Molly's Blog

This is my master list of Sims 4 expansion packs and will do individual lists for stuff packs, game packs, and kits. I am ranking them Yes or No depending on whether or not I think it is worth adding to your game!

The Sims 4: Growing Together

• Release Date: March 16, 2023
• Price: $40.00
• Concept: Adds additional furniture, CAS items, and family gameplay

As a family simmer, I really enjoyed playing this expansion because it adds one of my favorite things from The Sims 2: memories. You get a memory for things like starting a new job, having a baby, loosing your first tooth, and more! The price made me baulk a little because some things in this expansion I think should be in the base game. For example, you cannot have a changing table or have those aforementioned memories unless you own this pack.

Treehouses are also something people have been longing for as well as a better high chair (still waiting with baited breath) and I think this pack does a lot of things correctly. I enjoyed the new community lot and the new neighborhood mostly because EA partnered with creators in the community to build their lots.

The pack is buggy and a great example is having kids learning to ride a bike. More than once they biked up the stairs and clipped in and out of the walls of the house riding their bike. Some of the infant milestones where they learn new things were also not registering at certain points. When the game first released, I was having an issue where my sims kept picking up infants from sleep or the play mat and dropping them on the ground

Verdict: Yes, if you can afford the hefty price tag

The Sims 4: High School Years

• Release Date: July 28, 2022
• Price: $40.00
• Concept: The Sims 4 teens have been left by the wayside for awhile so this pack aims to add new things for teens to enjoy like clothing, hairstyles, jobs, after school activities, prom, thrift stores, and an active high school where you can travel with your teen sims to class

This pack was one that I was not expecting, but I bought it anyway to see if there were some new and cool gameplay mechanics. However, this game not only disappointed me, but it also made my game a bit worse.

First, the good. I really like the new furniture and clothing for teen sims. Although I am a millennial and do not understand what i fashionable now, I can definitely see where teens would love the fashion. I also love the new career options like streamer and fashion influencer as it adds a bit of the 21st century to gaming.

The rest of the pack seems lackluster and half-baked. The high school that came with the pack is really ugly and empty, the classes were boring, and if I get one more notification about social bunny, I am going to lose it. The pack is also super glitchy in terms of the prom and class performance so much so that it is not worth the headache to even go to class with them.

Verdict: No

The Sims 4: Cottage Living

• Release Date: July 22, 2021
• Price: $40.00
• Concept: Time to move to the country in this expansion where you can look after chickens, cows, and large crops at your home. They added features like small quests for the townsfolk of the new Henford On Bagley neighborhood and grocery deliveries. New festivals in this neighborhood for farm animals and their produce.

I absolutely love this pack! The new oversized crops, chickens, llamas, cows, simple living lot trait (where you cannot cook meals unless you have all the ingredients), side quests, new neighborhood, build/buy, CAS, and more! I could not live the cottage core life in my actual life so it is perfect to live out those dreams in the sims.

This pack isn’t just for looks either, I believe the simple living trait really adds some challenge to your gameplay and it reminds me of the Sims 2 where you had to frantically order groceries when your fridge runs out and your pregnant sim is next to death.

Verdict: Absolutely Yes

The Sims 4: Snowy Escape

• Release Date: November 12, 2020
• Price: $40.00
• Concept: Travel to a Japanese-inspired world for festivals, vending machines, and slopes as your sims rock climb, snow board, sled, and hike your way through snow covered mountains.

This pack was a hit or miss for me personally. I love the CAS and build/buy items, but the gameplay has left me wanting. Lifestyles are new in this pack and when you do this over and over again, it builds up the type of lifestyle you live and affects your sims’ moodlets. It takes a bit too long to build up and it doesn’t really affect gameplay significantly.

The Snowboarding reminds me of The Sims 1 Vacation, but that pack also came with mountains and beach vacations. This is just another instance of EA breaking up packs to, I assume, get more money from simmers.

Verdict: No (probably)

The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle

• Release Date: June 4, 2020
• Price: $40.00
• Concept: Dive into dumpsters in a new world where the focus is sustainability or industrial revolution! Create items with the fabricator using recycled materials, create fizzy sodas with fruit, change your neighborhood’s eco footprint, and more! This is for all the hippies out there

This expansion couldn’t have come at a better time than 2020 during the Pandemic. People were re-evaluating if they actually wanted to keep living in the city with a bunch of people or start a farm in Kansas. I myself starting composting around this time when I bought my home because I was thinking more sustainably.

This pack was underwhelming in many ways and surprisingly integral in some key areas of gameplay. The eco footprint means nothing in a neighborhood and it is near impossible to make a giant smoke city. Neighborhood ordinances are a huge nuisance in my game so I definitely just turned them off. Lastly, the career is not as hands-on and I would have liked and ironically hands-off for a career that deals in the environment.

There are a some key features and build/buy mode items that I use still in most of my builds. One of the best is the horizontal gardens where you can plant two seeds and even keep them indoors so they can bloom during any season. I really enjoyed making those fizzy sodas and it looked really cool when they came out in their own little six pack. I didn’t delve too much into fabrication but the furniture actually looked super nice. Water collectors, solar panels, and generators are an interesting mechanic especially when you create an off-the-grid lot where you can’t use anything that requires water or electricity. Lastly, dumpster diving for furniture, food, etc was a great addition to the game and a fun surprise when I found something good.

Verdict: Yes