Your Discover University Rating!

This pack should be a 9 for me.
I am so happy to have University and there are some great features here, but there are several things that knocks it down to a 7.

-I am really disappointed that there are no extra trait slots to unlock like we usually get with Uni packs.
-I was looking forward to having secret societies back, but I have no interest in this one. It basically makes your sim a slave to sprites.
I will be using Get Together to create my own.
-The food situation is really bad. My dorms are flooded with rotting food. I spend too much time cleaning up the dorm.
-No real fraternity/sorority system and the assigning roommate by organization/social group feature does not seem to be working.
-Roommates are moving out of the dorm. There were some I really liked and I wish they would stay.
-It needs to be more friendly to rotational game play.
-I was hoping that we would be able to make human looking servos. We have alternative looks for aliens and vampires. I was sure it would happen for Servos this time.

Sadly, only 5/10.

I am enjoying parts of this pack, but the thing that bugs me the most and just ruins the overall experience is the short and nonadjustable term length, that just doesn't go well with my 4 week seasons. And I don't like that you can't rotate to another family during the term - you have to play the entire semester from start to finish unless you want a bad grade or to fail completely. And the campuses just feels way to empty, no life at all...

I do like the amount of majors to choose from and the ability to live off-campus. And the world is pretty.

Now that I got to play it in-depth, I really like it. Juggling four classes, homework and projects/papers can be challenging. But throw in organizations, life outside of school and even a job? It's super challenging and I love that. I even enrolled some sims because it gives them more work. Plus the world is super pretty (if unreasonably small) and campus life is great.

I'd say the major downsides are the robotics stuff (the ingredient requirements are insanely high, and it takes too long to get them), the barebones organizations, the glitches, and the CAS/BB content is pretty same-y and dull. (But even then, we got a few gold nuggets in the CAS.) But overall, the bad is outweighed by the good.

Kinda wish I bought it on sale, but it's been a breath of fresh air for my game.

I'm giving it a 9. There are a few things that I'd tweak. I'd add postgrad degrees and the ability to keep enrolling in classes beyond 12 credits. II do think it is replayable and I like that I can focus on more studious sims. There are a lot of ways that you can tweak the experience. I also keep it at a 9 due to the slight awkwardness with synchronizing rotational play.

I actually like the campus events and I often have sims hang out in community spaces. I think the pub will need an overhaul because it is a little bland but I'll give it an update. I think the changing roommates are realistic. You can choose how much to engage with them.

I'll keep it as part of my game and I'll definitely send more sims.

I know people complain about the quad being empty but I think that depends. It would get busier at times. Actual spaces like the dorms, library, cafeteria and pub would get crowded. I mean, if my sim just wanted to quietly do homework on a bench or bike around, I didn't mind some quiet. Usually other sims would eventually show up.

I'm happy and will keep it as part of my game for some sims. At some point, I may send a bunch of them together and not fixate on perfect grades for most of them.

I chose 8, I was gonna give it a 9 but I like even numbers ?‍♀️? There’s some buggy things and whatnot that forbids it from being a 10

University is pretty decent. Not quite a solid, but I like it.

Improvement please:
I would like the pizza guy to actually turn up in the dorm penthouse accommodation when I hire a service for a party. It would be pretty cool to see Sims out on the sports centre field playing soccer, rather than a rabbit hole- but it's still quite cool. I was thinking they could add rollerblade students around campus, and even skateboard people. For me, I don't see many people apart from going to and from class to dorm all day. Maybe see a Cheer Squad for the university practicing, various groups of students around campus talking, hanging out, and doing certain things- AND you can join those groups/clubs with a few missions/tasks. I miss having a library, and maybe a small cafe. An adjustable system for how long School and University takes in options would be good also. Maybe add mischief abilities for pulling off the biggest pranks around campus, doing treasure hunts for certain items. Going on school trips or holidays for maybe a whole week or more. Maybe have students on a certain artsy campus recite poetry on the lawns. Outdoor painting classes, with mobile easels. Photography squad going around taking snaps, and maybe give someone the opportunity to become a model as a career. Literally, have it so you can meet the professors as sims, and maybe even come across secret circles/societies of knowledge and wisdom when you learn more than you should. :open_mouth: Hire me Maxis. <3

CAS is one of the best things about this pack! The diversity range of hairs, and the modern aesthetic of clothes really caught my eye. The only problem with EA lately is that I feel as if they're rushing on these packs. If they took more time on their work, I'm sure their players would be much more pleased. The devs are very talented at what they do so I cannot just say that University sucks because it definitely does not. Hope they'll take their time on new releases!

6,5 actually.

I think that...there's not a lot of things to do outside of classes and homework. The University "party scene" feels very small, almost non existent. If they included at least two extra gameplay objects related to leisure/parties (billiard tables for example), and the ability to throw an actual post graduation party in the dorm or house or whatever it would have been better. The small number of new unique social interactions also hurts this pack in my opinion, it feels like we've been stuck with the same social interactions since the BG sometimes.

I also feel like out of the three iterations, this pack is the most unbalanced in terms of gameplay. First, it's too easy to get scholarships. My sim ended up not having to pay for university at all, making the repoman a novelty. As a matter of fact, my sim was given money due to how many scholarships he had....I wish there was a limit of 1 scholarship per semester and you could choose between the ones awarded to you. Secondly, your sim has to spend a ridiculous amount of time in Uni to be able to graduate. Even if you condemn yourself to 4 classes per semester, which all demand your sim to do homework plus either an exam or a presentation or a term paper, you have to stay for three semesters. By the time your sim gets the degree he's an adult who's about to turn into an elder...I had to put the age lifespan into long otherwise my sim would have maybe 1 week of time as an adult. I think this works better when you have a teen about to turn into a YA, who applies early, but still....it is worth it though, as you go straight to level 7 if you graduate with a good grade.

But I do like how in depth they did certain features like bot building although it would have been nice if they gave us the customisation that we had with Plumbots. I think the bicycles are amazing and the organisations are way more in depth than what I thought which is great, albeit the tasks can get a bit repetitive, but that's expected at this point. My sim did not have the time to interact with the secret society doing 4 classes per semester so I'll have to check that out later. I also like how in depth they went with researching and studying in this pack, more than before, which is great. I also appretiate the difficulty of managing classes and studying and keeping my sim's needs on the green whilst being part of an organisation and a school "part-time career". The rewards seem pretty good to me as well, and I love that I can put my sim's graduation picture on the wall along with his diploma.

All in all it's not a bad pack, I'd say it's one of TS4's top 3 packs for me, along with Seasons and Get Famous.

The Good:
-CAS is fantastic
-Decorations are cute
-World is pretty solid
-Robotics is something I've been dying for
-Authenticity achieved surprisingly well
-Classes are (for the most part) smooth
-New keg parties are hilarious
-WE FINALLY HAVE FACIAL PIERCINGS


The Bad
-Stupidly awkward to get multi sim households enrolled/living ON campus at the same time.
-A mite too easy

The Ugly
-One of their worst releases as far as bugs, if not the worst in my own experience.

Honestly they are many good things in DU, you can have fun, and just for this I did not choose a 5. But this are the issues with this ep:

1. I played the sims since sims 2: sims 2 had a good rotational play, sims 3 did not had any rotational play (epic fail!)... so far Sims 4 has the best rotational play. But sadly DU it is not good for Rotational Players! Actually it is a nightmare :(

2. DU has the worst premade building ever: Foxbury Commons. It is a huge, two stories, empty building at a 40x30 lot, it is useless for the gameplay. If you go there the University feels like a ghost town. I do not care about aesthetics, I build my own stuff and there are awesome builders at the gallery. But the first rule for sims building is: make it functional. The original is NOT functional. Replace it with a one story building and then you will have fun.

3. I pre-ordered DU, and it was a wrong choice because I stop playing due to game breaking errors until an emergency patch was released :| Simmers say that ROM is a buggy pack, lol, no way: DU is the winner! By now I will avoid the pre-ordering.