The Sims 4

Pack prices come up in more negative reviews than any other topic. Reviewers add up the full catalogue at well over a thousand dollars and object that features they consider basic, such as weather, pets, laundry or slow dancing, sit in paid packs. One points out that sims get winter outfits but "weather is a feature in the game but you have to PAY to have weather". Another weighs the cost of staying: "It is a fun game, if you're down to put $1000+ on it and deal with micromanaging your mods folder and your saves". One reviewer compares supernatural packs at $40 in both games and finds the Sims 4 one offers less. Positive reviews raise prices too: "This game is great for my happiness, awful for my wallet." A few who paid for the game before it became free add that their compensation was a single kit.

After prices, bugs, crashes and broken updates come up in more negative reviews than anything else, mostly from players with long play histories. Reviewers describe frequent forced updates that break custom content and scripts, with no way to roll back on Steam: "No easy, simple way to avoid or rollback laskluster update that breaks all mods and potentially save files". Others report save corruption, failed launches, endless loading screens and crashes in build mode or Create a Sim. A few list long-running gameplay bugs, such as married sims reverting to partners ("Married sims become unmarried autonomously.") and actions stuck in the queue. Several ask for autosave and cloud saves, one noting "There is no cloud backup for your save data." A veteran sums it up: "I spend significantly more time updating and troubleshooting this game than I do getting a chance to play it."

Reviewers describe the Marketplace as a store for paid creator content bought with a currency called Moola, and most reviews about it were written in March 2026. They report that the update that brought it broke mods and custom content: "EA broke every mod and CC in the game with the March 17 Marketplace patch. They shipped a hotfix within 24 hours." Some later edited their reviews to say the crashes were fixed, while still objecting to the store itself. Players dislike paid mods in a single-player game, report that kits were moved into the Moola store (one later edit says they came back to Steam), and criticize the share of revenue creators keep. A positive reviewer advises: "The game itself is good, but I insist you don't waste your money on the Marketplace & just stick with mods instead for a far better experience."

Steam buyers object to needing the EA app: "I installed The Sims 4 via Steam to avoid using EA's app. Yet, as soon as I launched the game, I was forced to install the EA app and run it alongside Steam." Reviewers describe being forced to log out and back in, the app claiming they are offline, losing access to their EA account, and in one case every pack going missing after an update. Steam Deck and Linux players report the game failing to start, with one saying "since mi-2025 the game simply won't start on steam deck". A few Mac players say packs are tied to one platform, so playing on Mac means buying them again.

Complaints about ads peak in July 2026, when reviewers react to reports that ads were coming to the game and that some would interrupt play: "Unskippable in-game ads gives the game an instant ZERO." Later reviews describe pop-ups for packs already appearing in their game. Pack promotions inside the game and ads in the EA app are an older version of the same complaint.

A small group of reviewers, most of them negative, point unhappy players toward Paralives or inZOI. A few positive reviewers say they will stay with The Sims 4 for now, or that the newcomers are different games.