Sims 4 Dream Home Decorator Game Pack Review

As part of EA’s ‘Summer of Sims,’ a new Kit Pack, Courtyard Oasis, was released on May 18th, and the Dream Home Decorator Game Pack was released on June 1st. We also had a new update on 5/27 that brought likes and dislikes to the came again.

There are many types of Sims players. We have the family players, builders, challenge players, and more. If you’re a builder, the new Sims 4 Dream Home Decorator pack is for you.

The pack was released a week ago, and since it’s release, there has been a lot of mixed feelings about it. I decided to purchase the pack myself, and see what I thought of it. This is the first time I’ve paid full price for a pack. Typically I wait until the next sale on Origin, which often means waiting a few months until the newer packs go on sale.

Create a Sim

Feminine Items

The Create a Sim (CAS) portion of this pack blew me away. On the feminine side, we have 7 new tops, 8 new bottoms, and 7 full body outfits in addition to 5 new styled looks. Is it just me or does anyone else forget that styled looks are a thing? There are also 4 new accessories, 3 shoes, and 4 new hairstyles, but the clothing items are the standout here.

Within the 4 hairstyles, two of them are the same. But, one has baby hairs while the second does not. The third style is a wavy hair with a deep side part. It’s not my style but it’s a good mesh. Now the fourth hair, features a crown braid. This one is my personal favorite, and the one I used for my sim. But, this style looks very similar to a style that we got with the Tiny Living Stuff Pack.

I ended up comparing the two hairstyles in CAS, and they are similar. Which one do you like more? The main difference is the bangs. Tiny Living’s hairstyle has straight, blunt bangs, while Dream Home Decorator has side swept bangs. The braids are also at slightly different places on the head. Perhaps the Sims team should make one or two styles per pack but add multiple variations of each- like the baby hairs or bang differences. That way you won’t end up with meshes that are poor quality since they are all built on the same foundation. Thoughts?

Masculine Items & More

The masculine CAS follows the Sims 4 trend of being less impressive and less variety. The new pack adds 2 new hairstyles, 5 tops, 2 bottoms, 1 new shoe set, and 2 styled looks. There is also 4 outfits that are unisex.

Children and toddlers have a few new items too. I wasn’t expecting this purely because the pack is centered around a career. None of the items stand out to me, but I do appreciate EA’s effort to not exclude children and toddlers in a very adult focused pack.

What do you think of the CAS items we get with Dream Home Decorator? Does the new Sims 4 pack meet your expectations?

Gameplay

New Career

The Interior Design career is geared towards someone who enjoys building and remodeling homes in the game. I’ve always liked doing this, but my builds always end up looking like my ten year old self did them- the biggest tv and computer, the most expensive everything, and a whole lot of unused empty space. I’ve been trying to improve my building skills over the past few months and I think I’m getting a lot better, though still not perfect.

My first two gigs, I played on a save file that had mods and CC enabled. But, they don’t seem to have made a large impact on the game’s ability to operate correctly. I do have two playtest videos that are now on my new Youtube Channel! I’ll have the videos below, but go subscribe to my channel!

To start, I headed to the Landgraab home for a room renovation. When I first got to their house, I was a bit overwhelmed, but I ended up remodeling their bathroom. They had given me a decent budget, so there was a lot I could do with that. But, even better, any items you take away are added to your project budget. This also includes swapping out floor or wall designs for cheaper ones- you get the savings added into your budget.

The second gig, was a room renovation for the Delgato family. This is probably my favorite room that I did during my four playtests. Watch my test video below and help me figure out why I was able to alter the walls and staircase! My initial reaction was that this is a bug. What do you think?

Playing With No Mods or CC

It occured to me after I did my initial test, that perhaps a mod that I have was contributing to the few I had noticed. So, I removed my entire mods folder and tried again.

First, I had a gig for the Munch family doing a room renovation. I chose to do the back bedroom that has two split styles. The information that they gave me was they disliked storybrook decor, and they liked acting and media production. I created a modern looking room with a large mirror to practice acting, and included a video editing station. Out of the four household members, two liked it and two did not. Ultimately, I was not paid anything and my reputation dropped.

For my second gig, a room renovation for the Hecking family, I chose to remodel the master bedroom. This time, I was told they like basic decor, they liked mischief, and they liked wellness activities. I was also able to ask favorite color after the three details had been given to me, and learned that one of them liked green. Because the budget for the reno was only 1,600, I kept the main furniture but changed swatches, and added more decorations as well as change the flooring and walls. I was much less confident about the look of this reno, but they both loved it.

And, while in the middle of my room reveal, Gunther Much sent me this lovely message.

It caught me off guard, but I do like that the previous gig’s failure followed me into the next day. And, I got a negative moodlet for a few hours because of it.

Overall, from my tests, it does not seem like mods or custom content play a role in the bugs people have found in the game. I still got pretty meaningless information from the clients when discussing the direction they want to take the remodel in. And, I think I got less notifications that told me the final verdict. Has it made a difference for you? Let me know in the comments!

Bugs/Issues

While I do not think I had as many issues as some other people have with Dream Home Decorator, there were a few things that I questioned.

First, for a room renovation, am I really able to choose which room to remodel? Not once was I given a specific room to work on. This may not be a bug, perhaps it is just an odd feature. Thoughts?

Probably what I would say was the most frustrating issue was that often times the preferences I was given had nothing to do with a renovation project. Great, you like mischief. But what am I supposed to do with that? If you like painting, obviously I’m going to stick an easel in there, even if you already have three of them in other rooms.

A the end of the renovation reveal, the clients give you their opinion of your work. But, only about 50% of the time do I hear from the clients. But, even without hearing from them, I’m told the gig is over. How are you supposed to learn and build reputation when you don’t know what to change? When I redid the room for the Munch family, I got no notification of feedback- only what the clients were doing as they walked around. And I found that body language wasn’t also indicative of their final verdict.

And what is the situation with the walls? If you are doing a room renovation, build mode would not allow you to alter the walls or basic structure of the home in any way. But, as you see in my second playtest, I was able to delete and add new walls. And, I was able to make a significant move to the staircase that leads to the third floor. Why was I able to do this? I’m glad I was able to, because I was at a loss for what to do with that area. But I don’t think it was supposed to be possible to do.

UI

The Sims 4 Dream Home Decorator Game Pack also brings us a new career- Interior Designer. This new career requires a new type of layout in the UI (user interface).

Depending on the career your sim has, the work section is laid out differently. The interior design career looks very similar to most other careers, but for some reason this particular layout appeals to me. I think it may be because there is the circles for the client’s likes and dislikes, which breaks up the boxy layout.

I do know some of the EA Game Changers have mentioned that the UI is becoming very crowded, and I do agree with that. The main section that is overwhelming is the personality layout. Between traits, likes and dislikes, the fame and reputation meters, and the neighborhood action plans, there’s too much to take in.

Likes & Dislikes

The new likes and dislikes system came with the new Sims 4 update, not the pack itself. But, Dream Home Decorator does add another category. Everyone will now be able to select likes and dislikes from three categories- color, music genre, and activities. The new pack also adds in decor style.

While I’m glad this was added to the game, I wish there were more categories. I don’t hate the categories given, or the way that they work, but it could be even better. I hope that in the next update they add additional categories. There are already modders that are working on this.

I’d like to see categories that are pack specific being added. What about cats vs dogs? Or favorite seasons? Meals? There is so much potential. Since it doesn’t seem like we will be getting the amount of traits that we had in the Sims 3, likes and dislikes would be the perfect way to expand on gameplay and create consequences in the game. The existing categories do add to the game. Multiple times while playing my sims had positive and negative moodlets and reactions to things they came across.

Overall, I enjoy the gameplay aspect of this pack. If you’re not into building and decorating, then this pack probably has no appeal to you. And while I do like the Create a Sim and Build/Buy mode objects, if you are not interested in the career, then I would skip this pack. Custom Content is such a lifesaver- and most of the items you can probably find for free. Or, at least wait until the next sale on Origin.

What do you think of this new addition to the Sims 4? Will you be purchasing the Sims 4 Dream Home Decorator pack? Let me know in the comments below!

Do you like the room renovations I did? Find me on the Gallery (NutmegPlay) and you can have them, too! And, click here to see my full review of the Cottage Living expansion pack!

Wondering how to find me online? Check out my links page!