Cyliena delved into The Sims 4 over the past week and has an in-depth analysis.

1. The Basics of The Sims 4
2. The Heart of The Sims 4
• Build Mode & Decorating
• Sim Lifespan, Needs & Emotions
• Family, Friends & Romance
• Babies & Children
• Aspirations, Traits, Whims & Rewards
• School & Careers
3. The Essence of The Sims 4
4. Conclusion

Build Mode & Decorating

Build and Buy modes from previous Sims titles have been consolidated into a single Build Mode for The Sims 4. In Build Mode you have your standard functions for building your home's structure (walls, floors, decks, fencing, roofs), can paint the terrain and add flora, and also can fully furnish the home. A "Styled Rooms" section allows for quick building; just choose a completely decorated prefab style you like and plop it down on your lot.

If you're like me though, you'll avoid the prefab stuff and absolutely love the improved building tools. Handy arrows that you can push and pull will quickly reshape walls to fit your design (as seen in the video below). By selecting a room you can rotate or move it entirely. You can move the entire house to a different spot on the lot, provided it didn't take up the entire area to begin with. There are three different sizes of walls (small, medium, large) that you can adjust with a room selected, and the entire floor will be adjusted to match it. Some of the taller sizes can use larger windows and doors; regardless of wall size, windows that are not full-length can be positioned vertically on a wall.

There is no auto-roofing feature, but roofs are easy to place using the same tools as walls. My only complaint here is that they encourage the use of octagonal and triangular rooms, but offer no roof shapes that graciously fit the bill. It's easy enough to work around this by using several small roof fragments placed together, but seems like a strange omission.

Additional features such as decks, frieze patterns, roof trim, and roof decor will spruce up your home in no time. You can beautify your lawn with fountains, flowers, trees, rocks, terrain paints and other decorations. Choose your wall and floor coverings (default is drywall and concrete), add some lights, and flesh out the rooms with furniture and other objects.

While there's no Create-a-Style (CAST), most objects and room options have a variety of colors to choose from. Some of these color choices may present a different pattern, but as mentioned before, you can only use the pre-set colors and can't define your own color/material/pattern when customizing objects. According to Producer Graham Nardone, we won't see Create-a-Style in the future:

There's nothing preventing adding additional ages as the game evolves. CASt is a good example of a feature that is not technically feasible to add post launch. -- @SimGuruGraham 25 June 2014

Using the upper-center menu in build mode, there's a drop-down option that will allow you to save your lot, and there's also an option to save the selected room. This is useful for uploading to The Gallery.

I spend more time in build mode than I do in live mode on Sims games, and I'm extremely pleased with how The Sims 4 presents it. My biggest gripe has been that I can't use the , and . keys to rotate my camera view with a room selected, because it rotates the room instead. I've had to undo quite a few screw-ups caused by my rotation habits. I had a difficult time using the new mouse camera in both build and live modes at first, but the Game Options has an option to "Use Sims 3 Camera" and that has helped immensely.

My fourth complete home build in The Sims 4. This one took 6-8 hours of gameplay; the lawn still needs some finishing touches.

Sim Lifespan, Needs & Emotions

In the Game Options you can alter the lifespan of your sims to be short, normal or long. I don't know the exact length of each of these settings, but two things that stood out the most to me was not being able to choose "epic" lifespans and not having a slider to adjust age length for each individual walk of life (added in Generations). My typical Sims 3 games would have 1 day for Baby, 3-7 days for Toddler, 20-30 days as a Child, 150 days for Teen, maximum for young adult and adult, and 200 days for Elder.

On the upside, if you decide that you really enjoy your sim and want to play them longer, you can disable automatic aging for your household. If you play more than one family and don't mind aging, you can enable automatic aging only for the active household or for all households you have played. Finally, you can choose whether or not the Townies can automatically age up as well.

Needs are a sim's basic... well, needs. Bladder, energy, hunger, fun, social and hygiene make up the six basic functions that every sim needs to fulfill. If one of them gets too low your sim will experience something likely unpleasant, such as wetting themselves, feeling lonely, or passing out from exhaustion.

Ginni isn't certain which was more embarassing: passing out in the trash or passing out a few steps away from her bed.

Needs are something that has been around in all The Sims games and completely make sense in the series. My largest issue with the needs in Sims 4 is that they seem to drop too quickly. There are rewards to help with this, but I think gameplay would be a bit less taxing if my sim didn't need to go to the bathroom twice while sleeping.

Emotions are a new spin on what was previously just the Mood (happy or sad) in previous titles. Moodlets (icons denoting what is affecting your sim's mood, many of which have a timer) are what dictate the Emotion that your sim will be in. These moodlets can be impacted not only by fulfilling your basic needs (like a Child getting Bored from playing the same game for too long while filling their Fun need), but also from decor, socializing with other sims and interaction with objects in the world. Read a book and you may become Focused, complete a workout and get Energized, finish some homework to be Confident or take a bubble bath and become Playful.

Ginni creating a Flirty Painting, which is sure to add some masterful ambiance to the room.

While affected by certain Emotions, your sim may be able to perform special actions. For example, my main sim, Ginni, gets Flirty a lot from her Romantic trait, and when she's Flirty she could bake some Flirty Heart Cookies in the oven (which boost or can add that emotion), create a flirty painting (which adds a Flirty ambiance when placed and activated in a home), or take a cold shower to calm down some. Her eldest child, Jeau, gets Tense from working hard at school, and can choose to calm himself down in the mirror or take a bath to relax.

Feeling playful? Go flash some crazy eyes at your neighbors.

I was really dubious at how the Emotions feature would pan out in the game, but after playing it, I really think it adds a lot to the series. Not only am I challenged to keep my sim happy, but now I also can try to influence their mood in a variety of ways for many reasons, offering more depth your gameplay. Also, you can take an Angry Poop, which can elevate anyone's gaming experience.

Family, Friends & Romance

When you create your sim, you can make a single adult or a whole family. For those bachelors and bachelorettes out there, as you play the game you may decide to be a loner at first, but chances are you will eventually want to increase your household in some way. The many townies you meet can become your friends (or enemies!) through interactions with them. Once you become friendly enough, you can invite them to move in and be your roommate, or just be their friend... you don't have to live with every townie you meet. You could also decide to persue a romance with these sims, eventually wedding them, or simply beddin...er...WooHooing them. Alternatively, you can import a sim from The Gallery directly into your household.

In my sim's household, Ginni isn't much of one for marriage, but is an evil sim who is quite determined to see how many redheaded children she can unleash on the world. Romancing a prospective mate isn't quite as quick as it was in previous titles unless you're lucky enough to meet a Romantic or Flirty sim. Build up your friendship before making a move, and establish a romantic relationship. The next steps are up to you.

As always in The Sims, same sex relationships are a go. Ginni flirted with the buggy, non-cleaning maid, which at least made her mildly useful.

For Ginni, she takes her mates out on a date, which now have goals attached to them. Instead of just wandering aimlessly around a lot, the game sets a time frame for the date and gives you different interactive tasks to achieve during your date. Complete enough of these tasks and you can earn a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal, as well as an item reward for Silver or Gold.

After the date, Ginni will usually engage in some WooHoo (okay, "Try For Baby") and sometimes will mysteriously find herself pregnant. Which brings us to....

Nothing to see here, just WooHoo along...

Babies & Children

There are two ways to have babies in The Sims 4. You could choose to adopt on a computer, or you could select the "Try For Baby" interaction with a romantic interest. Unlike The Sims 3, you won't here a jingle denoting whether or not your sim is with child after their WooHoo. Selecting the toilet allows your sim to go take a pregnancy test, which will instantly reveal whether or not they're pregnant. If you'd rather be surprised then within one in-game day it will be revealed if you're with child (or you'll hear nothing about it if not).

Pregnancy is now broken up into three trimesters. The first two trimesters are one in-game day each, while the final trimester gives a length of ??? hours. Maternity leave was not carried over from Sims 3, so during the pregnancy your sim will continue to go to work, assuming they have a job. Eventually your female sim will go into labor, which lasts three in-game hours. At the end of this, she'll stand in front of a bassinet and have her baby (or babies, if it's twins or triplets) (video).

Within seconds of giving birth, she returned to her pre-pregnancy weight. Oh my.

The baby and bassinet are a single object; all interactions with the baby are done via the bassinet. Taking care of the baby is important: if you neglect tending to its needs (hunger, hygiene and social) the baby could be taken away from you. The baby's portrait will change color to reflect swinging from happy to sad, but I found no easy way to discern what exactly your baby wants (unless they have a dirty diaper - that one is obvious from the green fumes). You can choose to age the baby up to Child from the pie menu options at any time, or (with aging enabled) wait until the baby naturally ages up.

Your other children can become angry about new arrivals in the family, too.

When aging up to Child you'll be able to select one childhood aspiration and one trait. Children can be controlled like a normal sim, with some object and social interactions restricted from them, while other actions are exclusive to them. Build them a playroom with child-only toys and work on their basic four skills. Complete their homework and excel in school or let them autonomously ignore it and fail miserably. Build friendships with townies, relationships with your family, and prepare for the later stages of life.

Formal dress code is a must when reading childrens books.

I haven't had the chance to experience the Teen stage yet, but if it's similar to The Sims 3, I anticipate a mixture of naive yet mature interactions with the world and a side of rebellion.

Aspirations, Traits, Whims & Rewards

Traits are selected during CAS (or when aging up for children) and define the personality of your sim. As an adult sim you can have a total of three base traits which you can pick from several options, plus one bonus trait that is automatically assigned based on the Aspiration you choose. Later you can earn reward traits, which are awarded based on accomplishing those Aspirations.

Pre-req for having the Evil trait? To be willing to destroy your own child's dollhouse... daily.

Aspirations are, of course, a goal you aspire to accomplish in your life. In The Sims 4, you complete various milestones specific to your aspiration to help you reach that goal. You can choose to change your aspiration on the fly (especially useful if you don't like the one you chose), or work away at completing one to its fullest extent before delving into another.

When Jeau became a child, he had a smaller list of childhood Aspirations to choose from. The categories for children are Creativity, Mental, Motor and Social. I decided to take on the "Whiz Kid" Mental aspiration. I've since completed the first major milestone, but am struggling to keep him emotionally Focused long enough to finished the second. If he completes all three milestones he'll be rewarded with the Mentally Gifted trait.

Ginni had the normal list of Aspirations, so I chose "Serial Romantic" Love aspiration, which automatically added the Alluring trait to her. Once she completes all three milestones of her Aspiration she will be awarded an additional trait of Player. When I was creating her I was able to choose three more traits, so I selected Evil, Art Lover and Romantic.

Throughout the day your sim will strive for smaller goals called Whims that you can complete to gain Satisfaction points, which you can in turn purchase Rewards with. Whims can be influenced by their emotional state, traits or surroundings. For example, a sim that feels Flirty may want to hug someone, a Confident sim may want to meet someone new and an Insane sim would definitely desire to talk to themselves. Satisfaction points are also gained for working on aspiration goals and completing milestones.

Rewards are currently available in two categories: Potions and Traits. Potions are instant, single-use items that can alter your emotions or even turn back the aging cycle. Traits are permanent effects that could enhance your sim or their life in a variety of ways, such as becoming more fertile, needing to use the bathroom less often or being able to lower the bills for their household. You can check out a full list at the MattWritesStuff blog.

If you've played The Sims 3, one very noticable difference is that it's much slower to obtain Satisfaction than it was to rack up Lifetime Happiness. You need to work hard at gaining these points and must plan how best to spend them.

School & Careers

Children need to attend school, and unless you intend to take part in the homeless challenge or constantly use the money cheats, your sim will need a career. Starting careers for adults are Astronaut, Criminal, Culinary, Entertainer, Painter, Secret Agent and Writer. You begin at the bottom rank and need to meet job goals plus get your performance up in order to meet the requirements for a promotion.

Once you reach your 6th promotion your job will branch out, allowing you to pick one of two paths. Different work hours and pay scales are associated with each branch, as well as each having its own promotion requirements and theme.

For school duties, children are expected to attend class and complete their assignments. Students that excel can also do extra credit work (by selecting the homework again after it is completed), which is great for the Whiz Kid aspiration. Like adults, students need to complete goals and keep their performance high to earn the next grade level. Each child starts out as a C student and can either head into a downward spiral, stay mediocre or choose to excel.

For both work and school, not attending even a single day could cause a large drop in your performance. I skipped work once with Ginni and lost almost an entire bar on the performance gauge. You can help boost your performance by attending school/work in an "ideal" emotion (visible by hovering over the Performance gauge line). There are also bare minimum daily tasks to complete which can contribute to your performance, such as causing mischief as a Criminal or doing your homework as a student.

While you can't follow your sim to their classroom or job, you can somewhat influence how they work. Each day they attend, your sim defaults to the "Normal" action. You can choose to Work Hard, Take It Easy, Suck Up to Bosses/Teacher, Make Connections/Meet Friends, and more. Having certain emotional states can also give additional choices; for instance, Ginni became Flirty during work hours one day and was able to "Flirt With Co-Workers".

Choosing different actions can alter your sim's needs and/or emotional state. If your sim is Tense, then you'll want to Take It Easy. If your sim is really low on the social need, then make some friends/connections. Sucking up might give you a Charisma skill boost, but it also runs the risk of your sim coming home with an Embarassed moodlet or lowering your performance. Pick the action that best suits your sim, keep an eye on them throughout the day and adjust it to another action as needed.

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