Across all four games in The Sims franchise, players have asked for improvements to the life simulation game. Sometimes, these requests are answered in a patch or an expansion pack, but many fans are left frustrated at the limitations of the life simulator. Now, Paradox Tectonic might just have what these players are looking for in Life By You.

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Gone are Sims, and in its place are real humans with real conversations and a lot of customization and freedom. Building upon the blueprint of The Sims franchise, Life By You promises to be a major competitor while also being its own unique entity. While both life simulation games have a lot of similarities due to the genre they’re operating in, Life By You differs in various ways.

7 Personal Customization

Character customization

Instead of Create-a-Sim, Life By You uses the “Human Creator.” It’s the same basic premise, but there’s much more openness regarding how players want their characters to present themselves. Age is referred to as a number that can be edited in addition to a life stage. For example, in the trailer, an adult life stage can range from 19 to 33.

Life By You will also include personality and character traits, expanding upon what The Sims has built. Life By You gives Sims players what they’ve always asked for – deeper and unique storytelling to fit their playstyle rather than just a few options. Some of the traits seen in gameplay include things that paint a detailed backstory, like a happy or traumatic upbringing or harboring family secrets.

6 No Simlish

Humans having a conversation in Life By You

Simlish was first created as a means to bypass repetition and the need to record countless hours of dialogue in different languages. It’s become an iconic fictional language since, to the point that popular musicians provided covers of their songs in Simlish for the games.

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In contrast, humans will communicate in real languages in Life By You. It’s not clear whether conversations will be spoken or entirely text-based, but players will be able to follow exactly what their characters are saying to each other and even have the means to edit the conversations themselves. This adds endless storytelling in the game, as players can edit existing lines of dialogue to fit their personal preference and playstyle or create entirely new conversation trees and share them with other players.

5 Basic Necessities At Launch

Human doing laundry in Life By You

The Sims is known for its expansion packs, which provide additional gameplay mechanics not included in the base game. But as The Sims 4 has shown, this cycle can become a financial burden for players – particularly when a life simulator should have all the basic necessities of life at launch, like toddlers and pools.

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However, Life By You is venturing down a different path. While no one can rule out DLC expansions in the future, the base version of the game will include things that have almost always been expansion items in The Sims franchise, like laundry items and different modes of transport.

4 No Rabbit Holes

Shopping in Life By You

Rabbit holes are a common sight among Sims players. Depending on the game, these are usually places that Sims can visit and enter, but the camera won’t follow them. Despite being an open world, The Sims 3 had the most rabbit holes, with Sims disappearing into stores, hospitals, schools, and workplaces.

But in Life By You, Humble has assured that there are zero rabbit holes to encounter. Instead, players will be able to interact with a variety of different lots, including workplaces and stores. As shown in the gameplay, this includes working in a salon and having the option to restock shelves and visit cafes, clothes stores, and actual office spaces.

3 Freedom To Move Lots Literally Anywhere

Freedom to move lots

As an open-world life simulator, the only restrictions in Life By You are the borders of the world players create. Aside from freely exploring the region players choose to build within, they can place lots wherever they want with no limitations. As shown in the announcement event, the environment molds around wherever a lot is placed, resulting in an amount of freedom that players have yet to experience.

While games like The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 provided players a little more in placing lots within a world, The Sims 4 is very limited in that regard. Whereas in Life By You, there seems to be nothing stopping players from placing homes, workplaces, and shops where they see fit.

2 Extremely Detailed Live Edit Mode

Live edit mode in Life By You

From what has been shown of Life By You’s live edit mode, it looks a lot more detailed than what is currently offered in The Sims franchise. For example, in The Sims 4, players can build, decorate, and landscape their homes in addition to manipulating the terrain of a lot. But in Life By You, this runs even deeper. There are tabs that enable players to edit almost everything in the world, from humans to the lot type and the region itself.

While the game seems to follow The Sims in terms of its build/buy mode, it’s clear that there are many more options for players to seamlessly edit the world as they see fit without the limitations of loading screens.

1 Ability To Take Direct Control

Human riding skateboard in Life By You

Players can take control in the typical Sims way by clicking and directing humans. Alternatively, they can experience Life By You from a third-person perspective where the camera is directed over the shoulder. While in this mode, players can control their characters directly with arrow keys – something that has never been implemented in any Sims game.

As for modes of transport, players will be able to operate those manually – much like an enhanced version of U-Drive It mode from SimCity 4: Rush Hour. So instead of watching characters drive their cars or ride skateboards, players can use a keyboard or controller to accelerate, brake, and turn.

Life By You is in development for PC and enters Early Access on September 12.

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