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Honestly....(Strangerville Review)
Sigzy05
Posts: 19,406 Member
(I'll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible)
So, honestly....I finished it in maybe 3 hours maybe less? And it was my first ever gameplay of it, I didn't see spoilers at all and I did not knew anything regarding it's obvious story. It's not very good.
-The Story
The story is very obvious and cliché, I've seen it a hundred times in movies and comics so I knew what I was getting into from the start. There's not a lot of gameplay surrounding the story itself a side from collecting some things, talking to NPC's (here you may get some repetitive messages), and building up relationships. The story plays very similarly to an active career but it feels much more linear. The quests aren't hard and there's plenty of tips so I couldn't possibly get stuck anywhere. The "strange" weather never affected my sim in any way it's just fx, and the lab is shorter than what I thought but decor objects on it do give it a pretty nice secret lab feel. The last stance of the story is the only part I felt there was some more gameplay evolved with the health bars and commands but nothing was explained to me, when I actually needed explaining. Eventually I understood that I could actually control my companion sims with commands and what each did. The health bar is very similar to the detective career questioning table.
There's not a lot of unique/new animations in the story at all and for some reason
Overall, the story to me isn't worth it and there's not much replayability to it as well. The RPG style does not work with TS4's limitations, nor the franchise I would say unless it's a more specific spin off with a bigger story, dedicated system and direction. There are some options for people who don't want the weirdness but I feel like you have to play the whole story if you really want none at all, otherwise you will see occasional possessed sims but nothing too intrusive.
-The World
The world is great but they clearly were super lazy making it's lots, more than usual. The library is clearly missing a potted plant in the front (it has three potted planets on all sides but one):
One of the houses is a Willow Creek house copied over, but they changed the trims and columns for the ones that come with the pack, the houses are pretty spare inside, even the community lots, and the outsides aren't as detailed or as pleasant to look at as some of the builds in other packs. The lots have some very obvious flaws that a mediocre builder would not commit. It's as if they were made by someone who has been playing TS4 for 1 week, instead of looking like official maxis lots. It's just really jarring, and I almost feel obligated to demolish and build anew, I know for some people this might not be a problem but it just comes off as really lazy. I used to prefer the official Maxis lots but in this case? No.
-CAS/Build Buy
The CAS and Buy mode are nice. I'm just really disappointed laptops don't close at all and most of the buy mode is decor.
-Gameplay
Not a lot of new gameplay to go around, or any that you'd use outside of this pack. There are no new skills, the fighting dummy just builds fitness. It has very nice animations but I wish there was an actual fighting/kung fu skill. And very few gameplay objects, there's perhaps two, the fighting dummy and the surveillance table.
I'm also really disappointed with the paranoid trait which doesn't do anything! The tense moodlet that it gives is just +1 and it's easily overwritten by the decor moodlets, what a sham.... There's a new interaction about changing passwords with this trait but it doesn't do anything....?! It's really confusing, and it's not even an autonomous interaction and as far as I've seen this trait doesn't add any new idle animations either very disappointing. I don't know why they keep on adding useless traits to this game that don't actually give unique personalities. It's a complete sham, sims with this trait don't even get tense when not in a basement. They get happy in one though but it's just another +1 happy moodlet, I don't even get the point really.
-Military Career
I only got to level 3 so I haven't found much about it, but it looks fun so far. There's some cool outfits, unique interactions and cool objects that come with it, there's even a medal display case which I like. It's very fitness based in the start and the tasks can get repetitive but that's like every other WFH career.
Also, the welcome wagon in this town is straight up scripted and I found it very odd that throughout the whole story I have only seen the two secret agents once, what was even the point?
Overall, I say this is probably the worst GP, when compared to the others, although it has one of the nicests worlds.
So, honestly....I finished it in maybe 3 hours maybe less? And it was my first ever gameplay of it, I didn't see spoilers at all and I did not knew anything regarding it's obvious story. It's not very good.
-The Story
The story is very obvious and cliché, I've seen it a hundred times in movies and comics so I knew what I was getting into from the start. There's not a lot of gameplay surrounding the story itself a side from collecting some things, talking to NPC's (here you may get some repetitive messages), and building up relationships. The story plays very similarly to an active career but it feels much more linear. The quests aren't hard and there's plenty of tips so I couldn't possibly get stuck anywhere. The "strange" weather never affected my sim in any way it's just fx, and the lab is shorter than what I thought but decor objects on it do give it a pretty nice secret lab feel. The last stance of the story is the only part I felt there was some more gameplay evolved with the health bars and commands but nothing was explained to me, when I actually needed explaining. Eventually I understood that I could actually control my companion sims with commands and what each did. The health bar is very similar to the detective career questioning table.
There's not a lot of unique/new animations in the story at all and for some reason
Maxis didn't bother to animate proper vaccine shots and has sims throwing glasses of water at sim's faces as vaccines it's very jarring
but it's cool that
plant vines will actually invade your house at some point, like coming out of the shower or toiler
Overall, the story to me isn't worth it and there's not much replayability to it as well. The RPG style does not work with TS4's limitations, nor the franchise I would say unless it's a more specific spin off with a bigger story, dedicated system and direction. There are some options for people who don't want the weirdness but I feel like you have to play the whole story if you really want none at all, otherwise you will see occasional possessed sims but nothing too intrusive.
-The World
The world is great but they clearly were super lazy making it's lots, more than usual. The library is clearly missing a potted plant in the front (it has three potted planets on all sides but one):
One of the houses is a Willow Creek house copied over, but they changed the trims and columns for the ones that come with the pack, the houses are pretty spare inside, even the community lots, and the outsides aren't as detailed or as pleasant to look at as some of the builds in other packs. The lots have some very obvious flaws that a mediocre builder would not commit. It's as if they were made by someone who has been playing TS4 for 1 week, instead of looking like official maxis lots. It's just really jarring, and I almost feel obligated to demolish and build anew, I know for some people this might not be a problem but it just comes off as really lazy. I used to prefer the official Maxis lots but in this case? No.
-CAS/Build Buy
The CAS and Buy mode are nice. I'm just really disappointed laptops don't close at all and most of the buy mode is decor.
-Gameplay
Not a lot of new gameplay to go around, or any that you'd use outside of this pack. There are no new skills, the fighting dummy just builds fitness. It has very nice animations but I wish there was an actual fighting/kung fu skill. And very few gameplay objects, there's perhaps two, the fighting dummy and the surveillance table.
I'm also really disappointed with the paranoid trait which doesn't do anything! The tense moodlet that it gives is just +1 and it's easily overwritten by the decor moodlets, what a sham.... There's a new interaction about changing passwords with this trait but it doesn't do anything....?! It's really confusing, and it's not even an autonomous interaction and as far as I've seen this trait doesn't add any new idle animations either very disappointing. I don't know why they keep on adding useless traits to this game that don't actually give unique personalities. It's a complete sham, sims with this trait don't even get tense when not in a basement. They get happy in one though but it's just another +1 happy moodlet, I don't even get the point really.
-Military Career
I only got to level 3 so I haven't found much about it, but it looks fun so far. There's some cool outfits, unique interactions and cool objects that come with it, there's even a medal display case which I like. It's very fitness based in the start and the tasks can get repetitive but that's like every other WFH career.
Also, the welcome wagon in this town is straight up scripted and I found it very odd that throughout the whole story I have only seen the two secret agents once, what was even the point?
Overall, I say this is probably the worst GP, when compared to the others, although it has one of the nicests worlds.
Post edited by Sigzy05 on
35
Comments
They'll try to claim its part of the story
Its a very beautiful world, but some of the worst builds I have ever seen in a sims game.
While I understand they were aiming at bringing something new I think they would have done better to have focused their resources towards themes and content people want, the staples but better. They did it once with Vampires. I’ve never been an occult player, but the vamps in this game are very well done and I was surprised to enjoy it so much.
I do give them kudos for attempting something new and taking the risk, it just doesn’t work for me. Past the story line, I’m betting they invested most of their budget on realizing it, there’s not much else that affects the overall gameplay. Their only saving grace here is that they did add a bigger world with more lots and the career.
I hope going forward, if they are into this, that they just make a spin-off that focuses on these linear story lines while working on making the tried and proven themes better for sims 4.
It can join My First Pet Stuff and Katy Perry: Sweet Treats in the graveyard of things that shouldn't exist.
Doesn't this apply to EVERY trait in The Sims 4? They don't alter behavior like in The Sims 3, they just add some bonuses to certain skill, change default/predisposed emotions and add 1 interaction (sometimes), and that's it. It's probably my biggest issue with The Sims 4, along with the lack of open world (or at least open districts).
I agree with you on this. I don't know why they are so "scared" to make strong traits.
Notr to mention they copy and pasted a base game house into the world......when you are paying $20 and there are VERY few lots that is a huge deal which is why even some of the game changers called them out on twitter.
People keep defending what this dev team is doing and its getting frustrating. If people keep spending money on packs like this they will keep producing subpar quality packs. Just look at what EA has done to Bioware recently as well as several other companies....they are ruining so many games with their "push everything out as quickly as possible" motto......
They released several polls and for gamepacks Farms and occults won by a landslide both times. Grant pitched the idea for this pack 2 years ago and so many people said they didn't want it and yet he went on and spent money, resources, and time to make this pack. If it didn't work for The Sims Medieval (its one of the worst selling sims games in sims franchise history) where you had sooooo many different quests.....why would they think it would work here where you can complete it in roughly an hour and 15 min and you can only play it once?
At least The Sims Medieval (which I actually loved) you not only had a ton of different quests, but there were multiple branches to each quest depending on which character you played it with. Its obvious that this team is either out of touch with what customers want or something else is going on. You have customers literally telling you what they will throw their money at and they are still choosing to ignore it. My guess is because they are trying to get through the least exciting packs now and saving the most wanted packs for the end of Sims 4 life cycle so people are more willing to buy it. They also know that so many people will buy these packs anyway, even if they know they won't like it. I saw so many comments of people saying "Its not really my cup of tea and it looks boring, but Im still going to get it"......you show devs what you want with your wallets.....
So far, it's a pack with pretty indolent items. It might even be worse than Outdoors. At least that one featured a new skill.
-sigh- This community will buy literally anything they throw out, they could literally throw out a pack called "The Sims 4 : Watch Paint Dry" and they will buy and praise it in a heartbeat...I'm sorry but I'm frustrated with the constantly defending too...
Don’t give them ideas!
LOL!
This was a huge disappointment. I was so excited for this pack, but it has maybe 2-3 hours of very shallow gameplay and zero replay value. It's basically just a small new world with far less content than any previous game pack. It's like doing 2 days of an interactive career and then never going back.
How are there no new skills? Jungle Adventure had TWO skills that directly affected the success of one's jungle adventuring, plus two aspirations. There isn't even a base game skill requirement to "finish" the Strangerville story. You just do thing x number of times, and that's it. It was not remotely challenging. I was literally saying "Um... that's it?" as I was finishing the story off. No one needs special skills (or any skills), there is no variant to experience a second time around, there is no long-term payoff. The "reward" for completing the aspiration is telling the story and getting junk mail. You don't even get a moodlet when you "finish" the story.
There is no time restriction that paces the story development the way the JA temples change after a certain time, or how some of the JA pathways are closed off on each trip. And for the 2 hours of story play time, there is nonstop hand-holding to a degree that is utterly unenjoyable. The extreme simplicity (and brevity) of the Strangerville story makes it feel like a free mobile game designed for 6 year olds.
It also doesn't have the depth of build/CAS items that even Spa Day does. I use the Spa Day build items all the time. And Spa Day has a skill that is actually useful. Vampires had its talent development, a town, a skill, and what... Three aspirations? Parenthood had a skill and two aspirations, and altered everyday gameplay for families. Dine Out is the only other pack that doesn't have a skill or multiple aspirations, but it's also not a one-shot play through. Even Outdoor Retreat had a collection and a skill.
How is there no new collection? Seriously?? Conspiracy theorists in the desert don't have a special collection? The "tin foil" hat is so freaking cool, but it does nothing, even for paranoid sims. How is there just that one cosmetic item? How did they create a whole pack around this great idea, with a great looking world, and then say "meh, 2 hours of play-through is good enough"?
And what are all of these conspiracy theorists supposed to be doing after the story is done in 2 hours? What are you supposed to do with these cool-but-now-useless bunker items? LARP a conspiracy that doesn't exist anymore? There's so much to say about the missed opportunity for what comes after you finish the story, but I can't make spoiler tags. Suffice to say WE could have been the new conspiracy.
Sorry for the ranting. I'm just dumbfounded. It could have easily been my favorite pack ever, but there's just so little in it. Especially when you compare it to Jungle Adventure.
Normally when I don't love a pack, I at least am satisfied with the CAS and build/buy items I received, but these ones are virtually useless for any normal game play. Most of the build/buy mode items are decor made for secret labs.. when is that going to be used?! I would've liked some western themed stuff and more activities. I could go on, but I think everyone else summed up the frustrations pretty well lol. I definitely wouldn't recommend spending $20 on this pack.
Yes I strongly agree about laptop. They could offer it for free updates because the laptop have been in the base game in the sims 3.
I would say not every trait, Jealous and Unflirty are pretty good because they completely follow through with those personality types. The other ones however don't. But you'd expect them to put some effort into newer traits, but they don't. They just don't seem to care about making traits relevant at all.
I don't know the point in adding new ones when all that it is added is one or two moodlets that don't even do anything.
The trait/emotion system in this games foundation is faulty, very superficial and it’s probably why it’s so hard if not impossible to bring forth an RPG style pack. The story cannot be affected by different trait combinations because they don’t matter in this game.
Granted, inference in the sims has always been somewhat required, they are not sentient beings so the player had to, at times, infer feelings or emotions, but in previous games it was less so. For instance, sims 2 sims acted very much according to their personality points. A lazy sim would complain to no end if you made them workout. In sims 4 a sim with the lazy trait will workout like they are trying to be the next “The Rock.” 🤷🏽♀️
YEESSSS!!!!
LOL!!!