I will say, until very recently I’ve been very hard on the diehard ‘sims 2 was best by FAR’ train.
But then I had some computer issues, crashes, and could only play sims 4 for a couple years as sims 2 I had like. ALL the downloads for that my computer couldn’t quite handle. (My medieval sims world alone has around 35,000 files).
And then after 2 solid years of playing nothing but sims 4, I went back, and found some things I really missed about 4. Like. Dates in sims 2, although it allows more freedom to get a Dream date, are a LITTLE broken once you are able to woohoo. Being able to shovel dirt in the pouring rain for treasure and not have your sim get wet and uncomfortable had me laughing. The CAS items on a unmodded game are incredibly limited even with the ultimate edition.
The thing is Sims 2 was truly a Sandbox game in design. Yes, each town had a in-depth story and design, but dang could you completely destroy everything and start with a blank slate! The fact that sims couldn’t age unless you played them actually had the benefit of us becoming incredibly attached to ‘characters’ like Goopy, because if you played enough legacies you were eventually going to marry him or at least date him.
Sims 4 is a bit more streamlined in its design, with its world straddling sims 3 ethos of a pre designed world with realistic capabilities that everyone can play. The humor has been directed more at kids (I mean. You aren’t going to see one of the rewards be a giant electrocution device shoddily designed that you have your sim climb into to get full mood in sims 4). But I feel like Strangerville is a bit more of a nod to old sims 2 humor in its way even with the OPTIONAL scripted event.
They are two very different games for different players. And yes, I would KILL for sims 2 remastered in sims 4 graphics and CAS and build mode with moods and traits added to the base personality system (which, I prefer personality points for a lot of Reasons), but I’ve come to accept that Sims 4 stands pretty well on its own terms, and when it comes to designing unique sims to play out unique stories, has some really inspired options that I miss when in Sims 2.
Like. Sims 2 is still my fav as long as I can get some CC for CAS and proper default skins and eyes. But still.
