With EA still holding off announcing the fifth iteration of its beloved life simulator series, fans everywhere started to build a wish list of features they want to see in The Sims 5. When The Sims 4 launched in 2014, EA had brought the life simulator's graphics to a place it had never gone before, and Sim customization had improved drastically. Within a more realistic world, players could make the most realistic Sim-version of themselves yet if they wanted to, or create a more classic Sim-styled self with cartoony-large eyes. But, for all the updates, the series lost many more features.
A color wheel, for instance, that was available in the previous The Sims game was no longer in The Sims 4. Being able to add windows to rooftops also went missing. The open-world, loading-screen-less feel of previous iterations was also gone. But, of all the things that The Sims 5 needs to bring back to the series, it's to put "life" back into the "life simulator."
The Sims 5 Needs To Be About Life Again
Despite the many features lost to The Sims 4, Maxis Studios has done plenty to try and fill the gaps over the past eight years. It provided constant updates alongside a mixed bag of Sims expansion packs plus game and stuff packs that have helped keep the game going for this long. But the core aspect that made the original game so alluring was taken out entirely and, over the years, never showed its face again – the ability for players' Sims to live a life.
For one, relationships in The Sims 4 are too easy to form. The concept of 'love' in the latest game feels shallow as all the stages of love – becoming acquaintances, growing a friendship, falling in love, romancing, and so on – all can happen within the span of one Sim day. That never happened in previous iterations of The Sims. As much as the MyWedding Stories game pack is a cute way to add another layer to a Sim's love life, it didn't fix the shallowness issue of the base game.
Previously, there was also an aspect of chance during interactions between Sims. Not all conversations ended well since each Sim has their likes and dislikes – things that the game took into account. Some Sims like jokes, some don't; some enjoy talking about space, others find it incredibly dull. Players could quickly rack up negative relationship points if they didn't tread carefully, especially when leaving Sims to their own devices.
Progression in the Sims
The other significant life feature that went missing in The Sims 3 in particular and needs to be brought back in The Sims 5 is idle progression. One of the most glaring issues of the current game is that life will pause when a player uses a secondary household. Although the addition of Neighborhood Stories brought a semblance of this, the issue still remains. If players have multiple households, the lives of the ones left unplayed are paused until the player resumes the household. The lives of the Sims within the unplayed household will remain stagnant, and they won't progress, unlike those in The Sims and The Sims 2.
In the latest addition to The Sims series, the sense of "starting from the bottom" has also been lost. Fun The Sims cheat codes aside, the life simulator's sense of progression comes with near-zero challenges, with Sims living out a perfect life with positive outcomes. They no longer get promotions or raises and are barely at risk of getting fired. There's no need to move into bigger plots in the area when it becomes affordable – players build their perfect homes on a massive plot and add on from there.
The next game in The Sims series needs to bring back features that bring a true sense of life, one lost within The Sims 4. Realistically finding love and getting married to a soulmate, working up the ladder, moving into bigger plots – all aspects of an authentic life simulator. The Sims 5 needs to bring back a sense of realism into the series alongside the various other modern touches in game development over the last eight years. Then, it could truly feel like the life simulator it deems itself to be.
The Sims 5 is rumored to be in development.