Dani was able to watch 20 minutes of gameplay from the upcoming Sims competitor. The little things in particular leave her happy
After EA’s The Sims series has made itself very comfortable on the throne of dollhouse simulations for over two decades, a new competitor enters the playing field with Life by You. And this one comes not only from strategy giant Paradox, but also from Rod Humble, who was already significantly involved in The Sims 2 and 3 – and knows what makes the community tick.
After the Early Access launch was recently postponed by half a year, Life by You showed about 20 minutes of gameplay at this year’s gamescom. Although I haven’t had the chance to play the game myself yet, three tiny details are making me completely excited. And they make me positive for the EA release on 5 March 2024.
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Life by You will be different from The Sims
I’ve already talked about Rod Humble’s grand vision in detail in my big (Preview). If you watch the trailers for Life by You, you will quickly notice how much ambition is behind the project – but also how much understanding the developers have for fan wishes.
For example, the new simulation is supposed to offer an open world without loading transitions, we can control people directly and jump back and forth between families and people at any time. Dialogues are conducted in real language and can be expanded. The building menu holds countless customisation options, including colour wheels and modular building tools, for example.
Of course, 20 minutes of gameplay were too little to be able to assess whether Rod Humble’s big dream of the ultimate sandbox will come true. But as a Sims fan, the little things already make me totally happy.
1. people are very human
In the gamescom demo, we accompany Ronnie to work. Because “athletic” is one of her character traits, she takes great pleasure in her job at the local gym. By the way, we can accompany people to their work and follow everything in real time – “rabbit holes” like in The Sims 4 don’t exist, so they don’t disappear into nowhere for a while.
Someone who doesn’t feel like doing sports, on the other hand, becomes unhappy and irritable at a job in the gym. The interplay of characteristics, desires, activities and relationships leads to different situations and states of mind – and should thus allow for a realistic simulation.
This is all fantastic and I look forward to trying it out in the Early Access version. But I was excited by something else entirely: I’m struck by how human the people in Life by You actually seem when Ronnie changes after work and swaps her sweaty clothes for a fresh outfit. Whereas in The Sims 4 the clothes simply disappear, in Life by You there is now a small pile of clothes on the floor.
We can just leave it there and let the flat get messy. This can also have an effect on a person’s state of mind. Or we can collect the clothes directly and start the washing machine. Bookshelves can get messy too – and never have I felt so understood by a game.
2. I see my choices in the world
When I build houses in The Sims 4 without cheats and custom content, I often face the problem that everything looks quite sterile and impersonal. The cushions on the sofas are always the same, in always the same positions. The flowers I put up at home all come from the “copy&paste” shop and sometimes I just wish for a bit more individuality.
When a developer shows me how Ronnie puts together a bouquet of flowers himself and then places it in the world, the little interior design fan in me rejoices. By the way, Ronnie plants the flowers herself in her garden. If she doesn’t take good enough care of them, they can die too.
Once the flowers have grown, they can be picked and assembled into a bouquet for a vase. A recipe shows what such a bouquet could look like. But if we don’t have the right flowers at hand, we can change them – and this is visible in the world!
If we put two red roses in a bouquet instead of white flowers, they will be visible when we put the flower vase on our counter. And this is just a small example of the countless ways we can add our own touch to the world of Life by You.
3. Hello, have we met?
We have known since the announcement of the life simulation that Life by You relies on dialogues in real language. We can also expand the conversation options at any time with the help of an editor.
Depending on how well we know the person, what we have already experienced together and where we are, different dialogue options are available. As in The Sims 4, we can set the tone of a conversation by choosing a nice, funny or angry answer, for example.
With this system comes another tiny detail into play that I discovered during the demo: As Ronnie wanders through the gym, we encounter other people such as her co-worker Elijah. One person, however, strolls past us with loud question marks above his head.
But the man is not completely confused – Ronnie simply hasn’t met him yet. She therefore doesn’t know his name, his profession or anything else about him until she introduces herself. A tiny detail that brings so much realism to the simulation.
Editor’s Verdict
I was a little sad at first that I couldn’t play Life by You for myself at gamescom yet, after Early Access also slipped into next year. In retrospect, however, I am very glad that the developers guided me through the 20 minutes. That way I was able to soak up all the little things.
Of course, after this short time I can’t yet say whether Life by You can keep up with genre giant The Sims 4, whether the ideas all work out and whether the simulation is really fun. What I did notice positively, however, was the technical condition. While the build in the trailers often looks like a shell, the gamescom demo already looks quite stable and fluid. The visuals are still being worked on until the EA launch. The developers are currently working with many placeholders for menus and UI.
But I am absolutely thrilled by the small details that I could already see. When a person leaves clothes on the floor, that may not seem like the biggest revolution to others, but it is a huge step for doll’s house simulations.
Because with this, Life by You proves that it wants to bring more simulation into the genre than we’ve seen so far, grants the player even more freedom and thus becomes completely different from The Sims 4. After my initial scepticism, I’m very much looking forward to picking up my dirty laundry from the floor myself from 5 March 2024. Then, at the latest, it will become clear whether the grand visions can excite me as much as the tiny details.
