▷The Sims 4 Review: Life on the Island, let's dive into Sulani 🥇

About 6 months after the last expansion of The Sims 4, that plunged us into the world of celebrities, now it's the turn of the expansion Island life. Since its presentation at E3 in June, the desire to dive into the waters of Clear has grown day by day as has the curiosity to discover all the new additions.

But is an island life really what we needed in The Sims 4?

Life on the Island

This new expansion catapults our Sims into the wonderful Sulani archipelago, the "neighborhood" introduced by Island Life. It is about an area divided into 3 small islands well characterized. The landscapes and the culture of the place are in fact freely inspired by that Polynesian and in every nook and cranny, you quickly realize the developers' attention to detail. No other neighborhood has such an evocative and well-made scenery. In fact, the island boasts of one considerable freedom of movement given above all by the quantity of explorable ocean.

One of the innovations introduced by this expansion is in fact the possibility of swimming in the open sea. It must be said, however, that the areas where you can actually swim are very limited within basins or small gulfs. This greatly reduces the sense of "open world" that The Sims 4 has always sinned about. It is also true that the sensation of swimming in the crystal clear waters of the ocean was a feature that was needed, especially after having tasted its potential in The Sims 3. The gameplay variations related to swimming turned out to be very interesting. As our sims improve their physical ability, they will start swimming faster and will be able to perform new stunts with the speedboat (Idrozip for sims). float on the water, snorkel or dive, swim with dolphins or even meet a mermaid.

Having said that it all seems beautiful but, from the first impact, one realizes that many things leave something to be desired. Snorkeling, for example, is pleasant to see and gives a sense of the first-person view that will allow you to admire the wonderfully crafted seabed, but it does not involve any interesting events. The dives are not visible to the player. The Sim will in fact enter one of the much hated Rabbit Hole preventing us from following him in his exploration.

Sun, sea, spirits from the past ...

To make the most of the expansion, the guinea pig sim used for this review was the adventurous one Robinson Defoe and his French bulldog Thursday (No questions!). Obviously it is our duty to remind you that dogs were not introduced in this expansion but in "Cani & Catti". After being the victim of a violent attack of paranoia towards society, Robinson decided to move to Sulani. The island is in fact not a vacation area but a real neighborhood with community and private lots. The small house chosen by our protagonist is a beautiful one house in stilts on the sea, great news of this expansion.

From here, our Sim can dive straight into the sea, relax on an airbed, or sunbathe on one chaise longue, glorious return to the world of The Sims. L'tanning of Sims is another new feature introduced that builds on the experience of previous games in the series. Sims will gradually tan without neglecting the classic "tan line" which varies depending on the type of garment worn during sun exposure. There is no shortage of boats to explore the island with, caves to visit and community lots to sample the local culture.

The clubs and the atmosphere of Sulani are in fact a constant in this expansion. It will be fun to discover Sulani's particular recipes or specific items such as the Coffee, the most famous drink on the island. Given this wealth, it really is the lack of a skill dedicated to learning the local culture is inexplicable (which we find instead in the Jungle Adventure game pack). On the other hand, the presence of "Spirits of the island" (a new trait for lots) with which the inhabitants have a strong connection.

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Working on vacation

Our Robinson, fleeing the chaos of the city, has chosen to live in a house without electricity and running water. Another section of the lot, called "Off the net", in fact, allows you to live without electricity and without internet and therefore, without bills, providing an interesting variant to the gameplay. The other interesting news concern the new career, jobs and part-time careers.

The new career introduced is that of Environmentalist, in which the theme of environmental impact is addressed for the first time in The Sims. In fact, one of the Sulani islands has some small problems of this type which affect the fauna and the cleanliness of the water and beaches. The career allows you to carry out various interactions that contribute to the improvement of the area such as remove litter from the beach or inspect the seabed. Unfortunately, these changes only affect one area of the neighborhood and not the other maps as we would have hoped.

Part-time careers, on the other hand, were very disappointing introduced, that of lifeguard, diver and fisherman, which are inactive contrary to what the trailer made us guess (goodbye baywatch race in slow motion ...). THE odd jobs instead they turned out to be a fun addition that allows the sim to earn a few more simoleons by carrying out activities that take a few hours.

A few crabs here and there

The thing we liked least about Vita sull'Isola is the ssignificant influence between this and previous expansions. Our little French bulldog has no interaction with the sand or the sea and the seasons have little to do with the climate of Sulani except for a few tropical storms. In general, the novelties and the few areas that can be explored in the new district can be explored in a few hours, leaving a strong sense of incompleteness. The possibilities that an expansion of this type could have introduced were many but it seems that they have not been fully exploited.

And this is where we need to talk about siren. With the choice to introduce a new creature in an expansion, EA Games has failed in its initial intent to create a game pack for each new creature, as happened in Vampires. Perhaps they would have done better to stick to the original plan. In fact, the sirens were poorly characterized and they do not introduce particular novelties to the gameplay. To dampen the excitement for these creatures is the absurd ease in which one can transform into a mermaid or merfolk: just 500 suction points are enough. The powers of the mermaid, such as invoking the rains, the dolphins or changing the mood of the other sims by singing, are interesting, as well as the "good", "evil" alignments that determine his nature but in general the creature is flat if compared to the Vampire.

Definitely Life on the Island is definitely not The Sims 4's most successful expansion but still manages to make a significant contribution to the base game. Sulani's culture and atmosphere are certainly the strong point of the expansion which is reflected in the new furniture, clothing and home decorations which feature a total of around 200 new items. If you think that the sea and the sun can obscure the shortcomings of Life on the Island then dive into Sulani and obviously remember the sunscreen!