Over the past week I’ve become intimately familiar with the virtual life of a geeky tech-industry maven named Jess, who I gave wide, swishy hips and a sly smirk. As of this writing, she has completed the level 10 programming skill, felt sad once and happy 232 times, WooHooed only nine times, and had two kids with the husband she met at a bar. I’m having a hard time saying goodbye to her, admittedly, so I have her drinking anti-aging potions. I encounter this problem with a lot of Sims games, and this time it’s even worse (because a lot of things are better). But at the same time, The Sims 4’s lack of features and small world hasn’t let Jess live her life to the fullest. Even though it’s fun, it’s a big letdown that this sequel doesn’t inspire the same wow factor that The Sims 3 did when I first played it years ago.

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When I created Jess, I was immediately impressed by the appearance-customization options. Picking a Sim’s walk style, which can vary from “tough” to “feminine,” does a lot to express personality (and it’ll change to a slouch if they’re tired or an “I have to pee” walk when their bladders are uncomfortably full). The new Create-a-Sim in general is really intuitive, allowing you to push and pull at different parts of a Sim’s body in order to get the exact size and shape you’re looking for. I’m a huge believer in body positivity and beauty in all bodies, so seeing more realistic representations of various body types was really encouraging. I gave Jess thick thighs and hips and kept her upper body lean, because I finally could.I was disappointed, however, that I could give her only four total traits — three, if you don’t count the trait associated with her lifetime aspiration. That’s one fewer than The Sims 3 allows, or two if you have the University Life expansion. It turned out to be less of a problem than I’d imagined, though, because the addition of emotions makes a lot out of a little.Trying to get Jess a date was my first brush with the new emotional axis to Sims’ personalities, a system that successfully supplants traits as a more realistic way for Sims to live and interact. I quickly learned that Jess, who I gave the “romantic” trait, very easily swung into “flirty” feelings. Feeling flirty unlocked several fun interaction options, like posing seductively or taking a cold shower to quell thoughts of WooHoo. (Pro tip: Use some of the flirty options before jumping straight to WooHoo. In the spirit of realism, Sims will get a better mood boost from it afterward.) On the other hand, going too long without flirting made her “tense,” which opened up another set of actions.That’s the best thing about emotions in The Sims 4: They provide new contextual opportunities to Sims, like being able to tell a self-deprecating joke when embarrassed, and make a lot more sense than just having static interactions based on personality traits. It was a lot of fun to watch an energized Jess “mop like mad!” and kind of touching to see her inspired husband tell her about his dreams. It took me about 15 hours of playing with my crew of Sims to fully appreciate the complexity of Sim emotions, but now I’m really enjoying it.Of course, to get the most out of these interactions, you need to socialize, and to socialize, you need to leave the house. That’s why I’m so extremely disappointed with The Sims 4’s small, stifling world – every trip, even to a next-door neighbor’s house, brings up a short but jarring loading screen. It feels like a high-res version of The Sims 2, at least in this sense. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it is a shock to the system after exploring an entire town seamlessly in The Sims 3.Exacerbating that, there are only 10 public venues to visit between the two available neighborhoods, and most of them are duplicated. There are three variations on bars, two museums, two parks, two gyms, and a library, and because the world is so small, it felt like I kept running into the same few people no matter where I went. I thought Jess would be able to meet new people through work, but nope! Coworkers don’t really exist, as far as I can tell, even the ones Jess supposedly flirted with at work. In keeping with the tiny neighborhoods, careers are complete rabbit-holes – your Sim just vanishes from the curb in front of their house when it’s time to go to work. After meeting Jess’ future husband, Jamari, and deciding that he was the most eligible bachelor she was going to find (he had the “family-oriented” trait), I ended up keeping her at the house most of the time, which makes everything feel even smaller.On the bright side, thanks to the new-and-improved Sim multitasking, being a bit of a recluse wasn’t so bad. My second Sim creation, Juniper, would walk her bouncy self up to Jess’ door and keep her company as she worked on one programming project or another. Jess could code while chatting with Juniper, then eat while watching TV with Juniper and text Jamari while on the toilet (presumably about Juniper). Conversations, it follows, have a similar ease of flow. Jamari, a line cook, would come home and make food for Jess and Juniper while having a conversation with both of them, easily switching between blowing kisses at the former and telling jokes to the latter. It’s really nice to not have to micromanage Sims’ interactions at every turn, and it’s especially fun to watch where these more intelligent conversations go when you’re not interfering. On more than one occasion, I’ve watched Sims gain the “embarrassed” emotion while chatting because of a misguided romantic advance or a joke that no one really got.Are you ready for a break from the feels? Me too! On the absolutely non-emotional side of The Sims 4, Build Mode has been significantly improved over The Sims 3’s version. I was particularly excited about cabinet and counter customization; you can have super-cool half-counters to end a kitchen in a less abrupt way or half-cabinets for over the fridge. Trust me, it’s really cool. Probably more universally exciting are the ability to pick up entire rooms and move them anywhere on the lot without razing them to the ground and rebuilding them, and the push-and-pull tool (similar to body mod in Create-a-Sim) which allows you to move or resize an entire length of wall all at once. Some of the new tools are quirky, however — foundations are now applied retroactively, which is cool if you’re like me and don’t feel like demolishing an entire house just to add a porch, but they apply to every structure on the entire lot. This means no split-levels and no garages, but since there aren’t any cars in The Sims 4, the latter isn’t a huge deal.