The Sims is, without a doubt, one of the best-selling games of all time. It’s in a league of its own as the frontrunner of life simulation games. It continues to enjoy this privilege today with its domination of the life simulation genre. To further cash in on the success of The Sims, EA launched The Sims Mobile in March 2018.
The Sims Mobile: Overview
The Sims Mobile is a free-to-play mobile port of the original PC Sims games. This means that its gameplay is largely similar to the original games. You can create your own characters, build and decorate your house, as well as socialize.
In the Sims Mobile, you author the lives that your Sims lead. Complete quests to advance your Sims’ careers, hobbies, and even their relationships. To emphasize the multi-generational aspect of The Sims, The Sims Mobile introduces family heirlooms that can be passed down from generation to generation in a single family.
You can also host fun parties that other Sims can attend. By socializing with other Sims, you can earn rewards and develop relationships with other people. There’s even the option of inviting other Sims to live with you or move in with them.
The Sims Mobile vs The Sims on PC
Being a mobile port, The Sims Mobile is of course more limited than the PC version. There are many differences you can find between the two games. Here are some of the most prominent differences:
Focus on Fewer Characters
In the PC version, you can control multiple Sims. There is no limit to the number of characters you can control and the number of households you can maintain. Being a mobile port, The Sims Mobile imposes a limit of up to four Sims you can control up to at a time.
These four Sims are also part of the same family, which translates into you managing just one household. If you tire of any of your Sims at any point in their lives, you have the choice to retire them.
By retiring a Sim, they’ll initially hang around your house and you can select special actions to perform with them. They will eventually depart and you’ll never see them again. This makes way for the next generation in your family to take the place of your old Sims.
Quests and Events
Unlike the PC games, The Sims Mobile gives you quests that are known as events. Events have three categories: career, hobby, and relationship. Only one hobby and career can be assigned to a Sim, but you can take more than one relationship events at any given time.
You can assign your Sims to complete different events in one sitting. Just assign your Sim to do the event, and they’ll finish it on their own without your supervision. Doing events means that you’ll progress passively even when you’re not actively playing the game.
If you wish to speed up the completion of events, you’re free to consume energy that recharges over time. Once you complete an event, you’re awarded XP and your Sim’s story will progress.
Player Level and Vanity Level
Your player level in The Sims Mobile indicates how far you’ve progressed in the game. Gaining XP and leveling up will help you unlock content, such as new parts of the town, new careers, and new furniture.
With each new furniture item you unlock, you can further decorate your house with new items. Decorating your house and buying new clothes for your Sims will increase their vanity level. This is a statistic that shows how far you are compared to your friends in-game. A higher vanity level also awards you with more room in your house.
Vanity level also influences social interactions, with higher levels unlocking better responses that will advance your game progress.
Sim Needs and Wants
Perhaps the biggest difference between The Sims Mobile and its PC counterpart is Sim needs. In the PC games, your Sims have needs and wants that constantly need to be monitored and satisfied.
In the Sims Mobile, this feature is removed entirely, rendering the functions of furniture like beds, showers, and TVs useless. Furniture has essentially become purely cosmetic in this game; while you can still interact with them, they do nothing to improve your Sims’ quality of life.
The removal of needs and wants is a deliberate choice. The Sims Mobile isn’t meant to be played for long hours and is instead designed for short bursts of gameplay. Events and character stories take the place of this feature, helping you make progress in the game.
Progressing Your Story
The fact that The Sims Mobile focuses more on fewer characters means that they can be given more depth. Each individual Sim has their own life story, which you progress by completing events.
The good thing about events is that they always have an impact. Each quest you do determines how the life of your Sims will proceed. From landing your first job to getting a significant other, the events you play will always play a significant role.
You can even have a baby that you can raise all the way from infancy to old age. And then, when you feel like you want to raise the next generation of your Sims family, you may retire your old Sims.
Throwing Fun Parties
What The Sims Mobile has that other Sims games don’t is the ability to throw fun parties. The parties that can be thrown are thematic. As an example, if the hobby of your Sims is playing guitar, then you can throw music parties.
Parties are thrown when your Sims get married, too. And the best thing about parties is that you can invite other players and have the party in real time. While most of the actions your Sims will be taking at the party are automated, you still have the ability to chat with other participants in real time.
What Can You Do in The Sims Mobile?
Although the Sims Mobile may be a different experience from the PC Sims games, they still have many things in common. Here are some of the most distinct similarities:
Socialize With Strangers
Just like in the original games, you have the ability to socialize with other characters. Some relationship events also require you to talk to other people. Through socializing, you can reap rewards for your Sims.
When you socialize with other Sims, you can immediately choose how to act around them. You can be friendly towards them, try your hand at romance with them, or even be confrontational. The choices you make in your first interaction with a Sim will determine how all your future interactions with them will go.
There are also romantic stories for you to develop relationships with other Sims. Once you’ve progressed far enough into a romantic story, your Sim can potentially gain a significant other. Further down the line, you can even get married in the Sims Mobile, fulfilling a quest where the main goal is literally to get married.
Decorate Your Home and Dress Up Your Sims
One of the most thrilling things about the Sims is building your own house. This is still a defining feature of The Sims Mobile, where you can decorate and furnish your own house. Leveling up will give you more extravagant pieces of furniture to decorate your house.
Dressing up your Sims is also really enjoyable. There’s a whole wardrobe of costumes available for you to try out for your Sims each time you level up. Occasionally, characters you’re interacting with will comment on how your Sim looks.
The better your Sim and house look, the higher your vanity level will rise. And the higher your vanity level, the more house space and quests you’ll receive. The system is a loop, so it never feels like your efforts have been in vain.
Problems With The Sims Mobile
While The Sims Mobile is a fairly enjoyable game for the most part, it’s not perfect. The game has its fair share of flaws, which we’ll cover as follows:
Useless Furniture
As previously mentioned, furniture is mostly cosmetic. While they do help you to level up, they don’t do much else after that. You can interact with furniture, yes, but there’s no tangible incentive to do so.
Lack of Story Options
While there are stories in The Sims Mobile, they are repetitive and lackluster. For instance, when you meet a Sim, there are only three options you can select. If you’re friendly with them, your relationship will more often than not remain just as friends, and if you decide to be confrontational, the Sim you’re interacting with will detest you.
The Sims Mobile misses out on what made PC games so great in this regard. The fact that you know how things are going to go every single time makes interactions uninteresting.
Lack of Player Rewards and Progression
Leveling up at the start is easy, but as you progress, it becomes increasingly difficult. It then gets to a point where you feel like you aren’t making any more progress. You can either wait a long time to level up or spend money to level up, but this does nothing to boost your experience.
In the early game, there are tons of rewards because you’re still new to the game. But down the line, the system deprives you of proper rewards and simply gives you mundane rewards that you already own in excess.
Constant Microtransactions
At the start of the game, the microtransactions aren’t tempting at all. Just as you think you can continue to play for free, the game quickly presents you with one microtransaction opportunity after another. Their appearance is pretty strategic too, designed to convince you to spend to quickly make progress in your game.
Our Verdict
Below is the summary of the pros and cons of The Sims Mobile.
Pros
- – Socialize With Strangers
- – Decorate Your Home and Dress Up Your Sims
- – Progress Your Story
- – Throw Fun Parties
Cons
- – Useless Furniture
- – Lack of Story Options
- – Lack of Player Rewards and Progression
- – Constant Microtransactions
Is The Sims Mobile Worth Your Time?
The Sims Mobile starts out as a fun game, but once you invest time and energy into it, you’ll quickly begin to realize its repetitive nature. Progression will stall after a while as well, and you’ll find yourself either wanting to purchase microtransactions or leaving the game entirely.
If you’re a patient person looking for something to pass the time, the Sims Mobile might be for you. Although it doesn’t have most of the elements that made the PC Sims games great, the game is still fun in its own right.
Or if you’re a parent who wants to show their kid how the world works, the Sims Mobile might be the perfect game. However, the Sims Mobile isn’t for people who are looking for a mobile game that they can play for a long time. But at the very least, it’s worth checking out.
