"LeGardePourpre;c-17186874" wrote:
Statistically Realm of Magic may be good
Ghosts... Good
Aliens... Disappointing
Vampires... Very good
Plantsims... Disappointing
Mermaids... Good
I agree with this list. I think ghosts are actually not bad in this game; they only suffer from the lack of a fear emotion and the ability to terrify sims, causing them to faint and in extreme cases die of fright. I’d love to have Coward and Brave traits back, as well as an active ghost hunting career. It would be nice to have cemeteries back too, and to see them haunting or hanging out there at night.
Aliens should have had more of their scary mental powers, like draining energy or even skill from other sims, abducting them live and using their saucers in scary ways, so they are diminished (but still fun to play). Aliens for me are saved in this game by having Sixam as an unlockable, visitable lot. I always use cheats to create a secret underground bunker/ lab/ shelter using the alien plants and deco etc from Debug. (A few aliens even show up there from time to time to deal with certain needs and so it feels like a natural environment for meeting them).
Vampires are truly amazingly well done and I love everything about them; they were well served by having their own game pack. They give me hope that Realm of Magic will be the best treatment of witches and magic ever.
PlantSims were poorly done, but they were part of a free patch/ challenge. So it is my hope that they could some day be revisited/ revamped, maybe with another free patch or as part of a Farming Expansion pack. To tell the truth, I am the least concerned about them since they are a made up being unique to the Sims franchise.
I too like the mermaids in Island Living, especially for their customization ability and features. I never wanted them to be like the vampires with a skill tree and all kinds of incredible or strange abilitiies. I think of them as natural creatures, part of the sea, so I love the aquatic lure and the ability to talk to fish.
They mainly suffer from not having their own secret underwater grotto or world, like the aliens have Sixam, and from not being able to interact with the sea more (such as being able to find things underwater that only they could use, like unique collectibles, or edibles, perhaps even a woohoo spot or cave for merfolk, or the ability to sleep under water). People complained at the time of IP in TS3 that the mermaids were tedious because they lost their abilities too easily, and it was hard to keep their hunger satisfied since they could really only eat kelp. In response, I think developers went a bit too far in the direction of ease. Still, I enjoy all their powers in TS4, especially their singing abilities.
I do think EA should not take away things we have had before, like the active career of lifeguarding and the Undersea lot with its collectibles, challenges and shark fights, of IP. So I hope we have even more from magic than in the past and that nothing has been removed.
