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Date: 2023-09-14 20:52
The Sims 3, released in 2009 by Maxis, might just be the best The Sims game of all time. Despite the sequel (which is free-to-play now) succeeding it and the game being long discontinued, I still think it's the best Sims game in the series. Why is this? Why did The Sims 4, which should have been better by all means, fail (in my eyes at least)?
The first Sims Game, The Sims, was developed by Maxis and published by EA. It was released on the 4th of February, 2000. It was in an instant smash-hit, selling a total of 16 million units. This proved that there was a market for another Sims game, and in 2004, The Sims 2 was released. The sequel introduced a proper 3D view (the previous game used diametric projection, where the entire home was observed from a diagonal to show multiple sides) as well as the potential for more complex homes.
By this point, The Sims had made EA and Maxis a lot of wonga, which warranted a spin-off called The Sims Stories (2007-8), which offered a linear story using a modified Sims 2 engine designed for weaker systems.
Fast forward to 2009, and fans were anticipating the release of The Sims 3. Because its predecessor was so well-received, there were worries that The Sims 3 wouldn't live up to the previous game's success, particularly as EA had hyped the game up quite a bit. Fortunately, EA delivered on its promises, and The Sims 3 was released to great fanfare.
By this point, The Sims had established itself a unique audience who appreciated the game's complexity and self-aware humour.
The Sims 3 is really fun to play. Creating a family and watching it thrive while performing high-level decisions over their lives is always fun, with each Sim possessing unique abilities and life ambitions, which you need to tailor their actions to individually. You can interact with a plethora of NPC's and build relationships with them. You can buy a large amount of buildings you can interact with, purchase, and customise. You can choose career paths for your Sims and carry them to success. The game accommodates a wide variety of play styles, and has a unique ability to allow cheating in a way that is still enjoyable. While most games lose their fun once you cheat, giving your Sims millions of Simoleons to upgrade their home is still fun, despite the fact that you skip a large amount of progression and grinding.
I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough, especially with all of the DLC that I definitely paid for. The amount of content available was staggering, all of it well-executed and fleshed out. I appreciated the complexity normally associated with simulation games combined with the joy of understanding how it works paired with the easy-to-understand mechanics that were perfectly balanced to reach both a core and casual audience. In my experience, all ages really enjoy playing The Sims, and it's no surprise.
Overall, I highly recommend you pick up a copy from a second-hand marketplace, thrift store, or Steam. The choice is yours.
In early 2013, Maxis announced that they were working on the next instalment of The Sims. Fans of the previous games, delighted by the success of The Sims 3, were excited for a newer game. Each next Sims game was considerably better than the last, offering richer, more immersive, and more human interactions than the game before it.
On the 2nd of September, 2014, The Sims 4 was released to the world. It was a disappointment.
The Sims 4 should have been a smash-hit. Reviews on Metacritic were "mixed to average"[1]. The largest criticisms was the lack of content available in the base game compared to the previous Sims game, particularly with the Create-A-Style feature that allows for the creation of custom colour styles for furniture and such. Now, to the credit of Maxis, after the game released, some free updates were released that fixed a lot of concerns players had with the game, mostly adding in features from previous games. Overall, the core fanbase (myself included) were really disappointed over the lack of content.
One of the reasons for The Sims 4's lukewarm reception is EA's greed. EA owns Maxis and have been notorious for prioritising profit over everything else, even if this causes them harm in the long term.
The Sims 4 came with less content than even the base Sims 3 game, with said previous content being locked behind DLC that was released on day one of release. As of today, the total price of all of The Sims 4's DLC exceeds $600.No, really.
The issue with The Sims 4 is that, unless you buy the DLC, the game has very little content to offer, even for a free-to-play game.
The reason for The Sims 4's failure is simple. EA got greedy. There's no debate about it.The Sims 5 has already been announced, and I hope that EA and Maxis learn from their mistakes and leave more of the game unlocked by default. Having DLC is fine, even the amount The Sims 4 has, but newer games should have more content included than older games, not less.