I was extremely disappointed when I first heard there was not going to be an open world and most importantly; teens looking exactly the same as young adults. I was sure I was going to hate this game. I saw LGR's review expecting him to dismantle and trash the base game but to my surprise his review was mostly positive. I decided to give it a go anyway because it's a sims game after all.
It took a bit of time but I eventually started noticing all the things that The Sims 4 did better than the previous versions of the game. The beautiful new sims, their perfect mix between realistic and cartoony style, the emotion system (needs a bit of work though), multitasking, the amazing build/buy mode among other features made me realize that the game was actually pretty good. TS4 also did an amazing job with children as they're really fun to play, I didn't play with them in the previous games as I found them boring. The thing I ended up liking the most was the liveliness of neighborhoods, it really makes the world feel alive.
Now, I didn't start playing regularly until basements and Get to Work were released (I had no idea how important basements were to me until they were patched into the game). Later packs such as Outdoor Retreat and Spa Day were amazing and have me wishing for even more Game Packs. I still believe that the base game (on its own) lacks a bit on content, but then again I can say the same for the base game of all the previous versions.
