The Sims 4: StrangerVille Review

There’s something happening in StrangerVille.

If it’s not obvious, I don’t do many game reviews or talk about games a lot. I grew up playing Super Mario Bros. and Roller Coaster Tycoon and that’s pretty much it, but I also enjoy playing The Sims. It’s more of a way for me to de-stress and play out storylines, sometimes to test possible book ideas and see where the characters go with it, other times I just like building houses.

And as soon as the StrangerVille trailer released, I wanted to do a review, but so it doesn’t get too long, I’m just going to put down my pros and cons of the pack and whether I think it’s worth it.

I’ll also be posting some screenshots of the Sims I played with and using them as examples.

Join Us At The Crater

The Sims 4: StrangerVille is a game pack that allows you to play out a storyline involving an infection surrounding the new town of StrangerVille. Sims walk around, talk, and look strange and it all seems to be surrounding a lab in the middle of a crater in this desert town.

Your Sim can join the military career and use their rank to infiltrate the lab as well as learn the secret to the mysterious plants and cloud in the sky.

I managed to play through the entire storyline. The longer it goes on, the more you get into the gameplay and wanting to know how to stop the infection. After watching some Youtubers with their lets plays, I wanted to learn the secret for myself before getting spoiled.

My Sims are Leo and Aqua, two childhood friends who loved conspiracy theories. They grew apart over time, but word of StrangerVille got out and brought them back together, and they moved there to uncover the secret. Leo planned to join the military career and Aqua spent more time indoors, hacking on her laptop and growing the odd plants in her garden.

It wasn’t long before the infected started coming to our door (well, for the Welcome Wagon.) You can try to talk to them and even slap them out of it, which may last for a few seconds, but doing this won’t get your Sim infected. There’s a whole other way that can happen.

Leo did more of the heavy work, talking to Sims around town from conspiracy theorists to the military and scientists. Even this mail woman who I definitely wanted her to get with, but after the mystery was solved.

Eventually, you make it to the lab and uncover the secret that’s hiding underground, but it doesn’t stop there and the work that needs to be done to save the town gets bigger and the more you uncover, the more people get possessed…including Aqua. It was a sad time.

Pros

What got my attention and probably everyone else’s is the new way of playing the game. Uncovering the mystery of StrangerVille and doing different tasks to find the answers. I liked going around town, talking to new Sims, and coming across those infected/possessed (however you want to say it.) I’d like to see this more often, maybe not as a whole pack, but I’ll get into that later.
I actually like the world. I know some people compared it to Oasis Springs, but it feels more western and secluded with the mountains surrounding the town.

The Create-a-Sim items are great. I wasn’t expecting so much, but you get a lot for women AND men and they fit the pack. Not much for children though, but they don’t have a big part in this pack in general. I don’t think children or teens can get infected. I didn’t see any but I also didn’t try it out.
Some of the build/buy items became favorites of mine. We got a new fence, one being more simplistic and other fancier versions that I feel I’m going to use often. Also, laptops, the decor/clutter items, and a bathtub planter, all of which I used in my build.

A new career/aspiration/trait is always great.
The number of lots. I’m someone who either builds from scratch or renovates a pre-made building so I would’ve been happy with mostly empty lots, but either way, it makes up for Get Famous. I also loved the trailer park.
The different ways to play this storyline can be fun and creative. I was thinking while exploring the lab, “Could I bring a drone in here?” Would someone be able to record everything going on? Or instead of one Sim, you could create a family or have another write books about StrangerVille?
The infection itself is creepy and I loved that the further you got along in the story, like the deeper you dig, the worse it gets. The sky and air changed, the number of plants grew, and more townies got infected.
The graphics and animation, especially of the plants and the thing controlling everyone.

Cons

This being a one-time mystery means this is a one-time thing. Like I said, you could create different Sims to go through the storyline, maybe playing it a different way each time, but for the most part, it’s always the same.
And this takes me back to wanting more of these storylines within the Sims. Maybe they could create new ones for us to play out but just add them with a patch and not a whole pack. Or just keep it within StrangerVille. It could be like Gravity Falls and weird stuff just attracts to it. I don’t know how hard this would be to put into the game, but it was a thought.
This is a personal thing, but I wish the trailer park had more lots. Rather than giving us pre-made houses that already existed in the game, just give us a bigger trailer park. It was different and I loved the other trailers around it.
A lot of empty houses is one of the first complaints I heard about. Like I said, I usually end up renovating them anyway, but I can see why this can be annoying. Just empty rooms with no furniture?
I didn’t think about this until writing this post, but did anyone encounter the crashed airplane lot and the guy living there? Was that something I missed? I thought he’d have a reason for being in the game like we’d have to go talk to him, but it never happened to me.
I honestly wish there was more to the story. It already seems like a lot, but just personally, I wanted to play it out even longer with more investigating.

Is It Worth It?

It’s a pretty easy answer: if you don’t like this type of stuff, then it won’t be for you. Granted, it’s not that supernatural, but if you watched the trailer and didn’t like the look of the Sims or having to play through a mystery, then it won’t be for you.

If you’re on the fence, and I was at first, I watched some lets plays and immediately got into the story so much that I wanted to find it out for myself, so that’s the best answer I can give. When it comes to my type of gaming style, it’s right up my alley.

But overall, it’s a nice change up from the regular type of gameplay. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and hopefully, they can add more to it in the future. Even after you finish the mystery, StrangerVille is a nice play for your Sims to live or visit. Do I wish there was more? Yes, maybe some more items would’ve made me feel better for the $20 amount, but overall, I can see myself playing through again.

My gallery username is meaganlamb if anyone’s interested in looking at my builds or giving me a follow. I’m just starting to upload more since I feel more confident and some things are under CC despite not having CC.