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The Sims 4 Parenthood – Review

Written by Annabelli_22

The Sims 4 Parenthood is just around the corner! Tomorrow, May 30th, it will be released, and EA has been kind enough to give us a early access review copy.
We were already excited about this pack, so we are really happy to let you know what we thought of it.

The Sims 4 Parenthood is just around the corner! Tomorrow, May 30th, it will be released, and EA has been kind enough to give us a early access review copy.
We were already excited about this pack, so we are really happy to let you know what we thought of it.

Gameplay

This new game pack brings a lot of new gameplay with it, so to make it more readable, this part is divided by a few sections: Parenting skill, Character Values and Teaching Moments.

Parenting Skill

Not everyone is a natural parent, not even your Sims. Luckily, they can learn to be a better parent by developing the Parenting skill.
With each level your Parent Sims get more options.

    • Level 1 – Sim can now encourage kids’ behaviour and influence kids to clean. they can now reprimand bad behaviour by asking the child to not do that action, or simply yelling at the child to stop
    • Level 2 – Sim can now influence kids to do homework. Sim can now firmly tell not to do bad behaviour. They also can select more options when reacting to a Teaching Moment
    • Level 3 – Sim can help kids solve their basic motives like bladder, hygiene, and fun. Sim can also give parenting tips to other parents
    • Level 4 – Sim can now give Time Outs. Sim will have more information on how advice will impact their child’s development
    • Level 5 – Sim can now ground children who misbehave. For a softer approach, they can discuss the bad behaviour and hug it out. Sim also has access to more ways to solve kid’s motives
    • Level 6 – Sim can make other parents feel better when parenthood gets tough. When caring for babies Sim can now see what their baby needs
    • Level 7 – Sim can now more effectively solve their kids’ motives. Sim can also more effectively influence their children to perform certain actions
    • Level 8 – Sim now has a third option for all Teaching Moments. Sim also can more effectively perform discipline socials
    • Level 9 – Sim is now persuasive enough to always succeed in influencing kids to do an action, like cleaning the dishes. Sim also knows how all their advice in Teaching Moments will play out
    • Level 10 – Sim can perform the Super Efficient Baby Care interaction on babies to solve all of the babies needs at once. While performing a lot of parenting duties Sim can now enter Full Parent mode where their own needs won’t be much of a problem

Leveling the parenting skill can be done by “browse Parenting Forums” and “Research Parenting Methods” on a pc, or certain interactions with your Sims children. Giving parenting tips also raises your skill level bar.

2017-05-28 19_40_18-The Sims™ 4

I also had this really cute thing happening in my game. My child Sim was going through a phase. She had found her spirit animal and only wanted to be in a bear costume from then on. It even went as far that when she took a bath, it was “Un-bearable” to be without the costume. My parent Sim then had the option in the Parenting menu to “ask about the phase”.
My child Sim basically said, I just like being a bear, deal with it, you could join me by wearing a bear costume too. And after that the option appeared for my parent Sim to also wear a bear costume.
bear phase
un-bearable

Character Values, Traits and Aspiration

Toddlers, Children and Teens have Character Values to build and learn as they grow up. You can view their status in the Simology menu. It’s only available for toddlers to teens, once they age up to Young Adult, their Character Values meters disappear from the menu. And depending on how low or how high a Character Value is, your Sim can be awarded a positive or negative trait, but you have to work on them to get those traits.
There are 5 different Character Values:

  • Manners – traits: Good Manners or Bad Manners
  • Responsibilty – traits: Responsible or Irresponsible
  • Emotional Control – traits: Emotional Control or Uncontrolled Emotions
  • Empathy – traits: Compassionate or Insensitive
  • Conflict Resolution – traits: Mediator or Argumentative

 

2017-05-28 16_05_57-The Sims™ 4

Building the Character Values can be done by Parents rewarding or punishing certain actions, or your kids can perform good actions themselves, like clearing the dishes will reward manners, doing homework builds up responsibility.
A new items is the journal, and your Children or Teens can write in them to gain Emotional Control, it also raises Creativity (Children) or the Writing Skill (Teens and up).
But keep your journal hidden or on you, because other Sims can snoop in them as well!

There are no new traits in the sense that you can pick them in CAS, only the ones you can earn by either have bad Character Values, or good, but there is a new Aspriation!
Under Family there is now Super Parent. This focuses on raising your children and their Character Values and of course, the parenting skill.

2017-05-28 21_31_15-The Sims™ 4

Teaching Moments

Sometimes you get a pop up screen where your Sims Child asks a question, to get some advice. Depending on your parenting skill the amount of options vary, or how much information you get what answer has what sort of impact on the child’s development. These moments raise one Character Value, and lowers another.
Teaching moment 1

Teaching moment 2

Build/Buy

This pack is already quite full when it comes to game play, but they didn’t forget about the builders either. There’s actually a full new kitchen set + dining set, new sofas and coffeetables, desk for you Sims to do homework, and lots of items to clutter your house with.

The next images were made with only The Sims 4 Parenthood items. No other packs or basegame items were used, except for the floors (there is no new flooring with this Game pack)

01 Living room - showcase

02 Kitchen showcase

03 Bedroom showcase

04 bathroom showcase

items include:
A building table, to build on. It doesn’t build on any skill though, just can give the emotion buff “Construction Collaboration”.
Doctor playset. There are 2 designs for this one, the TummTumm Teddy and the BooBoo Billy, They build on Empathy and can only be used by children.
School projects. 7! different projects! A bridge, solar system, volcano, you name it. Working on this also builds on Responsibility, and depending on the project, different skills.
Parents can also assist their children with school projects. Kids have to start the project themselves, parents can’t do that, but parents can finish the projects for them.
Journal, to write down all your thoughts. Can be used by Children and up. Builds on Emotional Control, and Creativity/Writing skill.
Night Owl Toy Night Light, is a toy, a night light and it helps Children and toddlers to control their Emotions.

Create-a-Sim

Compared to the other things, CAS feels a bit bare, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing! This time, even toddlers got a new outfit! There are new hairs for children, teens and up, full outfits, pants, and tops. Toddlers only have 2 new full outfits though.
You can now also give your Sims some facial imperfections, like pimples!

Conclusion

Overall, I’m really impressed by this Game pack. It focusses on family play and offers a lot for it. There are new school projects your kids can do, together with their parents even.
The new Character Values really emphasizes on raising children into proper adults (or not so proper if that’s your game 😉 )

The Sims 4 Parenthood will release May 30th for the price of £14.99

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