I now have a formed opinion of the pack and after the initial hype, I must say there's not much to it.
The world is gorgeous (but small), I love the concept of the island being "alive" and evolving, I love the culture and little festivals. CAS has really pretty items and so does Build/Buy.
But I feel like that is all.
Mermaids are much closer to aliens than they are to vampires development wise and there's barely anything you can do with them that you can't do with a normal sim. You can't even create havoc by drowning sims around because they just won't die from your mermaid interactions. They can't eat in the water (no raw fish, no kelp, nothing). And the worst part is that they don't have a "habitat". The inability to go underwater for real is very obvious when playing a mermaid. Even aliens have a hidden world that they can visit! Mermaids have nothing. It was a big mistake, in my opinion, not to give mermaids a habitat. If making going underwater anywhere was not a possibility, at least they should have made a special mermaid lot. The cave that is just a rabbit hole should have been a hidden lot where mermaids hang out, a lot they can call home.
So, I wonder, if mermaid didn't get much to do or any special place to go, what was the trade off?
Sims themselves don't have much to do either and most gameplay is small or very niche. There's no feature in this pack that changes anything in the game. No new system of any kind.
There's also the issue that Sulani feels very isolated from the rest of the residential worlds and it is just weird to me to travel with a Sulani sim to Windenburg just for visiting a park or having a beer. Therefore, I feel like I'm stuck in Sulani unless I pretend they go on holiday to visit other worlds.
I am struggling to see how Island Living is an EP and not a GP. I just can't really justify it.
You can tell a lot of love and attention went into making it but it just feels...empty.
Some things that could have made the pack feel fuller:
- It could have more fleshed out mermaids and and underwater neighbourhood or at the very least and underwater hidden lot
- Maybe they could have gone the hotel route as many wanted and add a new hotel system for sims to stay or for sims to manage
- They could have made all the new careers in the pack interactive like the conservationist one
- Make a larger world with more neighbourhoods to explore
- Add a feature/system that would make sense to use in other worlds
It is a shame, and I do love many aspects in the pack. I know I will be playing a bunch there and specially I will be building a lot there and creating sims. But it doesn't feel like a full EP.
Origin ID is: AlbaWaterhouse
All my creations are CC free.
Comments
I haven't seen this happening in my game so far.
All my creations are CC free.
The world is gorgeous (but small), I love the concept of the island being "alive" and evolving, I love the culture and little festivals. CAS has really pretty items and so does Build/Buy.
But I feel like that is all.
Mermaids are much closer to aliens than they are to vampires development wise and there's barely anything you can do with them that you can't do with a normal sim. You can't even create havoc by drowning sims around because they just won't die from your mermaid interactions. They can't eat in the water (no raw fish, no kelp, nothing). And the worst part is that they don't have a "habitat". The inability to go underwater for real is very obvious when playing a mermaid. Even aliens have a hidden world that they can visit! Mermaids have nothing. It was a big mistake, in my opinion, not to give mermaids a habitat. If making going underwater anywhere was not a possibility, at least they should have made a special mermaid lot. The cave that is just a rabbit hole should have been a hidden lot where mermaids hang out, a lot they can call home.
So, I wonder, if mermaid didn't get much to do or any special place to go, what was the trade off?
Sims themselves don't have much to do either and most gameplay is small or very niche. There's no feature in this pack that changes anything in the game. No new system of any kind.
There's also the issue that Sulani feels very isolated from the rest of the residential worlds and it is just weird to me to travel with a Sulani sim to Windenburg just for visiting a park or having a beer. Therefore, I feel like I'm stuck in Sulani unless I pretend they go on holiday to visit other worlds.
I am struggling to see how Island Living is an EP and not a GP. I just can't really justify it.
You can tell a lot of love and attention went into making it but it just feels...empty.
Some things that could have made the pack feel fuller:
- It could have more fleshed out mermaids and and underwater neighbourhood or at the very least and underwater hidden lot
- Maybe they could have gone the hotel route as many wanted and add a new hotel system for sims to stay or for sims to manage
- They could have made all the new careers in the pack interactive like the conservationist one
- Make a larger world with more neighbourhoods to explore
- Add a feature/system that would make sense to use in other worlds
It is a shame, and I do love many aspects in the pack. I know I will be playing a bunch there and specially I will be building a lot there and creating sims. But it doesn't feel like a full EP.
All my creations are CC free.