What is Your Biggest Criticism About Sims 4?
Note: This thread is not for being mean or insulting. Please try to phrase your critiques as civilly and respectfully as possible, no matter how much the issue irks you. Thanks in advance! For me, ...
Forum Discussion
Oooof... there's quite a few for me.
OP's and Cinebar's posts
I vehemently agree with both. That aside, if I had to choose one, even including the issues listed in those posts... it has to be:
Watered-Down Boring Content
This is the biggest problem with the game to me. It's absurd that the entirety of TS4 costs hundreds of dollars to get its "full" experience. For 40 bucks, I could buy an expansion pack in TS3 and get a ton of content that all plays together well and is interconnected with depth and surprises. The Sims 4 doesn't have that. Vampires was introduced in 2017, which was well received. In that expansion, they have an ability to create a burst of emotion to affect nearby Sims. Years later, a Fear emotion was finally patched into the game and... the devs apparently forgot that they have numerous things that can affect emotions, including Vampires, so they can't spread Fear through their powers. I have a mod to fix that.
Key sentences here. "The Sims 4 doesn't have that." "I have a mod to fix that." I think, for many of us, these sentences show up everywhere when criticizing the game.
Little story for you: In TS3, I was playing my Sim and really wanted to find a wife for him. So I looked through the map, found a Sim I thought was decent looking, went into CAS to pretty her up a bit, and decided to have him pursue her. I had him call, say hello, but she wasn't interested. She was with someone else. So I decided to see if he could steal her away. Numerous attempts to romance her online happened after that, all failing, so a couple of Sim days later, I found her on the street and made him go meet her.
She was creeped out when he said hello. I was surprised, I had no idea she would react that way. From playing TS4, I expected her to be all smiles and friendly. Somehow, she knew my Sim was practically stalking her, and it gave her a negative impression of my Sim, the conversation message on the top left said she thought my Sim was creepy. It made me feel bad, it made her feel more real because that's obviously how someone would react in real life to that kind of thing. Naturally, this has never happened in TS4. I don't feel like my Sims are as complex as their peers. They don't feel like simulated people, they just feel like mindless extras.
There is no complexity, no depth, no immersion (because a loading screen pulls you out of it every time you travel anywhere), not many ways to introduce some kind of critical thought, no challenge, no balance. Once your Sim finishes the aspiration about making a lot of money, your Sim doesn't ever have to work again. My Sim and his wife get over $400,000 weekly each. And I never look forward to it because I never need it. In TS3, I'm constantly wondering for ways to get more money and find myself looking forward to when his investments come in because money in that game helps me explore so much more of it. But in TS4, exploration isn't really a factor. It's hardly in the game.
TL:DR: I could keep going, comparing and contrasting, but an article I once saw put it perfectly.
The Sims 4's biggest problem is that The Sims 3 exists. And The Sims 2, respectively. If this game was the second game in the series, I'd think it was a step in the right direction. Sure, the DLC practices are scummy and pretty much have most Simmers hoping and praying that the next batch of content is good only to be let down most of the time. Like an addiction. But it'd be an example of what could be possible for the next game.
However, through TS2 and TS3, I assume most people imagined TS4 being a beautiful combination of those 2 games. Instead it became evidence that the series is going downhill and it's why I will most likely not be supporting TS5.
OP's and Cinebar's posts
I vehemently agree with both. That aside, if I had to choose one, even including the issues listed in those posts... it has to be:
Watered-Down Boring Content
This is the biggest problem with the game to me. It's absurd that the entirety of TS4 costs hundreds of dollars to get its "full" experience. For 40 bucks, I could buy an expansion pack in TS3 and get a ton of content that all plays together well and is interconnected with depth and surprises. The Sims 4 doesn't have that. Vampires was introduced in 2017, which was well received. In that expansion, they have an ability to create a burst of emotion to affect nearby Sims. Years later, a Fear emotion was finally patched into the game and... the devs apparently forgot that they have numerous things that can affect emotions, including Vampires, so they can't spread Fear through their powers. I have a mod to fix that.
Key sentences here. "The Sims 4 doesn't have that." "I have a mod to fix that." I think, for many of us, these sentences show up everywhere when criticizing the game.
Little story for you: In TS3, I was playing my Sim and really wanted to find a wife for him. So I looked through the map, found a Sim I thought was decent looking, went into CAS to pretty her up a bit, and decided to have him pursue her. I had him call, say hello, but she wasn't interested. She was with someone else. So I decided to see if he could steal her away. Numerous attempts to romance her online happened after that, all failing, so a couple of Sim days later, I found her on the street and made him go meet her.
She was creeped out when he said hello. I was surprised, I had no idea she would react that way. From playing TS4, I expected her to be all smiles and friendly. Somehow, she knew my Sim was practically stalking her, and it gave her a negative impression of my Sim, the conversation message on the top left said she thought my Sim was creepy. It made me feel bad, it made her feel more real because that's obviously how someone would react in real life to that kind of thing. Naturally, this has never happened in TS4. I don't feel like my Sims are as complex as their peers. They don't feel like simulated people, they just feel like mindless extras.
There is no complexity, no depth, no immersion (because a loading screen pulls you out of it every time you travel anywhere), not many ways to introduce some kind of critical thought, no challenge, no balance. Once your Sim finishes the aspiration about making a lot of money, your Sim doesn't ever have to work again. My Sim and his wife get over $400,000 weekly each. And I never look forward to it because I never need it. In TS3, I'm constantly wondering for ways to get more money and find myself looking forward to when his investments come in because money in that game helps me explore so much more of it. But in TS4, exploration isn't really a factor. It's hardly in the game.
TL:DR: I could keep going, comparing and contrasting, but an article I once saw put it perfectly.
The Sims 4's biggest problem is that The Sims 3 exists. And The Sims 2, respectively. If this game was the second game in the series, I'd think it was a step in the right direction. Sure, the DLC practices are scummy and pretty much have most Simmers hoping and praying that the next batch of content is good only to be let down most of the time. Like an addiction. But it'd be an example of what could be possible for the next game.
However, through TS2 and TS3, I assume most people imagined TS4 being a beautiful combination of those 2 games. Instead it became evidence that the series is going downhill and it's why I will most likely not be supporting TS5.
