The Sims 4 Has the Weakest Neighborhood Set-Up in the Series

The Sims 4 has improved features that it includes from previous games, but there’s still one element that’s more restricting than it has been in the past: neighborhoods. It’s natural that the series has changed with each new base game, especially with The Sims 1 turning 25, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be happy with every change that’s been made over the years. The way neighborhoods work in The Sims 4 is quite different compared to the rest of the series, but it’s unfortunate that neighborhoods feel more restricted than in the past, even if it’s for a good reason.

Depending on which expansions you have, you might have a handful of neighborhoods to choose from, or an overwhelming number of options. Either way, the basic idea for neighborhood design is the same regardless of which one you pick. You have the vibe for the location, such as the macabre feeling of the neighborhood added in the Life and Death expansion, and then you have lots, which can include both community and house lots. It’s consistent, but it removed a big feature that we saw in previous Sims games.

The Sims 4 Offers No Customization for Neighborhoods

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Compared to previous games, The Sims 4 lacks both the ability to meaningfully customize a neighborhood and the choice to place as many lots as you want in a neighborhood. This design choice was made for a good reason, but it feels more restricting than it needs to be. As a result of the restrictions placed on neighborhoods, the in-game world doesn’t feel as lively as it could, which can result in less immersion for players.

The reason behind this new set-up is simple. It helps the game run better no matter how many additional packs you add onto the base game. So, it’s a choice made for the purpose of optimizing the staggering amount of content you can have in The Sims 4. If you played The Sims 2 or The Sims 3, you might’ve already realized how much better The Sims 4 is at running and loading into its neighborhoods, even though it has more additional content than any previous base games received in the franchise.

The Problems that The Sims 4‘s Design fixes

If you haven’t played the older games, The Sims 2 had a problem when it came to loading screens. This didn’t only happen when you started installing expansions either, and it often felt like the game gave up on trying to load you in given for long you might end up staring at a loading screen. While it was frustrating at times, it wasn’t game-breaking. However, it could take longer to boot up the game if you packed your chosen neighborhood with lots, and that likely contributed to the design choices made in The Sims 4.

Then, you have The Sims 3, which arguably had bigger issues than The Sims 2, despite being a bit more modern. As content continued to be added to TS3, you would start getting pop-ups warning you that having too many expansions downloaded at once could cause issues when running the game. The Sims 3 allowed you to add lots similarly to The Sims 2, however, it had an open-world approach that let you roam around the entire neighborhood without loading screens, which was probably the biggest reason for the issues it had regarding running the game.

The Sims 4 Feels Restricting

Between the problems of The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, you can see how The Sims 4 is designed to avoid both of the biggest reasons they struggled to run. However, it would’ve been nice to see The Sims 4 take an approach that doesn’t feel as confining as neighborhoods currently do with the extreme limitations placed on them. That way, the world seems more alive and immersive, and you can have the chance to customize your worlds.

A better approach to take might’ve been somewhere between the extremes of what we see in The Sims 3 and The Sims 4. Putting loading screens between traveling to places likely lifts a chunk of the burden of running these games, even if that means separating the neighborhoods into sections for a happy medium between open-world designs and The Sims 2’s loading screens for any type of travel.

Additionally, The Sims 4 doesn’t allow you to move or place new lots in the world, even if it’s an empty lot you want to use for building. Instead of this style, it might’ve been effective to give players a limit regarding how many lots can be placed and how close together they can be. This could keep the game running smoothly, but also allow for at least a small amount of creativity in designing neighborhoods.

It’s unlikely that this design choice will change at this point, especially since The Sims 5 won’t be coming to replace The Sims 4. You also get benefits from the current design in the form of a decent gameplay experience. You have freedom to walk around outside lots since the world is smaller and less congested, and that helps ease the feeling of restraint. However, it would be nice to see at least one neighborhood added that lets you place as many lots as you want, just like in The Sims 2.