The Sims 4 Xbox One review: The popular life simulator (finally) hits consoles

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

3 years after The Sims 4 debuted on PC, EA's latest life simulation game finally arrived on Xbox Ane. The Sims iv for Xbox is the most feature-complete dwelling version however, with dizzying depth and potential – merely it doesn't always feel like a groovy fit for the living room.

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

The Sims four for consoles is a directly port of the PC game, with less of the optimization and downscaling of previous ports. This has the reward of offering more than robust gameplay, but it also means the panel game is more complicated to learn than The Sims 3.

Naturally, the game includes numerous tutorials to ease players in. The first thing y'all practice is create a character, so the tutorial begins there. But some big issues stand out with these instructions.

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

Showtime, the text is super tiny and difficult to read at a altitude. The tutorial UI is often confusing as well. The confirm button sometimes advances to the next tutorial dialog only often times it does not, forcing players to puzzle over how to accomplish the side by side dialog.

Also, there are way besides many tutorials to wade through. You'll merely be starting out on the tutorial for one feature when the game asks whether you'd like to learn almost another one. The whole process of instruction gamers how to play should be far more than streamlined and linear.

Create a Sim

The Sims 4 for Xbox One Princess Leia

The Sims 4 features a very robust graphic symbol creator, though you're of course limited to article of clothing and other items plant in the base game, unless you buy some expansions. Withal, creating a close likeness to someone you know isn't hard ... one time you get used to the UI and controls.

Sure deportment like adjusting cheek size and other trunk proportions are harder than they should exist, with players having to awkwardly select the body function using a mouse-manner cursor and then dragging the part while holding a button. You lot can adjust to it, but it's never going to feel natural.

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

Personality traits have been profoundly expanded, with players selecting 3 principal traits during cosmos and a bonus trait associated with that Sim's personal aspiration. Your Sim can have traits like being materialistic, jealous, and alluring.

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

The overall goal is to control the daily life of your Sim or Sims. Each Sim needs a job in club to brand money. You lot take several careers to choose from, though deeper career options volition exist offered in an upcoming expansion. How far your Sim climbs the career ladder is up to you, as you'll have to develop associated skills and brand choices whenever work-related events popular up.

Homes and neighborhoods

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

Your Sim also needs a identify to live, which is where Build mode comes in. After buying a lot in i of the starting neighborhoods, yous'll need to build a house piece-by-piece. Sims four gives players the option of buying furnished rooms if they'd rather not outset from scratch, merely I wish some predesigned building layouts were available. The complexity of the controls will likely frustrate players who just want to design Sims and see them get on with their lives.

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

To create a proper living space for your Sim, y'all'll need to buy all the essential rooms, similar a living room, restroom, kitchen, and bedroom. This also involves making sure doors line upwards properly, which is harder than it needs to be because rooms are transparent while placing them.

Rotating rooms and objects involves the left and correct bumper buttons, which is fairly intuitive. Adjusting size and shape requires a scrap of uncomfortable clicking and dragging, though. Throughout the building process, you're likely to accidentally leave a menu or two. Just stick with information technology, and you'll eventually complete the starter house where your Sims will alive their lives.

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

The Sims 4 takes place in smaller neighborhoods rather than the larger city environment of The Sims 3. This is a stride back in some ways, as you lose the large open-world environments and public meeting areas of the terminal game. Your Sims get to move betwixt different parts of the town, merely they'll do so by traveling from map to map while waiting through loading screens.

These individual neighborhoods don't truly feel similar they add up to a complete boondocks. Some of the businesses and venues y'all'd see in The Sims 3, such as grocery stores, don't be in The Sims 4.

Downloadable content

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

The Sims four on consoles doesn't include any of the PC version's downloadable content past default, though it has toddlers, pools, and other features that were added to the base game over time. Several DLC packs are bachelor to purchase, with 3 included in a $49.99 bundle as well.

The following DLC packs are already available:

City Living: $39.99, the only total-calibration expansion pack bachelor at launch.
Vampires: $xix.99.
Vintage Glamour Stuff: $9.99.
Perfect Patio Stuff: $9.99.

While it'due south tempting to react cynically to launch day DLC, The Sims has always offered numerous expansions on PC. This might be the first time that all of the PC's expansions volition really make their way to consoles.

Overall impression of The Sims 4 for Xbox One

The Sims 4 for Xbox One

For the first time, EA has brought a full Sims experience to console, with all of its features intact – even cheats. The Sims 4 doesn't always feel at dwelling house on Xbox, though, with clunky menus, disruptive controls, tiny text, and a mess of tutorials. Just if you lot adopt to game on console rather than PC, The Sims 4 is withal worth the time and effort. The grapheme creation, building, and social interactions are engaging enough to go on simulation-minded players busy for years.