10 Essential Features Project Rene Needs To Include From The Sims Series

Electronic Arts and Maxis recently announced the development of Project Rene, an online portal for The Sims that increases accessibility to creator content, such as mods and online gameplay. With the news, The Sims 5 is no longer in the picture, with The Sims 4 instead continuing its decade-long run. Project Rene will therefore be the series’ next big release, and it needs to implement these features to further enhance the game into what it could be.

Thankfully, through its development, the two game development companies have been getting direct feedback from players through a Sims 4 Expansion Pack survey about what they want to see in the future. However, these essential features in past Sims games need to be implemented, making the game more immersive.

10 Better Sims Customization Would Make Project Rene More Immersive

Color Wheels & Pattern Options

With The Sims 4, the game significantly toned down the amount of customization possible without mods, such as the color ranges and color picker. The game resorted to standard color swatches, restraining the creative freedom The Sims is known for. There is a clear demand for more, as building characters is central to The Sims as a concept.

At the Behind The Sims Summit two years ago, Lyndsay Pearson, VP of Franchise Creative, introduced the core of Project Rene, including bringing back the color wheels and material selection options available through The Sims 3, allowing Simmers to finally get the full customization they have always wanted. If Project Rene intends to keep this in, it will further enhance the simulation.

9 Project Rene Needs To Increase The Number Of Possible Career Paths

The Sims Can Help People Experience Their Dreams

With the addition of villains and matchmakers, The Sims is a place where simulation is used to experience a life widely different, following dreams, from extravagant to hilarious ones. With The Sims 4, coming to work with Sims was introduced; it allows players to follow Sims as they work, helping them complete tasks.

There needs to be more options to accommodate players’ dreams; the game needs to add more possible career fields in general, and also in terms of the ability to tag along. In The Sims 3, Sims can be ghost hunters, letting players live out their Ghostbusters fantasies. This career is not only fun but interesting to play. In addition, they should add more pressure in careers, like adding cancel culture for internet personalities.

8 More Ways For Sims To Die Would Add Much-Needed Variety & Comedy

Death By Dairy Should Be More Common

Currently, there are only 36 ways to die in The Sims 4, and most of them are logical reasons, such as death from eating pufferfish or drowning, but it would bring more to the game to have even more deaths, like murder by cowplant or chicken.

Killing Sims is a whole category of gameplay in The Sims, leading to several murder mods for The Sims 4, such as The Sims 4 Extreme Violence mod by Sacrificial which reflects the demand for more ways to die in-game. Adding more fun options, like death by spicy wings, would allow the drive-in players to experience it all.

7 Project Rene Should Return The Sims To Open-World Gameplay

Make The Sims More Immersive

Back when playing The Sims 3, players could tag along with Sims as they were in cars and bikes, seeing them travel to their destinations, which added to its realism. In The Sims 4, Electronic Arts and Maxis limited the ability for players to walk around in maps and see Sims travel; it just cuts to the destination selected, displaying the sim standing there, with no understanding of how they got there.

The openness of worlds in The Sims 3 humanized Sims more while also using the space to hide secrets and Easter eggs. Reimplementing this will give players a greater perspective of Sims living in a city or town while abiding by the concept of a simulation.

6 Sims Need To Have A Wider Range of Personalities

Where Is The Procrastinator Trait?

With The Sims, a part of the personalization of Sims came with adding traits to make a Sim’s personality and then seeing how certain traits impact reactions. Having more personalities and customization in terms of the emotional side of Sims further humanizes them, giving players a better connection with their Sims.

In terms of Sim customization, it would mean bringing back the bigger range of traits as seen in The Sims 3, like adding LGBTQ+ identities such as aromantic, but it leaves room for Project Rene to further build on it, like adding a trait slider. There is something core that The Sims has been missing when it comes to Sims.

It would be nice to see more representation in the game, adding mental health conditions, such as anxiety and autism. This also reflects on conditions in general; The Sims 3 only had the option to be allergic to fur, and now The Sims 4 has added lactose intolerance. That barely has a grip on the range of health conditions, specifically chronic ones like fibromyalgia, and the lack of accessibility within the game is terrible. There aren’t even any mobility aids, such as wheelchairs, unless Sims 4 realism mods are installed. Project Rene must fix this.

5 A Multi-Platform Release For Project Rene Will Ensure More Players Have Access

My Sims Is Coming The Switch, So Should Project Rene

Speaking of accessibility, it would be nice to see the game added to several more platforms, such as the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation. During the summit, Lyndsay Pearson demonstrated how Project Rene will allow players to access The Sims using their phones as well, but there was no information on what platforms the game can be played on.

Especially considering the relaunch of MySims, Electronic Arts and Maxis have shown that they can make the game available on the Nintendo Switch. In addition, it is only possible to play The Sims 4 on PC or console; on Mac, it barely runs, and the graphics are incredibly worse. It would be nice for Project Rene to update this and widen the game’s reach.

4 Fewer Add-Ons Can Fix The Sims’ Monetization Problem

Are All The Stuff Packs Necessary?

As much as all the additions from the Stuff Packs are nice, it’s a pain to pay so much just for a few things. It increases their customization in-game, but otherwise, it should already be included within the game as base pay, such as the Cats & Dogs Expansion Pack.

Otherwise, all the Stuff Packs aren’t really necessary, as they build on existing in-game features that should be at that level; it comes across as they’re making players pay for things they should have patched in at a high price point. If this isn’t Project Rene’s goal, it would be nice to see them rethink the way they have been taking advantage of their fanbase.

3 Make Missions More Interesting & Rewarding

It Does Not Make A Difference In Gameplay

In The Sims 3 and Sims Medieval, completing tasks is extremely rewarding, as players discover a hidden Easter egg plus some funny encounters. When looking at The Sims 4, all the game’s possible missions are very flat – getting seashells for someone selling seashells by the seashore might sound funny, but otherwise, it’s not really satisfying to collect them just to get 61 simoleons. Nobody does them.

This could tie to Sims interactions too, seeing more interactions and providing dialogue when completing tasks, like The Sims Medieval quests. For instance, searching for a missing child only to learn it was a test to see if players care sounds more entertaining than romancing a frog while trying to appear as a frog with a hat to find out if they are royalty.

2 Project Rene SHould Add More Social Interaction Between Sims

More Tea, More Drama

With Sims growing across age groups, it’s time to update their conversations too. There needs to be more options added to interactions, such as a pop-off or tea spill option. By adding more, it makes the game feel more current.

As an example, when pursuing the streaming career, all Sims do is sit and stare at the computer while players do the same. It would be nice to have some interaction in streaming, such as being able to see messages and respond to chat, and more to social media other than having a dupe Twitter.

1 Travel Needs To Be More Thoroughly Explored In The Sims

Sims Need More Vacations

Adding more to the game being a simulation, there needs to be more international travel, where players can follow Sims to the airport or train station. This ties back to The Sims 4 careers; traveling should not just cut to the destination but rather have players help Sims through their TSA process while trying to go to Sulani’s beach paradise.

In addition, there need to be more destinations, as there is only the option to visit three places other than different worlds, Granite Falls, Batuu, and Selvadorada, when going on vacation. With more destinations, there also should be more immersion and cultures; The Sims 4 attempted this with Selvadorada and Sulani, but it has room to grow. The Sims 3: World Adventures demonstrated this well with destinations such as France, China, and Egypt, and sets a good example of what Project Rene should include.

Sources: Sacrificial Mods, ​​​Plumbella/YouTube, TeaBaker Sims, Katverse, Pixelade/YouTube, WhinyBrit/YouTube, lilsimsie/YouTube