Fedback on how well made these packs are
What was counted in this tied:
- How effective was the result compeared to what was promised in the advertisement
- How much room for gameplay and worldbuilding there is
- Bugs and potential that could have been there.
- Treatment of EA company and sims team
- Experience from the moment it dropped to now
Exquisite:
Packs that meet the intention, meet the advertised , has no major bugs that I sttrugle with. They add to my gameplay a lot and gave such good experience from the moment I saw the pack first advertised to the moment I played.
Home Cheff hustle; It´s such simply a well rounded dlc. You really could have gotten nothing wrong with the simple mechanics but powerful gameplay that involves. Selling on the streets your food with the table and the amenities. It was well pulled off.
Life&Death; From the concept to the execution it has been made with love, respect and care. It shows. They could have eassily fallen into concepts such as: heaven and hell. Which honestly, would ostrazise many non-religious people. Instead they choosed to focus on death on earth, ghost and life complision. The two careers are super well made, the grim reaper gameplay is what we expect and the world is exquisite. The lore is the cherry on top that I so much adore. This EP for me is a necessity in your sims 4 because it brings so much value to the life of the sims.
Seasons; I simply believe that you couldn´t mess this one up. It´s a simple concept, bring seasons into the game, as well as time with the calendar that bring so much depth into your sims lives. The fact that each world has a different climate is simply so realistic and what I expected. The hollidays and calendar events are a super powerful feature not many simmers know how to use to the full extend of the gameplay capabilities. Once again, a dlc that is a necessity as far as gameplay and realistic touch.
Laundry day; You really cannot go wrong with such simple mechanics. I feel like the only way this pack could have gone wrong is, if they made the dirty clothes system on when you don´t have any wahsing machine/drier at home. But it´s not the case with this pack, it was super well executed.
Decor to the max; You barely can go wrong with a furniture pack. It´s what was promised, it fits the vibe and the concept.
Crystal creations; From the gameplay, to the effect of the jewels on your sims, the furniture, the vibe. It barely could go wrong and it wass pulled off succesfully. See my comments on home cheff hustle because same principles applies here.
Romantic garden; You barely can go wrong with a furniture pack. It´s what was promised, it fits the vibe and the concept.
Comfy gamer kit; You barely can go wrong with a furniture pack. It´s what was promised, it fits the vibe and the concept. But this one excelled above many other kits on how specific it was, how relevant the topic of gamer kit is to players and how much love it exudes in every single detail. From the open book you left while reading it, to the organisation storage, the computer. Bravo LilSimsie!
Well made packs:
Packs that for me are a 9,5/10. They are A but not A+. Following the same criteria as the previous category but these ones have a "je ne sais qoui" that could have been better to get that A+ that we hope for. This "give more to the client and it will return back".
Cottage living; A super well rounded pack I believe. From Lore to vibe, the world, the mechanics of chores and growing plants, making mermelade. Everything is so well rounded. My "je ne sais quoi" why this one is not A+ is: why would you put goats and wine making in Horse Ranch? Where are the sheeps? The wolves?. Something I would never understand. But for what it is, an A pack.
Growing together; Super well rounded pack. The infants are annoying as hell but I cannot help but love them. The family dynamics, the world, the furniture, the experience, everything. So well rounded for me. My only thing: Why not put a rabbit hole to bring your todlers to pree-school? Help them learn skills and go for a wee. A 9,5/10 pack but with that little thing, it could have been a 10/10, fully rounded, close the cricle pack.
For rent; I feel like people in the US don´t understand how invalidating it is for non-US citizen to have to build and play the suburban life and only thinking about such lifestyle by default. For me, for rent is ground-breaking dlc as far as building and it is a hill I am willing to die in. For what it was intended for this pack seems all the goals were met. As far as gameplay, I know my way around this pack and I´ve done crazy things with mods. I literally have not had a single bug or computer crashing. I had so much fun playing tenant and landlord. They met my expectations. My only achilles heel with this one is that: you could have made this lot trait have better cross-compatibility with other types of lots. There was a potential there you couldn´t or didn´t want to explore that could have made the overall game a bestiality of game(in a good way). So for me, 9,5/10(A)
Get together; This pack really opens up on the social aspect of sims that is SO necessary. The clubs are super useful for gameplay and story-telling. The world is so charming, playing through the gatherings, the clubs, the rivalries. For me is a necessity in my game. However, there is a "je ne sais quoi" that I can not pin down that makes me think, maybe there could have been a tiny bit more there. 9,5/10.
Discover university; I literally love EVERYTHING and I have so much fun, it adds so much realism to the game. From the uni dorms, to getting into level 7 of a career if you have a uni degree. The teacher career and the university research. It´s literally everything that I could ever ask for. Good cross-pack compatibility which for me, is A MUST. My only thing is; Why exactly a teenager at home alone can cook but not a young adult at university dorm? Make it make sense. Maybe it´s cultural shock from Europe but when building I find it really annoying and hipocritical. 9,9/10
High school years; My personal experience with this dlc has been nothing but possitive. I was expecting much less considering what people were speaking about. I had lots of fun with teen careers, the high school experience, the tiny things such as pimples. The concept is there but there was something missing. Like get together, there is just something I cannot pin down entirely what it is. 9,5/10
Moschino; Like home cheff hustle, when you do a dlc that is ultraspecific, you can barely go wrong there. This pack allows you for far more mechanics as far as picture taking. Dwelves a little bit more into the photographers hobby/career. Just like artist studio kit(which I forgot to put in the table) it´s necessary for certain creative lifestyle. I use this pack a lot, because I love to play photographers career. And I also use it to make memories of my sims that I keep in my notion template. It´s just so well made. My only problem is the limitation when posing, you can only do 1 sim and not several sims together interacting. 9,5/10
Artist studio kit; It´s literally all a plastic artist might want to represent their career in the sims and bring this notion of cool studio. I will not forgive the fact sculpture is reduced to woodworking. 9,5/10
Good:
These are good packs but with significant things for me to actually find it annoying. We are speaking a 7/10. Once again, talking from all around experience, mechanics, gameplay, posibilities and overall experience from purchase to playing. From this category forward I will speak of the things that bother me, leaving everything I didn´t say as good or great. All in hopes, someone at ea and sims team can take notes.
Cats&Dogs; Why didn´t you make us able to control cats and dogs like infants? Why? Why should I be trying to understand what the dog or cat needs? Why? But as far as everything else, is all I ever wished for.
Dine out; I really like it a lot, but the fact I have to use a mod to fix the bugs and be able to run the business. In this case, dine out looses on bugs.
Eco lifestyle; Like dine out, for me this one looses on bugs. Despite I turn off eco footprint, despite I turn off the voting system. It keeps getting in my way. Otherwise this pack is perfectly fine.
Realm of magic; Why there is no lore? Why there is not a school system of magic like go to university or high school? Why does the world of magic feel like a anecdotical ocurrance in the world of my sims and not a full on world with it´s lore, culture and ways that is partially integrated with the "human" world?
Vampires; Quite like realm of magic, such creatures feel like anecdotical in the world of sims. Why did you fear on dweling on darker practices? Why did you fear to give it a culture like Vampire the masquerade?
Both realm of magic and vampires, could have been expansion packs full of lore like life&death...
Parenthood; It´s just so shallow. You bring mechanics of teaching kids, make them be responsible, emotional control, etc. But decide to not go full in on shaping the traits and characteristics of the sims... You feared success there. It´s very shallow gameplay.
Backyard stuff; I feel like I could actually play it for the first time if my sims had summer break from school/univesity and work. So I guess, the problem really with this dlc is not the dlc per se. But the lack of vacations in the sims world.
50/50:
Essentially, when the idea is good but the execution is meh or it´s so buggy and uninteresting after several playthroughts.
Vintage glamour; Good idea, super buggy. To the point I need mods for it to run decently. And you didn´t really dwelve on the make up. Making my sims look like teenagers trying make up for the first time.
City living; Super cool concept. City living lacks on the events. The flea furniture market. Such cool feature that could improved greatly by just... swapping the furniture from the catalog each week. That would make it like actually functional. City events are repetitive over time. New foods in the stalls from other packs, new furniture from same or other packs. We need these things. In that aspect, it can be improved to get this pack into the "good" section.
Get to work; Despite how much I love it, careers are really is repetitive, the world is tiny and uninteresting. The retail system is good lacking on cross-compatibility with for rent and B&H. Also the mysterious bugs that don´t allow you to play it as the B&H drop out approach. Which reminds me of when comfy gamers kit was about to drop and suddenly the items of clutter kit for studio, mysteriously dissapeared from the catalog. What a coincidence, huh?(These are not the ways to work EA)
Needs improvement:
From now on, I am talking about packs that we cannot accept for such price and what they give. These are packs, communication problems and ways in which ea works that need to be though about seriously.
Tiny living; I would only accept it again if such tiny living perks were also implemented in rented units with the same amount of squares. I cannot accept to waste an entire 20x15 lot in a tiny house wihtout being able to build another tiny house nearby. This needs to be changed. I don´t want to build a tiny house and have 90% of unused terrain.
My pet stuff; If you had the option to adopt canaries, parrots, rabbits and other small animals. I would accept it for the price stated at the EA store. Despite the fact this pack needs cats&dogs, despite all the other controversies.
Needs serious improvement:
In this category we have a mix wrong doing from EA team or Sims team and some things that make the pack seriously unusable, that boils my blood and makes me want to punch the screen.
Decor Home decorator; I want to play it. I really love the idea. But I cannot for the life of me tolerate that whatever code you have running behind gives me absolute no guide as far as how to please clients needs. It´s just as easy as to give it 1 granted decor style that they like and 1 granted color. You really seriously need to give it a good refresh because this pack is not played because you literally cannot play. Me, I want to punch the screen whenever I have a sim who was to redecorate a bathroom and they tell me: "I like sports, guitar and I don´t like cooking"
Business&Hobbies; I don´t place this one on "bruh... start from scratch" section since I do see the value it has for other things. But my experience with this EP has been the worst I´ve ever had with any sims 4 dlc. And the reason is false advertisement and lack of communication. I got get to work in christmas and 2 weeks after you drop this one without any hint, any clue, any previous notice. Put yourself in my feet for once. Then, since you announced it, I´ve been asking: this. This thing you did, not answering, could be sued in europe for false advertisement. Yet none inside sims team could answer. Only a random user on twitter that supposedly had the code for the pack. Which now looking back I should have trusted him more than EA. I FAFO my way with my savings and I got it reserved hoping it would be a nice surprise on this aspect. You choosed to overlap get to work retail mechanics, you decided to make a weird mix between for rent and retail system without actually allowing building freedom due to cross-compatibility problems. You made a literal game pack into an expansion pack and you made a whole drama in the community for not being clear with your intentions about this ep. As much as I admire and respect the work of the developers in the making of this EP. How EA and the sims team above developers team were behaving has no forgiveness. I highly encourage to have some self-reflection as company.
Conclusions:
I really hope the sims team and EA has some serious self-reflection and start working on things that could be improved. Because Inzoi and Paralives are already knocking on your door. It´s about time you show why you are the leader if you don´t want us drop the sims for such competitor.
