If there's one thing High School Years, the first full expansion for The Sims 4 in a year, successfully acknowledges, it's a slight lack of meaningful content for teen Sims in the game.
The world of Copperdale offers greatly expanded slice-of-life gameplay for younger Sims including the option, for the first time in the series, to follow them as they attend the school. A typical school day kicks off with a period of free time, before a morning and afternoon class with a lunch break in between.
Some may take issue with the fact that there's very limited interaction available during classes and exams, but it's the free time and lunch breaks that present opportunities for plenty of storytelling and drama.
Being at school is the perfect opportunity for teens to meet people their own age and make friendships, find love and get involved in petty feuds. Some of this can happen organically – like a fellow student confessing a crush on your Sim – while interactions such as pulling pranks and skipping class (and trying to avoid getting caught doing so) give freedom to shape what sort of teenager your Sim ends up being.
Although not deep individually, aspects like fears, after-school activities (such as American football, cheer, and chess club), and the new aspirations and traits help to distinguish teens from each other when combined.
Fears, among features like sexual orientation and body hair, were actually added as part of the newest base game update, but there are some unique and rather relatable school-themed ones in this expansion including the fear of failing exams or disappointing parents.
Sims can become extremely tense as a result of these fears, but can try to overcome them by carrying out a specific action, like preparing for an exam while in a Focused mood or setting expectations with a parent. It's a nice little touch.
There's a bunch of other stuff to see, like acne and detention, a theme park featuring attractions such as a ferris wheel and haunted house, and a boba tea/thrift store combo that allows your Sim to dabble in creating fashion trends. They all contribute to the big picture of teen life.
The expansion is not without a few issues. For starters, some of the ideas don't quite pay off – an in-game social media app gets tiresome to use pretty quickly (at least it's optional), while traditional American school events like prom and graduation are featured here but struggle to stand out when they should feel like special occasions.
We experienced a couple of unusual bugs, too. During one school exam, the principal happened to be sitting in the classroom at the same time. While getting caught skipping class lands you in detention, our Sim – having finished her exam early – literally just stood up from her desk before she was shouted at by the principal and punished.
The other unfortunate glitch saw our teen Sim receiving a message from one of her teachers. In this message, Ms Coombes admitted to having a crush on our Sim and asked her out.
Moments after we turned Ms Coombes down, the teacher showed up uninvited inside of our home.
You also might not get the same students turning up to school every day. We're guessing that engine limitations prevent the lot from having more than a dozen or so teenagers present at the same time, so classrooms are half-full and the Sims who turn up are rotated, meaning your best friends may take random days off.
As a package, it's clear that this is not a flawless expansion, but how much enjoyment you get out of it will depend on whether the issues bother you.
Teen Sims have become a whole lot more engaging and satisfying to control here, in large part thanks to a variety of features and moving parts that help to capture the teen experience. With an impressive range of clothing and furniture targeted towards teens included as well, the expansion succeeds in turning this previously-overlooked life stage into one that feels unique and worthwhile to play.
For us personally, that's a big win and outweighs the pack's imperfections and lack of polish.
Platform reviewed on: PC
The Sims 4: High School Years is out now on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
