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I want to start this by saying I grew up with both of these games (at around the same time), so they hold the same sentimental value to me and I am not trying to be biased, rather proving how much different EA has become when caring about their games and using more paywalls.
I started by playing the Sims 3 as I couldn’t find the Sims 4 on Steam (I was young, and was willing to take any sort of Sims game as I was excited to play). After playing it for many hours, I bought the Sims 4. For both of them, I bought a few packs (with the game):
Sims 3: seasons, generations, pets. | Sims 4: cats and dogs, parenthood, seasons
Playing the Sims 3 with three packs was enough for hundreds of hours of content. Buying the supernatural pack had just as much content as one of the other packs and was much more than sufficient to play many games.
Playing the Sims 4, however, felt much different. Playing the Sims 4 with three packs (which were worth the game at the time) felt like a whole bunch of nothing. It was missing the fun, the goofiness, and the soul that the Sims 3 had.
The Sims 3 had much more, even when it came down to small gameplay mechanics. Cars, grocery shopping, visible schools and other public places, functional and lively parks, enjoyable holidays, lively cities, traits that implemented interesting gameplay mechanics, interesting moodlets, imaginary friends, backyard entertainment (such as treehouses), and much much more that I don’t think I have enough characters to write down. For the Sims 4, much of that needs mods or other game packs, and both options don’t even work half of the time.
Even the Sims 3’s soundtrack sounds much more lively, leaving room for the player to think about how and what part of the game they want to discover and enjoy. I’m not saying the Sims 4’s soundtrack isn’t good, as I feel Ilan Eshkeri captured some of the franchise’s essence, however, it still feels much more like a paywall or just a huge loading screen rather than music for a game such as the Sims. It isn’t as lively, and not all of the DLC music fits together. Like Vampires - I understand it is supposed to be seen as creepy, but the gameplay should be focusing more on that aspect, not the music. The Sims 3 Supernatural didn’t add more ‘creepy’ music, instead, it found that vibe in the gameplay. The scariest thing about the Sims 4 Vampires Pack is the music and terrible clothing/hair/facial customizable options for your sims, whilst Supernatural delves deeper into the gameplay and feels more fleshed out. While it didn’t bring as much creepy music, it did bring us the song Consuming Time which is just as good, and fits the vibe for the whole game itself. The music for the DLCs in the Sims 4 feels much more pack-based, rather than focusing on the whole game’s vibe itself, making the vibe of the whole game all over the place, and scrambled. It had more use when it came to knowing the phases of the moon, researching vampires, PLAYING as vampires, or any of the other options that the DLC added (witches, wizards, werewolves, fairies). Each was unique, having much more interesting interactions than Vampires, Werewolves, and Realm of Magic combined.
That is another thing I want to add is the fact that the Sims 4 has so many separated packs, when the Sims 3 had Werewolves, Realm of Magic, and Vampires combined, and did not cost as much as the game.
The same thing goes for the Sims 3 Pets versus the Sims 4 Dogs and Cats, My First Pet Stuff, and Horse Ranch. Sims 3 Pets has all those options all in one DLC, less than the game, and actually works and has sufficient content (all three of those are missing one or the other, Dogs and Cats and My First Pet Stuff being boring/a whole lot of nothing while Horse Ranch is literally just broken).
The fact that many of the packs can still cost up to 50 dollars for broken, separated gameplay with only one of the advertised products in the game is so disappointing.
I understand the Sims 3 used to be 40 dollars, but it also has so much more to offer compared to the Sims 4, even in base-game. It’s actually playable by itself.
Although the Sims 4 is now free, I still wouldn’t recommend it to any first-time players. Yes, the Sims 3 is older and can have some problems (such as glitching when you try to open it, having sensitivity problems), but it still is a much better starting place than the Sims 4.
The only people who would want to play the Sims 4 either don’t know how boring the game is unless you buy hundreds of dollars worth of DLCs or are seasoned players hoping that someday this game will be good.
I have spent well over 500 dollars into this game and it still isn’t playable. Playing thousands of hours of the Sims 3 and then finally saving up enough to buy this one was such a disappointment. The DLCs for the Sims used to add so much and certainly weren’t the same as the game itself.
EA has done this sort of thing recently, whether it be with the Sims, Fortnite, Madden, FIFA, etc (in which I have had experience with all games listed) have had some sort of microtransactions. The games often feel incomplete (or versions of the game, in cases such as Fortnite) and are either missing the ‘pizzazz’ so to speak of the last game or have become unenjoyable.
For a seven-year-old game, you would expect the DLCs to be enjoyable, and actually add stuff to the game, and work half the time. But even the newest releases have problems, such as; Party Essentials Kit, For Rent, Wedding Stories, Dream Home Decorater, Backyard Stuff, Vintage Glamour, Bowling Night, ect ect (some of those aren’t new, but you get my point, only half of them work, and most of them add like two items to the game).
I understand most of the packs listed are only around 5 dollars, but why even make them that much? Why can’t you just add them to the game to begin with, making it a little bit more enjoyable and worth anything?
It has been very hard for me to get even an hour out of this game at a time, and trying to squeeze out as much content as this game offers has proven difficult and frustrating. I had to actively work to find stuff to do in this version, completely unlike the Sims 3. Even the pre-set households in the Sims 3 felt more interesting than anything in the Sims 4. I tried building cities, families, and storylines in the Sims 4 and it just felt so forced.
That is yet another problem with EA and the Sims franchise recently; EA only cares about the money they receive from this game, and does not care about the quality of the products they are selling for it.
All the DLCs for this game add up to over 1,000 dollars. Half of them don’t work. It is upsetting to see a game franchise devolve in quality and have the creators only care about the profit.
If EA actually cared for this game, listened to even half of the critics, and fixed these problems it would make them so much more money.
Who knew - that making an enjoyable game would appease players?
Hopefully (yet unlikely), EA will turn this game around and make it more enjoyable like its predecessors, or make the next game in this series an improvement to the dumpster fire we have now.
All in all, the Sims 3 (or even Sims 2, for that matter) is much more enjoyable, and I would consider spending my money on that game before spending any sort of time playing this one. It is so much more fleshed out and detailed in so many more ways and is overall just a better game. For a franchise so meaningful to people, with a record of being enjoyable for years on end from each installment, I am extremely disappointed in how this game has turned out.