The Sims 4 may be tootling alongside merrily, however it’s now over ten years outdated and followers are getting more and more impatient for readability on what’s subsequent for the franchise – notably given EA’s considerably confounding communications on the matter. Amid all this, in depth footage of EA’s new The Sims “recreation idea” have now surfaced on-line, fuelling all types of disappointment as followers ponder a actuality the place the way forward for The Sims is, in reality, only a cheesy trying cell recreation.
To recap, EA first started discussing its “subsequent technology” Sims recreation, codenamed Mission Rene, again in 2022. This, many assumed, can be The Sims 5 – till, that’s, EA introduced Mission Rene wasn’t The Sims 5, that The Sims 5 wasn’t occurring, and that no matter Mission Rene was would as a substitute co-exist alongside The Sims 4. It additionally teased a bunch of “cosy video games, social and collaborative primarily based gameplay, [and] cell narrative video games” coming below The Sims banner, earlier than revealing Mission Rene (no matter it was) would start playtesting quickly.
Within the six months since then, playtest footage has sporadiaclly leaked on-line, leaving followers largely unimpressed. And it appears unlikely the sudden inflow of recent gameplay footage (as flagged by PC Gamer) will change that, given the tasteless visuals, limitless reward-incentivised to-do lists, and front-and-centre forex focus feels extra like a free-to-play cell pockets squeezer than a very “next-generation” The Sims recreation.
Metropolis Life Recreation with Pals gameplay.Watch on YouTube
EA describes the playtest – formally titled Metropolis Life Recreation With Pals over on Google Play – as “small elements of a bigger recreation idea”. And the newly shared footage focuses on the identical multiplayer-enabled plaza location we have seen in quite a few leaks earlier than, solely now festooned with much more garish free-to-play model window dressing as gamers stroll round, strike up conversations, and hand out just a few muffins. It is not particularly inspiring stuff – and given EA’s refusal to make clear the character of the challenge, it is unclear how horrified followers ought to truly be.
All this, in fact, comes as developer Krafton’s extremely anticipated The Sims competitor InZoi launches into Steam early entry. And whereas I wasn’t particulary impressed with InZoi throughout my time with it final month, it is unlikely anybody’s going to be dazzled by something resembling EA’s Metropolis Life Recreation with Pals when Krafton’s recreation is round.
