Let’s get it out of the way now that The Sims 2 and The Sims 4 have quite a bit in common. The Sims 3, arguably the fan favorite, was a whole new milestone for the series. It introduced an open world that players could watch over like twisted gods. No longer would your sim disappear when leaving their house, you could follow them to work, the beach, a museum, anywhere. You didn’t have the loading screen reticulating its splines when walking across the street.
However, The Sims 4 decided to go back. Way back. To 2004. And they took heavy inspiration from its predecessor. Your sim wants to head across the street? Loading screen. Are you heading to your career? Your sim gets grayed out. It’s so similar to a game that came out 10 years prior, that it’s really quite incredible. It ends up feeling more like a sequel to 2 than 3 was.
Sure, there are some differences. Had EA not listened to fan complaints, The Sims 4 wouldn’t have pools or family trees, both of which were in The Sims 2 from the get go. The Sims 2 also featured body mass shifts depending on the diet of your sim, not just how much they work out.
What’s interesting to note is that The Sims 2 has been out for 12 years. Thus, it has all of the expansions behind it. So not only is The Sims 4 basically The Sims 2, it’s worse because it doesn’t have all of the expansions you could play right now. Let’s take a look at every expansion and how it changes the dynamics of the game.
Open For Business
With this expansion, your sims can become entrepreneurs. You’ll be able to open up a shop and run it like any business. You’ll choose what you sell, what the shop looks like, who you hire, who you fire, and who you train. Use your sims’ talents to make toys, arrange flowers, or build robots for some more cash. All of this goes towards your business ranking, so you need to make sure to keep your customer satisfaction and loyalty up. This expansion also introduced Servo bots to The Sims 2 that could become a part of your sims’ families.
Pets
The iconic expansion pack that introduced furry companions returned with The Sims 2: Pets. This time around, they weren’t just there to look cute. No, no, they actually could have jobs and had traits and skills of their own. Not only cats and dogs, either, but hamsters and fish and birds of all shapes and sizes.
The Sims 4 has been out for more than a year now and still you can’t have pets. No German Shepard best friend for you. No bug catching cat. No stable of horses (well, this one was introduced in The Sims 3).
Bon Voyage
This expansion was the predecessor to the fan favorite World Ambitions for The Sims 3. It allowed your sims to break from their daily routines and see the world while on vacation in three different destinations. Your sims could learn from the locals, see new sights, order room service/massages, lounge in a hot tub, buy souvenirs, and even have legitimate honeymoons now. Also with this expansion came beach lots that could be placeable wherever there was room for them.
The Sims 4 currently doesn’t have beaches nor the ability to vacation.
University
Send your teen sim off to College when they’re ready for it in The Sims 2 with University. This expansion allowed you to have young adult sims now that studied one of numerous majors at a university. They could live in a house or in a free dorm and spend their days studying, slacking off, partying, or working on their skills. Upon graduating, your sim could apply to new careers that are introduced that wouldn’t be available to sims without a degree. These special ones have your sims getting career rewards (similar to The Sims 4’s item rewards for reaching a certain position in a career). This expansion even introduces a whole new life state where resurrected sims could end up being zombies.
So far, there’s no higher education in The Sims 4.
FreeTime
FreeTime was all about leisure for The Sims 2. It introduced a whole new bar to your HUD as you played the game: the Lifetime Aspiration bar. It let you know how happy your sim was with their life in general so far. This helped your sim get more and more aspiration points to spend on stuff like slower mood decay or easier social interactions. It also allowed your sim to get a secondary aspiration that unlocked a new sub tree of benefits you could spend points on.
Ten hobbies were introduced with the game that triggered when your sim did actions pertaining to that hobby. The more they enjoyed spending time with that hobby, the more their enthusiasm for it would increase. This unlocked new social interactions and, if it was high enough, a boost in mood while partaking in that hobby. Oh, and new careers, the Parenting skill, and Genies were now a thing.
In The Sims 4, my sim only cares about gaming because it’s the easiest one to access to fulfill fun in my house. It’s not deemed a hobby for her.
Nightlife
The Sims 2: Nightlife allowed your sims to spend their weekend nights over in the glamorous, new downtown area. Sure, The Sims 4 has clubs, dating, and awesome DJ parties (thanks, Get Together), but does it have the Grilled Cheese Aspiration?
No. No it does not.
Seasons
The Sims 4 came with fishing and gardening, yes, but The Sims 2: Seasons added in four different seasons and weather conditions like rain. Your sim needed to be dressed appropriately for each kind of weather, and you could do special interactions outside depending on whichever one was currently happening. Plus, PlantSims, guys. Come on.
It’s just crazy to think that a game that released in 2014 could have started off pretty much the same as a game that released in 2004. Seeing as how they’re so similar anyway, why not just play with the version that has way more expansions and more that you could do?
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