Island Living; is it lacking?

I think the pack is good, but not good enough to be a $40 expansion pack. I have seen a lot of game changers say it's either a hard sell at full price or that it's flat out not worth it at full price, that it feels like a game pack.

There are parts of the pack I have found that I really like and hope they continue with: Conservationist for example, I like the fact that the career as you go through it affects the world around you - but I wish they had extended the clean up/anti-environmentalist stuff to the other worlds as well and made conservationist an aspiration as well. I know a lot of people concentrate on cleaning beaches and we absolutely should clean up beaches but its not just beaches that need cleaning up, when I walk home from work I clean up any trash I see on the way - it would have been neat to have that implemented throughout all the neighborhoods in Sims 4.

It's honestly a beautiful world, and I love the architecture the pack offers but I just can't justify spending $40.00 on a pretty world and beautiful architecture.

The only two things I feel are lacking is the ability to go on underwater lots/Atlantis secret lot and a more "Castaway" type option for sims. Sure, off the grid is fun and all, but not quite there.

This seems more like a Sims 3 Store world than an EP. The lack of gameplay is really disappointing.

"wamayeli;c-17141539" wrote:
This seems more like a Sims 3 Store world than an EP. The lack of gameplay is really disappointing.

Good comparison!!

I think that it is tolerable, but their budget went into the wrong places. The vampire system in the Vampires Game Pack was so much better than the mermaids BY FAR! If they had used the budget for a better mermaid system, then maybe the pack would have been amazing. I honestly use it only for the open ocean feature, since that is very cool.

yes, unfortunately. i like what is present, but i feel like there should be more considering this is an expansion.

my main complaint: mermaids. lifestates are one of my favorite parts of the Sims games, i need them to even fully enjoy the game. (favorites being witches, vamps, and mermaids.) i love how vampires were done, and i still have high hopes for witches/magic since there will be a dedicated GP. mermaids were a let down, sadly. :( i think the animation of their tails is beautiful and the customizability is great. i love the eyes and teeth, the tails are gorgeous. but they don't feel complete, consistent or special enough. i don't think they need an entire perk system like vampires or (hopefully) witches. but there are other details that would make them feel more complete, especially considering they can't dive. having a tail in a hot tub and kiddie pool. some sort of simple swimming underwater activity (such as snorkeling for humans). their tails aren't animated properly when they clean up garbage or when they doggy paddle. their hydration is a reskin of hygiene, a replacement makes sense, but a reskin makes it inconsistent, like interactions in the waterfall lower their hydration instead of fill it (i do like the fish speech bubble though, it's cute). i wish they had a bassinet, an urn/tombstone, and some sort of mermaid woohoo would be cool. the option to eat raw fish and kelp. a few special moodlets, like, one after talking to a fish in a fishbowl, or after eating human food, etc. also some build/buy would be appreciated, some mermaid themed items. also child mermaids would've been AMAZING, but i get that that would double all the work unfortunately. i could go on, but y'all get the point.

From what I've seen in game play, it's very lacking in game play.

Yes, yes it is definitely lacking. I'm really, really underwhelmed with this pack because I was expecting something like Island Paradise from TS3. My expectations were pretty high. Let me explain.

Scuba diving is a big disappointment. Why can't you go with your sim? Why can't you see the ocean? Really, all you get is to wait for your sim to explore the ocean that you can't see, and then you get a response saying "OH BOY LOOK WHAT YOUR SIM FOUND!!!!!!" Yeah, cool, but I would've liked to have GONE and SEEN the ocean with them.

And then we have the boats. Not much to really complain about them, but I wish that you could have multiple sims on a boat. When I first saw the boats when I loaded up the game, I thought you could have 2 sims on a jet ski, but nope. One. And the bigger boat. Nope, one. Again, not really a big deal but for an expansion, this just should've been there.

Mermaids. I don't really care for them anyways, but what I've seen from playing with them a little is that they're kinda boring. You can't do a whole lot from them. But I personally don't really care because I'm not that interested with them in the first place.

And there's just not a lot to do in this pack, really. I wish there were resorts, I wish there were house boats, I wish there were underwater houses, I wish you were able to also vacation to Sulani, and I just wish there was more to explore.

All that aside, Sulani is really beautiful. Over the top beautiful. The sunsets are amazing, the water looks gorgeous, the island itself looks phenomenal. The build mode and CAS, while a little lacking, has some of the best items I've seen. I love it all.

While it is lacking, I just love the vibe I get from this pack. The scenery makes me really relaxed and joyed. I feel like I payed just for Sulani, in my opinion. Everything else got boring quick.

I really feel like if there are different teams over there working on different parts of this pack, then the CAS team, and the team responsible for designing the world and some build items did a great job, and those developers that were responsible for gameplay should be looked into. So many amazing CAS and build items, but there is so little you can do on the island, most things are just rabbit holes.

It's probably not divided into that, but more a question about management (what they decided to put their resources into), but still, so lacking in gameplay.

I have to start this off by declaring that I have not actually played this pack myself and am basing my opinion purely on what I've seen and heard.

The announcement at EA Play absolutely blew me away. It was once again one of those packs I didn't specifically ask for, but fell in love with when I saw it. Well, that feeling faded quickly when the Game Changers' videos came out and I realised that what was shown at EA Play was actually all there is. I was especially disappointed by the volcano being nothing but a decorative object after all (I was hoping for a little more danger in this otherwise overly happy and safe game), and most of the new careers as well as scuba diving being rabbit holes. So my initial opinion changed from "This might be the greatest EP yet" to "It's okay for an EP by TS4 standards, but nothing more". As someone else already said, pretty much all the gameplay revolves around living on the island, whereas EPs normally introduce features that affect and can be used in all worlds, such as fame, weather, and pets.

But when I rate or rank new expansions, I always do so in comparison to others, so I can't single out Island Living as being especially lacking when the same can be said about almost all previous packs. City Living is yet another pack where the only things you can use outside of its world are the CAS and BB items, even the careers usually require you to travel to San Myshuno if you play them actively, and Get Together, which is always praised for its huge world, barely has anything to offer other than said world, unless you consider the lacklustre club system a great gameplay feature.

So all in all, I say Island Living is okay. Not great, definitely lacking in some regards, but not in a way that it sets new standards.