Sims 4 enlarges the family with its latest expansion, focused entirely on family dynamics. We tell you everything in this review!
sims 4 “Growing up as a family” is the new expansion of the game, which proposes to expand all the life stages of our sims and make interpersonal relationships more complex. The pack has a lot of content for each of the types of players of sims and a lot of material CAS for all ages build/buy for builders and a gameplay extended. There’s a lot to talk about, so put your phone on Do Not Disturb, because we’re going to chat about your fictional family…
More items than we can count…
This expansion is, perhaps, one of the ones that brings the most content to the level CAS. More than 200 new objects for all ages come to Sims 4, Growing as a Family. And for the first time in a long time, the options for men are pretty even with those for women.
This CAS It has content for both kids and new babies and the elderly. This time they opted for clothes with a more classic style, bordering on retro. The level of detail is very good and the creativity in designing the outfits was good. Baby outfits are gorgeous.
The buy/build mode is also full of items. More than 160 pieces -not counting those in debug mode- are added to the catalog so that you can give a familiar touch to your home. This time, they chose to mix some vintage things with a modern style. This pack also adds to country kitchen and Life in the countryside to bring you the real experience “My grandmother’s house”.
Exploring San Sequoia
Saint Sequoia It is not a large neighborhood or too spectacular in broad strokes. It is made up of three neighborhoods and has 12 lots in total. The community spaces incorporate the “Recreation Center”, a place where our sims they can go relax, play board games, paint or do activities together. It is a great option for sims old people and children.
Next up is a library and “water” park –very similar to Larreta’s management in CABA. Through the interaction “secrets of Saint Sequoia” that will appear when we talk to a sims resident in this world, we can find more information about what you can do in the neighborhood.
I don’t get along with my sims grandfather’s cousin’s uncle
To level gameplay, we have an unpopular opinion. The stuff that this pack involves is great, but we feel like it shouldn’t be in an expansion but rather in the base game. As we review them, we tell you why.
sims 4 it’s all about social relationships and interactions. Therefore, the “Family Dynamics” that are added in this pack are more than essential when building your stories. With your partner and your siblings you can have dynamics of “close”, “Tricky” or “difficult”. With your children or parents dynamics of “strict”, “permissive”, that configure the relationship in another way. Family dynamics do not apply to in-laws (in-laws or brothers-in-law, for example) but do apply to direct family members. This is a bit disappointing, because when it comes to storytelling, in-laws and dynamics are always the order of the day. You can set the dynamics in the CAS when you create the family, and you can also experience changes in dynamics depending on how the sims relate to each other in the game.
The next thing that incorporates the expansion are the “compatibilities”. Now when we believe our sims we will be able to personalize what things are good and bad for you. Thus, we will have the “Other Sims” and “Interactions” tab.
In “Other Sims” we can express what kind of people our characters like. Regarding “Interactions”, it will allow us to express what things they like to talk about. In addition, the social interactions menu was modified to better guide us in what we choose. If we have a lot in common with a Sim, we will be compatible with them and being friends will be much easier. Or, the opposite can happen and we get along badly. One downside is that this change affects all of your games and maybe sims who loved each other now find they don’t support each other. Like you and your ex. (Did you think we weren’t going to make that joke because it’s repetitive, hackneyed, and unfunny the first time around? Think again)
Throughout the life of the simsnow new traits will be incorporated apart from the three that we can choose in the CAS. For example, if a Sim is unfamiliar but spends a lot of time with his family and enjoys it, he can gain this trait through gameplaywithout modifying the previous three.
These things without a doubt improve the experience a lot. But they do not contribute anything that has not been incorporated into deliveries of sims 2 or sims 3. And deep down they leave you thinking -as happened with Seasons- that perhaps this expansion should not exist as such. It compensates, however, with the large number of objects and clothes that the pack includes and the number of additions of gameplay “secondaries” it has.
At each age its own..
Life has unforgettable moments and now sims they can remember them. This expansion pack incorporates a “milestone” system with the different moments that will mark the history of your sims.
Children are great protagonists, because childhood is full of first times. Accompanying a Sim throughout his life is comforting: you will be able to see the path you traveled from when he was a baby until he became an old man.
While babies and toddlers will celebrate every small achievement they make for the first time, a child might now learn to ride a bike, or lose a tooth and get a visit from the tooth fairy. As adults interact with children, their trust increases or decreases . Confidence affects how they function in their adult life. Now you can do with a virtual child what your parents did not do with you.
Adult Sims will also go through mid-life crises, which will add a little more to your game in a stage that until now was based on working and being part of a family.
What if and what not?
As always, we review the best packs to combine this new expansion. Having such essential gameplay mechanics, it goes with everything. But it will bring more gameplay with those expansions that revolve around family life. High School Years It provides an expansion of the adolescent stage that this pack does not develop precisely because it came out after this one; life in the village complements with your home activities; Moms and Dads for obvious reasons; Dogs and cats gives you that furry member to add to your family; Yes I want!, makes your family celebrations more special. And Journey to Batuu…as always, it doesn’t go with absolutely anything.
Conclusion
Sims 4 Growing as a Family It is a pack with so much content that surely we have left things out. But we will let you enjoy discovering them for yourself. Like most Sims packs, it has presented some bugs reported by the community: there are broken animations -it happened to us- and sometimes if your child loses a tooth, the genetics when he grows up to a teenager are changed.
The main mechanics of the pack are, to our taste, bittersweet. On the one hand, they are excellent and provide gameplay that the community has been needing for a long time. On the other, they’re more of something – mainly the milestones and compatibility system – that after 4 Sims games, you’d expect to have in the base game.
Still, we can’t deny that growing in family is -very much like Seasons- one of the fundamental packs for those who enjoy the gameplay of the game and that has so many “added” to its Features main ones, which end up in a certain way justifying the price of the pack. It brings depth and dynamism to our Sims’ personalities, giving us a whole new world of possibilities to discover.
RELEASE DATE | March 16, 2023 |
DEVELOPER | Maxi, The Sims Studio |
DISTRIBUTOR | Electronic Arts |
PLATFORMS | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows |