#it's full of debug objects though omg

[wildlyminiaturesandwich]

The Sims 4 Realm of Magic - Early Access Build/Buy Review

Huge thank you to the EA Game Changer Program for providing me with the opportunity to play the Realm of Magic Game Pack early!

I feel like I always say this about new packs, but the build/buy stuff in this pack made me completely forget about the things I was disappointed in with CAS! Don’t get me wrong, build/buy has it’s issues as well, but... well, it kind of worked in this pack’s favour when it comes to the buy objects. That’ll make sense in a minute, I promise lol

Anon will be back on for the next few days so if you have any questions about Realm of Magic, feel free to send me an ask! ✨

See a preview of all the new Build/Buy items here

✨The Build

There isn’t really much to say about the build catalogue that I haven’t continued to say with pretty much every early access review I’ve ever done. The stuff is great, amazing actually, but there needs to be more variations. Most of the doors are for medium height walls, but most of the windows are for shorter walls? I know you can use shorter windows on taller walls, but they look too small next to doors made for those taller walls.

One day I would love to see the Sims team actually release a FULL set of build items. Like doors and windows made for all wall heights, in three, two and one tile variations, fences with matching stair railings, columns that not only match the rest of the build set but also the new spandrels and friezes that come with them. I just wish whoever was in charge of making these things thought a little bit further than “Ooh pretty door! That’s finished, now onto the one window; I’m gonna make it a different height completely and not matching colours at all.”

Speaking of not matching colours... the biggest pet peeve I have — that you guys are probably getting sick of hearing me go on and on about — is that nothing matches!

With this pack we get four new walls and two new floors... NONE of which match! You would assume that the wood floor matches the wall with the wood paneling on the bottom, but it doesn’t, the swatches are completely different. Or maybe you’d assume the brick floor goes with the two brick walls? You’d be wrong there too; again completely different swatches and the two brick walls don’t even match. And as for the tiled wall (the one with the half blue top), there’s no new tiles and it doesn’t match with anything else we currently have available in base game or any of the the packs. It’s almost like all of the floors and walls were made independently of one another and weren’t actually supposed to match... So that’s neat, and yet not at all unusual when it comes to the Sims.

Oh and before I forget, there’s a weird double-sided glitch happening since the release of the last patch where either columns aren’t reaching the full height of the walls, so you get a gap at the top of them, or they’re reaching too high and clip through the bottom of the next floor. If this is happening to you, check out this tweet from SimGuruNick for a temporary fix until they can figure out what’s happening and fix it in an upcoming patch 😊

✨The Buy

Listen, buy mode is definitely not without it’s issues either. Once again we don’t have a cabinet to match new counters, there are SEVERAL swatches missing or wrong from many different objects, some of the furniture swatches don’t match others that it’s supposed to (eg a dark brown swatch on all but one display case which has a black swatch instead), the big bookcase has a slot (which it doesn’t need) that is for some reason three tiles behind it, you can see ambient occlusion shadows through one of the living chairs (like CC lol), the list goes on...

BUT

There are objects that came with base game that work perfectly with all of the new stuff, which I have NEVER used before, that I found myself using as I was building with the new pack! And even though no cabinet came with the new counters, a stove and fridge did! And the cabinets from the Vampires pack that I love but never get to use work really well with them too!

Also, look at the preview pics up there, look how many different wands and brooms there are to collect! THERE’S A MAGIC MOP TO RIDE! And all the new books! And the portals, that you can use like elevators to get around your lot! And a “magical” bassinet that would also work perfectly for anyone playing historical challenges too! And the familiars (the things that look like crystal balls)! OH THE FAMILIARS! You’ll see more of them in my gameplay pics, but trust me, LeafBat alone is worth buying this pack! And don’t even get me started on all the cool things that are in the debug menu! Broken building shells with spooky floating furniture anyone?

✨The Verdict

Once again, a pack is saved in my eyes by build/buy (and gameplay but I’ll get into that when my story starts posting lol)!

I looked at all the CAS stuff the very first day we got early access and after a few hours I closed my game and went to play Minecraft feeling a little disappointed because of all the things I mentioned in my CAS review. But the next day when I opened the game back up to check out all the build/buy stuff... Omg I had SO much fun building and decorating my very first witchy house in Glimmerbrook for a very special sim and I can’t wait to show it off to you guys a bit more once my gameplay starts posting!

All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. I am not paid by EA to “hype” their games; I am given the opportunity to review their games early in exchange for an honest review.

Click here for my Create-A-Sim Review

#The Sims 4 #Sims 4 #TS4 #EAGameChangers #TS4RealmOfMagic