Sims 4 Has Already Made The Best Decision When It Comes To Game Packs
Several The Sims 4 packs were focused on linear adventures. While they could be a fun romp the first time, going through them again with another family was more about farming skills and aspirations. This plagued TS4: Jungle Adventure, TS4: StrangerVille, and TS4: Journey To Batuu. It seems like EA has learned its lesson and has stopped making such narrow-focused packs. Or, if there is a linear goal, there are enough side activities to delay or ignore the former.
An example of retaining some linear aspects but making them optional comes in TS4: Snowy Escape. While there is a nudge to conquer the treacherous Mt. Komorebi climb, players can leave that until they have already mastered the climbing skill. In the meantime, they can explore festivals, learn to ski, or relax at an Onsen. It does help that this was marked and priced as a full expansion pack, while the other examples were smaller game packs.
Linear Packs Are Better When You Don't Follow The Story
The Worlds Can Be Great, If You Do Something Else
The included Sims 4 worlds of Selvadorada and StrangerVille can be fairly fun to visit and explore on their own. Batuu is a bit more restrictive with the ever-present Star Wars theme, but can also work as a short trip. These places have interesting NPCs Sims to meet, skills to build up, and things to bring back to the main town.
The issue comes when actually focusing on the overarching goal of the pack. These tend to feel like a checklist with very little variety or challenge. Worst off, it doesn’t make for a new or interesting story. Once you know how such events progress and end, there is no longer any excitement left.
To spice things up, consider instead taking portions of those linear packs and tossing them in other neighborhoods. You could infect the celebrities of TS4: Get Famous with the bizarre fruit, or jungle curse a rival student from TS4: High School Years. It is rather hilarious to finally make it into the exclusive lounge of Studio PBP, only to see every member flailing about and shouting alien gibberish.
Exploring the temple of Selvadorada is also a nice means of getting rich quickly, especially for those who hate using cheats to simply gain Simoleans. Digging up individual treasures can be worth the effort, and there are larger caches behind just a few vine walls. Don’t think of it as a quest you need to rush to finish. Instead, gather what you can on one trip and then come back later in your TS4 save.
EA Should Not Make Another Linear Pack
Packs Have Had More Freedom For the Last Five Years
The last official linear style pack was TS4: Journey To Batuu released at the end of 2020. Since then, EA has made expansion packs and game packs much more free-form, allowing players to tackle goals in any order or push them to the side entirely. For example, it's easy to go through several in-game generations of TS4: Growing Together and not pick up every infant milestone.
TS4: Werewolves is still a linear adventure in some regards, with the option to concentrate on being the leader of one of the two werewolf packs and dominating the other. It's also possible to take your newly made lycanthrope and cause mischief in any other owned world, however, not just the confines of Moonwood Mill.
Now that it has been years since a linear storyline, EA should never return to these style expansions for The Sims 4. The game is so much more fun with random elements and surprises, not strict goals and outcomes. At minimum, linear aspects should be hidden behind more varied gameplay, making such tasks feel like side quests with little pressure to actually finish them.
