1. What did you first think of the art style?
Hated it! It's grown on me after all these years, but it's still definitely not my favorite. I hated the clay hair (and still don't care for most of it made by EA .... CC Maxis Match hair is much more stylish while keeping the general art style). I also hated the painted on texture detailing, rather than having actual details modeled onto the mesh. The aesthetics gave me a lot of mobile game vibes.
When I opened the game the very first time, I was totally confused by the UI and hated how they changed where everything was located differently from the 3 previous games.
I hated the chunky, clunky overly large and exaggerated objects. For years, I used to say it reminded me of a Fisher Price dollhouse with all it's bright, happy colors. They've gotten better the last few years, so that has made me happy. But, basegame stuff is still pretty horrible to me.
I closed the game and went back to TS3. I didn't open it up again until after toddlers came out and bought CL, DO, and GT and tried again. Still didn't hold my interest and the art style still grated on my nerves. So, I went searching for alpha CC to change every single visual aspect of the game from default road, sidewalk, trees, and grass replacements, to lighting mods, and furniture. Got some alpha hair and clothes and I was happy finally with the look of the game but it was quite jarring seeing my sims out and about next to NPCs in their default plastic helmet hair and smeary textures. So, I ended up deleting my alpha CC and stick to Maxis Match now.
Still to this day, 7+ years later, I complain to myself EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. I create a new sim when I see those black, sharpie marker eyelashes!
2. Thoughts on the closed world?
I was not terribly concerned about the closed world when I heard about, because EA said we'd have "Open Neighborhoods" instead. But, turns out that was a lie. Your neighborhoods is not truly open, the surrounding areas that are not actual lots are open, but loading screen after loading screen to enter any lot, even if it's 10 meters away from your sims' home lot. This STILL irritates the ever lovin' bejeebus out of me, and is the main reason my sims are hermits and almost never, ever leave their lots.
3. What surprised you the most?
How skimpy it was. There was almost nothing to do. How you literally had to imagine every single thing.
4. Which missing features did you covet the most? Color wheel and CASt and the ability to edit/modify/remove world objects to truly make the worlds your own.
5. What were your impressions of the emotion system? Way too over the top. I don't care for it and have found mods to tune it more to liking.
6. Were you able to continuously play without getting bored?
No, not in the beginning. I actually closed the game after looking at it seeing how empty it was and never opened it up back up for a few years.
