One Classic Sims 4 Expansion Is Long Overdue For An Update

There are many expansions and kits for The Sims 4. Some provide enhanced minor details for the quality of life. Others are more noticeable, giving you new characters, locations, and challenges to complete. One pack in particular, Cats and Dogs, is a pretty essential pack for animal lovers. It provides more immersion, a new career path as a veterinarian, and you can even open up your own vet clinic.

However, even as one of the main expansions, it feels like it’s missing something. Currently, the pets in this pack don’t have much information about them other than the few traits you can assign when they’re created. This pack needs an extreme makeover, such as adding additional personality traits, a panel to view their needs, and bringing back the ability to control the pets.

The Sims 4: Cats And Dogs Is Falling Behind

Change Can Be A Good Thing

As other expansions and the base game are regularly updated, the Cats and Dogs pack seems to be at a standstill. It has been years since there was an update to this portion of The Sims 4. Unfortunately, as time passes, the pack is feeling increasingly stale.

Pets are members of the family and should be treated as such. If the game can be amended to address the oversight of the elderly by adding the Golden Years Kit, then it can certainly be fixed for the pets. You wouldn’t think the animals would be an overlooked aspect of the game, as, for many, they are the core of their Sim families. However, aside from the breed customization, the pet features in the game are highly underwhelming.

• Minimal pet beds with poor graphics and only two size variations
• 16 basic personality traits
• Inability to play as a pet
• No basic needs menu to know what to do for the pet
• Simple interactions, including feeding treats, talking to the pet, and minimal playing options

It’s sad that in the first three games, in particular, the pet stuff is more advanced. In the older games, you can have a variety of basic animals, you get more visually appealing 3D textured pet beds, and various dog houses. The Cats and Dogs expansion pack for The Sims 4 fell behind before it was even released. It feels like they throw animals at players, thinking they’ll be grateful for whatever they get.

Their creative vision of The Sims franchise as a whole lacks care and thought, almost as if they want to go backward with their development of the games. Not to mention the money-grabbing aspect. There are several packs available for purchase, each offering a unique selection of animals. In the Cottage Living pack, you get animals like cows, chickens, llamas, rabbits, and foxes. The Horse Ranch pack has horses, miniature sheep, and miniature goats. In My First Pet Stuff, you get small animals like hamsters, pygmy hedgehogs, and miniature bubalus.

The fact that you have to purchase multiple packs to get a sense of all the animals The Sims 4 World has to offer is extremely tedious, costly, and frustrating. The previous games allowed you to obtain simple pets automatically, but now it seems the franchise is milking it to generate more revenue. The only way to stop their mindset is if the majority of the fan base were to stop buying little packs and demand we get everything all in one, within reason.

Cats And Dogs Is Too Essential To Ignore

The Imperfections Stand Out Like A Sore Thumb

The lack of ambition in the development of one of their essential packs, Cats And Dogs, is obvious. It feels like someone was tired of the complaints that people wanted pets, so they just slapped something together and threw it at us. The pets have no real function other than existing. Once in a while, you have to feed them or take them to the vet, but that’s it. You can interact by feeding them treats, teaching them tricks, and playing with them, but in the overall long-term gameplay, it’s rather boring since they don’t do anything.

Related

Another Sims 4 pack appears to have been leaked, but should EA start focusing on refreshing older packs, rather than releasing new ones?

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion online about a fairies pack for The Sims 4, following some leaks online. I feel confident that this is happening, seeing as past leaks have typically been quite reliable. However, it’s frustrating. This occult has been asked for by players for ages, and The Sims 4 creates separate packs for each, rather than putting them together like in The Sims 3 Supernatural. I really think the older packs need a refresh, especially as so many have the potential for cross-expansion gameplay, but don’t.

The Cats and Dogs pets are generally lackluster and need to be revamped to reach the same level of sophistication as the pets in the more recent packs. It’s quite disappointing that there are five litter boxes, all for cats, but only four total pet beds, available in both small and large sizes. Not to mention, some of the toys aren’t designated for a particular type of pet, so it would be nice to have separate menus for dogs and cats.

In addition to having more to buy for pets, they could even add a pet show where you can bring your pet to win prizes. Either way, this pack needs more in every aspect. Being one of the essential packs for The Sims 4, not having it updated could be a dealbreaker for many players as it shatters the immersion, which means the pack remains in a negative spotlight, which is slowly seeping into the base game.

The Sims 4

Systems

Released

September 2, 2014

ESRB

T for Teen: Crude Humor, Sexual Themes, Violence

Developer(s)

Maxis

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

Engine

Proprietary Engine