The Sims 4 has been officially unveiled with a six minute gameplay trailer.
We saw our first footage of the The Sims 4 amongst a series of brief clips at the beginning of EA’s presentation at Gamescom, and we didn’t have to wait too much longer to get a decent look at The Sims 4.
Following a brief live-action trailer which featured several knowing references to the franchise (a Goth poster on a bedroom wall, a llama in a farm), Rachael Franklin of Maxis talked us through the “all-new emotion-based gameplay.”
“Every action is informed and affected by their emotional states,” Franklin told us. Simmers can “affect the “mind, body and heart, of these new Sims.” Furnishings and objects can affect the emotions of nearby Sims.
The presentation placed emphasis on the emotion-based gameplay, although it does not appear drastically different to previous iterations. From the footage available, it appears that emotions will not follow the linear mood system we’ve seen in previous Sims games, instead allowing Sims to change between a much wider selection of emotional states.
The most intriguing effect of the emotion system may well be the long term impact of emotions, essentially creating different interaction options next time the Sims meet.
As we saw in previously leaked screens, the new Create-A-Sim in The Sims 4 allows you to sculpt sims by hand, “like playing with clay.” For the first time in the history of The Sims, players can also choose the gait of Sims.
Build mode has also been revamped to make it quicker and easier to build houses, with the wall-dragging extension system improved significantly from its appearance in The Sims 3. Fully decorated rooms can be placed with just a click.
The presentation also revealed that violins are in the game… as are voodoo dolls.