The Sims 4 Update Takes The Game In A Much Darker Direction
The Sims 4 welcome a brand-new element to the expansive life simulation game by incorporating a much darker element to its gameplay.
This article is more than 2 years old
Maxis’ The Sims has been one of the most popular and most expansive life simulation franchises globally. Since the original The Sims launched in 2000, the entire franchise has had four mainline releases, with over 36 expansion packs and over 45 DLC. That’s a lot of content. However, The Sims games lacked one thing — the free will of its NPC. Well, that changed with the release of the newest addition, called Neighborhood Stories for The Sims 4. For the first time in the history of The Sims, NPCs have a will of their own, including darker elements like accidental deaths via the traits and life they choose. Morbid, or is this real life?
According to Polygon, Maxis gave neighboring Sims more autonomy with the release of Neighborhood Stories. These were previously only tied to time within The Sims 4 game, meaning they could age and pass away; they couldn’t make any decisions or meaningful changes to their life choices or households. Well, the new update to Neighborhood Stories expanded the pool of neighboring Sims that have increased autonomy, granting them the ability to make certain choices, extending them past social interactions with the players’ Sims.
As part of this new update, neighbor Sims can now choose to adopt a young Sim or become pregnant with their Significant Other and eventually deliver. Sims with “Hates Children” traits might opt to adopt a dog or cat instead. They can also join and leave careers, retire when elderly, and move entire households into and out of lots. But perhaps the most disturbing novelty is that they can die in different kinds of accidents, depending on various risk factors, like Career, Age, Traits, etc. In fact, all actions mentioned above are heavily influenced by the Sims’ traits.
Most of these interactions can be found in in-game mailboxes, giving players insight into the changes in neighboring Sims’ lives as they go on about. For example, an old friend might get married and become a parent, and a hated coworker might stop showing up. It’s an interesting addition to The Sims 4 life simulator, which really adds plenty of options to the original game. Of course, like all other things, free will can be turned off in The Sims games.
Maxis made sure to include a set of gameplay controls specific to Neighborhood Stories, which allow you to either fine-tune the expansion’s system or completely turn it off (or on). These options can be toggled on or off individually or as a whole and could be adjusted for either a specific household or an entire in-game world of The Sims 4. Another interesting fact about this update is that it came absolutely free of charge, which is quite surprising given its publisher’s aggressive monetization practices, which were targeted by US politicians at one point.
The Sims 4 was released nearly eight years ago for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, which means it’s high time for the next entry in the franchise. Luckily for the fans, The Sims 5 has been officially confirmed, along with rumors of The Sims finally getting a multiplayer mode. So are we seeing the dawn of another metaverse?
