The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs: First Impressions

As one of the most highly anticipated packs of the entire Sims 4 history Cats & Dogs is due to have some amazing reception, but does it live up to the hype?

I’ve eagerly waited these past months in utter joy, counting down the days and hours till I myself could have some furry friends to play with. Finally, 11 pm hits in the UK, where I live, and Origin alerts me my Sims game is ready to download, it’s here! Of course, I then spend the next 5 hours glued to my screen. I played with the create-a-pet which in my opinion isn’t as versatile as I thought it would be. It was a struggle to make my dog Gracie look like her computer counterpart. However, I enjoyed experimenting with the paint and getting to grips with the feature, of which I hope comes to create-a-sim some day. Brindleton Bay was my next adventure to move into, sorry Windenburg, and it’s blown me away. The immense detail of the world is phenomenal, the Sims team have outdone themselves to create a world that feels like a home for not just our Sims but our Pets as well.

I’ve been planning my vet legacy for a week now and so, of course, I went ahead and spent an hour and a half building a Clinic. It took me a few tries to work around the equipment size but in the end, I was rather happy with it. I was able to make dog and cat specific rooms thanks to the new locks and mats. This helped it feel more realistic for a storyteller like me. People might be comparing this to Get To Work’s Doctor career but it flows so much smoother with easier diagnoses and equipment use. The only thing that puzzled me, that wasn’t immediately clear, was that some pets needed surgery as a part of the treatment but it didn’t tell me so on the screen. However, this is a career I feel like I am going to spend hours divulging into.

Of course, the pack was due to have its teething problems and I encountered many of them. First thing I noticed was my Sim wouldn’t stop bathing my dog. My dog was losing its needs as was my Sim but the bath just wouldn’t stop. I was able to fix this issue by debugging but for people who don’t know how or use cheats it’s a real issue. Another issue I found was my dogs getting dirty every day! I was spending so long bathing them when in real life you don’t have to wash a dog every day. I hope this is just a bug and not an in-game feature as it’s highly annoying. One last issue I’ve had with the game is my dog’s passing out from exhaustion when they have beds and haven’t been doing anything crazy. It’s so frightening to see your pet randomly passed out while walking around the house.

To wrap it all up, in a cute ball of fur, Cat’s and Dog’s first impression on me has been a 9/10 experience. It adds a whole new level to the Sims world and makes my game feel so much more complete. I would like to see some of the issues fixed in the future and I’m sure the Sims team will be working on them.

I also asked my fellow Sims Community Writers their first impressions of the game!:

Jovan:

“From what I’ve played so far it makes the game 100% more enjoyable and alive. The concept of checking out my pets regularly to see if they’re doing ok and watching them run around the house and cause mayhem is just so interesting”

Krista:

“I love being able to have pets in my game now. I feel like there is so much more to do and they add so much more possibilities to the game. Watching them cause chaos around the house and world is hilarious!”

SnarkyWitch

“I haven’t had a chance to play yet, and I hope this pack impresses. Brindleton Bay looks wonderful and CAP is the best we’ve had, but I do worry that this pack is very dog-centric, with cats being an afterthought. I’m such a cat lover so it stung when I realised their biggest selling feature seemed to be that they could… walk on stuff. Quite disappointing, but I hope my fears are proven wrong when I do get to play!”