Thus, it may not be suitable for very young children. Sexual innuendo or sexual postures may be present. The player can induce the sims to do “Crac-crac” even if it is hidden. Nudity is hidden by mosaics.

Minimum reading level required

A lot of information appears on the screen allowing us to evolve in the game.

Positive message

The possibilities are such and the game so real that you can embody a negative character. He can be malicious towards other characters, embark on a criminal career. Even if it remains cartoonish and we do not see when the sims is at work.

Difficulty

There are many things to deal with and simultaneous actions that can give some difficulty to the game.

Additional costs ?

The base game is free, but there are many expansions that are paid. We are easily tempted to buy the add-ons in order to add novelty and a better gaming experience to the base game.

Our opinion

We were able to test The Sims 4, on PC on the Origin platform. Previously, this game was paid, but the base game version is now available for free! Extensions are of course always paying.

The premise of The Sims 4 is to simulate life and more. To do this, you will create one or more Sims, their habitat to then be able to control them and manage their daily lives. This game covers all aspects of daily life and will allow you great freedom. This is a “sandbox” game, which means that there is no predetermined objective by the game designer or guidelines. The game is therefore unlimited and allows the player to set the objectives he wants and live the experience at his own pace.

“Reveal the creative spark”

We guess creativity is at the heart of The Sims’ concept and that’s also what EA advocates in its “Reveal the Creative Spark” marketing campaign. We particularly like the Create a Sims mode which is very intuitive and allows you to create your avatar in every detail. We can directly modify the part of the body of our choice by selecting it with a click and then shape directly with the mouse a little like a clay character. The construction mode may require a little more time to be mastered in its entirety as the options are varied. However, for a basic build, it remains accessible and the menu is well thought out.

Things get even more complicated in the lifestyle especially if you choose to control a lot of Sims at the same time. Indeed, simultaneous tasks can become complicated to manage. Each parameter and action influences the others. There are a lot of parameters to manage and it can make you feel overwhelmed or passive. Indeed, your Sims may be too busy and will not always be able to respond to your commands which can annoy the player. The character is still easy to control, just click on the object or Sims you want him to interact with and choose the desired option.

The graphics of The Sims 4 are visually pleasing. The textures are well worked and the colors are bright. The visuals look more like 3D cartoons and not ultra-realistic. However, even if it is pleasant to watch, the game sometimes has some display bugs or slowdowns. Fortunately, The Sims 4 developers take into account the input of their community and make sure to fix bugs regularly with daily updates.

A game in constant evolution

Since the game’s release just over 8 years ago, The Sims 4 has come a long way. Indeed, many updates have made it possible to include new elements in the base game such as the creation of swimming pools, non-playable characters, a personality quiz, the customization of gender and sexual orientations and also the age range of toddlers. We are expecting a major update very soon that will add a new age range! This allows the game not to run out of steam. However, even though The Sims 4 base game is now free, it’s hard to settle for it. We will inevitably be tempted to acquire the various expansions, game packs and stuff packs, which can become expensive. You will have to be careful if your child plays this game not to save your payment method in the EA account as they could easily make purchases without your consent.

Who is the game for?

The game is aimed at children aged 12+. Indeed, it is rated PEGI 12 and it is justified in particular by the references to gender (the player can induce the Sims to do “Crac-crac”), but it remains hidden. There is also a suggestion of nudity, but the private parts are blurred by mosaics. The few scenes of violence such as fights that may have been witnessed are limited to cartoon scenes. Your Sims can die in a variety of ways: electrocution, crushed by a Murphy bed, or burned in a fire. The player can voluntarily decide to cause the death of his Sims. The deadly scenes are not really violent, the grim reaper simply comes to get the Sims and he disappears. It may reappear as a ghost. While the game addresses these aspects, there are no shocking scenes in The Sims 4, but the choice of PEGI 12 is well justified.

Conclusion

The Sims 4 offers us a unique experience that will spark all our creativity. The game will allow you to write the story you want whose only limit will be your imagination. It offers us plenty of possibilities and infinite customization! It is therefore easy to appropriate and experience it as you wish. Even though this game is played in single-player mode, the Sims 4 community will allow you to share your creations, but also to download that of other players directly into your gallery. This game can be very addictive, you will still have to be attentive to the time spent on it. The regular updates and the many expansions prove that this game will still arouse our interest while waiting for the release of The Sims 5!