It’s no secret that The Sims 4 has a lot of expansions. In 2022, it was calculated that you would have to spend well over $800 to get every single piece of Sims 4 DLC. Since then, way more expansions have come out, and Maxis shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. Very few fans can afford the full Sims 4 experience these days, so you should carefully consider each DLC to see whether or not it’s worth adding to your collection. The Sims 4: Growing Together is a particularly major expansion that came out in March of 2023. It overhauled the game’s family system and added new mechanics for character development. Here’s a full overview of what Growing Together adds so you can decide if it’s worth the money.
The Town of San Sequoia
A major selling point of The Sims 4 is the chance to build a life for your Sim and their family. The Growing Together expansion adds a new region for you to live in with your Sims known as San Sequoia. This picturesque seaside town has grown from a small fishing village into a bustling city. San Sequoia has three neighborhoods for you to move your Sims into. It also features a rental lot for vacations and a library. One of the most significant new additions in San Sequoia is the Recreational Center. This new location provides new games and activities for Sims to take part in together. You can even build new Recreational Centers outside of San Sequoia to take advantage of these new activities.
New Customization Options & Items
Of course, The Sims 4 wouldn’t be complete without the option to customize your characters and decorate their homes. The Sims 4: Growing Together offers several new options for your Sims, including hairstyles, skin details, and new clothing. No matter what your Sim’s gender, age, or style is, there are options that will accommodate their look. The expansion also features more than 190 new build options for you to decorate your homes. This includes infant changing stations, which were surprisingly absent when the base game added babies. Infants and toddlers also get expanded features from this DLC.
Self-Discovery Traits & Aspirations
While most Sim traits come from the Create-A-Sim screen or from completing aspirations, The Sims 4: Growing Together offers a more immersive way to build your Sim’s personality. Throughout the game, you will be prompted at random to accept new traits based on your Sim’s pre-existing traits and how they perform. For instance, if your Sim stumbles a lot, the game might prompt you to give them the Clumsy trait. If you skip work a lot, you could earn the Lazy trait. This addition provides solid, mechanical evidence of your Sim’s character growth over time.
Childhood Aspirations
Children are also enhanced in The Sims 4: Growing Together. When creating a character who’s a child, you can choose from four new aspirations. The expansion adds a new Multiskill category for childhood aspirations, letting your kids focus on multiple aspects of development as they grow up. The new aspirations are Playtime Captain, Creative Genius, Mind and Body, and Slumber Party Animal. These are relatively simple aspirational tracks to complete, but they add depth and complexity to a child Sim’s life. It also gives them a leg up on the rest of their life by letting them develop multiple skills simultaneously.
Childhood Traits and Confidence
The new aspirations aren’t the only thing Growing Together adds to the childhood experience. There are 18 new quirks for infants and toddlers to pick up. These include things like Good Appetite and Early Riser for infants, while toddlers can choose quirks like Picky Eater. Each of these has a considerable impact on how these tiny characters will interact with the world around them as they grow and develop. While Child Sims doesn’t get new traits, they do get a brand new mechanic in the form of a confidence meter. Events and interactions will raise or lower their confidence as they grow. When the Sim becomes a teenager, they will get new rewards and moodlets based on how high their confidence meter is.
Family Dynamics
The main focus of The Sims 4: Growing Together is on Sims in families. To that end, one of the most significant additions is the new family dynamic mechanic. This mechanic lets you define the relationships between family members. You can make siblings close, distant, or even hostile, or you can make them joke around. This leads to a lot more interactions for your Sims. Since the base game treats familial Sims like any other non-romantic relationship, this adds much more depth and realism to the family experience.
Family-Oriented Social Events
Another aspect of The Sims 4: Growing Together that emphasizes the family experience comes from the DLC’s new social events. The game adds three new occurrences geared around children and families. This means more opportunities to accurately roleplay and portray the experience of raising a family. In The Sims 4: Growing Together, you can host a slumber party, hold a family reunion, or even celebrate a baby shower. You can also have Sims stay over at a friend or relative’s house, which is a good way to emphasize the familial bonds this DLC helps foster.
Mid-Life Crisis
Of course, not every aspect of a Sim’s life is as wholesome and happy as a slumber party. While The Sims 4: Growing Together doesn’t introduce anything as severe as the calamities featured in the game’s fan-made Life Tragedies mod, there are some obstacles for your Sim to deal with. Mid-life crises will occur at random, prompting you to complete certain tasks with your Sim depending on the nature of their crisis. Completing the tasks will earn your Sim positive moodlets as they come to terms with their life. It’s up to you how your character navigates the difficult landscape of aging.
Milestones
Another good way to add depth to your Sims 4 experience is with the expansion’s new Milestone system. Sims unlock new milestones at every stage of their lives by experiencing momentous occasions, like their first day at school. Milestones act as achievements for your Sims to unlock over time, and they come with new items to display and moodlets to interact with. Like Family Dynamics, this system adds depth and meaning to your experience in The Sims 4: Growing Together, allowing you to reflect on your Sim’s journey.
Expansion to Likes & Dislikes
Growing Together also expands Sim characteristics with the addition of new Likes and Dislikes. The DLC offers two new categories from which to select Likes and Dislikes: Characteristics and Conversation Topics. This addition means that the Likes and Dislikes system now has considerable impact on how Sims interact with each other. Characters could be more or less inclined to spend time with each other, and could even come to dislike each other depending on how their traits line up. Like so many other new additions in the Growing Together expansion, this addition adds depth and realism to characterization and development throughout The Sims 4.
The Sims 4: Growing Together Final Verdict
This expansion is wholly focused on family and relationship development. If you’re in the business of expanding the realism of your Sims’ interactions, this expansion is for you. While it does include a hefty amount of new furniture and clothing options, the aesthetic additions are very much secondary to the new character interactions. Players who are most interested in decorating their homes should look elsewhere. If you want to tell deep stories with Sims whose behaviors change and grow over time, you should check out The Sims 4: Growing Together.