The Sims 4: 7 Things Missing From The Game

Animals That Aren’t NPCs

Even though pets and horses are “part of the family” in The Sims 4 and will count toward the limit of eight Sims per house, they can’t be played as. In the past of The Sims Franchise, this has not always been the case. In The Sims 2, pets were still independent agents, but players could see their pet Sim’s needs bar, family tree, memories, and job path. They could also see what their pet Sim was going to do next, even if they couldn’t change it.

The Sims 3 went a step further by letting Sims play as their pets for the first time (and probably the last time). The Sims 4: Cats and Dogs took a big step backwards for no clear reason. Players were irritated that they couldn’t control their pets and were tempted to ignore animals whose needs were never clear. Aside from dolphins, there were also missed chances for zoos, aquariums, and other rare animals around the world. Since each animal takes up a spot in a player’s limited home, Sims 4 players should be able to control pet Sims the same way they control Sims who live with them, but Simmers may have to wait for The Sims 5 instead.

More Diverse Sexuality, Reproduction and Relationships

With The Sims 4: Growing Together, baby parties, babies, and family relationships got a lot better, but the details of Sims’ love lives could be so much more advanced. Simmers have noticed that they don’t have cycles, hormones, or signs of pregnancy. Lingerie was just added to The Sims 4: Simtimates Kit, which makes it seem like sexuality isn’t a big deal, let alone different kinds of sexuality like polyamory or even unique kinks and turn-ons. Sims can’t have more than one partner freely without making their other partners sad and jealous.

Relationships between Sims are usually easy and boring, and there aren’t many things that set a “happy” relationship apart from a sad one. Arguments could have less of an effect, so couples could fight without it hurting their relationship or causing problems that need to be solved to keep things from getting worse. There could be different standards for each relationship or known reasons to end it. Sims may want to break up with a boyfriend who never calls or a woman who keeps getting taken by aliens.

Adjustable Furniture and New Vehicles

Since The Sims 3‘s customizable cars, players have wanted working cars and more advanced ways to get around, like planes, bikes, boats, and even long-distance broomsticks for spellcasters. Also, players need to be creative to do some things in The Sims 4‘s build mode, which can be done with Mods, Custom Content, and keyboard settings that make certain pieces of furniture fit the creator’s design. For example, clutter has often been made so that it can only be put on very specific surfaces. Sometimes, even shelves are useless because they can’t hold all of the clutter things.

EA wants to fix some of the problems with Build Mode with Project Rene. For example, they want to let you move and change furniture freely and use color wheels and patterns to create furniture. So, it seems unlikely that The Sims 4 will ever be updated to include the new features of Project Rene, which will upset Simmers who like to build amazing buildings.

Livable Community Lots and Designable Worlds

At the moment, community lots are not made to be livable, and each family can only hold up to eight Sims. This makes it impossible to make orphanages, jails, or even retirement homes. One of the things that The Sims 4: High School Years could have done better was to add playable schools that weren’t just rabbit holes. This includes boarding schools and kindergarten groups.

The Sims 4 lets you customize some things, move between worlds more easily, and has an improved online community and shared gallery, but not as much as previous games in the series. Fans want to see worlds where they can place lots and other land features, like in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, and where they can move around freely. With more geographic options, Simmers could also make Supernatural worlds for mermaids, vampires, and aliens, among other things.

CPS and Childcare Careers

Even though the relationships between parents and children are better and more complicated in The Sims 4, there is no CPS system like there was in The Sims 2. EA could bring back a Social Worker Career Path that would let players visit families to check on the well-being of children and take children from cruel or neglectful homes and find them new homes. Recent improvements to The Sims 4 include an adoption tool that lets Simmers adopt already-made Sim children instead of random townie children. However, the game still doesn’t have a working “children’s home” where Simmers can play as kids who have been put up for adoption.

Alternately, the part-time Babysitter Career could include multiple choice options or playable settings where Sim children are cared for. This would make childcare more than just a surface-level job. In the same way, a working Kindergarten, Daycare, or interactive after-school activities for Elementary kids would also make childcare in The Sims 4 more fun.

Advanced Crime Systems

The Sims 4 has all kinds of small crimes, not just the horrible one where a townie steals a player’s Egg Roll for 15 Simoleons. Heavy-duty crime is still not in Skibidi Toilet, and players don’t have to worry about their Sims becoming not only victims of crime but also criminals. With the kleptomaniac trait or criminal job paths, Sims can dabble in crime for fun, but most crimes happen in rabbit holes and don’t affect the Sim’s way of life. Sims don’t feel bad about being a criminal overlord, and they don’t go to jail. This is strange, since The Sims 4: Get to Work added small jails and the ability to chase criminals in the Detective job path.

Even Sim detectives only look into cases of vandalism or break up fights; there are no really dangerous crimes in The Sims world. EA might want to keep the violence rating low to appeal to a broader audience. However, Simmers are known for being obsessed with finding ways to kill their Sims in a bad way, but Sims can’t kill each other directly. Not to mention the vampires, werewolves, and witches who don’t kill people. The Sims 4 has crime, but it hasn’t been made into a complex system yet.

Disability Representation

There have never been enough disabled people in The Sims 4 or any of the other games in the franchise. Even though The Sims 4 has made some half-hearted attempts to include people with disabilities, like adding hearing aids, these small changes don’t change how the game is played. A Sim can wear a hearing aid and still listen to music on their radio with no problem. Developers could add random genetics, inherited diseases, accidents (which Sims are known for because they are so clumsy), formative experiences, or degenerative aging to make physical changes to Sims that are noticeable during games.

Of course, it’s not as easy as just adding disability features to the game. It would mean rethinking how Sim lots are built and furniture is made, not to mention adding therapy animals, canes, crutches, wheelchairs, and other features so that disabled Sims can do things like make breakfast or take a shower like everyone else. If The Sims 4 or any of its successors ever add disability to gameplay, it needs to be done in a careful and nuanced way. People with disabilities already face discrimination in real life, so they don’t need to experience it again in ableist games.