We break down all the features shown in the latest Sims Project Rene Playtest.

There’s a lot that was shown in the latest Sims Project Rene playtest for Smartphones. Including a look into the potential character creator, multiplayer careers and build challenges, manual sim movement and plenty more!

Here’s everything we’ve noticed from City Life Game with Friends playtest from EA and Maxis. Huge thanks to YouTube creators Techzamazing, Gaming Mobile and Adeptless for uploading footage of this playtest.

Playtest Story Introduction

The Sims Project Rene Smartphone Playtest called City Life Game with Friends has a unique preset story creator the first time you open up the game. This allows you to choose your Sim’s preferred pronouns, body types, outfits and personality.

This doesn’t reflect any customization options that you’re further allowed to make within Create A Sim in the final planned version of Project Rene. But rather the first Sim that you’ll be starting your playtest story with.

Sim Customization

City Life Game With Friends smartphone playtest for The Sims Project Rene has different customization options than you would expect.

There are premade hairstyles and outfits that are selectable in this Project Rene playtest. Including the option to choose a Hair Style, Head Shape and customize your Sim’s outfit.

What’s disappointing from this playtest is that EA seems to also be playtesting a Sims Freeplay / Mobile-like transaction fee for in-game items. Including having to spend virtual Sim currency in order to obtain items.

However, in this playtest, all in-game currency can be earned through gameplay quests and multiplayer activities. Including Build Challenges, Career Shifts and more.

If you’re interested in customizing your Sim’s hairstyle a bit more in-depth, you can definitely do so in detailed mode. Including Hue, Saturation and Brightness of 4 different parts of your hairstyle.

Sim Needs

Sim’s Needs in The Sims Project Rene playtest for Smartphones are broken down to 5 different categories, based on the playtest quests they offer:

• Hunger
• Relaxation
• Socialization
• Creativity
• Ambition / Quests

The introduction is pretty normal from what you’d expect for a playtest. Send your Sim to go eat from a Vending Machine. Then go and make a wish at a fountain to help them relax.

Manual Sim Movement

The left side of the smartphone has touch input, meaning that you can control your Sim’s movement by sliding your finger across the phone. In theory, this means that the desktop version of The Sims Project Rene could feature WASD type of movement for Sims on the keyboard.

The movements look somewhat natural but still in testing development. There are still some jitters inbetween different animations and stopping /triggering manual Sim movement.

Socialization

The socialization aspect of City Life Game with Friends features Sim interactions that you would expect. Except this time it’s all happening in real time, in multiplayer, with Sims by other players!

The playtest seemed to be big enough to carry around over a dozen Sims in the same server.

Another interesting aspect of socialization is that you can now “Emote” on other Sims and give live reaction feedback. At the moment in the game this is presented through speech bubbles.

Creative Gameplay

You can learn new Skills in this playtest including Painting and Guitar. However, there’s nothing special or new that we’ve noticed in terms of how the game mechanisms go.

Career Gameplay

There’s a new Barista Career in this Sims Project Rene Smartphone playtest. Where a player can work a day shift with other Sims and choose to work either as a server, a barista or a little bit of everything.

Interestingly enough, there’s no full controlled autonomy here. You’re fully responsible of the customers in your Coffee shop. You’ll have to ring up your customers and serve them coffee in real time before they get too angry.

For me, this looks like a minigame within a minigame. And the rewards, or in this case a paycheck is the currency Simoleons I’ve talked about earlier. You can see fully how your shift went and what the statistics of your customers are during your work time.

Decorate Together Multiplayer Challenge

The theme: Foodie Café. The time: 5 minutes.

In this Sims Project Rene playtest, you have five minutes to design a Café with your multiplayer companion. You can choose between different Furniture, Seating, Surfaces, Accents, Plants, Lighting and Decorations.

You can freely place down and rotate items to any degree. Plus, all surface items now have an appropriate surface level field where you can place down additional clutter and objects!

Game Options

Graphic Settings customization is pretty detailed for a smartphone playtest. You can customize Shadows, View Distance, Anti-Aliasing and Post Processing quality from Low to Max.

In the Camera setting, you can customize the movement, rotation and zoom speed. There are some additional features for Audio, including Binaural Audio which improves the immersive audio experience for headphone users. Giving you more of a “Dolby Atmos” experience for The Sims.

This is everything we could find from City Life Game With Friends playtest for The Sims Project Rene!

What are your thoughts on all the features shown above? As a reminder, please note that all features shown are subject to change and do not represent the final product of The Sims Project Rene.