The announcement of The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle was met with mixed reactions. While some were excited, others were skeptical, and many more were outspoken critics of the idea. However, all these opinions are based around a short trailer and how much can that really tell us? Unsurprisingly, not a lot.

TheGamer was fortunate enough to get our hands on an early alpha build of the game in order to find out more. As we explored the pack in greater depth, it became obvious that there’s so much more to Eco Lifestyle than we expected.

A Whole New World(s)

We all saw the new world of Evergreen Harbor in the trailer. As has been discussed, it’s a transforming world but what you don’t see in the footage so far is that each area is affected differently. There are actually three separate neighborhoods; one with a green footprint, one neutral, and one industrial. Each neighborhood looks different and all can be improved or destroyed independently.

This world is the most affected by the actions of your Sims but all worlds in the game can be changed. Exceptions are only Strangerville, due to its mechanics relating to the story, and the vacation worlds where you cannot live.

Every world now has neighborhoods, including base game worlds. Every one of these has its own eco-footprint and community action plan system. This makes the game feel smaller but also more important. It gives you a reason to befriend your neighbors and allows you to customize your areas a little more.

You can pollute an area to create a grungy feel and really play into the smog or wasteland themes, or brighten up neighborhoods to uncover beautiful clear skies. Almost everything outside of Evergreen Harbor starts off neutral and individual lots’ actions add up to wider changes in each neighborhood. This helps your actions feel more like they have consequences right across the game.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Eco Lifestyle isn’t just about change either. While there is a focus on neighborhood action plans (called N.A.P.s) and rallying your neighbors to use green energy, the pack is so much more than that.

New community spaces can be created in any neighborhood within any world with a voting system. They’re used for one of three purposes: a community garden, makerspace, or marketplace. As with any lot, they can be edited but your world will need to vote on how to use the space. If you want your preference to win you’ll need to gain some influence points through social interactions and use them to cast extra votes.

This system means that we have three new types of community lots. Gardens have a focus on sustainability and gardening itself; they function as an area where Sims can work together to plant, tend, and grow a variety of things. They feel more like a community project than parks with Sims actually helping to develop them.

Makerspaces utilize the new skills in the pack. You’ll find candle-making tables as well as fabricators. There are also woodworking tables and fizzy juice makers. If you want to get hands-on without turning your home into a workshop – these spaces are for you.

Finally, the market places are reminiscent of those in Selvadorada, with Sims coming together to showcase their handmade goods for others to purchase. You can choose to buy or sell, giving your Sims flexibility.

Tiny Touches

As often found in The Sims 4, there are also a number of tiny touches that make big differences. The expansion itself and the free patch that comes with it will be making a few quality of life changes. One of the biggest for gameplay fans is the new bills system. Household bills will now be separated out with lot rental and utilities itemized separately. Utilities are also calculated based on the appliances in your home, with power consumption now listed in build and buy mode. You can also offset your bills by producing extra power or water and selling it back to the Landgrabbs.

For builders, there are a couple of other great features. While we all know about ladders, the greatest seemingly small change is the ability to place doors and windows off the grid. Previously, these would always snap to the grid tiles but now they can be moved from side to side. This means that you can place any door or window centrally in a wall, even if it’s a single tile door in a double tile space.

You’ll also find your inventory is more organized. Items are categorized and it’s much easier to find things. These little touches show that the base game is still getting some love, something we always like to see.

Don’t Judge A Game By Its Trailer

Eco Lifestyle is a lot more in-depth than expected and this preview is based only on limited time with an alpha build. As more details emerge and we get our hands on the final product it will be interesting to see if opinions change.

Currently, we are quietly optimistic, especially since the pack includes a few other surprises that are going to be big hits. While the dumpster woohoo made the gameplay trailer, dumpsters themselves are even more versatile than you may expect. Certain types of gameplay such as rags to riches or apocalypse challenges are going to gain a huge boost from this expansion, especially since you can access the trash items via hidden objects cheats. It just shows that you should never judge a game by its trailer.

TheGamer was given access to an early alpha PC build of The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle for this preview. The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle will be available for PC, Mac, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on June 5th.

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