The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff is the fifth Stuff Pack to be released for The Sims 4 and features a new items, clothing, hair, and some gameplay added to the mix. But is The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff worth the price tag or is it something you should just skip? Well, that’s where I come in! Hopefully I’ll be able to give you enough information on the game to help you make a decision!
What’s new?
The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff comes with 88 new additions to Build/Buy Mode, Create a Sim, and also some new movies and social interactions added to the TVs. The general theme of the pack is BoHo Chic which is a little confusing given the title of the pack. Don’t get me wrong, the new items look amazing and it’s a much welcomed change from the overly modern stuff we’ve received since The Sims 4 first released, but when I think of hanging out with friends and watching movies, I don’t think BoHo Chic. I think that the theme would have been better suited to an arts and crafts style Stuff Pack or even a Game Pack.
New Gameplay
The biggest additions to The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff are the popcorn maker and the TV movies. It doesn’t sound like much, but there’s actually a lot going on under the hood that impacts gameplay in more ways than previous Stuff Packs. While we get two very large TVs to decorate our Sim Caves with, the new movies aren’t limited to just the new TVs. This, I think, was a very good move from the Stuff Pack creators as it means that we can enjoy the new gameplay without all our Sims having the huge televisions in their houses.
There are 10 different movies included with The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff, all of which were specially created for this pack. I appreciate that the creators went with The Sims 3 again as this keeps the movies consistent with other TV shows. The movies themselves are rather funny to watch and actually have plots too!
Some of the movies can be very dark too; just watch Moonlight Massacre III with your Sims to see what I mean! Your Sims can also make a particular genre their favourite too (via a Friendly Social interaction) which will influence gained moodlets. Sims will also react to the movie too, and if it’s scary on screen, they’ll jump. The same goes for sad movies; Sims may cry. I like feature this as it makes Sims feel more aware about what they are watching. There are also other new social interactions relating to the movies too and it’s nice to have our Sims discuss activities that they’ve just taken part in.
Build and Buy Mode Additions
The 36 new items found in Build and Buy Mode are mostly in the style of BoHo Chic. When I initially saw the promotional material for this Stuff Pack, I was extremely underwhelmed by it. Not because of the style, but because a lot of the items looked like they had been lifted directly from various sets in The Sims 3 Store. I owned those sets but I didn’t use them, I thought that the same would be true with the BoHo Chic items in this pack too. Thankfully the person/people who made these objects made somewhat plain and toned down textures for the items as well as the bright and funky options.
The items are surprisingly versatile to build with and can be used in a variety of settings. I ended up decorating my teen Sims bedroom with a lot of the content from The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff and The Sims 4 Spa Day to create a sort of serene, relaxing area with a lot of candles and incense burners. The look of her room actually reflected her free-style personality really well. Other uses of the items could be for outdoor settings such as patios, sun rooms or by the pool. I am also eager to create a sort of BoHo Chic Cafe mixing the content from The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff with The Sims 4 Get Together. There’s a lot of playability with this and it’s content that I’ll be using a lot.
Create a Sim Additions
The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff includes a selection of new clothing and hair styles for your Sims fitting with the “BoHo Chic” style this pack seems to be aiming for. The pack comes with 46 new additions for you to outfit your Sims with, however, 4 of these items are just identical assets spread across both sexes.
The male clothing is very well made and while going for that bright, BoHo Chic look, can be used in different ways too thanks to some plain looking options. I can see myself using most of the clothes on a regular basis, especially for my more “out there” coffee drinking Sims who frequent the local Cafes (yes, he’s a bit of a Hipster). There are two new hairstyles for them too, one short and one long. Finally, our male Sims can have long, wavy hair that doesn’t look scruffy and unkept. More of this please!!
Now, for the females, it’s a bit of a hit-or-miss. The creators who make clothes for Adult females seem to go to either end of the extreme. More “conservative” looks tend to be things you’d put on an Elder, while the “young look” seems to show as much skin as possible before the censor appears. Now, I’m not a prude, but a few of the Outfits for adult females leave very little to the imagination in regards to the chest area.
Not all the clothes are bad though, there are some really cute bell bottomed jeans with some funky designs on it that are probably the best trousers I’ve seen in the game yet! The amount of attention to detail on them is incredible!
There are also 4 new hair styles for females too, each with a different look. There is one style that has cornrows that has a duplicate of that I am very grateful of. One of them is just a plain style in the standard hair colours, while the other is the same but with a mixture of different colours throughout the hair. I really hope that we will see more of this as there are several hair styles that I’d use if not for the forced hair dye colours.
Finally, we get to the Children CAS options. Or lack of. This is the tenth additional release to The Sims 4 and with each new release we see less and less clothing options added for children. The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff is no exception to this, and is probably the worst offender yet. On paper (I actually have a list breaking down all the new CAS additions in front of me), Female Child Sims get 2 new tops and one new bottoms and Male Child Sims get one new top and one new bottom. However, the male options are direct copy and paste jobs from the female selection. The reality of this is that there are only 3 new options for children. Technically they aren’t even new items, they are just retextures of base game meshes.
It’s very frustrating as a family player to get all this new content and there’s nothing for children. I fear that with each new addition to The Sims 4, players like myself who like playing the generational game and getting the most out of all years are going to feel more alienated unless Maxis realizes that the Child life stage is a big part to us too.
It pains me to be so negative in regards to the CAS options for females and children as they do look good, but they don’t seem much different to what we have already (even more so for the children’s clothes).
Value
The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff retails for $9.99 USD and contains 85 new items to the game. This works out as approximately $0.08 per item. Even with the negatives I mentioned earlier, I do feel that this Stuff Pack is worth the price. It adds some fun new gameplay to the game too and the new items are a nice change from the modern style we’ve been getting.
Final Thoughts
The Sims 4 Movie Hangout Stuff is a really nice, well made pack with a nice bunch of items that I can see me using in a variety of settings. But I’m still confused over the theme the developers went for. I mentioned earlier that when I think of “movie hangout” I don’t think of “BoHo Chic”. I think of people, whether friends or family, just chilling out in comfortable clothes and watching movies. I think that this pack was a missed opportunity to bringing in some family themed stuff to the game. It’s not uncommon for families to doss around wearing their pajamas and watch a movie together.
Children could have had some new toys themed around the children’s movies, as well as new clothes with pictures of the characters on it. Heck, they even could have had some costumes like the ones we see in the movies for the children. I’ve lost count of the times my nephew would stick on his favourite superhero movie while dressed up like him and playing with toys to re-enacting the scenes as they happen. Children are already able to play with their toys while watching TV, so a few new action figures from the movies would have been perfect.
Overall, I’m happy with the content added in The Sims 4 Movie Hangout stuff and I know I’ll be using the content a lot, but I feel it was a missed opportunity to break the mould of “adult only content” that we have been getting since release.
The Sims 4 Movie Hangout is now available worldwide. Thank you for taking the time to read this review and I hope it has helped you make a decision about the Stuff Pack. Take care and have an amazing day!
Peter (Wee Albet)
