The Sims 4: For Rent

You either love them or hate them. Everyone has their own opinion on The Sims, but one thing we can all agree on is that Maxis' latest simulation title offers an unfathomable amount of content. Granted, getting access to all of the available content in The Sims 4 these days will likely require you to remortgage your house, but assuming the fact that there are countless expansions already in the wild, the long-running game has now been bolstered even further with more content. This is known as the For Rent expansion, and as the name implies, this mainly revolves around building a property empire.

I'm going to skip over all the regular bits and bobs related to The Sims 4, because this is a game that is very common and well known at this point. What I will say in this regard is that For Rent isn't the kind of expansion you just pick up to learn the ropes of The Sims 4 with. It's more advanced content that requires an understanding of the base game and mechanics, so even though you can literally dive into For Rent from the get-go, it's highly advisable that you stick to the vanilla worlds before heading to Tomarang.

But once you do decide to load up this new Southeast Asian-inspired location, The Sims 4 does provide a very deep and easy to follow set of tutorials that will enable you to start building your property empire. It'll steadily coach you through creating your first Residential Rental (which is just a fancy word for a property that you own and that another Sim lives in and pays you rent for) and also will explain the best and necessary items and facilities required to ensure that Sims want to and enjoy living in your properties. From here, the tutorials steadily ramp up and explore actually building your own Residential Rental from the ground-up, by purchasing an empty lot, constructing a house, turning it into a rented property and then finding a tenant. Ultimately, these tutorials conclude by delving into Unit Ratings and the more complex systems that generally revolve around the emotional aspect of being a property owner.

This is where For Rent really starts to come into its own, because while you already have to manage the personal lives of your Sims and the challenges that they bring, now you also have to keep other Sims happy and content in your properties. Whether this means fixing damaged facilities, or providing additional things that a tenant is requiring, or even simply helping to resolve intra-tenant conflicts, which are evermore common when factoring in how multiple families of Sims can live within one large Residential Rental, you will have your hands full with being a property owner. This whole concept loops back to the Unit Ratings system, as if you don't do your job as a property owner well enough and a house drops in value and rating, Sims will become frustrated and could start causing you problems, which just adds to the stress of managing a property empire.

The whole setup of For Rent and its property management systems work well. Granted, there was never really any doubt in my mind that it wouldn't, especially considering this is the 19th or so mainline expansion for The Sims 4. Still, it provides a collection of new ways to keep exploring the simulation title, which when matched up with prior expansions too, means that The Sims 4 remains one of the most complex, deep, and customisable simulation experiences out there. And in this vein, For Rent does seem like one of the more important and impactful expansion out there. It lacks the flash and allure of Get Famous or the Island Living expansions, but For Rent features systems and mechanics that generally improve the entire Sims experience at a ground level unlike some of the others, and that can't be overlooked.

Still, I'm not going to tell you that For Rent is redefining The Sims 4, because it's not. It's bringing a few new elements that are more significant and exciting, but also a lot of minor additions that don't exactly sparkle with the same allure. Dedicated Sims veterans might find the addition of seeing children playing hopscotch or being able to add kettles to your homes, or the more classy Create-a-Sim system interesting, but these are more niche extras that simply bolster the core new systems that For Rent and The Sims 4 brings. It's a pleasant way to continue enjoying the simulation title, but it's not going to wow you or blow you away. It's just more of what we've come to expect from Maxis' title.