How "free to play" is this game exactly? How predatory is it with dlc? Also general questions regarding this game

[Uncle Jon]

I just noticed this game is "free to play" which smells like total c,rap to me especially considering this is "EA". I remembered back in the day when the Sims 4 got released, a lot of people were really upset over the game. Mainly from what I remembered people complained that a lot of features in 4 were missing compared to previous installments such as I think babies and swimming pool ladders or something like that? Building houses was apparently more constrained and more limited than the third game from what I heard. When I played the third Sims game a long time ago I remembered that I was able to walk practically anywhere in the game to any building I wanted with no loading zones, if I wanted to visit my neighbor next door I could just literally walk next door. Apparently this isn't in the fourth game and has loading screens when visiting places outside of your Sims home? The main critique in general from what I remembered about the fourth game is that it basically has "fewer life simulation aspects" than previous installments such as some of the things I mentioned. I grew up playing the Sims on my Gamecube such as the first and second Sims games, heck I even played Sims bustin out on my Gamecube, the Urbz on my PS2, and even the Sims 2 on my DS which wasn't even an actual Sims type game but really just a s,hitty hotel management adventure game with "some" Sims gameplay.

Has this fourth game improved over the years? Are you still constrained to your property from what I remembered hearing? Again I grew up with the console ports of the Sims games, so when I played the third game on PC and realized I was able to walk literally anywhere was VERY freeing to me lol. The only good thing I heard about the fourth game is apparently it's new mood system or whatever.

[Likkyzero]

truth of the matter, you just get the base game for free, everything else is game packs, expansions packs, kits and stuff packs... you are confined in your home yes but there is at least some outdoors areas you can go to but thats it everything else needs to be visited sims 1/2 style

[AG2590]

So Sims 4 has gotten a TON of updates over the years, obviously, but people should never forget it's shortcomings. The game didn't have pools on release, hell it didn't even have toddlers.

Fast forward to today, and the life simulation aspect, in my opinion, has gotten a *lot* better. It's still a bit shallow, but things like the toddler updates have made it so much more fun. The building aspect of Sims 4 is supreme, and it's extremely fluid.

Base game is base game, in my opinion It's too much of an empty shell. I have all 98 DLCs, and a 65GB CC folder - I like having every single object I could imagine. If you got the base game for free, I would at least recommend something like Seasons as that can add quite a bit to the game.

Sims 4 is a hybrid, unlike Sims 2 where Sims 2 is strictly focused on your lot only - In Sims 4, you can explore out of your lot, with the later expansions opening up almost the entire world you're in. It's definitely not as free as Sims 3, but isn't as stuck on a lot as Sims 2. Loading screens are pretty fast for me, anyway. The only thing I truly do miss from previous games is the Create A Style tool from Sims 3.

I would say give it a go, the base game is free and only you can decide.

Edit: Also remember with Paralives and Inzoi on the horizon, EA is going to start doing HUGE things to the Sims 4 to "keep" it's players - Much like what Overwatch 2 is doing right now to take back what Marvel Rivals stole.

[MrRober95]

Here are some things that come to mind comparing it to the previous game:

-You are confined to a single building: For example say you go to the city part of the map which in the base map has a gym, a library, a club and a museum; you choose one, like I want to go to the gym. Well the gym building loads but not the other three. You can see them but not enter them without loading that cell and leaving the gym. One building at a time, one zone at a time. That said each zone has a common exterior that you can walk around freely.

-If you are, say, in your home and want to go to the park just with one of your Sims the rest remain in a dormant state in the now not loaded home zone. And their needs once you returned are more or less randomized so they can't even take care of themselves properly.

-No thieves. No alarms. No ability to call the police to your home. Firefighters and the mailman still come when needed.

-No police or medic jobs, those are under paid DLC.

-EA is becoming greedy and is now releasing a DLC of a DLC, "Businesses and Hobbies" which should be on the already released DLC "Get to Work". This repeats with a lot of things which makes one think 'this should be on the base game' or 'this should have been on x DLC'.

-Build mode is somewhat similar to TS3. You can use cheats to place anywhere and Alt key to place outside the grid mode. Also Sims move less restricted around objects but still bug out sometimes and forgot actions.

-As a positive the moodlets are an improvement in my opinion. Sims can get angry, inspired, concentrated, sad... Which helps or hinders their activities in different ways. Example, an inspired Sim will write better books.... Speaking of books, the ones you write won't appear on the library and you won't be able to buy them once published.


There are a lot of things that I can't think of right now. If you have a specific question, ask away. But in my opinion, this game is, like other users have said, a dollhouse simulator not a life simulator like the previous games.

[Noxsa]

free base game is not this bad, sure you don't have loads of stuff due to this game is very old and has over 1k dollar expansion, kit and what not packs now. BUT as base games go, this ain't bad.

[First Mate]

Lol 2k AUD for base + all DLC, Fitgirl is my best friend.

[Xeriath]

Originally posted by Noxsa:

free base game is not this bad, sure you don't have loads of stuff due to this game is very old and has over 1k dollar expansion, kit and what not packs now. BUT as base games go, this ain't bad.

Agree the base game got better. You don’t even need a lot of stuff to have fun and you can always use mods if you don’t want to purchase any DLC’s. There is also a mod which removes the annoying advertisement button (shopping cart) from your game.

[Uncle Jon]

I feel like another issue which I haven't mentioned in my original post is that it sounds like purchasing the third sims game on sale would still be a much better game than playing the 4th base game or even with some dlc for it. Like why get the 4th game when I can repurchase the third on Steam I guess?

[MrRober95]

Originally posted by Uncle Jon:

I feel like another issue which I haven't mentioned in my original post is that it sounds like purchasing the third sims game on sale would still be a much better game than playing the 4th base game or even with some dlc for it. Like why get the 4th game when I can repurchase the third on Steam I guess?

If you don't care about graphics then you will probably have more fun in TS3 all DLC without going broke in the process. Around 200 dollars for full Sims 3 vs 1K for Sims 4.

That said since the base game is free, try it. Just please if you end up liking it and want to buy a DLC wait for it to go on sale. No need to feed EA extra money.

EDIT: And whatever you do avoid buying TS1 and TS2. If you read the reviews the games are badly optimized; they are so old that a lot of sites have them for free and in a less broken state.

[Spacesnep]

It's pretty fun but if you like the SIMS 4, some of them are totally worth it, their is alot of UPDATE things you can do with the DLC's like UNLOCK lots of new things to do, just search on google the things you can do c:

[Horns Ablaze]

It's good because of modders imo. The game itself is very shallow and I find DLC extremely expensive for the little each one brings to the table.

[Peter Owen]

Originally posted by AG2590:

The only thing I truly do miss from previous games is the Create A Style tool from Sims 3.

I miss it too, buddy...

[AusWilko]

$59.95aus for the Businesses & Hobbies Expansion, good to see price gouging is alive and well.

[James3157]

Besides crashing The Sims 4 seems like it is sometimes addicting for me to play it where I spend many hours playing The Sims 4, but not necessarily play The SIms 4 every day. It is one of those kind of games where gameplay can be a bit tedious as well especially on normal lifespan and if owning every dlc or almost every dlc in the game combined with the fact that some mods might be addicting as well if you add those on top of dlc. I never had only just basegame for very long, but it does kind of suck though that Seasons is not basegame since despite hot and cold weather outfits being basegame they are mostly useless unless if owning this expansion pack.

[Xeriath]

Originally posted by AusWilko:

$59.95aus for the Businesses & Hobbies Expansion, good to see price gouging is alive and well.

As I know this is normal for Australian and is nothing new. All your games are expensive because your currency is rather weak and specific governments laws/taxes. If you look at other countries you see that DLCs still have the same price. As example USA/Europa or Swiss still want the same money for DLC’s since the first DLC was released. Yeah, I know this make it not better and yeah, I agree its stupid but this is really nothing new.

[AusWilko]

Originally posted by Xeriath:

Originally posted by AusWilko:

$59.95aus for the Businesses & Hobbies Expansion, good to see price gouging is alive and well.

As I know this is normal for Australian and is nothing new. All your games are expensive because your currency is rather weak and specific governments laws/taxes. If you look at other countries you see that DLCs still have the same price. As example USA/Europa or Swiss still want the same money for DLC’s since the first DLC was released. Yeah, I know this make it not better and yeah, I agree its stupid but this is really nothing new.

Yeah, you are 100% correct, it is the way of it, just makes me mad some times but yep it is the same for others.
I wonder sometimes if there will become a point where the average person will stop buying because they simply can't justify the cost anymore, everything in the world is rising in cost and there is only a finite amount of money people have to spend on things like this..