Let's start with the positive: Build mode is SO much better! Seriously, hats off. I also liked that there were requirements for promotion, that speaks to my play style very nicely. I notice people complaining about chasing negative emotions or how hard the emotion system was to work in (some loved the extra challenge, somed hate it) - personally I found that it took some slight getting used to, but once I figured it out, it actually became fairly background to playing, they're fun and not very bothersome really.
I have one giant complaint with many pieces, and I feel this is going to be a bit of a full-on article. PLEASE read!! To entice your actual reading even though it's long, let's get something out of the way first: I do not care one bit about the lack of pools, basements, cars, etc. It doesn't bother me, and while I realize it's apparently a major big deal to some people, I just don't get it, and although I do understand the toddler issue, it just doesn't compare to the lack of an open world (or open anything). Also, in scanning through a lot of the previous posts, I notice that several issues people are complaining about can be resolved with just a few minutes in the Options panels. The vast majority of what I see here I find to be just lists of minor complaints, and I'm worried some major things that are integral to the entire gameplay are going to get lost in the shuffle, but I want to try. I've been a Simmer from Day 1, and I WANT to love TS4 - I'm hoping by reaching out, that might actually happen (some day).
The lack of an open world is AWFUL. TERRIBLE. CATASTROPHICALLY BAD. As in I will no longer be playing this game, that I was excited about, that I was watching every news bit for months, that I read all the articles from the people who went to Creators Camp. Origin shows 16 hours of play (and that's real play because I'd already created sims in the CAS demo, and I moved them into an existing house so I could get in and get going), so it's not that I haven't given it enough of a chance. I am so incredibly disappointed, and if I continue playing The Sims at all, I'll be returning to TS3. Unfortunately seeing what could have been done, had it been added to the good parts of TS3, now also makes 3 less enjoyable. I will very much miss the Build Mode, I will miss the promotion requirements, I did gain some enjoyment from working within the emotion system, and I will miss the increased expressiveness. I'm sorry I spent so much money buying a copy of the game for myself and for my husband (who has the exact same complaint as I, and for the exact same reasons), and I'm SO sorry that TS3 will now be considered done, so it won't be made any better going forward. That's maybe worst of all, because there will be nothing new for years into the future, and I think TS3 will become somewhat stale after I've explored it all in extreme depth, which means I'll likely end up leaving the franchise altogether, and that makes me sad, as it's awfully unique in the gaming world.
You see, The Sims has always been about being able to 'play your way,' and every title in the series has advanced that concept, until this one. Here, we take a massive step backward. The 'builders' I think will have a fantastic time, with more options for creativity coupled with easier functionality - that is an unmitigated win! The 'storytellers' I think will have a great time - it may take them more effort to get what they want out of the Sims, but they'll have a greater range of action and expression to use - so that's a win! The modders have all new toys to play with, and even some real support it seems this time. (Part of the reason why I don't have a list of the really minor issues is because I know there will be mods to take care of most of it pretty quickly, we have fantastic modders.) The 'voyeurs' and the 'demented' will have a great time seeing what their Sims get into with full autonomy or setting up crazy situations in which to torment them. But people who play like me? Bomb.
I have some definite 'builder' in me, I did some script mods in TS2 and some tuning in TS3, but I generally like to PLAY the game. As in, play all the sims in a family, play to 'win' sort of. I play the Legacy Challenge, for example. I enjoy playing huge families with lots of moving parts and everybody going for different goals on different schedules, where I can concentrate on one for several sim hours but still manage the others. But with 4, I couldn't. I know you guys created the game, and you probably can't see past the rainbow colors that paint your vision of it because of that. I've heard/read multiple interviews about how you feel that you've combined the best of both worlds, but you just... haven't. You've created TS2 with faster load screens, but worse than TS2 in actual gameplay!! In 2, when you went off the lot, the rest of your sims stopped. Granted, not particularly realistic, but it was an advancement from TS1, so it worked out. Let me outline the particular difficulties the current design entails, specifically how it's now 100% impossible to really manage my sims effectively, which is a VALID game style in which many many people engage.
1. There is pretty much no part of this that is an open world. You don't even get an open neighborhood! Why even call it a neighborhood, it doesn't actually function like one. You get essentially a lot that includes a street and a water object, and a very pretty painting (or animated gif) to look at that makes it seem like there are other houses and streets. But woe betide you should you want to visit your next-door neighbor - load screen. And then when you're there, you can SEE your house, and you know there are sims in it, but you can't actually do anything with those sims, just the one(s) who went visiting. You've created a static lot that happens to have more people that walk through it. That's an advancement from TS1, sure, but not from 3...
2. In TS3, I can zip around from sim to sim, checking in to see what they're doing, change what I want them to do, queueing up some stuff so they can reach the goals they want. TS4? Nope. Sure, I can switch from a sim in one location to a sim in another location (with yet another load screen naturally). But when I get to that other sim, they're standing out front of the location, doing nothing. That is not remotely helpful to be able to check in and make sure they were taking that bubble bath I had queued for them before I left with a different sim. Which leads me to...
3. The sims do not accomplish their queued actions when you leave them. So they finish using the toilet because they were doing that when you left, but they do not move on to then upgrade the sink like you told them. Also you run into this: It's time for my mom sim to go to work. But I nix that action because there's one more quick thing I want her to do before going, and then I queue up the going to work part. My teen sim meanwhile has asked somebody on a date to the park, and we go. As I'm going through the date, doing pretty well, I look down to find that the mom's briefcase icon is blinking because she didn't do her queued action of going to work. So I switch back to her (load screen) just to send her to work, which I do. I then switch back to my date in progress (load screen), only to find that there's actually no more date happening because I the player went to a different lot, and the date is now leaving.
4. So let's say you don't switch back to a sim, you just stay with the traveling sim, and you leave your other sims back home to do their own thing, then you run into things like this: I'm out at a location with one of my sims until until 2am simtime. She gets home (after still one more load screen of course) to find mom sim has decided to take care of her need for energy by NAPPING on her bed. WHAT?? It's 2am and she has work in 4 hours. If you are going to make it impossible for me to make sure my sims aren't being dumb, then you have to at least make them not be dumb when left on their own.
5. An additional minor impediment: some of the lots are large enough that finding a specific sim just by looking around. If a sim tries to call another, and that sim is already on the lot, you get a message to that effect. But unlike in TS3, clicking that other sim's portrait does not take you to them, you just have to search.
6. And then we come down to the simplest, most basic, in terms of lack of functionality: no UI for non-active-lot sims. This is a step backwards from even TS1 if I'm remembering correctly!! I mean, let's get super basic here: I have 3 sims in the house who have jobs. When they get promoted, they often end up with new work schedules. It is not appropriate for me to be expected to memorize the work schedules of all the working sims in my family. But once dad sim is at work, I have zero options for finding out when the heck he's due home!! This one really rises to the level of absolute ridiculousness, and basically epitomizes the massive glaring issues to be found in this load-screen-heavy game.
Here's where it's that much more disappointing, where it actually hurts that EA/Maxis did not give the least consideration to me as a player and loyal fan: you killed my style of play and called it the best of both worlds. It's not. At all. It's actually the worst of both, for the reasons described above. I've even tried to figure out if I could just modify it enough to make it work, albeit not ideally. I could choose to just be chained to my lot and make sure I have all the objects I need there, but that doesn't work in 4. If I want something like that near-instant boost to Focused, I have to read AT the library. Ok, that I could give up and get it the slower way. But in order to advance in the music career, I have to play for tips, and sims won't tip me in my "neighborhood" (read home lot with sidewalks and fishing). For my romantic sim to achieve his aspiration, he has to GO on dates, and achieve things on them. And I still won't know when dad is coming home from work.
To be fair, I think I understand why it's like this. Having an open world in general is more resource-intensive. Since there's the ability to boost skills at work, if you let us see the skill listing for an at-work sim, the game would actually have to call that process to show it. Same with (and especially with) needs, if they were actively changing in real time (simtime). Having a sim actually engaged in specific activities, so that you could 'check in' on them, would require a process running in the background. Why would EA show us what can be done and how great an open world really is in 3, and then take it away and call that good? Why would you choose to drive over those of us who have been playing for years in favor of people who want to be able to do everything on a tablet? What about those of us who have machines that could handle it all? Where is the middle ground: a slimmed down open world? Really, you had to reduce us from something like 100+ lots to ONE and load after load after load??? You couldn't even give us an open neighborhood, with a real community lot and four houses? Even barring all that, where is my ability to turn on full UIs, turn on active non-lot sims? No amount of pools, weather, pets, and stuff packs will make up for this. Until there's an expansion that fixes the WORLD, I have to bid a heavy-hearted adieu. And yes, I know better than to hold my breath on something that likely amounts to a complete overhaul.
You broke it, perhaps irreparably, and you called it better. :(
EA Staff (Retired)
