My Wants and Fears Verdict: Kind of Weaksauce
I've been playing a new save (on normal aging to avoid that bug), and I've gotten to experience the new Wants and Fears system. Now, while I appreciate the work the devs put into it...it's not that good. Aside from the "I wanna date my sister" glitch, the actual functionality of this system adds nothing of substance to the game. Unlike TS2 and TS3's versions, saving a Want for too long or not fulfilling at least one want within a day or two leads to awkward moodlets...Yeah, just awkward moodlets. Some are sad, or tense, or angry...but they ultimately mean nothing because negative emotions mean nothing in TS4. One of the most satisfying things in TS2 was locking a Want to be a medium-to-long-term goal and finally seeing that little UI gadget spin when you got it done. In TS4, there is no visual flare to the completion of a Want, and saving them for the long-term or medium-term can lead to useless moodlets buried in a sim's already over-crowded moodlet panel doing nothing to really affect gameplay at all.
As for the Fears, they pop up in the sim's Simology pannel and do...yep, basically nothing. There's a little jagged thought bubble that tells you how to cure it, and...yeah, that's it. It ends up just being a source of ineffectual negative moodlets until you cure it. So far, I haven't seen a single solid fear I could make come true and totally bomb a sim's whole mojo like you can in TS2. There is no break-down. There is no breaking point. Just...negative moodlets that get buried under all of the extraneous positive ones you can effortlessly rack up in this game. Fears? More like minor inconveniences. This is exactly what I was afraid this system would be when they announced it, just another useless moodlet generator with no depth. Another finger curls on the monkey's paw.
The only good thing I can say about this system is...They tried. They tried to give us Wants and Fears within the framework of a game that can't tolerate the kind of Wants and Fears systems previous games had. They tried...and failed.
As for the Fears, they pop up in the sim's Simology pannel and do...yep, basically nothing. There's a little jagged thought bubble that tells you how to cure it, and...yeah, that's it. It ends up just being a source of ineffectual negative moodlets until you cure it. So far, I haven't seen a single solid fear I could make come true and totally bomb a sim's whole mojo like you can in TS2. There is no break-down. There is no breaking point. Just...negative moodlets that get buried under all of the extraneous positive ones you can effortlessly rack up in this game. Fears? More like minor inconveniences. This is exactly what I was afraid this system would be when they announced it, just another useless moodlet generator with no depth. Another finger curls on the monkey's paw.
The only good thing I can say about this system is...They tried. They tried to give us Wants and Fears within the framework of a game that can't tolerate the kind of Wants and Fears systems previous games had. They tried...and failed.
