Parts of me miss Open World, most of me doesn’t.
For me Open World isn’t always Open. If everything you do in your Sims life is trapped in a bubble containing a couple of streets, and no access to the outside world, that isn’t Open World to me. That’s a closed off world with free roaming.
They should only ever attempt Open World if they can make a “world”.
The Sims 4 allowing me to travel between locations feels far more freeing to me than being stuck in the same bubble unless you go on Vacation or Uni.
The Sims 3 feels more fake to me, as The Sims 4 gives the illusion that we’re in a much bigger world but only have control over a small percentage (just like Sims 1 and 2 always referring to SimCity and that you live in a town just outside, but your Sims work in SimCity etc)
They also play on this by sending your Sims on activities “off map” as well.
The Sims 3 gives you access to a town but basically says that Sims work, live, socialise all within a minutes drive from each other and that feels super isolating and unrealistic, and it feels like I just wanna change scenery all the time.
I would much rather there be a tunnel or something at the edge of the worlds that Sims drive through but fade out when going to work or outside town activities just to help the realism that your Sims don’t just sit there a minutes drive from work and friends etc in the middle of nowhere.
Long story short, Open World in 3, not only became super isolating and unrealistic, but the fake buildings etc just added to the unrealistic side of things.
The Sims 1 & 2 made SimCity the main location (that we never saw) and only gave us access to a small percentage of SimCity in form of a town. So that players could use their imagination when Sims went off map. I used to think there was a huge city where my Sims went to during the day, and then I had my little corner that I controlled.
Sims 3 ruined that because it took away a lot of that aspect and instead replaced it with a super underwhelming, unrealistic and poorly executed concept instead.
