As The Sims series progresses in the future, players will be looking for new ways to engage with the franchise in order to keep it interesting. One of the most obvious ways for developer Maxis to do this would be to add more ways for players to kill off their Sims within The Sims 5.
Originally conceived as an architectural and landscaping game, where players focused on designing homes for characters - called Sims - to interact with, The Sims developers ultimately changed tact and instead decided to focus on life simulation. Since then, players have been able to carefully curate families and neighborhoods within The Sims, choosing personality traits and life aspirations for each individual Sim created. Wielding god-like powers, players could encourage their Sims to act in a variety of debauched or angelic manners as the mood took them. Extra marital affairs, poor personal hygiene, and choosing a career within a crime ring are just as easy to realize in The Sims as burning spaghetti or improving charisma by looking in a mirror, but without the real-word consequences.
However, there is one particular activity within all The Sims games that stands above the rest: killing off a Sim. Yes, it is a bit grim, and players may question their morals as a Sim takes its final breath. However, there is no denying the odd satisfaction that comes with watching a Sim’s various health bars diminish from a robust and vibrant green to an irate and final red. So, despite this being a slightly dark way to spend time, it would be great to see more ways to end a Sim’s days in The Sims 5.
The Sims 5: Death Becomes Them
Within The Sims 4, there are already multiple ways for a Sim to die. This could be by a genuine accident, such as when a Sim decides to cook upon a cheap domestic appliance and ends up engulfed in flames, or it could be premeditated by the player. One of the most popular and notorious ways of bumping off a Sim has been, and may well always be, by removing the pool steps during the victim’s daily lengths. The Sims 4 did change this up a bit by adding the ability for a Sim to simply pull themselves up on the pool sides when no steps were readily available, but that is easily remedied by building a nice fence or wall right against the water’s edge. The Sims 4 also introduced the ability for a Sim to die from an overwhelming emotion, be it anger, embarrassment or hysteria.
The Sims 5 needs to take these ideas and expand upon them. While a lot of the ways that a Sim can die in the current games are obviously more than a touch farfetched and overly exaggerated, they are still mostly ideas that still stem from real-world situations. However, there is the random “Eaten by a Cow Plant” death in The Sims 4. Adding in even more fantastical ways to kill off a Sim would offer players a new and unpredictable layer of entertainment in future games.
While an odd inclusion in The Sims 4, the Cow Plant should be seen as a steppingstone to just how surreal an experience Maxis can make killing off Sims in The Sims 5. This will allow players to welcome The Grim Reaper onto their screens knowing that their crimes, though harsh, were downright hilarious and absolutely worth the moral grey area.
The Sims 4 is available for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.