The Sims 4 Guides City Living Opinon

OPINION: The Sims 4 City Living got boring pretty fast

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My City Living hype didn’t last for long. After just 2 weeks since The Sims 4 City Living release I find myself forcing to enter The Sims 4 just to realize that I don’t have anything fun to play with since I’ve explored everything the new Expansion Pack has to offer. The video down below basically explains my situation:

I wish I was the only one who no longer feels the excitement after The Sims 4 City Living Exploration Expansion Pack release, but other simmers have expressed similar concerns as well:

Some of course still like the pack and what it brings:

And some are caught in the middle:

 

My biggest issue with The Sims 4 City Living is that it’s torn apart from 2 pack concepts: exploring and living. It feels like the pack is somewhere in the middle while cutting features from both concepts. San Myshuno, which is the main feature of this Expansion Pack is probably the smallest world in The Sims Franchise and this is no joke. The Sims 1’s Old Town has more lots to explore than City Living’s San Myshuno:

The biggest reason why I got bored of this pack so quickly is that the living concept as well suffered major cuts. No buildable apartments, no elevators and you’re stuck to playing City Living features in San Myshuno. Basically, you can only play with most of the new features in the smallest world in The Sims Franchise.

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If City Living was an art project I’d have no complains, but we’re talking about a 40$ video game expansion pack which’ll make you say ”ooooh this is pretty” for a few hours and a few days later you’ll rarely visit the world because of the same-old claustrophobic surroundings.

I know that your own creativity also plays a huge role in playing The Sims 4 but I just can’t get a feeling of creativity when everything is so small, limited and made by The Sims Team’s personal choice, leaving almost no space for me to do and make things my way.

I really hope future expansion packs don’t focus much on the environments and more on the gameplay and customization as City Living became boring pretty fast, at least to me. I’m happy some simmers still enjoy the pack and take their time to explore certain features but as a person who got bored after pulling an all-nighter to write a City Living Review I doubt I’ll visit San Myshuno for personal gaming sessions any time soon.

About the author

Jovan

Reticulating splines as a webmaster for Sims Community over the last 11 years. You can find me here writing articles and doing reports on your favorite life sim games, among other things!

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Brittany
Brittany
8 years ago

I have mixed feelings towards it! CL got me back into my game; prior to its release, I hadn’t really played since the Kids Stuff pack came out. I started a new save and I’ve been having a lot of fun…lots of cool things to do and a lot of random things happening with my Sim and her new neighbors and friends. Then again, I split my Sims 4 time with playing and modding, so I’m probably not to the stage of being “bored” yet, since I play maybe 2-3 hours every other day or so. I’m happy with the pack, overall; though I wish they had added some things, it’s still a solid EP in my opinion and one of the better ones for TS4 so far.

peterskywalker
peterskywalker
8 years ago

In my opinion CL is a decent pack for the sims 4 (although it could use a lot of polish). I have played a few times since its release and haven’t explored much of the EP yet, but here are my thoughts so far. The festivals are decent, and I like how it adds new ways to play with base game content. Not sure how much lasting appeal it will have though if one frequents them too much. As for the new objects, I like the spray painting, haven’t tried basketball yet, and am disappointment by the gaming council, which is somewhat broken. Sims occasionally reset while playing which ruins it, and there are too little multiplayer games for it.

Finally the best part of the back ironically is the singing skill, which is super fleshed out and awesome. I love how kids can sing almost all the songs, and how you can even sing songs while playing instruments (and the instruments have sounds as well). I also loved how they updated the sing songs interaction on the outdoor retreat campfire having sims sing the new CL songs as well as the old campfire songs. If only the rest of the pack was as fleshed out as the singing.

Wired
Wired
8 years ago

I understand both sides, but my opinion is in the middle. The pack really isn’t bad. It just doesn’t have anything extraordinary or game changing, and after a year long wait, it didn’t live up to the hype. My hype is pretty much gone now too. However, to be totally honest, I kind of lost interest in Late Night shortly after it was released too, so maybe city life isn’t my thing..?

San Myshuno is defintely a gorgeous area and it pulls off the city aesthetic much better than Bridgeport IMO. Even though a lot is just decoration, it still helps make the city look active and vibrant, as opposed to Bridgeport which, though beautiful in itself, felt rather dead. I completely understand what you mean about it feeling small though. I get they were going with apartment living, but only 5 non-apartment/penthouse lots really is a shame. That’s gotta be my biggest qualm with this pack.

I do wonder though. Was there a years wait because San Myshuno is so complex? Maybe if they didn’t go so crazy creating the background, they’d have more resources for adding more depth and flexibility to the game play. But that brings the question, do the environment people have the knowledge/skills to do game play engineering to give us say, elevators or build-able apartments?

The pack absolutely delivers on CAS items and build/buy though. No complaints there. No matter opinions on gameplay, the art team really delivered and need serious props.

My final opinion is this: City Living is not a bad expansion. What’s there is alright, but there is a lot I would have done differently.

Serenity
Serenity
8 years ago

Don’t get me wrong, I think City Living is not a bad expansion pack. However, compared to other city sims expansion packs from other sims games (nightlife, late night). This material is lackluster. I felt there wasn’t enough material and it became repetitive. I enjoyed the festivals and lot traits though.

Aveena Rosaria Ansar
Aveena Rosaria Ansar
8 years ago

They need to bring the story-mode component into the Sims 4! Basically, for anyone who ever played The Sims Butin’ Out, it was the first Sims game I’ve ever played that made me addicted. The whole optional freeplay mode was a bonus, for when I wanted to take a break from playing the story or when all the missions were completed. It was an amazing game! Just like The Sims 2 on console. To top it off, both games had multiplayer features! Now the focus on the rest of The Sims games has been all about free-mode capabilities. It’s like EA gotten lazy all of sudden. It’s literally nothing to do, and no friends to play with.

Wired
Wired
4 years ago

I understand both sides, but my opinion is in the middle. The pack really isn’t bad. It just doesn’t have anything extraordinary or game changing, and after a year long wait, it didn’t live up to the hype. My hype is pretty much gone now too. However, to be totally honest, I kind of lost interest in Late Night shortly after it was released too, so maybe city life isn’t my thing..?

San Myshuno is defintely a gorgeous area and it pulls off the city aesthetic much better than Bridgeport IMO. Even though a lot is just decoration, it still helps make the city look active and vibrant, as opposed to Bridgeport which, though beautiful in itself, felt rather dead. I completely understand what you mean about it feeling small though. I get they were going with apartment living, but only 5 non-apartment/penthouse lots really is a shame. That’s gotta be my biggest qualm with this pack.

I do wonder though. Was there a years wait because San Myshuno is so complex? Maybe if they didn’t go so crazy creating the background, they’d have more resources for adding more depth and flexibility to the game play. But that brings the question, do the environment people have the knowledge/skills to do game play engineering to give us say, elevators or build-able apartments?

The pack absolutely delivers on CAS items and build/buy though. No complaints there. No matter opinions on gameplay, the art team really delivered and need serious props.

My final opinion is this: City Living is not a bad expansion. What’s there is alright, but there is a lot I would have done differently.

Aveena Rosaria Ansar
Aveena Rosaria Ansar
4 years ago

They need to bring the story-mode component into the Sims 4! Basically, for anyone who ever played The Sims Butin’ Out, it was the first Sims game I’ve ever played that made me addicted. The whole optional freeplay mode was a bonus, for when I wanted to take a break from playing the story or when all the missions were completed. It was an amazing game! Just like The Sims 2 on console. To top it off, both games had multiplayer features! Now the focus on the rest of The Sims games has been all about free-mode capabilities. It’s like EA gotten lazy all of sudden. It’s literally nothing to do, and no friends to play with.

Brittany
Brittany
8 years ago

I have mixed feelings towards it! CL got me back into my game; prior to its release, I hadn’t really played since the Kids Stuff pack came out. I started a new save and I’ve been having a lot of fun…lots of cool things to do and a lot of random things happening with my Sim and her new neighbors and friends. Then again, I split my Sims 4 time with playing and modding, so I’m probably not to the stage of being “bored” yet, since I play maybe 2-3 hours every other day or so. I’m happy with the pack, overall; though I wish they had added some things, it’s still a solid EP in my opinion and one of the better ones for TS4 so far.

Serenity
Serenity
8 years ago

Don’t get me wrong, I think City Living is not a bad expansion pack. However, compared to other city sims expansion packs from other sims games (nightlife, late night). This material is lackluster. I felt there wasn’t enough material and it became repetitive. I enjoyed the festivals and lot traits though.

peterskywalker
peterskywalker
8 years ago

In my opinion CL is a decent pack for the sims 4 (although it could use a lot of polish). I have played a few times since its release and haven’t explored much of the EP yet, but here are my thoughts so far. The festivals are decent, and I like how it adds new ways to play with base game content. Not sure how much lasting appeal it will have though if one frequents them too much. As for the new objects, I like the spray painting, haven’t tried basketball yet, and am disappointment by the gaming council, which is somewhat broken. Sims occasionally reset while playing which ruins it, and there are too little multiplayer games for it.

Finally the best part of the back ironically is the singing skill, which is super fleshed out and awesome. I love how kids can sing almost all the songs, and how you can even sing songs while playing instruments (and the instruments have sounds as well). I also loved how they updated the sing songs interaction on the outdoor retreat campfire having sims sing the new CL songs as well as the old campfire songs. If only the rest of the pack was as fleshed out as the singing.