Sims 4 CAS Demo: Initial Thoughts (Part 2)

Following on from my previous post, I now want to share the second and third Sims I created during my first play with the demo.

My first Sim, Sophia, gave me a good idea of how the system worked. I wanted my second Sim to be a bit more work. A lot of my Sims in that game look suspiciously similar, so I wanted to do something a little different.

I took my time, tweaking features here and there, until Ana Zheng was born. I am pretty happy with how she turned out.

Whilst my experience with this demo is very limited so far, I have found that something very interesting happens to me when creating my Sims. As I shape their features, they start to form a personality in my mind. Ana started out very differently, but I tweaked her cheekbones and she suddenly went from sweet to fierce. The next thing I knew, she'd gone from an innocent, promising painter, to a sharp-tongued aspiring writer with purple hair.

And here lies another improvement on the Sims 3. It used to be that I would think up a Sim in my head, give them a back story and something to aspire to. I'd spend an hour or longer in CAS trying to make them look different to my other Sims, and then I'd stick them with a few traits that would help them achieve what I'd decided for them. But really, the traits barely mattered at all. I could pick any Sim and give them any goal and any "personality", and it wouldn't really make the blindest bit of difference. I could use the same Sim over and over with a different set of traits and a different make up story, and it would always feel fine. The two were not cohesive.

I look at Ana, and I look at the available traits and goals, and I think "No, she's not the kind of woman who's number one goal is to have a family - she wants to write and she wants to make a living out of it." I don't know how well this will translate into the game, but even just from CAS, it feels more believable.

An example of one of the existing sleepwear styles

Ana's eyebrows are a good way to illustrate what I meant in my earlier post. I'd rather have her brows a light, taupey brown. The only problems is, all of the lighter browns and the darker blondes are quite reddish. They don't suit this hair colour at all. The lighter blond is ok, but I don't think it looks right on Ana. An ashy light brown or darker blonde would be appreciated.

Ana may have purple hair and wear bold makeup, but she balances this out with her clothing. Her casual wear is very neutral, her formal wear is very toned down and elegant. She's got a wild side, but she knows how to be professional.

Formal Wear

I picked her sleepwear from one of the pre-styled looks. I think this one is very cute, and definitely belies a part of Ana's personality that she doesn't bare to the outside world.

I feel like Ana is a woman with many layers, and only the few people in her innermost circle really know her. Someone might assume one thing of her from the neck up, but then another from the neck down. Her party outfit is one of my favourites. The dress is pretty and classy, but edgy. She plays up the edgy side of the dress by pairing it with fishnets and boots, but then emphasises the classy, almost elegance of the dress by styling her hair in glamorous waves and adding a classic red lip alongside her signature blue liner.

Even though we no longer have CASt, I've found it pretty easy to make a look that fits together. With the exception of some of the makeup, I don't think I would be reaching for CASt at all if it was available.

Ana is definitely going to be in my very first Sim household. Creating her has made me even more excited for the launch of the game. I look forward to building her skills and watching her career take off. I want to see how she reacts in certain situations, and I want to see how she interacts with her friends and family.

One thing I am not at all crazy about in this game is the walk styles. I don't think I've seen anyone get excited over those. The Feminine walk is OK, but I'm not sold on the rest of them. They're pretty distracting. I think subtle variations on the normal walk would have been better. The walks themselves, as you'll have seen from videos, are very obvious. I think that they are too defining a feature to really put them to use. You might have a Sim who's a bit snooty, but once you give them the walk that matches that aspect of their personality you're pretty much overriding anything else that might be good about them. That snobby Sim might have a softer side to them, but once you have them walking around with their nose in the air, you won't see anything else.

Classy with an Edge

The voices you can choose for your Sims are much better than they were before. There are three types of voice to choose from, and you can adjust the pitch for each. I think all of them are useable, and each one does lend itself to your Sim's personality. I could never really tell the difference between them before, and rarely bothered changing the voice at all.

I'm very impressed with the way Ana turned out, and how easy she was to create. She definitely stirred the Sim Story-Teller within me, and I can't wait to play out her story. I get the feeling that this game is going to feel a lot less hollow, and maybe this time my decisions will be based around my Sim, and how they would react to the situations I put them in.



Emma