Sims 4: A Trip Down Memory Lane or an EA Disaster?

It’s the year 2000 you and your friends are sitting on a PC playing God to countless Sims in the neighborhood. It was the Sims 1, the life simulation game that we all couldn’t get enough of. From controlling their sleep to their love lives and making them miserable or letting them get engulfed by the fire till they died and became a ghost, you enjoyed every bit of it, didn’t you?

However, those were simpler times, the Sims never aged, there was no downloadable content (DLC), and ‘woohoo’ meant nothing.

Is the Sims 4 and the Original Sims even Comparable?

An unpopular opinion is that Electronic Arts (EA), the giant in the gaming industry, has ruined many games by making a franchise out of it. This includes Maxis’ ‘The Sims’ which is amongst the worldwide best-selling games of all time.

However, I set onto experience the Sims 4 myself before I made the verdict. And here’s what I found:

The Rusty Car

One thing that I missed the most when playing the Sims 4 was the rusty old car that came to pick up junior level employees.

A better car meant that the sim had climbed up the ranks and was getting more salary. But in the Sims 4, the members of my family just vanished a few steps away from the lot which was quite underwhelming.

You know half the joy of making your sims go to work was in that car honking crazily and waiting ONE HOUR before going away, at least for me. Otherwise money making cheats could have worked well too right?

An addition of a public bus, or having them walk all the way to the end of the lot wouldn’t have taken much right?

The Moods

One thing I really enjoyed in the Sims 2 which also continued in the Sims 4 was moods that lasted some time before dying out.

So, a sim who was recently proposed found themselves overjoyed and happy for at least 2 days before the excitement dying off. A good meal or good environment would put a sim in a happy mood regardless of age.

Sleepy Sims

Sims can fall asleep on the patio or bathroom floor whether it’s the 2000 Sims gameplay or the 2014 Sims 4. Desperate for sleep, a sim would deny to fulfil other needs and drop down for a quick nap on the floor.

One additional thing in Sims 4 was the time indication of when they would pass out, leaving ample time to complete whatever you want before they would absolutely need to hit the bed.

The Skunks and Raccoon

One of the little enjoyable things in Sims 1 is the uninvited raccoon which pops up at your Sim’s property and takes a full tour of the outside, then rummaging through the trash. The raccoon eventually left the property but caused a mess behind as it exits the screen. Only thing a Sim could do is to “shoo” the unwanted guest.

Remember the skunk in Sims 1? When Shooed by a Sim, it would take a turn and fart on the Sim, leaving the Sim unhygienic.

The Sims 4 developers decided to remove these unwanted guests from the gameplay but I still miss this unpleasant fun.

The Lamp

Sims 1 has many weird but fun items. Some items could create skills and fun and some items introduce chaos in the household. The lamp is one which appears to be a normal decorative item but if a Sim cleans the lamp, a Genie would emerge right out of it.

The genie, as usual, grants the Sim a wish. First attempt rarely resulted in a desirable outcome and mostly resulted in trouble.

For Sims 4, you’ll have to purchase the packs to unlock features like genies which makes the game unnecessarily expensive.

It sometimes reminds me of the Sims Social, a part of the Sims franchise no one ever wanted. EA just figured out to make more money from game packs was better rather than pressing players to purchase energy which always seemed to run out!

Setting fire while cooking

Sims cause chaos, in fact, they should be synonymous with chaos. But a newly created Sim with zero skills is definitely a headache level chaotic. Asking a Sim to cook for the first time means setting fire to the stove!

The Sims tetra-logy keeps this tradition in Sim to set fire. Also one of the classic ways for a Sim to die or ‘kill’ a Sim you don’t like.

House architecture

Players could do wonders with the build mode in every Sims gameplay. The difference is the graphics and visuals in Sims. The exterior is extravagant and well as the interior designing. There is the fountain, the pool and garden to add beauty to the outdoors. BBQ is a must in all the Sims games. The decoration items for the inside and outside have improved over the years.

Sims just love a good surrounding and players love to decorate their Sims house with luxury. Every game pack brings exciting new items with it for building houses. All though the base game has its own charming decor items but in the end it all depends on the creativity and efforts of a player.

Have a look at some of my favorite amazing builds in every Sims game.

Sims 1:

Sims 2:

Sims 3:

Sims 4:

The Sims 4 has a gallery feature which I think is by far the best addition to the Sims games. This is where you can find fantastic builds by players around the globe and even share your designs for the world to envy and use. You can download a house to your liking and move a family into the house to celebrate the exquisite architecture.

Cheats!

A must have in the Sims franchise is cheats! I remember the first time I got the cheat code when I was obsessed with the Sims 1. I overused it, but still left me wanting more, because lets be truthful, the Sims is highly addictive! Research has also found using cheats in single-player games helps boost mental wellbeing, increase stress relief, and facilitate mood repair.

Even though this was a tempting way to get to the top, I learnt how to control and raised families from the scratch without Sims 4 cheats and get the same satisfaction as with my “cheating” families.

This tetralogy follows the tradition and has cheats for players to use. Some cheats are just workable in the original game, while some are still operational. Sims 4 has added more cheats to make the game worth playing.

The top in-demand cheat: the money making cheat. From “klapaucius” to “motherlode”, we’ve come a far way. Even if the cheat code is different for every Sims game, it still adds simoleons, one thousand simoleons at a time or a bulk together.

There are also build mode cheats for going against laws of gravity and making a hot tub float or enlarge it. Although the Sims 4 has “legalized” enlarging things.

Conclusion

I have found myself learning plenty from the Sims series. These days I am playing the Sims 4 and deciding the fate of all my households and how interconnected each household is, you can say setting up a little world to escape from the real world for merely couple of hours. I also switch back to Sims 1 after some days only to find myself even more absorbed in the world I have made there.

Yes there are differences in the 2000 Sims classic and the 2014 Sims release, but to be honest, every Sims game has it’s own attachment and charm. It’s entirely safe to say that Sims 4 is living up to the standards of Sims tetralogy while adapting modern approach of gaming.