The Sims 4: Snowy Escape promises to be an exciting new expansion pack, but one of its most interesting features wasn’t properly showcased in the announcement trailer. The trailer shows Sims gathering around and laughing when one of their companions has a bug crawl on them, but there’s much more to that interaction than viewers realize.
This is the introduction to The Sims 4’s new “Sentiments” feature, which will be available with the release of Snowy Escape, but also come as a base game update. Some Sentiments will only be available with the new expansion, but overall all Sims players will get access to this feature. However, this new mechanic is also very reminiscent of the relationship system found in The Sims 2, which will delight many players.
The Sims 2 and its relationship mechanics were unique and added rich layers of interaction between Sims. All relationships between Sims were based on a numerical score that would fluctuate based on how often they interacted with each other. This score was calculated based on positive and negative interactions between them, and applied to other Sims, as well as their pets if players had the proper expansion pack installed.
The numerical score determined what level of friendship or romance the two Sims were at and had different labels and symbols to mark their score. Sims would start as “acquaintances,” then become “friends” before moving into the “best friend” category. Expanding on this, The Sims 2: Freetime introduced a brand new category, “best friends forever,” which wasn’t calculated based on the daily numerical score.
Oppositely, Sims with consistently unpleasant interactions would have a negative score and lead to the label “enemies,” notated with a frowning red face. If two Sims became enemies, speaking their Simlish language, it wasn’t easy to repair their relationship, but it could be accomplished. Because of the “Memories” system built into the game, players’ Sims would have a memory of why they didn’t like the other Sim and continue to be enemies with them.
Based on the gameplay demo that Game Rant previewed, the new Sentiments mechanic introduced in The Sims 4: Snowy Escape seems to draw inspiration from the close to the franchise’s roots. Sentiments seem to be attitudes Sims hold toward each other based on positive or negative experiences.
One of the Sims showcased in the gameplay demo had a “festering grudge” Sentiment against another Sim. This gave them a negative attitude toward one another and will presumably add depth to their interactions that’s been previously unseen in The Sims 4. With the negative comes positive, of course, so if Sims share positive Sentiments with one another their emotions can be affected by being in proximity to one another. Game Rant got to see this firsthand, where one Sim got the sad emotion moodlet because their family member was upset.
The gameplay demo covered a lot of material, but the Sentiments aspect is undoubtedly one of the most exciting aspects to be introduced into the game. Sims players have been wanting a mechanic like this, specifically citing The Sims 2 as inspiration, added to the game for a while now, so it’s exciting to see it come to life.
Though this was only a brief glimpse into Sentiments and how they’ll affect Sims in The Sims 4, it definitely seems to draw inspiration from The Sims 2’s well-developed relationship and memory system. Until players can get their hands on Snowy Escape, they can take a trip down memory lane by replaying The Sims 2 or start speculating how their Sims will be affected by Sentiments in their Sims 4 game.
The Sims 4: Snowy Escape is available for preorder now and releases on November 13 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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