Power Hour Review: Sims 4

As you may know, the Sims is one of my favorite franchises. In high school, my mom, my boyfriend, and I had a computer schedule so that we could each get the same number of Sims hours in per day. I was, am, and always have been, obsessed.

People wonder how anyone can like the Sims. Is it even a game? You’re just like making grilled cheese sandwiches and buying rugs appropriate to your income level. You’re doing things you do in real life, but without actually being able to reap any real rewards. I don’t claim to know why simulation games are so enticing to me. I enjoy the aspects of the game where I can play with identity, but you know what, I usually just try to make characters like myself and get them through life as prosperous and happy as possible. Maybe it’s a control thing: in Sims, you know if the input is A, the output will be B. Nothing is mysterious and everything is transparent. I know that if I read this book and go to work for two days in a row with a good mood that I will be promoted. Real life is never so clear-cut. My Sim will never get sexually harassed at work and lose her job because she chose to report it. She won’t have to face the glass ceiling. Sure, there are bad things that happen in Sims that you can’t control, like a burglar breaking into your house. However, everyone who plays knows the rules in advance and the rules are fairly distributed and enforced. There is a kind of beauty in that.

Now, Sims 4. I’ve posted a video of my character creation. There are many things different about this version. I will break my response into 3 sections: love it, hate it, and not sure about it.

Love It:

MULTITASKING: The new multitasking ability is seamless and intuitive. You can’t sleep and read a book, but you can chat online and surf the web on your phone to look for a job. You can listen to music and read a book. The designers absolutely outdid themselves with this one. LOVE.

Updates: Everything from the careers to your Sim’s mannerisms has been updated. This morning my Sim, unprompted, took a picture of her scrambled eggs and posted it to the web. How cool is that? The career I’ve chosen is tech guru, and to get promoted I have to play 4 hours of video games. I almost wonder if the game will feel old sooner than Sims 3 because of these things, but for now, they’re great.

Premade rooms. Now, I know friends whose favorite part of the game is designing rooms. I never really dug that aspect. Now, you can, for a discount, buy a pre-packaged room. LOVE IT

Hate It:

The tips and tutorials have always been a little annoying in Sims, and now they’re even more intrusive. It’s certainly not the end of the world, but during character creation I got pretty annoyed. The game is so well designed that it’s completely intuitive, for return players at least. Just shut up and let me play!

I’ve seen a lot of criticism online about some gender issues in the Sims 4. For example, after having a baby the mother goes on maternity leave and the father gets to keep working and getting promoted. There is the “bro” character trait that has been criticized because it’s representative of how homogenous, dangerous, and awful the “boy’s club” of gaming can be. I get these complaints, and they’re legitimate. I have a hard time getting up in arms about them because the Sims franchise has been pretty damn progressive, especially considering it comes out of EA, the worst company in the world. Feminists don’t all need to see/hate/love the same things or problems. I personally would rather save my energy to rail against games where you sexually touch 12 year olds, games where women’s armor is a metal bra and metal thong, games where you can’t even be a female character, games where the only female is the one you save at the end, and most importantly, the real women in the industry dealing with actual sexual assault and harassment and marginalization. “Bro” isn’t great; Sims 4 isn’t perfect. But it certainly isn’t bringing out my inner social justice warrior.

Not Sure About It:

Character creation is still problematic. There are two genders. There are new walking styles (the masculine is “swagger” and feminine is “feminine”). True, you can be a woman with a swagger or a man with a “feminine” walk, but we are beyond that, people.  They could easily have not made this part so black and white.

Traveling has become a bit of a pain. I don’t care about actually visiting and seeing the library. I just want to go there to complete my aspiration. HOWEVER, there is the added bonus of actually choosing books to read and being able to skill up without spending a fortune. So, good with the bad on that one.

In the end, I love the Sims, and I love Sims 4. Go buy it. It’s awesome.