Mikayla's Art & Multimedia
Mikayla's Art & Multimedia
2/1/2021
“Strangerville” the game pack released for the Sims 4 has made a comeback from the original storyline from the existing neighborhood “Strangetown” from the Sims 2. If you’re familiar with the conspiracies that surround Strangetown, you’ll realize Strangerville has a lot of similarities to the Strangetown map. What’s similar about both maps is that both maps take place in the middle of a desert, contain characters with a background in either military or science, and supernatural activity. Although both maps are similar in origin, the game pack for the Sims 4 features new households and a supernatural storyline that sims players can follow.
The Sims 2 featured some returning sims from the original game, the Sims, including Bella Goth, one of the most recognized sims who was assumed to be abducted by aliens and stranded in Strangetown as an adult. Most of the households featured in Strangetown contain some kind of alien origin story which you can learn more about in Sims Fandom: Neighborhoods in Strangetown. The Sims 2 Strangetown seems to have a lot of focus on alien activity between households that exist within the map and intertwining storylines between sims trying to investigate this alien conspiracy in their town. But because the Sims 4 does not have any pre made or returning alien sims from earlier game series, finding aliens in the Sims 4 is more of an easter egg hunt, which is probably why the developers of the game pack Strangerville decided to steam away from the origin story of Strangetown.
The Sims 4 does not completely eliminate supernatural activity in Strangerville. In fact, Strangerville has an interactive storyline that any sim can play along with. The storyline focuses on an unknown virus spreading throughout Strangerville that is taking over sim’s minds and encouraging them to worship a strange plant that is growing all over town. It is up to the sim player to investigate this virus, which will mean talking to military personnel, scientists, and conspiracists to extract answers. What’s engaging about this interactive storyline is that the more the sim player investigates, the more that player learns about featured sims in Strangerville. Your sim could potentially run into a sim who will not readily give up information on the virus and is considered to be a suspect trying to protect information for their own personal gain. As the player progresses in the investigation, (Spoiler Alert) they will learn there is a mother plant secretly residing underground beneath the science lab which in order to defeat, the player must have a group of sims willing to fight the boss alongside your player. Defeating the boss will mean getting rid of the virus forever and becoming the town hero of Strangerville.
Although I like that the Sims 4 has an interactive and engaging storyline, it would’ve been nice to see a comeback of some pre existing sims from the Sims 2 Strangetown. There is usually a common theme between existing sims throughout the game series, where their lives continue in different stages of their lives in each game. Because Strangerville is a comeback from Strangetown, I would’ve expected to see the storylines of pre existing Strangetown families continue, since some of the pre existing sims that were brought into Strangetown reappear in the Sims 4 Willow Creek map, with no explanation how they got there. I also wish aliens were more involved in the Strangerville storyline, since the Strangerville storyline focuses on this mysterious supernatural plant that no one knows how it even appeared. Another thing I also think that was missing from this game pack was understanding the virus. The storyline seemed to focus on extracting information from others more then finding out information from directly infected sims themselves. Infected sims in the game also have rarely any engaging actions other then trying to “shake” them out of the virus or trying to talk to them, which gets the player no where. I think overall, there could of been more improvement with the comeback of this neighborhood returning to Sims 4. Which map do you like better? The original Strangetown map, or the Strangerville game pack for Sims 4? Let me know what you think.