The Sims 4: High School Years Expansion Pack aims to bring more depth to in-game teens, a goal it undoubtedly fulfills. However, while High School Years is one of the stronger Sims 4 Expansion Packs, there are some areas of gameplay that lack depth or functionality. The new DLC provides excellent items, clothing, and social interactions in a unique new world, but other mechanics don’t fare as well.
The fashion that The Sims 4 High School Years brings to the table in Create A Sim mode is one of the most impressive in this iteration’s history. In an effort to represent a wide variety of teen styles, players will find fashionable clothes in everything from kawaii and vaporwave designs to preppy and cottagecore looks. The wide variety of aesthetics presented are perfect for creating a teen with specific tastes and backstory.
The same can be said for the new Traits and Aspirations offered by The Sims 4 High School Years. Traits are essential for roleplaying in The Sims 4, and the three new additions – Overachiever, Party Animal, and Socially Awkward – capture three distinct adolescent elements. The four new Aspirations in the Teen category are also perfect for creating different narratives, letting Sims focus on rebellion, overachieving during and after school, starting drama, or being a popular influencer. These help tie in to the game’s big focus on the highs and lows of teen emotions, as does the new addition of one-sided crushes.
The new items in Build and Buy mode that come with The Sims 4 High School Years are similarly strong, with a focus on teen bedroom items. Just as in real life, teen Sims’ rooms are a sanctuary of sorts where they can freely express themselves, which is achievable via the a wide variety of styles and interests represented in the furniture of the DLC. Alongside trendy furniture, the walls can be filled with posters and other decor, and a large array of new clutter items can be used to make rooms feel more lived in.
The Sims 4 High School Year‘s Copperdale is a sight to behold, with an incredible Americana vibe throughout. The town features 11 total lots: 2 starter homes, 2 homes which house in-game families – including the high school principal – a park, a library, combination thrift shop and boba tea cafe ThrifTea, Copperdale High and its adjacent auditorium, and a lakeside rental for the quintessential teen lake house experience. Adjacent to the park is Plumbite Pier, a delightful waterside area full of attractions and ice cream. However, this area falls victim to one of the most disappointing recurring issues in Sims 4 games: featuring more set pieces, which can’t be interacted with, than usable structures. The new lot type of High School can’t be placed in any Sims 4 worlds except Copperdale, which is disappointing as well.
Copperdale High in The Sims 4 High School Years is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality. On one hand, the design of the high school itself perfectly captures teen academic environments so often seen on television in a very pleasing, classic way. However, much like Plumbite Pier, many of the impressively designed elements are solely for show, the biggest offender being the huge football field, where cheer and football can only happen on small designated floor mat items, and the bleachers cannot be sat in.
Each school day in The Sims 4 High School Years features many nice touches that make it feel authentic, like being able to primp at and decorate lockers, gossip in the school cafeteria, and pull pranks. The in-class experience itself is strangely the weakest point of the day – although the passive skill gain Sims receive from lectures is a nice touch, there are absolutely no actions that can be made while class is in session. This means that even rebellious or lazy students have no choice but to sit and listen attentively, and cannot choose to sleep, pass notes, or become a class clown which would be great narrative opportunities.
After school clubs and teams function much like careers in The Sims 4 High School Years, and players can choose between cheerleading, football, computer club, or chess club. Each comes with their own occasional special events – although those for chess and computer clubs must be scheduled manually – that feature fun competitions and photo spots. However, when students attend the extracurricular activities themselves, players disappointingly do not accompany them.
Teen Sims can also choose to spend their after school hours in High School Years creating looks at ThriftTea through a fun new system that CAS-focused players will enjoy, building outfits that can then be resold on fashion app Trendi as part of a Sims 4 Depop collaboration. They can also become a streamer as a part time career, which features a few fun changes in available activities for Sims as they gain followers. The new Social Bunny app plays a large role in day-to-day life, where players can view and react to friend statuses, post about their day, and send DMs that affect both friendship and romance bars. It has a few weird quirks, particularly the fact that the game doesn’t take into account relationship dynamics, meaning a Sim may get a DM from their principal asking them to hang out.
Prom and the promposal options leading up to it are undeniably cute, with things like creating signs and voting for prom royalty making for a meaningful event. The additions of pre and post-prom event invitations are a nice touch as well, although their lack of structure is somewhat disappointing. From the Sims 4 High School Years‘ teasers, many fans had assumed they could have a hand in the prom’s design, and while it’s not integrated as a job for teen Sims to do before the event, the new Auditorium lot type allows for many new decorative possibilities. Additionally, while prom is meant to disappear from the calendar after being attended, that was not the case in this version, allowing for weekly prom attendance.
It’s not clear if it will be a problem in the final version of The Sims 4 High School Years, but there’s currently a large issue when it comes to graduation. While Sims receive a graduation notification after aging up to a young adult that promises news of the event to follow shortly, no actual graduation event is ever added to the calendar for attendance. Instead, Sims simply receive a diploma in the mail, which is quite anticlimactic.
The Sims 4 High School Years truly excels when it comes to building personalities for teen Sims, and wonderfully captures teen moments like asking your crush to prom or starting drama online. Although somewhat dampened by its large amount of useless set pieces, the world of Copperdale is quite beautiful and the perfect setting for high school. The lack of depth and functionality in some elements of The Sims 4 High School Years Expansion Pack is particularly disappointing because of how deep other features of the game go, but the title does an excellent job overall of encapsulating most of the key parts of adolescence.
The Sims 4 High School Years is available today, July 28, for PC and Mac (via Steam and Origin), PlayStation 4, and Xbox. Screen Rant was provided with a digital download code for the purpose of this review.
