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MckinneyMini's avatar
MckinneyMini
Seasoned Newcomer
6 years ago

Unfortunately Lackluster

Edit to add: On a positive note, I do think that Gamepacks are where Sims 4 really shines and they have all been amazing EXCEPT Strangerville which was not worth the money at all. Gamepacks come with so much gameplay for the money you pay.
Ok, I want to start off by saying (please no arguing down below) that Island Livings world is one of the most beautiful worlds in Sims 4 and the art team did such an incredible job on everything from the furniture, world, hairs, etc....credit where credit is due. That however is where my praise for this expansion ends.

It baffles me that Island Living is an EXPANSION and there is less gameplay than in Jungle Adventure which is just a GAMEPACK. Gamechanger, yes thats right GAMECHANGER on Youtube named ItsMeTroi even said this same thing in her review of the expansion.

Island living only has swimming, a jet ski that only goes in circles (same with the boat), tanning on a towel, mermaids (that lets be real don't do much of anything this iteration, especially when you compare then to how amazing the vampires were done) dolphins that similar to babies are stuck in place, and two rabbit hole careers.......(also the typical expansion lot traits,only one aspiration, two traits that are VERY similar, etc, oh and the elementals that are basically just ghosts reworked a bit).

Jungle Adventure has, tons of new areas to explore, skeletons, a new dancing type. tons of decor/furniture/objects (over 170), clothes hair, exploring mysteries that change every time you play, an active archaeology skill, exploring multiple jungles with different outcomes every time, traps in the temple with some light puzzle play, relics that you dig for, bugs that can attack you, two new aspirations, 2 new lots traits, new additions to the fish, fossil, crystal and gardening collections, etc......and all this in a GAMEPACKS!!

The fact that for half the price a gamepack has more gameplay than a full blown expansion this iteration is just insane to me. Other than the world and objects (which again are beautifully done) gameplay wise this is one of the worst expansions in sims 4.....its really sad to see, especially because there was so much to do is Sims 3's version....resorts, fire walking, vacation homes you could own, private islands to explore, tons of water craft, diving (not a rabbit hole), lifeguard career (not a rabbit hole) you could actually save people and give them CPR!!, mermaids that actually could do different things, etc.....

There comes a point where we need to raise our standards for the games we buy and we need to stop being in denial.

33 Replies

  • logionX's avatar
    logionX
    Seasoned Hotshot
    6 years ago
    It was pretty difficult to get a good unbiased preview of this pack.

    I looked at the gameplay trailer and felt the same as I did when I compared the strangerville trailer to what we got. It was marketing material that even had custom animations and reactions that was nowhere to be found in the game.

    So I had to look at multiple game changer videos showing what you could do, I had no idea the lifeguard career and the deep diving was just rabbit holes until I saw one game changer showing it and you could tell they had a hard time critisizing them because EA had paid for their expenses.

    Then I watched the sims team showing off the game pack in their livestream and I had a hard time watching it...they were so excited and was laughing so much and showed off pretty much everyhing you could do in the game in such a short time, they even restored the island which I thought is something that you should get as a reward after you yourself had played the game for many hours. I understand that they are excited to show off everything in their game but it is not easy, at least for me to watch.

    I think EA should just hand out preview copies or give closed beta access to the game changers so they can record preview videos in their own time and tone down on the time and money they are spending on their marketing. This just feels dishonest now.

    If we keep letting them do this then Witches are gonna have great animations in a marketing trailer, and be a rabbit hole career in the game.
  • Some of the game-changing elements were delivered in the patch, but make no mistake, they were part of the Island Living pack. Off the Grid made sense for the conservationist theme, beach bums and players who wanted to do a 'castaway' theme. Enabling part-time jobs for adults was necessary for the new part-time jobs in IL. Both of these were features many, many people had requested for a long time, and it's cool that they included them with the patch for everyone. The fishing update also came with the patch, and I'm still exploring that, but since my Sims do a lot of fishing, it's made my game more interesting. (Plus, lots of new fish to catch with the pack.)

    Personally, I wasn't thrilled about the theme: 'Ocean swimming and suntanning sounds boring - it's like watching your Sim sleep.' Everyone else: 'We must have ocean swimming and suntanning, it'll be game-changing.' Now: 'Wah! Ocean swimming and suntanning is boring. This pack doesn't have enough content.' I didn't expect much and I've been pleasantly surprised by this pack. (I get a kick out of the little things - my Sims can now imitate mermaids as a mischievous interaction, and there's a dodgy odd job in which you 'look for a guy's wallet on the beach', picking up random wallets for the guy. Always good to be helpful.)