The Sims 4 has recently been made available for free, which will surely bring many new players to the franchise as well as many more who haven’t played for quite some time. There are a lot of items and methods for creating a Sim that will be unfamiliar to players who haven’t seen any of The Sims games recently.
While some of these options and items available in "Create a Sim" mode are merely cosmetic, others affect gameplay and will be intriguing to all types of players. From fun traits to new gender options, The Sims franchise is constantly making updates to CAS to keep it as fresh and inclusive as possible.
The Gender Choices
The Sims has always been ahead of other games in keeping up with societal changes, and as awareness has been raised further around the LGBTQIA+ community, they have added more options such as asking “how will this Sim dress?” and “can this Sim get other Sims pregnant?” as the player goes through create a sim, instead of simply asking what gender the Sim should be defined as.
Besides this, there are also options that used to only be available to one “gender” or the other in the game that, with these new options, have been made more readily available to all Sims. These additional options could help make the game hugely appealing to many potential new players that feel marginalized by a lack of similar options in many other video games.
Kleptomaniac Trait
For the most part, the traits of a Sim do not massively affect the actual gameplay that a player will face. Mood swings due to how they feel about certain situations are more common with traits. For example, an introverted Sim may get annoyed at having to spend a lot of time socializing. A Sim that hates children will obviously have a bad time if they are around them frequently.
One trait that affects gameplay more directly is the kleptomaniac trait. While stealing things in real life leads to many negative consequences, it doesn’t seem that way in the game. While out and about, Sims will steal various items and bring them home, seemingly without that ever being an issue. It can be helpful and a fun piece of gameplay to see what they bring home next.
The Creepy Walk
Something that seems fairly innocuous and unimportant about the gameplay of The Sims at first glance is how each Sim chooses to walk around. From confident strides to elegant struts, there are a number of choices that many players, particularly new ones, may miss while scrolling through the options in CAS mode.
However, there is one particular walk that can be found at the bottom of the options list, and it is both a fairly slow way to get around and a particularly hilarious way to make the Sim stand out while they get around. The “creepy walk” can only be described as looking like something out of an early zombie or vampire movie, and it is an absolute blast that will amuse many players.
Body Hair
While body hair has never been a completely unknown concept in The Sims games, a recent update provided the opportunity to put a great deal more choice around this particular feature into the hands of the players. Create a Sim has gained a lot of options over the years since The Sims 4 was released, but body hair has been one of the biggest cosmetic updates in years.
The option to give body hair even to characters that mostly appear or are supposed to be female has been a highly praised decision. While some gameplay options like shaving are only available through the “High School Days” expansion pack, most of the body hair cosmetic options are available to base game players.
Genetics
The Sims has also got an incredibly smart option that makes it a lot easier for players looking to create an entire family in the CAS mode. Genetics is the DNA symbol that will let players create a relative of another Sim. Once the first Sim is created, players can use this option to generate other Sims that look like they are members of that Sim’s family.
Whether players want to completely design each Sim in the household to be unique or not is up to them, but the genetics option is a great one for providing players with a quick route to immerse themselves further in creating realistic families for their gameplay.
Story Mode
An amazing and quick option to get through the CAS mode for players looking to get straight into gameplay is the story mode option. This allows players to answer several questions about their Sim and get one created using some randomization and some aspirations and traits that the questions lead towards.
Story mode is an excellent choice for players who don’t know where to begin with creating their own Sims, or players who want a mixture of designing and randomizing their Sims. This is a great option that helps a great number of players.
Be A Vampire
One of the most intriguing, and gameplay-affecting options in CAS mode is to make a Sim a vampire. Obviously, vampires are a little different from normal Sims, from feeding on the “plasma” of other Sims and having to avoid sunlight to sleeping in a coffin and being able to turn into a bat.
It isn’t the most vanilla of gameplay options but can create some hilarity and extremely fun storytelling for players. It can also end in the horror of a vampire Sim feeding too much on other Sims but is a hugely exciting and varied gameplay option for new and old players either way.
The Sims 4 is available now for Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.