Sunday Sims Spotlight: Trading Suburbs for Stormtroopers

The Sims 4: Journey to Batuu is easily one of the strangest additions to the franchise and that’s saying a lot since we’ve seen all kinds of strange additions to the main game. As huge fans of the whole franchise, we never expected a Star Wars crossover. And yet, that’s exactly what we got in late 2020. This DLC is a jarring shift. It mostly strips away a lot of player freedom. Six years later and it still remains as controversial among long-time fans as it was at release.

Welcome to the Edge of the Galaxy (and its Locked Doors)

The expansion drops your Sims into another vacation world. Except this world is modeled directly after Disney’s real-life Galaxy’s Edge theme park. Batuu is split into three main hubs (the Resistance Encampment, the First Order District, and the Black Spire Outpost). Here, you trade regular Simoleons for Galactic Credits, for such is the Star Wars way. You are also, and we can’t stress this enough, forced into era-appropriate clothing to blend in. It definitely looks the part.

Somewhere along the way, the illusion breaks down. Sadly, most of the essential buildings are just rabbit holes. You send your Sim inside to sleep or eat and just stare at the exterior while the clock fast-forwards. We expected more from a DLC for the fourth game in this franchise. But, to be fair, it is just a game pack and not a full-blown expansion.

Sights, Sounds, and Simlish Synth-Pop

The presentation is absolutely amazing. The lighting is excellent, especially with Batuu’s three suns setting over the horizon. We were also taken aback by the giant set pieces like the Millennium Falcon. It sounds even better! The hum of lightsabers and the mechanical chirps of droids are dead-on. Grabbing a drink at Oga’s Cantina while the DJ spins futuristic music mixed with Simlish is easily the most immersive part of the experience. The devs paid immense attention to detail and, if you’re a fan to the Star Wars universe, you will fill right at home with this DLC.

Less Sandbox, More Linear RPG

There were times when it felt like we were playing something closer to a lightweight RPG and not a life simulator. Don’t expect open-ended gameplay here. You will, however, get a series of linear missions for the Resistance, First Order, or the independent Scoundrels. We loved The Sims Medieval so the gameplay context kinda reminded us of that game. We deeply appreciated earning favor with the Resistance, knowing full well that the First Order will hate us.

Grinding through these chores is well worth it as it unlocks new outfits and encounters. Yup.  Characters like Rey and Kylo Ren will be waiting to see if the force is with you. It’s nothing too spectacular or over the top but we did appreciate losing ourselves in this universe from a totally different perspective. Our best parts were easily piecing together a custom lightsaber, purchasing a droid at the depot, or gambling playing Sabacc. Good fun all that.

Rubber Masks and Restricted Play

Underneath all the novelty, some of the mechanics ended up being quite shallow, especially in the long run. The missions can get repetitive incredibly fast. We found ourselves rolling out eyes whenever we were asked to click a control panel and wait for an animation to finish. And “aliens” walking around… that whole thing didn’t do it for us. They could have been unique creatures like the game’s vampires or mermaids. That requires a lot more resources, so we ended up with just regular Sims wearing static rubber masks. A bit of a bummer. Also, we really wanted to use force abilities, just simply choke the life out of the annoying neighbor, but, alas, that isn’t a thing here and lightsabers are restricted to very specific sparring matches; you aren’t allowed to build or edit the lots.

We don’t want to sound ungrateful, we’re happy to have experienced Star Wars in The Sims 4 universe. This isn’t, as we’ve said, a full-blown expansion, so if you just want a virtual Star Wars theme park to run around in for an afternoon, let the SW intro roll and may the force be with you.

What will you find in Journey to Batuu Game Pack?

Thank you for reading, see you next Sunday!