The new Sims 4 Expansion Pack High School Years adds new depth to the teenage stage of life with a fully interactive school experience. The new DLC will be the first in the history of the series in which school attendance will become an active activity, and not a rabbit hole, as in previous Sims games. The preliminary event for the game showed that teenagers will have a lot of new activities both at school and outside, as well as a lot of new ways of self-expression and disclosure of their personality.
The Sims 4 High School aims to provide teens with an authentic experience, showcasing both the ups and downs of adolescence. Teenagers will attend classes, after-school events, proms and graduations, and they will have new places to hang out with their friends while they overcome the drama of school hobbies and rivals. Some new DLC features will also appear in the base game in an extensive new update that will add some highly sought-after features from previous Sims games.
During the preliminary presentation, the Sims 4 High School Years lead designer Jessica Croft and lead producer George Pigula talked about the four main principles that guided the creation of the add-on:
Get to know High School: Players can relive every minute of high school events and all the dramas that are associated with them, whether it’s lessons and tests, extracurricular clubs or big events. compete and fall in love, experience first dates and breakups, slip away at night and risk everything by inviting another Sim to the prom with a proposal. Show your style and creativity: create unique rooms for teenagers that will become a refuge from the rest of the world, and dress Sims in a variety of popular clothing styles with unique sim creation options that express who they are. Explore your personality: Whoever the player’s sim is, an excellent student, a popular cheerleader or a rebellious troublemaker, they have many ways to find out their place in the world and who they want to become after graduation.
The Sims 4 High School Years includes a whole new world of Copperdale, home to the Copperdale School, romantic Plumb Pier, thrift store and Bob ThrifTea Tea shop. Copperdale High has all the classic high school locations: classrooms, a cafeteria, a sports field, and an auditorium for special events. Plumbite Pier is described as “the perfect place for a first date” where players can ride through the tunnel of love, the haunted house and the Ferris wheel and take memorable pictures in the photo booth. ThrifTea is a fashion center for teen Sims featuring special clothing from Sims 4, created in collaboration with Depop, an online clothing store.
The Create A Sim app will get many new additions to The Sims 4 High School Years, some of which will get into the main game. Players can now choose facial, back, torso, and leg hair that can grow and, in turn, be shaved off by Sims. The new fashion covers a wide range of popular styles from kawaii to dark academy and rustic style, and also focuses on formal prom wear. Four new aspirations for teenagers are available: “Live Fast”, “Drama Lama”, “Adored Icon” and “Goal-oriented”, as well as 3 new Sims 4 traits, 2 of which are characteristic of teenagers, and the trait “Socially Awkward” for all ages. Body hair and the “Socially Awkward” trait will appear in the base game, as will a huge new sexual orientation update in which players will be able to choose which gender attracts sims — with aromantic and asexual options — and if they are still exploring their orientation.
School years in The Sims 4, high school years will be spent in the same way as an active career, when players can choose whether to follow their Sims to school every day or not. Once in school, the day will have various goals that need to be fulfilled in the same way as an active career, and the choice of a sim to skip a lesson or not prepare for exams will lead to academic consequences. Classroom classes will help Sims gain skills, and a student who successfully graduates with a high reputation will gain an advantage when it comes to college admission with the Sims 4 Discover University supplement. Conversely, Sims who failed and didn’t get a degree will be blocked for certain careers, although they can get a degree online to make up for it.
However, most of the Sims 4 High School Years experience has to do with what happens between classes and after school. In between classes, players can bring their Sims to a customizable locker, eat in the dining room and chat with friends. Sims can join a soccer team, a support group, a computer club, and a chess club, and the developers have stated that after-school events such as job fairs and sports team competitions will often be held. Sims can now acquire both lovers and rivals as they study at school, which is accompanied by new interactions.
