Summary
When it comes to letting players design their Sims' homes,The Sims 5could find an amazing new tool with inspiration fromAnimal Crossing. WhileThe Simshas repeatedly introduced new features for players to furnish virtual homes with, Nintendo’sAnimal Crossingmanaged to beat the franchise to the punch with one potentially game-changing feature. If applied, thenThe Sims 5would be able to grant players an entirely new dimension to work with, potentially making it the best game in the series in terms of creative power. That would extend its role as one of gaming’s best creative sandboxes.
The appeal ofbuilding impressive houses inThe Simsis one of the biggest draws that the franchise has to offer. Either expanding on a preexisting home or starting from scratch, the fanbase is full of players who have designed memorable homes for their Sims. Players can recreate classic buildings, design massive mansions, or even attempt to make their own idea of a dream home. Much like making the Sims themselves, players have a wealth of options at their disposal when it comes to designing houses. Players' creations have only been getting better, andThe Sims 5should continue nurturing that tradition.
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Fully Realized Terraforming Could Evolve The Sims 5’s Creative Gameplay
Terraforming the land around the player’s property feels like anobvious step forward forThe Sims 5. After all, it does seem like the logical next step for creation options. In actuality,The Simshas offered tools to edit terrain in the past, but the options were not especially deep. Past titles inThe Simshave mostly provided options for raising and lowering land, while also adding terrain paint to terrain paint to change its appearance, or adding water to certain areas. A patch forThe Sims 4had the most ambitious approach yet, but only when the world was first generated, not during a session.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsfeatures a useful creation tool that could be the inspiration forThe Sims 5to revolutionize the franchisewith the Island Designer. Players need to jump through a few hoops to unlock the Island Designer and all of its features, and once finished, the player could essentially redesign the entire island to their liking. A previously flat island could become a hilly plain, or the town square could become a mountain with a waterfall rolling into a lake below. Island Designer unlocks the full potential ofAnimal Crossing’s options, andThe Sims 5could take those features even further.
By taking inspiration fromNew Horizons' Island Designer, the developers could launchThe Sims 5with a tool that can rival thebest building mods forThe Sims 4. An in-depth terraforming system could transform every map in the game into something entirely new. If given free rein, players could turn what started as a normal city into an underground metropolis, or transform it into a chain of islands. Letting players transform the world at will would add even more flavor to the already-wild world ofThe Sims. In-depth terraforming could be the last missing piece forThe Sims 5’s creation suite.
The Simshas been letting players design their Sims and houses, and it may be about time for them to start designing the world as well. Forplayers seeking challenges inThe Sims 5, the extra task of working the environment to their liking could be the added task that pushes the game past its predecessors. An in-depth terraforming tool would be able to take the already-impressive creations that players have made and add another layer of technical skill to them.Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Island Designer could be the best inspiration forThe Sims 5to draw from.
The Sims 5is in development.
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