Parent's Guide: The Sims 4 (PC) - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

What is The Sims 4?

The Sims 4 is a life simulator - essentially a virtual dolls house - where you can create your own characters, control their lives and design their perfect home. Whether you want to play out epic love stories, start a family or simply like finding new ways to make their lives hell, The Sims 4 caters to your every whim, letting you control your Sims in intricate detail (telling them what to eat, to go to the toilet, to kiss a guy in a bar) - or simply sit back and enjoy the fun.

How do you play The Sims 4?

With no story, and no real objectives to complete, the Sims is totally open ended. After making a cast of characters, whether they're based around friends and family, celebrities, or the strangest corners of your imagination, you get to take over their lives however you see fit. There's great potential for experimentation here, and most of your fun comes from seeing what you can do, and watching how each of the characters - each with their own personality, defined by the traits you've given them - interacts with the others.

This new Trait system makes creating Sims with distinct personalities is easier than ever, whether you want a lazy, gluttonous foodie, a morally upstanding family-orientated Sim or an evil, insane guy who hates children. Each Sim's personality and life ambitions dictate how they behave, and depending on what mood they're in, the sorts of activities - or ways of performing activities - can change. For example, Confident Sims can 'Pee like a champion' (sure to raise a smile with some kids!), while Evil characters have the option to 'Laugh Maniacally' and Embarrassed Sims want to hide from the world under their bed covers. 

While it may sound a little bit intimidating, there are enough little objectives here to keep those who may be a little bit intimidated by its otherwise free form nature engaged. Sims wake up every morning with something they want to accomplish that day, and each has a life goal for you to work towards, giving you helpful little pointers to keep you busy. Likewise, with a job to go to, promotions to aim for and a growing family to keep fed, watered and happy, there's always something to be done, whether it's raising your charisma stat for a promotion, helping with homework or studying cooking so as to avoid accidentally setting the house on fire while trying to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

How easy is The Sims 4 to pick up and play?

Played with simple clicks of the mouse, The Sims is the ultimate in pick-up-and-play easiness - perhaps the only real stumbling block is likely to be the amount of reading required to get the most out of the game. For example, fairly often your Sim will encounter an event at work that requires your advice, such as whether they should risk overloading a dishwasher or leave a few plates unwashed - a correct decision will see your characters' job performance improve, perhaps netting them a promotion, while the wrong choice could end in disaster... Your child will also need to be able to read the short descriptions that you use to tell your Sims what to do - mixing up playing a game on the PC and accidentally quitting your job could be disastrous, for example. Ditto for failing to put out a house fire.

Sample Sentences:

• "Not every Sim wants to play by the rules. You can make tons of Simoleans and have fun, too, as an outlaw."
• "Acquired the Cooking Skill. Sarah's new skill in cooking will allow her to prepare delicious, straight forward classics. Yum! The higher the skill level, the more recipes become unlocked."
• "Ian's company just launched an exciting redesign of their most popular software. Unfortunately, a small but vocal minority of users are complaining about it. Should Ian risk changing it again to appease them, or ignore the complaints?"

Seeing as the Sims have their own language (Simlish), bad language isn't a concern here. However, sex and other such intimate relationships do come up in the game, with the game giving you the option to have your Sims kiss, hug and eventually 'Try for Baby' or 'Woohoo' (basically, have sex) with the object of their affection. During said 'Woohoo', your Sims disappear under the covers (whilst wearing their night clothes), with squirming, giggling and moaning heard as hearts and fireworks appear from the bed. Your Sims can get violent from time to time too, where the offending Sims get consumed in a comedic 'fight cloud', with limbs sticking out and sounds of a struggle being heard - it's all very slapstick, and far from realistic (although their relationship will be wounded for a time!). Sims can also die in a myriad of ways, via electrocution by household appliances, house fires and much more. While they aren't even slightly gory, deaths instead trigger the arrival of the Grim Reaper - and if you have no close friends or family members to bargain for your life, you may find yourself turned into an urn.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: PC