The Sims 4’s Growing Together Expansion Pack DLC is strictly what followers have been ready for. If you’re a discerning Sims 4 fan wading by means of the large quantities of Expansion Packs, Game Packs, Stuff Packs, and now the additional bite-sized Kits, trying to find solely essentially the most essential choices, you’ll need to add Growing Together to the record. It’s an prompt must-have, up there with Seasons and Cats & Dogs.
Unsurprisingly, the pack that delivers can also be the pack that has precisely what the individuals have been asking for. Growing Together is a religious successor to The Sims 3’s Generations Expansion Pack, which additionally constructed on household relationships when it was launched greater than 10 years in the past.
The new San Sequoia world is good however nothing new
As is widespread for enlargement packs in The Sims 4, Growing Together gives a brand new world in San Sequoia, which relies on San Francisco and the Bay Area. It’s good sufficient, however it’s not the one world based mostly on California, and it’s a bit small for my liking—although the scale of worlds that include enlargement packs has been a gripe of mine for fairly some time. I lengthy for the times of earlier enlargement packs like Get Together’s Windenburg, City Living’s San Myshuno, and Cats & Dogs’ Brindleton Bay. Windenburg has 14 residential heaps and 13 neighborhood heaps, Brindleton Bay gives 11 residential spots and 5 neighborhood ones, and San Myshuno has an unbelievable 30 complete heaps, break up between a quantity 21 house items, one full residential spot, two residential penthouses, and 6 neighborhood heaps. The variety of heaps in later expansions has slowly dwindled: San Sequoia has a paltry 9 residential heaps and simply the 2 neighborhood heaps, and Copperdale (the world from the final enlargement, High School Years) has seven residential heaps and 5 neighborhood ones.
My favourite a part of San Sequoia, nonetheless, is its starter house availability. There are empty heaps the place you’ll be able to, after all, make the reasonably priced starter home of your desires. But not all of us are builders or need to spend all that point designing a home from scratch as a substitute of leaping proper in. There are two pre-built and furnished houses you will get upon beginning a brand new sport, one with two bedrooms (constructed by Sims content material creator dzidziak86) and one other four-beds-two-bath household house (constructed by Sims streamer lilsimsie). The latter is sparsely adorned and the rooms are small to maintain it cost-effective, however the exterior design is sort of good. And it’s additionally straightforward to brighten and customise as your Sim household establishes itself.
San Sequoia additionally encompasses a recreation middle and library, each of that are vibrant, family-friendly areas. But past these two spots and a splash pad space that isn’t a full lot, there’s solely a trip rental and movie show, which is the standard rabbit gap occasion your Sim disappears into fairly than a location you’ll be able to go to. It would have been good to stroll round a foyer the place Sims can meet and perhaps have a pair arcade video games close by.
Milestones are the shock star of Growing Together
I can’t stress how a lot I like Milestones, which is way extra reward than I believed I might give after I first realized in regards to the new characteristic. Milestones are essential to the expanded child mechanics, because it serves as a information to serving to your new toddler develop. You can see which milestones they’ve but to unlock, which makes it straightforward to construct upon your child’s development as you information the baby on this planet. While that half is nice for the brand new toddler gameplay, milestones are for all Sims.
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Across all ages, Sims will expertise milestones for quite a lot of occasions. Many of them are no-brainers, like getting married, having a child, or having your first kiss. That’s good and all, however I rapidly turned fascinated with all of the much less apparent ones, particularly those who work throughout DLC packs. You can unlock the “Crumplebottomed!” milestone after Agnes Crumplebottom, discovered within the Cottage Living Expansion Pack, hits you along with her purse for the primary time. Sure there’s a milestone on your first WooHoo, however you always remember your first Crumplebottoming. There are milestones for getting by means of residing in a haunted home in case you have the Paranormal Stuff Pack or from being possessed through the StrangerVille Game Pack. I like when the assorted packs work collectively fairly than feeling like disparate components. It’s not the primary time The Sims 4 has accomplished this, however I like it each time. And this element is especially pleasant.
I want there have been much more milestones to find, however I’ve already come to benefit from the satisfaction of attaining one after an enormous second for my Sims.
Family Dynamics add drama and higher autonomy
My largest gripe when taking part in with households, particularly ones with a number of siblings, is the juggling I inevitably need to do. I’ll have mother train a toddler in a single room, however wait, the toddler has crawled off and CPS is about to be referred to as as a result of the dad is washing dishes within the lavatory sink once more. To be clear, Growing Together doesn’t repair most of that. But it does give Sims somewhat extra steering on learn how to act with one another after I’m not watching them.
Read More: The Sims 4 Glitch Turns Infants Into Horrifying, Long-Legged Monsters
There’s an ease between a father and daughter who’ve the “Jokester” household dynamic, permitting me to give attention to my mom Sim who’s desperately attempting to get her child to learn to transfer on his personal. The Sims additionally tells you the way this will affect relationships. For instance, “Jokesters” can develop into shut or distant, relying on how they transfer past these humorous interactions—or don’t. A little one interacting with a mum or dad who’s strict with them can be extra on their toes in automated interactions, as properly.
The household dynamics choices embrace shut, distant, supportive, permissive, troublesome, strict, and jokesters. These are additionally restricted by household titles. So you’ll be able to’t, as an example, have siblings who’ve a strict dynamic as that solely works with dad and mom and their kids.
Relatedly, Sims can now set preferences for personalities and dialog matters, which additional provides to raised autonomy, although it nonetheless isn’t good, even when hanging out with non-familial Sims.
The infants are free and now we should train them
While a base sport replace added the toddler life stage for all The Sims 4 gamers, Growing Together is the place the infants actually come to life. In the bottom sport, they’re static. They can crawl round and play, however you gained’t get to see them construct as much as crawling. And they gained’t construct as much as a lot else, both. At least, not till they age up into toddlers. For some gamers, that’s possible high-quality, particularly because the earlier toddler gameplay was nonexistent. But I discovered it a bit lackluster. In Growing Together, infants must be coaxed into lifting their heads on their very own for the primary time, study to achieve for issues, roll over onto their tummies and backs alone, and finally get to crawling.
The toddler development system works so properly as a result of it doesn’t really feel like a chore. The subsequent milestone is viewable, and the sport tells you what to do to attain it, both by means of parenting or self-exploration on the kid’s half. The problem isn’t determining what to do, however attempting to make a literal child do what you need. Sometimes your toddler Sim can be extra targeted on when their subsequent meal is coming or can be too drained to do no matter child schooling they should hit the subsequent milestone. Other occasions, it simply takes a pair periods on your toddler Sim to get the grasp of issues. De-mystifying development and making the give attention to truly doing the issues it is advisable to do to attain these milestones makes the entire expertise really feel enjoyable and like a standard a part of how a digital household would develop collectively.
Read More: The Sims 4 Fans Keep Making Uncanny Supermodel Babies After New Update
Growing Together looks like a child buying simulator
As with all enlargement packs, Growing Together comes with new Create-a-Sim objects to decorate, decorate, or customise your Sim. There are additionally Build/Buy Mode objects that carry new furnishings, ornament, and structural objects for houses. These are all…high-quality? Much of it’s made up of mission design items, which to The Sims’ credit score is sensible because the model’s origins come from San Francisco. Yet, nothing significantly wowed me. And whereas I didn’t anticipate a ton of recent house issues past child and household objects to actually mess around with in Build Mode, I might have favored some extra trendy items within the Create-a-Sim additions. It feels targeted solely on including toddler and toddler objects in addition to their physique particulars: We bought plenty of birthmarks and freckles (like, so many freckles), however the clothes objects really feel like they slot in too properly with the choices we have already got, fairly than providing a cohesive refresh.
In all, Growing Together already looks like a vital pack for anybody who enjoys the story-telling aspect of The Sims. Its largest flaw might lie in being too important because it feels prefer it gatekeeps key gameplay components like toddler development and milestones behind a paywall fairly than providing a style of such particulars to base sport gamers, which might then be expanded upon within the paid enlargement pack.
Still, that’s not sufficient to dissuade me from recommending the Growing Together Expansion Pack, and it definitely doesn’t take away from its deserves.
The Growing Together Expansion Pack is on sale now for $40.
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