With a franchise as expansive as The Sims, developers have a lot of area to cover when it comes to balancing returning features with new gameplay. In the case of The Sims 4, many players felt the new additions the game brought - like mouse manipulation during the Create a Sim process and gender options - didn’t outweigh the lack of content compared to The Sims 2 and The Sims 3.
With nearly a dozen expansion packs and five years worth of additional pack releases, it would have been hard for EA to match The Sims 3 in of content from the outset. And while The Sims 4 has re-introduced many requested items and features since its 2014 release, there’s still a lot missing that players are itching to see updated and brought over from previous games in the series. With The Sims 5, there’s a chance some of these features can finally be experienced again.
With an initial release date of September 2014, The Sims 4 is nearly seven years old, and Sims fans are beginning to question when and if they can start looking for hints of The Sims 5's development. Given EA is still regularly rolling out content and updates for The Sims 4, it's hard to guess when players can expect to hear any word, but in the meanwhile they can anticipate The Sims 4 will continue adding additional packs.
Features That Need to Return in The Sims 5
The Create-a-Style option featured in The Sims 3 allowed players to change the color and patterns of objects, clothing, and even hair. Similarly, the Create a Sim process included a color wheel for most aspects of the creation process like hair, eyes, and skin tone. All in all these features allowed for massive levels of customization and creativity, and many fans viewed it as a step back when The Sims 4 failed to include this feature as part of its launch. Although the Create a Sim process was updated in The Sims 4's July 2019 patch to include the new Create a Sim Stories feature, color wheels and Create-a-Style options were still not included. Many customization options that were a feature in previous games, too, such as body hair, are also not currently included in The Sims 4 and could be brought back in the newest game of the franchise.
Another feature that originated with The Sims 3 is the open world style of gameplay. Sims could move freely from one place to another - players could watch them walk from home to the library without having to transition from one area to the next. The Sims 4 instead presents worlds made up of several smaller open spaces, separated by loading screens. Given this decision was made for optimization purposes, as The Sims 3 could at times be difficult to run with even the most high-end gaming equipment, it’s unlikely players will see the open world return as it was in The Sims 3. However, that doesn’t mean The Sims 5 couldn’t ship with a modified version of the open world feature.
Although The Sims 4 has added a hefty amount of new content since its release, including ten expansion packs, there’s still a lot missing that gamers are looking forward to seeing again in the future. Hopefully with the eventual release of The Sims 5 players will be able to experience some of the series’ best gameplay features all over again.