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LGR - The Sims 4 For Rent Review

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Rating: 4.5; Vote: 2

Gameplay and overview of the FIFTEENTH expansion pack to The Sims 4. This time it's all about rental units. Apartment buildings, shared lots, being nosy, being infected with mold, and generally being a skeevy landlord. Is it worth paying another 40? And here I thought we’d make it through 2023 with only two of these expansions, yet here we are. It’s. The Sims 4: For Rent, the fifteenth expansion pack. Which sounds like a joke but it’s true! The kind of flippant remarks I used to make years ago, like “oh-ho-ho this is the fifteenth expansion,” ah that’s now reality. An expensive reality, with the cost of expansions alone now totaling $600. And the overall price of a complete Sims 4 with all the other packs is. unbelievable. I stopped buying that other stuff years ago, but I still come back for full expansions. Not only to cover on LGR but also because I genuinely hope one does something special enough to become immersed in game again. So let’s see what For Rent does for me for better or for worse. And as the name implies, For Rent is primarily focused on residential rentals, both as a tenant and as a property owner. Or both, you can live in your own rental unit if you wish. But either way, apartments are now a thing in. The Sims 4: How To Build Apartments In City Living The Sims 4. Again, for the third time now, since they were already reintroduced in City Living like eight years ago, and to a lesser degree in Eco Lifestyle. This time they’re the same but different, since apartments can be owned and rented out by you the player, instead of a random landlord sim that was more like a glorified repairman. It also means you get to build and customize apartment buildings from the ground up, along with being able to run rental units on any residential lot in the game. Some fine additions indeed, the kinda thing I think I wished for back when I covered City Living. I think? I can’t believe this dang game is old enough for me to completely forget what I said in previous reviews, but anyway. Apartments are more involved, and to facilitate that comes a new world to explore: Tomarang. A Southeast Asia-inspired coastal village with two neighborhoods, Morensong and Koh Sahpa. One of the nicer-looking but undeniably smaller worlds I recall seeing in an expansion, with only 9 playable lots, three of which are completely empty. And, sure, it’s good to have blank space to build on as you please. But here it comes at the expense of more pre-built lots to enjoy right off the bat. There is one that you can place, but we know for a fact that way more than 9 lots is doable and a bigger map would be welcome. Speaking of trade-offs, the non-residential public lots are nothing special. First is a botanical gardens area that sure looks nice, but there’s nothing much to do except sit in a gazebo and eat wieners. Second is a street vendor/open market area that, yeah, looks great and gives off bustling nighttime activity energy. But in reality most of it’s non-interactive, with only a handful of vendors selling the expected allotments of ingredients and food. And then there’s the temple, the fish market, and the tiger sanctuary, which again, have a pretty sweet aesthetic going on. Zero complaints in the looks department! But they’re nothing more than rabbit holes, an object for sims to enter and disappear inside of, then click on some interactive text choices sometimes. Stimulating. The “tiger adoption” service at the sanctuary is disappointing too, it’s only a donation box supporting invisible tigers sims never see in-game. Though you do get a stuffed tiger plushie and a poster to take home, ooh game changing stuff! Even the Tuk Tuks are a quirkily featureless letdown, since they’re non-interactive and function as nothing more than yard ornaments. The ones you see driving around town? You can’t use ‘em, no one can, they’re driven by the ghosts of better Sims games. All right enough complaining, for the moment at least. Because the rental bits in For Rent are something I was immediately intrigued by. Anytime a Sims game lets me manage a business, I am on-board! And in this pack that means purchasing a rental lot and taking on tenants, with either the whole building being rented by a single household, or dividing up sections of a building into individual units. And each unit has its own traits, and a rating based on a number of factors that can change over time. Presumably, the goal is to provide as comfortable and pleasing a place as possible for your tenants, but not me! I’m much more interested in grimy, gross cesspits, with dirty walls, poltergeists, and well-worn appliances. To that effect, I really enjoyed spicing up the place with dubious stains, exposed brickwork, and filthy walls. Plus the new fuse boxes, water heaters, AC units, and radiators, it all helps give rentals a bit of well-worn personality. And it fits in with the fixer-upper items included in the City Living apartments of the past, I dunno it’s just a twisted kind of fun playing a skeevy landlord. And I like that the pack pushes back against that! Not just with unit ratings, but with maintenance events that need addressing, either by your sim going on-site to do repairs, or by calling up contractors. You can also completely cheap out or ignore this stuff to maximize profits and solidify your sim as a dreadful individual. Providing no more than the bare minimum, overcharging on rent, and being ridiculous with rental agreement rules. Once tenants get so fed up that they start protesting your scummy practices, you can make promises to fix things, empty or not, or skip all that and give an eviction notice that wrongfully puts them out on the street. Or even abuse your landlord priveledges further by either eavesdropping or rummaging through tenants’ stuff. Both can uncover secrets that sims understandably don’t want exposed, which lets you blackmail them for some quick dirty money. Things can even get so bad that apartments start growing mold and get tenants sick, to the point of experiencing a horrible and preventable demise. I know this is all awful, but that’s why I’m amused that it’s here. This type of garbage behavior is not what we normally get in. The Sims 4, playing the bad guy is rare and honestly I’m just happy to see something different. Of course, you can go the total opposite route as well, being the kindest, most helpful and generous property manager possible. Keeping secrets instead of blackmailing, providing prompt in-person maintenance, commending tenants on good behavior, and holding pot lucks and pool parties that the whole neighborhood can enjoy. For what fun that is. Eh, either way, the close-knit communal feel of things provided by everyone living so close together is kinda cool, and the new shared spaces within lots just adds to that. Whether your neighbors love or hate you, there’s always something goin’ down from dawn till dusk. And even beyond, if your sim’s down for a little B&E. Yes break-ins are now a thing, despite burglars still not existing. At least not in NPC form, now you get to be the burglar! Put on your best Gordan Freeman attire and smash things with a crowbar till you get inside, where you have free reign to snoop around for secrets, eat their food, clog their plumbing, and pee on their rug even if it really tied the room together. And sims with the kleptomaniac trait can happily steal stuff, too. Good times all around, at least until ya get caught. So, don’t get caught, just teleport home through a loading screen. Yeaaah loading screens. They’re always a thing in. The Sims 4, but their prevalence is truly put on display in this pack. Since you can’t view all apartments on a lot at once during normal gameplay, there’s a loading screen between each one. So, visit next door, loading screen. Head up the stairs, get a loading screen. Walk across the street, get another loading screen. And of course, sims’ actions reset after every load, making it feel extra dumb to knock on your neighbor’s door, only to get a loading screen and then have to knock again just to say hi to someone real quick. It really messes with the community feel of things, where it could actually be enjoyable to casually walk between multiple apartments on a lot to hang out or perform maintenance or whatever. But with a 3-unit building, there’s at least that many loading screens made up of multiple disconnected instances. This stuff feels more clunky and outdated than ever. Uh let’s see, what else do we have in here. Well, the usual selection of new hairs and clothes and things, there’s a solid number of comfy-looking attire befitting the more tropical climate. Also falling in line with that are aspirations specific to this pack. With Fount of Tomarani Knowledge, Seeker of Secrets, 5-Star Property Owner, and Discerning Dweller. And of course new traits exist. You’ve got Nosy and Generous, Child of the Village for some local actions, Wise exclusively for elder sims. And Cringe, which makes sims go around randomly dabbing and spouting old memes, basically making them act like it’s still 2014. The same year this game came out, which I think means. The Sims 4 itself is cringe, but who am I to judge? Another few things worth mentioning I guess are the new activities of hopscotch and marbles, providing something fresh for sim kids to enjoy for the first time in a good while. Another new “activity” is smuggling Spirit Houses. Which has gotta be an oversight, right? You’re supposed to just make fruit and incense offerings, but sims can straight up put the whole object in their pants and place them anywhere in the world despite their size. There are also new types of household objects, like squat toilets, electric kettles, and slow cookers. Those last two I find quite nice to see since I use them both in real life absolutely all the dang time. Really all the new food and drinks in general are awesome here, if there’s something these expansions consistently do right, it’s the huge variety in regional cuisine. And lastly: chairs, this pack has ‘em! Four chairs proper, plus a pouf and a couple of stools. Yeah that’s all I got to say about those. And that is. The Sims 4: For Rent! The fifteenth $40 expansion pack as we approach the tenth year of this game existing. And I dunno, it’s fine? It does some neat things and hasn’t caused a huge ruckus. It once again feels like it could’ve been a lower-priced game pack instead of a $40 expansion. Mostly what it does is augment the existing apartments and provide new ways for sims to be a scumbag, while offering yet another pretty-to-look-at but underwhelming world. Other than the rare surprise like being able to kill renters with mushrooms. The Sims 4 at this point is downright predictable, and I think it should go away to make room for the future. But that ain’t happening, not while it’s still as popular and profitable as it is, with over 70 million players worldwide. So yeah, no matter how disenchanted I am with it? This is the status quo now, tons of folks continue to play this decade-old game, and seem happy to hand over $40 for mostly average expansion packs. If you’re one that’s genuinely still into this, I’m genuinely happy for you. I wish I still was! But I’m not, and this latest pack unfortunately hasn’t inspired me to return to this game for very long. So it goes. And that’s it for LGR in 2023! There’s some fresh video silliness in the works for the coming year so I hope you stick around for that, and in the meantime there’s a ton more for your viewing pleasure here on LGR. And as always, thanks for watching!
Date: 2023-12-29

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Comments and reviews: 19

mikeman232
Excellent video as always Clint!
Now as someone who's getting into indie development, thought about making something similar to the Sims, and now seeing a handful of comments mentioning EA needs competition or somrthing akin to City Skylines for the Sim City series;
would this game need to be set in present day or do you think the same audience would enjoy a fictional setting.
Fictional settings provide more creative freedom and ability to add more features, but if for majority they like the grounded-in-reality setting then could see what I/we could do.
For me, think something like sims with little more interaction with the world would be nice; cars and bikes work similar to taxies except the bill. And in terms of the careers, say for police, I'd like the ability to control a Sim as they investigate or do patrols, rather than be a dropdown menu that dictates the Sims work ethic for that shift.
Also I would like to add more management of resources elements to keep you occupied and add some challenge like laundry machines and multiple outfits to kept clean. Obviously I'd make this optional cause that would get tedious for some, but always felt odd about the lack of washing machines in the Sims.
(Although I don't buy DLC so maybe they already have those two features done)
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TheZeroNeonix
I honestly don't get the appeal of this game. From the very beginning, it looked more dated than Sims 3. I mean, multi-tasking is neat, but how much was sacrificed between games? We went from an open world environment to loading screens between every lot. We lost the ability to design and use our own patterns. Hair is just one color now, having lost the options for differently colored roots and highlights. If I'm not mistaken, they don't even have color wheels anymore. While they patched them in later, the game didn't even launch with the toddler life state or pools. Not only do they basically resell the same DLCs from previous games, but they're giving us less in the base games too. What's the appeal? If people keep buying these games and DLCs, why would EA ever feel the incentive to make a Sims game that actually feels modern? I mean, seriously. How are rabbit holes still a thing? Why do people tolerate this?
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abrams5819
When this game came out I was so sad that it wasn't open world and didn't have online gameplay, but it was a nice game that I enjoyed back then, being a fan of the series. Now I feel double as sad for this game, because of how much money you have to spend on an outdated game in order to have a bit more variety of forniture, which always feels lacking to me, being more interested in the architecture and design side of things. And triple as sad knowing that project rene is not even meant to replace this game, as was revealed recently, which means we will be stuck with this outdated game for a very long time still, while project rene will probably be an empty online free to play microtransaction cash grab. I really hope that some of the competition will come out with the title we are all looking for, and finally leave behind this beautiful franchise that will always have a place in my heart, since The Sims 1.
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OddlingCore
6: 25 yeah, it s almost like EA knows that there s a housing crisis and people are not sympathetic to landlords the same way that they are not sympathetic to robbers and so they are a safe villain to caricature in this very corny game lol. When I first saw the pack name, I thought it was incredibly tone-deaf (Fake Gamer Girls starts their review with these news clips of the housing crisis and the greed of landlords) but if you think about EA and its company practices I m not surprised at all that it s developed this kind of mediocre meta-ironic cash grab.
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TyronStDenis
I actually have a Car Flip Cellphone for Christmas That's what I have Now I have a Car LabTop Called the Acer Chromebook 15 and a Car Flip Cellphone Called the New mind Farreri That's Those Things that I have if you are the One That you Actually Worked at the Car Downtown Dealership and the Race Shop that's Those Things that you Do while you are Sitting at the Office While Sitting on your Car Desk in the Office While Working at the Office That's Those Things that you Do That Goes with Me and the Other People Too.
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Nihilist_Porcupine
I just don't get how people are still saying the sims 4 should go away to make room for the sims 5. Guys, are we really so naive as to think the sims 5 will be in any way better? It'll probably just be the always-on multiplayer micro-transaction hell we've all come to expect from EA. This is the best that it'll get from this company. A more meaningful thing to hope for would be an actual competitor in the life sim space that can devote resources and time into making a more robust, actually functional game.
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laranadesign4764
And yet, I'm still playing the Sims 2 (built another apartment complex yesterday) with tons of CC (my own creations in Photoshop and default replacement things) and a few mods (got my Sim a moped) and all the packs installed with no lag ever. I love your videos and remind me to keep avoiding the Sims 4. Sims 3 is fun too, so I toggle between 2 & 3, depending on the game play I'm after. Sims 2 for general chaos and Sims 3 for occult stuff.
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cradio52
I stopped playing The Sims after 3, but I ve watched every single one of your Sims 4-related videos since the game came out TEN YEARS ago. Since I don t pay attention to anything Sims beyond these videos is Maxis actually developing The Sims 5? Like, is that a real thing that s coming? It seems insane to me that they ve just been piling crap on top of a ten year old game instead of releasing a ground-up, brand new next-gen Sims game.
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dolphin-yx3jl
i love that you ve always stayed honest amidst a myriad of tubers and gurus who will just lie to ppls faces that the game is decent somehow lol. find it funny that gamechangers say theyre being honest when they receive a free game key and still say its playable but for some strange mysterious reason EA doesnt want to give you a code, LGR! hmm. its almost like they know that theyre dogsh! t and they don t care
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lPsychoMax
I wonder, for anyone who has played The Sims 4; with all the new packs and expansions they pumped out for it, would you say it finally reached the point where it has all the content from a past thesims game?
Eg. does it have everything thesims 1 had or more? TheSims 2? I'm curious as I've played all the sims games but 4. It's release looked like a downgrade, so I'm curious if it's gone past that point now?
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bbelsito
Clint, have you thought of doing a retrospective of old Sims DLCs (1, 2, 3) regarding what they did well/what you liked? I think that would be a great way to make new content out of something you did before--and it would be talking about something you actually enjoy. Just food for thought: ) I know you did separate reviews years ago but I would wholeheartedly welcome you returning to the old expansions.
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ghoulgirl99
Eh I think Sims 4 has gotten better with the updates and expansions. It does suck that you can t go between apartments without loading screens tho. For anyone that s vaguely interested in the game, packs go on sale a lot so grab them at their lowest price for maximum enjoyment and return on uhhh investment? Investment of your time and entertainment? Yeah! Good video as always
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Violant3
I'm pretty sure and also EA knows this but hardware specs got higher these past years and Sims 4 still needing these load screens all the time is ridiculous and immersion breaking, this game can easily run an open world in today's computers, they need to optimize this game for quality of life updates and stop charging for DLCs with content that should be standard in the game.
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lethauntic
What's sad isn't so much that we're stuck with a subpar Sims game for the foreseeable future, it's that if the game and expansions were actually good then this would be the ideal time to be a Sims fan. But since it's not, everyone is gonna have to wait many years before there's even a slight chance for that to happen. Even slight seems too generous, because. You know, EA.
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lazygamereviews
I'm still playins The Sims 3, even with all addons (except Katy Perry Sweet Treats but who cares, it does run pretty alright if you set it up correctly and install certain mods that improve and fix most of the issues. The huge amount of customization and open world really makes this game unique and still fun to this day. In my opinion, it's still better than Sims 4!
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Carstuff111
And yet more proof why I will never go past Sims 3. It is sad that it seems that game often STILL looks better than Sims 4! And most of the expansions were actually worth buying for Sims 3, though I got the base game and all of the expansions in a big bundle for about 55. 00. I am sure as heck not about to pay a grand for 4 and its expansions.
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OddlingCore
What an ironic pack because of the lack of ownership in video games nowadays with the fact that we can t really own our own physical games and resell them and technically, if you read the fine print when buying any game digitally, it states that we are just leasing them, and we don t own them out, right. It s the digital renters economy baby!
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lazygamereviews
I often have the urge to get into this game, as the Sims was a childhood favorite of mine. The cost though, I cannot justify the prices of the expansions, it is outrageous. If the game were cheaper to get the full experience from I think a lot more people would play it, they need to change the structure and make it more accessible.
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recognizerarcade
I was once briefly interested in the Sims, then I realized just how expensive it is to keep up with thanks to the downright evil business model employed by EA. I can't imagine thinking it worthwhile to drop 40 for the honor of roleplaying a landlord. Yay, capitalistic greed and exploitation as gameplay features! Huzzah? Ugh.
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