It’s hard for me to criticize a game that I’ve virtually grown up with, like the entire Sims franchise. Whether it’s the very first Sims City game, or the vast open-world gameplay of the Sims 3, there is always something to love about playing sims.

But the Sims 4 Cats and Dogs is the latest of many disappoints produced by the most recent iteration of the life simulation game. Overall, The Sims 4 has already challenged my love for sims. This expansion pack solidifies my criticisms for several reasons:

1. You can’t control your pets – Maybe I shouldn’t want to play God so badly, but seriously. The Sims is a life simulation game. If the pets aren’t playable characters, they’re basically just glorified objects or NPCs. It makes the pets seem less personable and it’s harder to simulate real-life pets.

2. There are no horses – In the Sims 3 Pets, I loved being able to gallop down the road on horseback while on my way to my job as a criminal. Sadly, those days are long gone. Cats and dogs are great, but there are many more dynamics added to a game just by including horses. I feel like my gameplay is limited by only owning cats and dogs.

3. There are no “small critters” – Okay, seriously though: in the Sims 3 Pets, you could adopt (non-playable) critters like lizards, rodents, snakes, turtles or even birds. In my opinion, this form of non-playable pet made sense – and added tons of realism to gameplay. You could have fully customizable cats, dogs or horses and then add to your zoo with easy to care for, small animals. However, the Sims 4 Cats and Dogs really cheated us out of this experiencing by limiting the playability of the only pets available.

At this point, I only keep up with the Sims 4 for nostalgic reasons. It’s getting harder to pay full price for games that have continually disappointed me, and the hype is dying down each time a new expansion pack is released.

When I look back at previous games, there are features I find myself dying to have again. However, the Sims 4 has consistently lacked features that actually made other sims games enjoyable.

I wouldn’t recommend buying ANY of the Sims 4 expansion packs or stuff packs at full price, especially the Sims 4 Cats and Dogs. Wait for a sale on Origin or Amazon.

After 7-hours of gameplay, I had basically explored the whole game – and I was $40 poorer.

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