While others have been shouting about toddlers, I’ve been far more interested in another T word – Transylvanians! Vampires are back, and better than ever.
I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy so we can review it.
CAS
Not only do vampires bring new hair, clothes and make up, but there are some new CAS options allowing you to create your perfect vampire. Vamps have an optional Dark Form – so you can either have the same look round the clock, or change into a spookier appearance when vamping out. New vampire specific looks include glowing eyes, and a variety of facial features, such as sunken eye sockets, veins, and a furrowed brow.
My one disappointment? There doesn’t seem to be any way of taking an already created Sim from the gallery and changing them in CAS. Creating as human, and having them changed seems to be the only way to go, although newly created human sims may get night time visitors!.
Objects
The new World for Vampires is Forgotten Hollow, and features five residential lots set around a park area. Two lots come pre-inhabited with Vampire families, two are unoccupied lots for your Sims to move straight into, and one is an empty lot ready for you to do what you want with.
Furniture ties in with a slightly darker version of Vintage Glamour; these vampires are definitely Old School Hollywood vampires. There’s also a lot of fun decor, cobwebs and holes in the wall that not only give the vampire estates a run down feel, but would tie into some of the lower end apartments, too!
A couple of new lot traits also help to create the perfect atmosphere for your vampire lair! Becoming a Registered Vampire Lair allows you to receive gifts from the League, setting the Vampire Nexus trait means more vampires are likely to visit, and being On A Dark Leyline influences nocturnal activities and their results.
Gameplay
There’s a few things differentiate Vampires from regular Sims. They have different needs, just 5 of them. Hygiene, Social and Fun remain, and are joined by Thirst and Vampire Energy.
Vampires have ranks, and to climb the ranks, well, act like a vampire! Learning about, and using your vampire skills allow you to gain power points, which you use to level up, and choose powers. But, with great power comes great responsibility, and to balance the powers, you must also choose occasional weaknesses. Like traits, some of these conflict with each other, so the sun resistance power will conflict with the thin skinned weakness, meaning you can’t choose both.
Vampires don’t keep to the same kind of schedules as regular Sims, and I found mine had less downtime. Building relationships early is a good idea if you want sims to be willing plasma donors, although you don’t need to ask permission, you can compel sims to allow you to feed.
Having played The Sims 4 Vampires all weekend, I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. Hopefully, this gives you a brief flavour of what they’re like and the fun I’ve been having, watch out for a more in depth article soon!
The Sims 4 Vampire Game Pack is available Tuesday 24th January.
Leave a Comment