Out of all the presentations I attended at E3 2014, The Sims 4‘s was my favorite. While I don’t necessarily mean it’s the best game I saw at the show, the game has so much entertainment value that it made for a great demonstration. The presentation perfectly encapsulated all that The Sims 4 stands for: fun simulation with more options than you can imagine.
The Sims 4‘s core focus is on the sims that inhabit its virtual world. As such, the first thing shown off was Create A Sim, the tool that allows you to make characters that populate your game world. This part of the game is demonstrative of how much work has gone into making The Sims 4 the best simulation experience of the franchise. It has options that extend from editing of the face, to being able to tug and pull on certain parts of the body to sculpt them. As a result, the presenters were able to show us themselves recreated in the game world which almost perfectly emulated their real selves. Their virtual characters were shockingly similar, and I’d go as far as to say it’s the most elaborate character creation tool I’ve ever seen.
People aren’t just about looks, though, right? Personality is important, and you’ll be able to customize the behavior and mannerisms of your crafted sims in the Create A Sim toolkit. These come in the form of Aspirations, which you’re able to select a few of. These represent the sim’s long-term goals, reflecting on their interests and personality type. One character during the demo was defined as a classic nerd with Computer Wiz and a few other options selected. His goals and social skills reflected these important user-made choices.
During play, the Emotion State of each sim is shown, indicating their current mood. As with real life, the mood of each sim is a response to the environment. During good days where seemingly nothing goes wrong they reflect their happiness with their body language and how they speak to others. If they meet someone who is rude, they might slip into a bad mood. One of the characters was in a bad mood from the get-go making for some funny social interactions.
Since sims have varying degrees of expertise in the game’s variety of activities, some are higher in skill than others. The previously mentioned sim who was in a bad mood hit up the local gym for a workout to release some of his anger. The thing is, he wasn’t particularly great at lifting weights, and then suddenly Chuck Norris walked into the gym and changed everything. With his master experience in physical fitness, he inspired the inexperienced sim, improving his skill quickly. These types of interactions are important in building your characters to be effective.
The social side of The Sims 4 is where a lot of the humor is invoked. During the presentation we saw a few funny scenarios, including the presentors inviting virtual Kim Jong Un to attend their party. He eventually burned down the kitchen while making cupcakes, after having been a maniacal jerk to just about everyone in the living room. Perhaps the greatest feature of The Sims 4 is its Gallery, which features user-created content of all kinds. You can download characters, pre-built room packages, and a variety of other content and place it into your world seamlessly. As you might suspect, you can also share your own content. If you happen to build something that you’re very proud of, you can upload it and share it with the world. What that something can be is entirely up to you; a person, a patio for the backyard, and more. Naturally, people gravitate toward uploading emulative things. Whether it be Obama, a recreation of a room in the White House, or something else easily recognizable, you’ll be able to find it easily in the Gallery and install it in your virtual world.
Although The Sims 4 continues with the series’ heritage of having colorful and unrealistic visuals, the game is great on the eyes. The world is rich with detail that previous games can’t come close to competing with. Also, the UI appears much more intuitive than what we saw from The Sims 3. Thank goodness.
Maxis has listened to feedback over the years, and will be incorporating changes and additions that fans of the franchise will appreciate. For example, you will be able to customize wall height, so if you want a home with high-ceilings, you’ll now be able to accomplish that. Similarly, you can raise the foundation of the home, allowing for stairway entrances and cliff-side mansions. Also, you’ll be able to define areas of your home much easier; crafting a kitchen or room to have a separate theme from other parts of the house is made easy. There are a ton of other new options including a way to preview your house at day or night, simple application of wall decor, roof customization, and even curved fences. You’ll be able to build the home of your dreams.
I wasn’t particularly excited for The Sims 4 before checking it out at E3, but my mind has been changed. This is going to be a game that’s wildly popular and a ton of fun.
The Sims 4 will debut on September 2nd exclusively for PC.
