I waited a long time to put in money towards Sims4, after I played the trial and found it disappointing. I finally did this month and the verdict is negative. Yes, it is bleak, barren and very restrictive in many ways. Place a house in the world on a lot of your size choice? Nope.
Rotate or resize a lot in their restricted pre chosen build slot? Nope!
Add additional houses or building spaces to fill out the population with sims you want to interact with? Nope.
I was really looking forward to the new 'World' when I picked up the vampire pack on sale. What I got were a few houses and a bleak empty park with a couple of chess tables. No interactive graves, no Grim... no nothing. It was not even worth the sale price.
So, I thought I would pay for an actual expansion.... island living. Small restrictive town, same resizing restrictions to available lots. Few interesting to No interesting sims and becoming a mermaid had 0 depth. Go explore a cave find some kelp, end of story. Least they could have done was have a mermaid friend drag you under the water and impose an offer of change, but Nope, despite the animation already existing. Laughably, some of the dolphin interactions happen in water so shallow that most of the dolphin is below the sand. Ruins any sense of immersion for games based in this day and age.
My instinct on this game was to not waste the money and for years I stuck with Sims3 and I even have a great deal of Sims2. Those older games could have used 'some' of the qualities that Sims4 has, but sadly, Sims4 needs a serious injection of the creativity used in it's predecessors. Major need for a more open world for building up your towns 'worlds'.
With Sims4 they lost sight of in depth creativity and went for the quickest path to a dollar payout. Yes, I get they are on an EA determined time table to release content so they get a pay check.... but, this is quality graphics for a Sims game paired with bad execution of minimalist content.
To be clear, I have Jungle Adventure, Get to work, Island living, Cats and Dogs, Seasons, Dine out, Vampires, and some stuff packs. I consider that well invested in trying out the game as a whole, not a half hearted attempt at giving Sims4 a chance. P.S. I am also a modder of other games, as in know what it takes to create 3D models, texture, bump map, etc. It 'is' hard work, difficult at times, even monotonous, especially coding, but then these guys are paid to make a good product and should make every attempt to do so, not let a gaming staple fall apart due to lack of devotion. Lets also mention the keyhole pandering they are doing with a few of the ideas being presented in Sims4, that were a little present in Sims3 but not to this extent.
