Sims 4 November 2021 Update Review

Although the Sims 4 is more than eight years old, the November 2021 update to the game is only just introducing some key features that players loved in past titles. These new additions have created quite a stir in the community and prompted me to come back to the game for the first time in about two years.

The biggest new feature is “story progression” where the non-player sims in the area get to have a life of their own while you’re playing with your household. This feature really adds life to the neighborhood and makes gameplay much more realistic. I, along with many other players, assumed this game was in its “elder stage” so this influx of new content for the nearly decade-old game is surprising.

The first thing that struck me when booting up the game is how much the UI has changed in the past two years to accommodate the new features. I had no idea what to do with several new icons and wound up googling them to understand what they were for.

The gameplay is as fun as always, and the slow drip of new additions has really transformed the game from a bare-bones experience to a vibrant world of possibilities. You can play in the suburbia inspired world, LA inspired desert town, or NYC inspired city. Progressing up career ladders or supporting a family feels rewarding and its fun to see sims progress and find their personalities as they interact with their world and other sims.

My favorite part of the game is Create-A-Sim, the character creator portion of the game. You can mold and shape faces like clay, a function that is incredibly satisfying. Hair and clothing options are okay, but the overabundance of free custom content online fills in the gaps.

Building houses and public lots is also tons of fun, and the building mechanics in the Sims 4 eclipse the functionality of the other games completely. Building and decorating houses in different styles to fit your sims is one of the best parts of the game. Both creating sims and their houses are often more fun, and time-consuming, than “live mode” which is the advertised gameplay mode.

Although this game is old in video game time, the flow of updates and quality of life improvements make it feel like a new experience. The Sims formula works and because of the sandbox nature of the game, there is always something new to try and play.