The Sims 4: Parenthood Review (LavandeSunn)
For context, I really enjoy The Sims 4 despite having grown up with The Sims 3. Almost every piece of DLC I own was either bundled or bought on sale.
Parenthood is a really great pack, imo. It deepens gameplay in ways we've not really seen in previous entries in the series, and does so logically. The mechanics make sense, and provide a sense of accomplishment. Essentially, children and teens have five meters that increase or decrease depending on their actions or the actions of the parent. Increasing them sufficiently awards a positive trait upon entering adulthood, while decreasing them sufficiently awards them a negative trait. These values can be raised and lowered by various interactions, but will most often be affected by calls the parent(s) receive while the child is at school. The situation varies wildly, but most of the solutions you as a parent can come up with will affect the Empathy trait, more often than not lowering it.
You as a parent also have access to the parenting skill, which allows for better understanding of how to parent your sim children, along with extra interactions between parents and children.
And lastly, phases and mood swings are added to the game. Children will enter phases like Picky Eater, or the dreaded Bear phase, in which theyll constantly wear a bear costume. Off putting? Absolutely. Inconvenient? Perhaps. Realistic? You better believe it. Teens will have mood swings as well. These are always negative moods and carry a hefty +50 effect, so you will never be able to replace them until they wear off.
PROS:
- New skill: parenting
- deeper interactions between parents and children
- extremely rewarding traits are given to sim children depending on how you raise them
- unique teaching opportunities to greatly affect your child's development
- some of the trait values are easy to raise by simple, everyday tasks like doing homework or cleaning dishes
- really nice CAS and build items
- parenting skill makes interacting with toddlers and babies MUCH easier
- phases are oddly charming, and often realistic
- played extensively, have not encountered any pack-specific bugs to my knowledge in a mid-tier PC (AMD Ryzen 5, Nvidia GTX 1660Ti, 16gb RAM, 1TB SSD)
CONS:
- about three of the five trait values are extremely difficult to raise (conflict resolution, empathy, and manners) and easily fall, especially during teen years.
- parenting skill most often affects how discipline is given, and if you have free will turned off or just have sims with mostly positive traits, this is largely useless
- mood swings are common and can be deeply annoying. this makes sense though, so i'm not sure if this even a real drawback or just a healthy dose of realism
- parenting aspirations are difficult to complete, as at least one involves entering "full parent mode", which can only be entered by performing several disciplinary interactions in a row. if your sim children are decently behaved, you have to make them perform bad actions yourself, which lowers those trait values, just so your sim can have a shot at entering full parent mode. super weird
- those phone calls from school get reeeeeeeeeal old reeeeeeeal fast, as they often ruin your progress and effort towards raising trait value. The hits are enormous as well, and will instantly drop them out of range of getting the according trait.
- have a child with a trait value in range of receiving a trait does NOT affect gameplay until they become a young adult. you have to completely raise them from child to adult to actual reap any rewards.
Overall an excellent pack that could've benefited from a little deeper thought and planning, as some of the design choices do not equate to fun, and only cause frustration. As always, buy on sale.