Honest opinions about Sims 4.

I love it! I haven't actually been around long enough to play all of them so I can't really give any advice in that particular area but I've spent a LOT of money on it and I usually don't spend money on expansions or anything like that so that's a MAJOR compliment.

I started with Sims 1 and I have stayed with Sims through thick and thin, spending more money than I want to think about. For me the Vampires saved the game. I wish they would go back and similarly flesh out the Aliens, Ghosts and add Witches. I also wish they would open up the game more so that we had built in tools to customize the game to individual tastes. By this last I mean create aspirations, traits, careers etc. similar to the way we can create clubs and holidays. It seems that a lot of user creative potential is already built into the game but the player can't tap into it. One example is the way they upgraded the gardening system.

Love it. Honestly.

My only gripe with it so far is how small the worlds are compared to an S2 neighborhood. Makes my gameplay style a little bit stilted, but otherwise, I love it! S2 and S4 are my current faves. :)

"Pegasys;c-16882553" wrote:
TS4 is the only Sims game I play with any regularity now. I have tried to go back to Sims 2, and can't bring myself to play it for long, and I've played a bit of Sims 3 since, but can't get into that either. Full disclosure - I have all EPs, GPs and stuff packs except one stuff pack.

For me, TS2 was like a high-school sweetheart that I recall fondly with starry memories, but years later I try to go back and rekindle the romance and sadly it's just not there.

TS3 was like that solid but slightly dull romance where the lover showed me a good time and we did a lot of great things together, but there was just never that "spark."

TS4 is the extremely good-looking partner who is very easy to talk with, and we always get along well. However they started out kinda poor and were just taking me to the same coffee-shop over and over.

However over time this partner has tried earnestly to woo me over and started taking me to more and more interesting places and we've done a lot together now. Now and then they really surprise me. And they are just so easy on the eye.

Seriously though, if Sims 4 just had the following things it would be near-perfect for me: wants (better whims), fears, an attraction system, and TS2-style memories.

This is gold! :D

For me, Sims 3 was that unattractive but intriguing potential partner, exciting because it was new, but turned out to have awful chemistry so I left while they were still sleeping, lol.

Sims 2 I'm still on great terms with, but we just don’t connect much anymore, though I think about them all the time and speak fondly of the good times we had.

Sims 4 is definitely the attractive one with the great smile and goofy sense of humor. Sometimes that humor can grate on me but the relationship has become pretty comfortable, if a little predictable in ways. But I'd say we continue to grow together and I'm still finding out new things about them. Some are interesting and appealing and some make me question the relationship sometimes, but the general chemistry and friendship seems to be evolving, so that's a good sign.

As long as I can accept them for who they really are and not by comparing them to past lovers, I can see the good in them. They're not exactly the storybook ideal romance, but then again, that doesn't really exist because no one is absolutely perfect, not even Sims 2. In the end, I think it will work out just fine and we'll be together for quite a while. :)

You'll get as many different responds as there are people. Truth of the fact is, nobody can be your judge on Sims 4 - only you. It's your money and your experience.

So, @AJC20178 what's the verdict? :)

I really like Sims 4 a lot. I do wish there were more consequences in the game sometimes.

It's included with Origin Access. Not the expansions, but the base game. It's not like you have to buy it, you can at least get a feel for it with the $5 for a month subscription. And if you don't like it, you can just not keep playing and cancel your subscription.

ETA: The expansions certainly improve it, but you don't need them to get started. There's enough in it to keep you occupied for a while while you make up your mind.

I've honestly never played the game without any expansions, though I can see how that might get boring a bit. Overall, I think it is a pretty good game if you're willing to shell out for a few expansions. Compared to sims 3, it runs leagues better on my computer...sims 3 can be clunky, even on my gaming laptop and with modifications to make it run faster. Multitasking is cool. And I didn't like the cartoony art at first, but after going back to sims 3 after playing sims 4 for a while, I much prefer it to sims 3 style.

That said, there are some things I'm missing from previous games. Open world is a big one for me, though I know the implementation of open world was part of why sims 3 runs so badly, and it would take a lottt of time and effort. Story progression isn't the greatest, but like with sims 3, there are mods (MCCC) to help with that. Also, some of the things that maybe I took for granted in sims 3 and sims 2 take WAY LONGER in sims 4--i.e., showering, cooking, eating. So if you get 4, I'd definitely get some mods that help speed all those up or else it might get annoying. Speaking of sluggishness, it feels like skills also take forever to level up to me (but again, mods can help you adjust that). I like CAS and the clothes/hair, so I don't play with much CAS CC, but as others have mentioned, there is no color wheel, which is a bit of a bummer. Although I must say I LOVE the gender options in sims 4, and the way anyone of any gender ca wear whatever. Toddlers are also great and super realistic, but that can also make them tiring...haha...build mode is pretty cool though if you're into that!

As compared to sims 2, I honestly sometimes get the urge to go back to sims 2 and binge because there is a lot of heart in the series, despite the lack of story progression/problems where breathing wrong on your screen would cause irreversible neighborhood corruption. There were a lot of little details in the sims 2 that I really appreciated, like couples cuddling in bed, children dancing on their parents' feet, pillow fights...Honestly if the corruption issues didn't exist, sims 2 would probably still be my main game.

But overall (tl;dr), I'd say sims 4 feels like a sort of updated sims 2 with better graphics, faster loading times, better game performance, and with some homage to the silly but intimate details of sims 2 (although I think there are some simple moments lacking). Fin. +1 to @Maggiedoll 's idea too, $5 a month for a trial run of the game might help you decide!