My first thoughts on My First Pet Stuff gameplay (spoilerish)
Here are my initial thoughts on the stuff pack, after playing for a few hours. This quasi-review is by someone who is not biased by the way this pack was delivered, but just looking at the pack itself. Also, as I mentioned in another thread, I enjoy the stuff in stuff packs, and I'm glad to get them, but I primarily buy stuff packs for the gameplay objects. So I won't be commenting on the "stuff" at all.
So far I've only played with a hamster. There are the expected interactions - "observe", "play with", "feed", etc. And, of course, "talk to." None of these are radically different than the small pet interactions from previous versions. The cage is more interesting with the tunnels than previous versions, although this novelty only lasts for a short while. I have not played in a household with another pet yet, so I haven't seen the rodent cage/cat/dog interactions.
One thing that kind of bothers me is something that also seems to affect many Sim interactions in general - the "play with" interaction is so short. They just take the rodent out of the cage, nuzzle it for a couple of seconds, and put it back so quickly. It seems it should be a few seconds longer. I wish there was a bit more to the "play with" interaction. Ideally I wish that hamster wasn't tied to the cage -- maybe a hamster ball? -- but I know that would be asking a lot for a stuff pack.
The relationship will show up in the relationship panel. That's neat - but as far as I can tell, there is no unlocking of new interactions once your sim gets their relationship higher with the pet. I have a sim who has maxed his friendship with "Hammy" and the interactions appear to be the same as one with a lower relationship. Maybe there is a difference but it is not readily apparent.
The hamster has brought a couple of postcards in the last week, which is cute. There are seven additional postcards available with the Postcard collection. They do this all on their own, and occasionally they seem to do other things at night. I'm not sure if there's anything a sim can do to encourage their activity. There have been a few other pop-ups as well. One night I got a pop-up about the hamster having a rave party. There is not activity every night, it seems to be a few times a week.
My sim bought the hamster on a Wednesday, and on Monday the cage finally got dirty. My targeted-for-death sim got bitten. However the first bite didn't seem to cause sickness, so I had her get bitten a second time, which seemed to do the trick - a short time after the second bite I got a pop-up that she had contracted a serious illness. Which was a good thing because soon thereafter another sim in the household went in and autonomously cleaned the cage.
My sick sim went through three stages, each marked with a different moodlet; the final stage leading to death. During the second and third stage, her bladder need dropped quickly. She definitely needed to be close to a bathroom at this point. When she was at the final stage, she passed the illness along to my legacy heir, so, I will be curing him.
She did die a satisfyingly gruesome death, although my heir pleaded for her death and she was revived. The gruesome part is only at the very end for a few seconds so it's not overdone, in my opinion. Since she was revived, I haven't seen the death-by-hamster ghost yet.
The one thing that I think would improve the final stage is that right now, it tells you exactly when the sim will die. They have 24 hours and you can see exact time left in the moodlet. It would be more interesting, in my opinion, if instead of seeing exactly how many hours were left, there were question marks "???" instead, like it is with giving birth or with turning into a vampire. Even if it was always 24 hours, not seeing the explicit time left would make things more exciting.
It's neat to have an illness that a sim can die from in the game. This opens up a lot of storytelling possibilities. If you want a sim to die prematurely, this is a decent way but it is not fast - there's the waiting for the cage to get dirty, and then the three days of the illness. (Faster deaths are death by dryer :wink: or pufferfish nigiri.)
However, personally, I wish it was slightly more unpredictable. If I were to make the perfect illness, it would be a shorter, less determinable time until death (maybe only two days instead of three), but not everyone who contracted the disease would die. For me personally, what I want to see more of in this game is not just the illness and death, but the unexpectedness and surprise element. Right now once your sim gets the illness it will proceed exactly the same way so there is plenty of time to get a cure. Your sim is not at any risk of dying unexpectedly.
All in all, I don't have regrets about getting this pack, it will add to my sims's stories. So far, I would consider this pack as "okay, not great." Along the same lines as the Perfect Patio Stuff... I got that for the hot tub, and the hot tub works, in some ways the hot tub is a bit better than previous versions, but not in a game-changing way. I don't add a hot tub to every household, and I won't add a rodent to every household either. The new illness and death do add more gameplay, so there's that, and I'll just have to see how that adds to my game over time.
To be fair, there are other Stuff packs that I hardly use at all - like Fitness Stuff (I can't ever seem to find the time to have my sims use the climbing treadmill). My favorite stuff pack so far is actually Laundry Day. I do add laundry to most homes, and the laundry system has satisfying depth. And even though I don't usually focus on stuff, the stuff that came with Laundry is super cute.
So far I've only played with a hamster. There are the expected interactions - "observe", "play with", "feed", etc. And, of course, "talk to." None of these are radically different than the small pet interactions from previous versions. The cage is more interesting with the tunnels than previous versions, although this novelty only lasts for a short while. I have not played in a household with another pet yet, so I haven't seen the rodent cage/cat/dog interactions.
One thing that kind of bothers me is something that also seems to affect many Sim interactions in general - the "play with" interaction is so short. They just take the rodent out of the cage, nuzzle it for a couple of seconds, and put it back so quickly. It seems it should be a few seconds longer. I wish there was a bit more to the "play with" interaction. Ideally I wish that hamster wasn't tied to the cage -- maybe a hamster ball? -- but I know that would be asking a lot for a stuff pack.
The relationship will show up in the relationship panel. That's neat - but as far as I can tell, there is no unlocking of new interactions once your sim gets their relationship higher with the pet. I have a sim who has maxed his friendship with "Hammy" and the interactions appear to be the same as one with a lower relationship. Maybe there is a difference but it is not readily apparent.
The hamster has brought a couple of postcards in the last week, which is cute. There are seven additional postcards available with the Postcard collection. They do this all on their own, and occasionally they seem to do other things at night. I'm not sure if there's anything a sim can do to encourage their activity. There have been a few other pop-ups as well. One night I got a pop-up about the hamster having a rave party. There is not activity every night, it seems to be a few times a week.
My sim bought the hamster on a Wednesday, and on Monday the cage finally got dirty. My targeted-for-death sim got bitten. However the first bite didn't seem to cause sickness, so I had her get bitten a second time, which seemed to do the trick - a short time after the second bite I got a pop-up that she had contracted a serious illness. Which was a good thing because soon thereafter another sim in the household went in and autonomously cleaned the cage.
My sick sim went through three stages, each marked with a different moodlet; the final stage leading to death. During the second and third stage, her bladder need dropped quickly. She definitely needed to be close to a bathroom at this point. When she was at the final stage, she passed the illness along to my legacy heir, so, I will be curing him.
She did die a satisfyingly gruesome death, although my heir pleaded for her death and she was revived. The gruesome part is only at the very end for a few seconds so it's not overdone, in my opinion. Since she was revived, I haven't seen the death-by-hamster ghost yet.
The one thing that I think would improve the final stage is that right now, it tells you exactly when the sim will die. They have 24 hours and you can see exact time left in the moodlet. It would be more interesting, in my opinion, if instead of seeing exactly how many hours were left, there were question marks "???" instead, like it is with giving birth or with turning into a vampire. Even if it was always 24 hours, not seeing the explicit time left would make things more exciting.
It's neat to have an illness that a sim can die from in the game. This opens up a lot of storytelling possibilities. If you want a sim to die prematurely, this is a decent way but it is not fast - there's the waiting for the cage to get dirty, and then the three days of the illness. (Faster deaths are death by dryer :wink: or pufferfish nigiri.)
However, personally, I wish it was slightly more unpredictable. If I were to make the perfect illness, it would be a shorter, less determinable time until death (maybe only two days instead of three), but not everyone who contracted the disease would die. For me personally, what I want to see more of in this game is not just the illness and death, but the unexpectedness and surprise element. Right now once your sim gets the illness it will proceed exactly the same way so there is plenty of time to get a cure. Your sim is not at any risk of dying unexpectedly.
All in all, I don't have regrets about getting this pack, it will add to my sims's stories. So far, I would consider this pack as "okay, not great." Along the same lines as the Perfect Patio Stuff... I got that for the hot tub, and the hot tub works, in some ways the hot tub is a bit better than previous versions, but not in a game-changing way. I don't add a hot tub to every household, and I won't add a rodent to every household either. The new illness and death do add more gameplay, so there's that, and I'll just have to see how that adds to my game over time.
To be fair, there are other Stuff packs that I hardly use at all - like Fitness Stuff (I can't ever seem to find the time to have my sims use the climbing treadmill). My favorite stuff pack so far is actually Laundry Day. I do add laundry to most homes, and the laundry system has satisfying depth. And even though I don't usually focus on stuff, the stuff that came with Laundry is super cute.
