Summary
WhenThe Sims 4: Cats and Dogswas announced, players were upset at the development of an expansion focused on pets, but with less content than previous similar packs in the series.The Sims 3: Petsincluded cats, dogs, and horses as its main pets, along with wild horses, stray cats and dogs, small pets such as lizards and hamsters, and wild animals such as raccoons and deer. Upon release,The Sims 4:Cats and Dogswere missing all of these extra features, with small pets being released in a separate Stuff packThe Sims 4: My First Pet Stuffjust months later.
One of the hopes for horses being released in their own pack was that the focus on them meant they would have more content and depth than if they had been included in a general pets pack like inThe Sims 3. This was what was expected whenThe Sims 4: Horse Ranchwas announced, but players found the opposite situation once the pack was launched, with problems ranging from the game having even fewer gameplay options thanThe Sims 3: Pets, too much of the content feeling like a rehash ofother expansions inThe Sims 4such asCottage Living.
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Horse Ranch Missed Out On Potential Content For Sims Gameplay
The most glaring problem inThe Sims 4: Horse Ranchis the lack of depth in gameplay regarding horses in several areas. Children have little to no gameplay and are barely included in the pack even regarding Create-a-Sim. Where there was the potential for parents teaching their children to ride horses, after-school horse riding lessons and activities, or even simple items such as rocking horses or a carousel, Children were completely excluded.Horse competitions inThe Sims 4are a rabbit hole and can only be entered once a day, with no input from the player that determines the outcome.
Wild horses and unicorns don’t exist inThe Sims 4, whereas inThe Sims 3they could be found throughout the world and tamed or befriended. Horses take up one of the eight family member slots, but can’t be controlled. While this makes sense from a realism standpoint, it can be frustrating from a gameplay perspective, where horses don’t have the gameplay options as a Sim, while still limiting the number of Sims on a lot. One of the gameplay features ofHorse Ranchis breeding horses, but foals that are bred are clones of one of the parents and receive their coat pattern from the other. This is in place of showing any genetic variation and makes the breeding feature feel shallow and predictable.
The Ongoing Problem of Sims Expansion Packs with No Depth
The irony is that the expansion pack that focuses on horses has less gameplay for horses thanThe Sims 3: Pets, a game where horses were one out of three main pets offered. Whilethe world of Chestnut Ridge is massive and looks beautiful, it follows the same frustrating pattern asThe Sims 4where there’s no depth or gameplay. Rather, they’re more like elaborate sets than living worlds, with very little to do in them.
The Sims 4will be 10 years old in 2024, which means it’s going to be releasing content that’s similar to previous content.The Sims 4’s pattern of splitting content across packshasn’t helped, with many players complaining that a similar pack,Cottage Living, has a gameplay and a concept that’s too similar toHorse Ranch.Horse Ranchneeded to justify itself to stand alone as an expansion instead of being included inCats and DogsorCottage Living, or even as a Game Pack, and its lack of content for the Child life state, limited gameplay, and empty world just isn’t good enough for a $40 expansion.
The Sims 4is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
