With the recent release of The Sims 4 Enchanted by Nature, Simmers were finally given one of the last major fan-favorite occults: Fairies! And while the inclusion of these whimsical (or wicked!) sprites has us just as elated as the rest of the community, it does bring to mind one of the earliest included life states that are still in a bit of a sad state. An occult that is not only deeply intertwined with the franchise’s DNA but also comprises a substantial portion of the most memorable townies. I’m referring to Aliens—and how the Sims Team should consider them next for a massive Sims 4 Occult refresh upgrade.
My Idea of a Sims 4 Occult Refresh for Aliens
In Defense of Aliens
You could argue that Plant Sims and, certainly, Mermaids, are also as much in need of a refresh. They’re just as lackluster in the face of the more fleshed-out Occults we’ve been given. Though, while completely true, I also feel like Aliens being the next big Occult refresh would provide us with something that The Sims 4 severely needs: trope diversity.
This is most likely the last thing on someone’s mind when it comes to The Sims 4’s faults. It is most definitely at the very bottom of the list of said weaknesses. Though in The Sims 4’s long life, we can now argue that its supernatural elements now supersede those of science fiction. I will always scream for more nuanced and well-rounded gameplay, but the weird is part of The Sims 4’s lifeblood. The odd, strange, and chaotic parts are integral to this silly, imperfect game that we all love to be miffed at. By ignoring Aliens, a massive source of that wonderful weird, The Sims Team is letting a large portion of the game’s zeitgeist fall to the wayside.
How a Refresh Could Work
The concept of pack refreshes may have unfortunately gone the way of the dinosaur (as of this article; hopefully), but with the improvement of Ghosts by way of The Sims 4 Life and Death, we’ve been given a taste of what could be. Secrecy and concealment are already themes that are integrated within Aliens in The Sims 4, so if they were given a refresh their skill tree would play into that.
Balancing a need for stealth with a greater need to possibly collect samples of genetic material and/or information for their homeworld as a form of nefarious research. Though if the Alien likes it on Sim-Earth maybe the other half of the skill tree is set toward attempting to assimilate. Trying to shake off the shackles of their homeworld and embrace all the grilled cheese and Powersip that the world has to offer.
An Alien-specific Aspiration and new trait (or two!) is also needed for a boost in identity. While the trait doesn’t need to explicitly be related to Aliens it should be complimentary to their nature.
Seeing Sixam…or Somewhere in the Galaxy
While the community is still waiting for even greater diversity in mundane Sim culture, a sci-fi-esque, Alien-centric residential world would be the perfect splash of uniqueness that the game has been missing. A common sentiment among Simmers is a feeling of general fatigue for suburban and rural areas. It makes sense, as much as each new suburban world does bring in a new patch of lore and culture to the greater tapestry of the game. I will say…it’s still exhausting to be stuck in the ‘burbs.
We know that the Sims Team is more than capable of creating unique and eye-catching locales in-game. The Magic Realm in The Sims 4 Realm of Magic most definitely comes to mind. As well as the more fantastical neighborhoods in the latest two expansion packs. Mourningvale of The Sims 4 Life and Death, especially, displayed how beautifully they balance camp with realistic world design elements. So the “unreality” of a residential world set in space feels like it could be softened for the more traditional type of Simmer. Though I don’t necessarily see why someone would need it to be soft, family gameplay in space? Now that’s a new way to spice up a playthrough!
So a new residential world, perhaps likened to that of The Sims 3’s Lunar Lakes—a space colony set on a distant planet in the ambiguous far future—could be a breath of fresh air in the wake of all the magic and whimsy (not that I’m complaining, of course). A new world set in a far future world would also fit perfectly within the greater scope of the game’s advancing age. It could also finally be the excuse the Sims Team needs to add in a “townies stay in your neighborhood” feature…but, ahhh, we can dream, right?
(Crash) Landing Back to Reality
Hopefully, the Sims Team will think of our beloved extraterrestrial life state next time they’re huddled up in a meeting. Variety is the spice of life, and for a Life Sim? It’s integral for the unending gameplay that The Sims 4 aspires toward. If the game wishes to maintain its longevity and, most importantly, its relevancy, it needs to play to its strengths. Weird, chaotic, and true to its roots, and nothing’s more chaotic than a Sim getting beamed up into the sky to be spirited off to parts unknown.
Would you be excited for a sci-fi-themed residential world, or would you prefer the Sims Team focus on more real world inspired locations? Please tell us in the comments below!
The fairies definitely made me angry with the occult, I really regret having bought this boring extension, so the occult no longer interests me at all, I deleted them all from the game, I even completely redid innisgreen by deleting all the fairy houses, the aliens are useless anyway, I really liked supernatural in the sims 3, there was a magic that I do not find in the sims 4, it will be a page that ends for me in December anyway, I am leaving on paralives, but I will continue to play the sims 2 new edition 2025 and the sims 3.
SAME! +1
all very good ideas! i agree that aliens could use a refresh and I’d love more futuristic/sci-fi content in ts4. they could also flesh out the hybrids a little, as the only occult that has the potential for it, it would be great if they were more than just regular sims with fantasy skin tones.
really though, when it comes right down to it I’d be happy if they just got updated to use the same dual form cas system as other occults. they added that system with vampires, and I’ve been hoping they would update aliens ever since, but it’s still quite tedious to get an alien’s disguse to resemble their actual appearance without the use of something like mccc to just copy and paste the forms.
It’s a stretch, but I think if any “outdated” TS4 occult could justify being patched into base game it’s aliens – aliens were, after all, part of the base game in TS2. Mermaids are so specific to oceanside worlds that they’re just a harder sell for base game, but aliens have a legacy in the sims.
I mention this because of how ghosts have been done – they provided some minor improvements to a base game occult (that itself was added by a patch), then added a fleshed out skill tree in a pack. People would probably dislike having to buy two packs for “the full alien experience”, especially when aliens are not that conceptually rooted in GTW’s world (vestigial as it is) and gameplay premise – very different from how Mermaids exist in Sulani, much less Fairies in Innisgreen.
I love “magic” and “nature” gameplay a lot (it is hard for me to ignore the temptation to not make some kind of fantasy creature who gardens a lot lol), but I feel like the “tech” and “science fiction” side of the sims has been neglected as of late – kind of weird when this is the entry where they made skills like “video gaming,” “programming,” and even “rocket science” base game! It would be interesting to have a residential world set on an alien planet, or a “generation ship” neighborhood where everything (even the “park” area) considered to be fully “indoors”, full of City Living style apartment units.
I get annoyed every single time I see a concept for an Alien refresh that suggests giving the just normal sims from a different planet a skill tree. Their stuff is purely tech based so a refresh for Aliens should actually be a much bigger situation. They should be able to become all occult lifestates but work slightly differently. Like for instance, Alien vampires could possibly be averse to say tomato instead of garlic and their resistance to the normal sun is stronger by default but they move a bit slower. Alien fairies could have maybe some new aliments that they can give that normal fairies can’t and their fairy dust has a different affect on plants. Alien werewolves could have their rage maybe replaced with a fear meter instead and so forth.
Yes, this refresh would be a lot more work for the sims team to do but it would actually make them feel how they really should have always worked in the sims franchise as a whole.
Unpopular opinion but they should have taken out the retail system from GTW, improve it and put it in an expansion with Dine Out (and ideally Businesses and Hobbies). Then they could have focused more on expanding the alien system, Sixam & Magnolia Promenade and the three careers from the pack (which accounts for more than we get in an expansion today).
Also, this expansion would have been so much better if they released it today. They barely knew how to code then.