Tiny Living SP - Early Access honest review

Thanks to EA for allowing me early access to this stuff pack

Here we are again!

I had the whole weekend to play with Tiny Living and boy do I have thoughts!

Tiny Living as a concept is great. The problem with Stuff Packs is that since the game is (still!) lacking in some many aspects, they usually feel very short and to add salt to injury, this one does not only feel short, but random. Nothing about the build/buy catalogue says "tiny living", not even the "space saving" (we'll get to it later) murphy bed. The only aspect of the pack that aligns with the theme is the new lot type.

Let's dive a little deeper into all of these.

CAS


I wonder if the pack would have benefitted from no CAS at all or maybe one piece of clothing for each age group. Having this forced ratio of CAS + BB + gameplay object is very restrictive in the long run, specially for Stuff Packs that have a limited budget/resources.
The CAS in this pack is really nice and comfy looking, and most of the assets have great textures. But, I don't think the pack should have had any CAS focus. That way we could have had more attention put into the real aspect of the Tiny Living concept: building and living in a confine space.
In my opinion, TL should have come with just this pyjamas (with its really cute swatches) for all ages and the team should have put all their time and resources into the actual topic:
https://i.imgur.com/shrMtNo.jpg

But this is just my ideal scenario and not the reality. The reality is that a big chunk of the pack is dedicated to nice CAS assets and a couple of odd ones. So, I'll review them.

I'm looking at you and your texture!


Overall I really love most of the clothes but I wish (yet again) that kids and toddlers would have gotten some, that full outfit pyjamas would have been ideal.

Here are some of my favourite outfits:
https://i.imgur.com/YqUY67x.jpg

Hairstyles are hit and miss here. I really like the braided one for the women but I feel the other ones look a bit odd.
I like that the team has finally found the way/time to convert adult hairstyles for kids and toddlers and that they added the new ones in the pack for all life stages. In fact, one of them looks much better on a toddler than on an adult:
https://i.imgur.com/DDFeLTW.jpg

But I would really appreciate specially designed hairstyles for kids and toddlers.

BUILD/BUY

The furniture and clutter in this pack is BEAUTIFUL, absolutely stunning, I love it. However, nothing about it says "tiny living". Only the TV/bookshelf/music combo, that's it. Everything else is just normal stuff with normal footprint.
The murphy bed has the exact same footprint as a normal double bed and you can't put the ceiling lamp that comes with the pack on the area, with normal beds you can.
https://i.imgur.com/xHdmUbL.png
On the topic of lights, the standing lamp that comes with the pack is gorgeous but HUGE! not even with the move objects cheats can you really place it in a space saving way.
https://i.imgur.com/LbXdJVW.png

I mean, look at it next to a sim, it's massive.
https://i.imgur.com/DuJHG4K.png

Why would you include such a massive lamp in a pack about "tiny living"?

Another beef with the murphy bed is that there's no single murphy bed, only a double, why? And also, you stil can't put it by a wall and have 2 sims use it, which should have been implemented since the idea is to save space and if you can't place it against the wall, well, it takes too much space.
https://i.imgur.com/q39AyVM.png
(two sims can't use it placed like this, exactly like with normal double beds in the game)


And yes, you can use the murphy bed as a sofa when is not open but you can't place anything in front of it, no coffee table, no nothing. You can't even place a picutre on the wall.
https://i.imgur.com/BLphnwc.png

We also get another toilet (how many do we have already?) and 3 chairs, that take up the same space as any other chair has had in the past. And like this, with every object in the pack.

Absolutely beautiful furniture but it has nothing to do with the theme. You still have to play around with the move objects cheat like crazy, everything is like in any other pack size wise.

The new lot type

The new lot type is a really cool idea and I love that there are 3 different tiers. Building a Tier 1 is a lot of fun and really challenging, specially because all the new objects being just normal size, maybe they did it on purpose so it would still be a challenge to build? :D
And building a Tier 2 for a family of 4 is also interesting.
However since we barely have any small lots and we don't have the option to change lot sizes, most tiny homes look a bit silly in the middle of the lot. I like lanscaping in the game and you can get really creative but it would be nice to have options.
I built this Tier 1 home for a couple and their dog and I really enjoyed myself.
https://i.imgur.com/VVjK3Qw.png

I also build a Tier 2 home for a family of 4 (parents and toddler and kid), and that was fun too, specially trying to fit activity objects for each life stage.
https://i.imgur.com/cKwg4NM.png

The tiers come in my opinion with way too many perks and positive moodlets. I wish the gameplay would be as fun as building with the new lot type, but it's not, it's just happy happy happy.

CONCLUSION

The them does not match the content very much. CAS is pretty and the build/buy objects are absolutely stunning. The new lot type is fun if you enjoy building but the gameplay is meh, although I appreciate the details of the new ghost having special interactions and most of the murphy bed shenanigans.
But the point of Tiny Living is completely missed. And that, is a huge BUT.

Here are some more pics:


EDIT to add this info about how to get 2 sims to sleep in a double bed against the wall.

"AlbaWaterhouse;c-17375440" wrote:

"AquaGamer1212;c-17373682" wrote:
So I’d like to comment on some misinformation. Two sims CAN in fact use a double bed when placed next to a wall. There’s a scoot over animation that happens.

I have tried since I read your comment without success, then I came accross these:

https://twitter.com/EnglishSimmer/status/1219323908169531392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/SimGuruNinja/status/1219336534437924869?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/EnglishSimmer/status/1219397897097240576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/oh_hey_its_g/status/1219345805263417347?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Very interesting!