"Hopelessly Addicted": 7 BuzzFeed Employees Review "The Sims 4"

We gave seven staffers two hours to lose themselves in the new Sims. Here’s what they thought.

Electronic Arts

A new Sims game isn't just a game—it's a cultural event. So thoroughly has Will Wright's baby permeated the American household (the franchise has moved nearly 200 million units since the first game debuted in 2000) that nearly everyone has some familiarity or experience with the series. Whether that's dabbling with the first game or engaging with the passionate Sims communities online, fans—casual and hardcore—of the series bridge genders and ages in a way few other games can claim.

We got The Sims 4, which came out yesterday, a week early, and let seven BuzzFeed employees, from across our editorial department, play for two hours each, to do whatever they saw fit. The players experience with the series varied widely, from those who have only played the first game to those who compete in Sims building competitions online. And their thoughts, which range from casual observations to highly technical critiques, showcase the peculiar and often deeply personal role that the game has played in the lives of almost anyone who's had a PC since 2000.

This what BuzzFeed thought of The Sims 4.

It was downright alarming to me how quickly I slipped back into my old familiar Sims rhythms. I haven't played in probably five years — The Sims 3 overwhelmed me with all its options, plus I had to like, go to college — but it took me somewhere in the neighborhood of eight minutes to pick my creepy mantle right back up. This particular iteration hits, for me, that elusive sweet spot of providing just enough choice to make it feel like you have ALL-CONSUMING POWER without so many options that it's paralyzing.

I decided to make a Sim that was myself, which was uncannily easy to do: Sim-Alanna has red hair and wears mustard-yellow dresses and is a writer (although it took her a single glance at her phone in order to obtain a full-time reasonably paid writing job, which, lol). Her personality traits are Intelligent, Romantic, and Neat, and she seems to take great pleasure in the small but cozy home that I furnished for her (I found myself dropping Simoleons on a decorative hutch before I so much as thought to buy a dishwasher; my eight-year-old self would be wicked pissed at me if she knew where my priorities apparently now lie). It was a funny exercise creating her, having to quantify exactly what it is that makes me, me. I spent minutes and minutes trying to get the nose — a source of alternating consternation and pride on my IRL face — just right, and I briefly, longingly contemplated jacking her up on a pair of high heels before coming to terms with the fact that I can never manage to wear them for longer than a city block, and thus settled for brown loafers.

I stayed after work one night to play and did not get back home until after 10; I ate grocery store sushi to sustain myself, which is I think the most evidence I can provide that this game is bitchin'.

-Alanna Okun, Senior Lifestyle Editor

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