I was lucky I got IL in a bundle, so it was only $30 (au, so around $20 american??), as it's definitely not worth full price. The world, CAS and BB are gorgeous, and it's nice to finally see some more clothing options for toddlers (though imo, an expansion should also include some toddler gameplay items), but in terms of new things your sim can do, there's very little there. Even lower rated expansions such as City Living (it's my 2nd favourite actually, but I know some simmers didn't like it :) - fair enough) have much more for your sims to do, especially outside of the worlds they come with.
In IL, there's a lot of re-used/same activities and animations (swings were in seasons, the lounge chair is base-game now) and rabbit holes. The mermaids are nice, but nowhere near as involved as vampires. From the looks of some of the promo images, I thought I would be able to at least move the camera view under the surface of the water when my mersim was swimming, and collect or click on the coral and fish floating around, but I couldn't, which made swimming very boring (and just like the base-game). The neighborhood I was in, while open-water, was tiny, so even with a jetski or boat, I couldn't make my sim go anywhere interesting.
If the devs manage to code swimming and sand in all worlds for IL players, that will raise my rating a little bit, but overall, I am disappointed about the lack of actual gameplay content as opposed to set dressing. It feels more like a tropical getaway GP with a mermaids SP tacked on. At least I will be able to make some nicer off grid homes now though :).
