Thin Ice or Thick Gameplay? The Sims 4 Snowy Escape Expansion Review 

The subtle zoom in on Nina Caliente serving you Japanese street food. In Japan.

I always thought it was weird how neighborhood sims show up when you're on vacation, I took a vacation to get away from them.

I adore lilsimsies enthusiasm, but when it comes to finding out if a pack is worth it you're the only opinion that matters.

The most unfortunate thing about almost all of the expansion packs is the price. If this was like a 12 dollar dlc I think I'd be more forgiving, but its like 50 dollars (im Canadian) and it feels like a reskinned compilation of other packs. And for me that's not worth 50 dollars especially when I can get triple A games on sale for less than 50 dollars. I feel like the sims needs to rethink its pricing model. If packs were cheaper more people might not complain about them and might purchase them.

I feel like this pack has good aesthetics but the overall gameplay is still lacking. I like the new world, so beautiful. But just wish that there's more animations, retail stores where you could buy winter gears etc (even just a window that pops up which allows us to buy through different clothing and gears) and jobs in this world should not be rabbit hole. I probably would have to skip this one.

They could have added ramen restaurants, anime channel, omiyage (gift giving) , etc. It's so annoying that japanese sims are not populating this world but they run rampant in city living lol..

Last time I was this early, I still believed that Sims 4 could be fixed

This probably sounds weird but I wanted to thank you for always including subtitles to your videos, as a hard of hearing person this makes it possible for me to watch them! Which is great because your reviews are just the best! Thanks!

Just a nit-pick: They really could've used the animation when taking off the skates from Seasons...I mean they reuse other animations all the time, idk why they didn't just do it here.

3:15 Unfortunately, the previous Sims games were FULL of little detail animations - like cleaning the windows (an idle animation) or getting in and out of cars! Even honking on the horn! (Side note: The Sims 2 especially had a bunch of "small detail" animations.) It would add quality to The Sims 4 to have a "taking off shoes" (and putting on shoes) animation, even if the shoes disappear as a result (although it would be EPIC if the same shoes appeared near the door, inside, and wouldn't block Sims' paths).

Coming from a shoes off country I appreciate the shoe feature.

I agree with people losing interest in 2 to 3 hrs of gameplay . How I play it is that I don't play for the sake of one pack that's just been released. I play it like a lifestyle type of thing meaning id use the new features of the new pack while proceeding with my Sims life with other packs .that way I don't get bored quick . I'll only use this when I feel my sim needs a vacation

My main concern is that it might seem more like a game pack in terms of gameplay, and it does seem like they’ve essentially remixed features from several other packs. Also, I’m wondering if simmers will find the Lifestyle system to be robust enough to merit it being a main feature of the pack. Thanks for your review!

I seriously love how you aren't easily impressed with this stuff anymore. I know for a fact that if you're bored with a new pack, I will be too. No impulse buys till after Carl says its good

This is Sulani part.2,if you have this expansion and play in another world it will not make any difference on gameplay,maybe just a little because of the lifestyles. It's just a beautifull map that you come sometimes to have fun.

I’ve always said that Jungle Adventure was seriously underrated for a $20 game pack compared to many of the other packs. Even more so compared to this, which is a similar level of content for double the price.

I just can't believe I preordered this pack days ago but, can't play at all due to the patch update! The Sims says we will fix it next week! And thanks for your patience! Um bite me EA! You suck!

Even if you are new to the Sims 4, I don't know how you could ever justify the pricing of these packs to yourself (51.99 here in Canada for this pack is UNREASONABLE. Sorry not sorry). It's been said before and I'll say it again: the Sims team is trying to fit too much into game packs, too little into expansion packs, and have not produced one worthwhile stuff pack to date. When did it become so hard to just fully commit to an idea or theme and flesh it out properly? Don't get me wrong, the personality updates should absolutely be free, but if you take them away from everything else that was announced for and released in this pack......H O W can you say that this is a good and complete expansion at that price? This would be a bit more marketable to me as a game pack. I appreciate the new aesthetic and culture we get in game from the hood, but still, those aren't even explored to their full potential (ex: HUGE ball drop on not putting small apartments in a Japanese inspired town). And sentiments will never be able to fix the fact that our sims are empty shells. After Batuu it's hard to say that this isn't an improvement, and we can see where the sims tried on this one, but it's still only a tiny step in the right direction imo. It just breaks my heart to see this game falling short with every update. I really wish EA would rethink their strategy for making packs going forward :(

Everything they release shows me how incomplete this game is. This isn’t worth $40. The could’ve just released this as a part of seasons or something. There are so many packs they could’ve merged together and actually made something worth wild instead of selling incomplete packs just to make bank.

Putting Lifestyles behind a pack is lame regardless of if you buy it or not. If you ever decide you don't want to play with a pack you have to take in to account the fact that you are stripping a piece of your sim's personality away. No interest in skiing? No personality for you!

Is it just me that legit don't get the point of the lifestyles? when i said i want sims to have personaliti, i did not meant to add traits that we already have as lifestyles that adds more depth to the traits we have... i ment add a legit aspirations that are not tutorials, FIX the traits like add few more slots , do more traits and make them more meaningful, we could legit just have traits do the same thing as lifestyles... why add more thing to be annoyed by ... i legit don't get it ...

I find Rotational Gameplay keeps things pretty fresh. I’m not playing the Sims for 1 pack. I’m paying for the culmination of all of them. Turn aging off for I played households, rotate families every in-game week and do something different. Don’t raise a household. Raise a town. It’s fun!

I think it really shows how thin this pack is when they list both building and sentiments in the pack features.

After LGR seemingly quit everything related to the Sims 4, I'm solely relying on Carl for TS4 reviews now.

Wherever the world you are, the stall owner mostly belongs to Caliente, Pleasant, and Lewis clan.

This pack looks a bit disapointing again. I mean the gameplay looks interesting but i'd be sick of it in 2 hours just like with earlier pack and this was my last look at this game... I am honestly giving up on TS4.

Once LGR lost enthusiasm for reviewing sims 4, I lost all enthusiasm for the game. Now, you're the only reviewer I watch concerning the sims.

Paralives: *announces taking off your shoes will be a basic part of the game* Sims 4: Hey look! You can take off your shoes now!

I really, really enjoy the aesthetics of this pack. The clothes and build and buy items are just my style and I love the theme of Asian culture. But I feel the gameplay is lacking. Yeah you can go sledding and hiking, which is cool, but I feel like once I do these things a certain amount of times I’m gonna get reallyyyyy bored. I think overall this is a very good pack though. I feel like they met many simmers expectations. I also enjoyed how they collaborated with the community for the creation of the pack and I look forward to seeing it again. I’m also reallyyyy debating on buying this pack, I have city living already which I personally think is pretty similar to this pack.

I do like the idea of this pack, and the features seem good. But I imagine when/if I get it, it'll be the same thing: I'll play it and love it for a few hours, then get bored, and at most, use some build/buy objects in my more normal game, or use it to spice up various challenges like legacy challenges. I just can't stop preferring Sims 3, but by Sims 4 standards this seems good-ish. Edit/PS: Am I the person who finds it strange/funny that Paralives started out with the idea of having a "no shoes in the house" rule whereas it took The Sims this long to do it? It doesn't seem like that hard an idea. I guess it is pretty niche though.

The review that matters! Thanks Carl!

Also, the gameplay is only a one time thing, at least for me, just like any other packs. After you go through all the quests like climbing mountain and practicing your skiing and rock-climbing skills, its just going to be repeating the same thing over again until your sims get better at it. I guess it's not the pack's fault, it's just the whole sims game needs be revamped.

The idea sounds great: A map setting in Japan with Japanese culture and aesthetics, climbing up mountains and surviving harsh conditions, and new lifestyles. And yet, they all seem to have been implemented poorly, such as how you describe that climbing a mountain might take time, possibly days, but was in fact the complete opposite.

I finally have a reason to use socks other than pj's or swimsuits

overall my feeling on this pack is "doesnt blow my mind, but has some nice stuff" i guess journey to bantuu didnt set a high bar either though. still i dont think ill be bothering to reinstall sims 4 just for this... and i have to admit i kind of cringed when i remembered this is $40...

Just curious if EA gave credit to Kawaii Stacie for the "inspiration" to make Lifestyles after seeing her 16 Personalities Mod 😂 But seriously, I wonder what the difference is between their Lifestyle system and her Personalities Mod. So far, all I can tell is that Lifestyles come and go depending on what you do, and her Personalities are more hard-wired (because...personalities, lol). But I'm not a modder, so I have no idea.

I love that you can finally take off your shoes, as Scandinavians also don't wear shoes inside. I didn't know until a few years ago that some countries actually wear shoes inside, so i always found it odd before when they had shoes on while not being outside of the home. It is nice with some more adaptability to match your own culture more.

I have a lot of these other packs, but I never use Jungle Adventure because I’m mostly a family player. This pack provides family fun. I grew up sledging every year and it was exciting for me. Now I can take toddlers and kids sledging like when I was a kid! As a teen I grew to enjoy snowboarding and I loved my trips to snowboard. Plus the hiking animations and stories make it fun. You can talk to each other and take pictures like a real vacation. I’m so excited to play this pack!

2:53 ok.. so nina caliente open her brand new business instead of send bella goth to the moon

All recycled content in this pack: Festivals - city living Rock climbing - fitness sp Bushes - get together (also jungle adventures, cats and dogs, island living) Tents - outdoor retreat Bonfires - outdoor retreat (also get together, island living) Lockers (that open) - spa day Onsens (partially hot tubs) - perfect patio sp (patched on 20 years anniversary). Snowing, snow fights, snowmen - seasons Bugs and repellents - jungle adventures Food stands - almost every ep starting from city living (eco lifestyle, cats and dogs, university, seasons, island living +jungle adventures, strangerville, realm of magic) Eating with chopsticks,, chopsticks progression, chopstick savvy reward trait - city living Hiking - outdoor retreat Ice cream - cool kitchen feel free to add more

This is why I rely on you. The trailer looked pretty thrilling and I was gonna buy it today, but after seeing your review of this just being reused packs and no change to gameplay, I'mma have to reconsider Maybe when it goes on discount I'll buy it, but this EP doesn't look all that entertaining

the stuff that made me consider this pack was all stuff that actually came with the free basegame update. maybe i'll consider it when it's on sale

You mentioned there not being paces to explore in the neighborhoods when you were in Senbamachi. You bypassed the temple, bamboo Forrest, and caves there lol. The festival of Light works like city living tbh.. but there was a tanabata tree there to make wishes from which creates a sentiment if you make a wish with another sim. Out of all the festivals the Festival of Youth was my favorite because you can go on a Voidcritter hunt! I do wish we got better aspirations because a lot of them feel like tutorials 99.9% of the time lol!

Been Waiting For Carl Review On This ~ Worth The Wait

the thing that caught my eye about the 'create your sanctuary' part is that they re-used the wellness skill logo. just another aspect of the spa day pack that they recycled here :///

the onsen are literally just a wider hot tub, they even used the same animations for it

It's at the point where I'm looking at the new features and all I can think is, "I wonder what the modders are gonna make with this". Not, "wow, this adds a lot to the game" or "wow, that looks like so much fun, I can't wait to try it". I was excited when this was announced but I held off and I'm glad I did. Forget it, I'm playing TS3 again and having more fun than I've had with the Sims in years. It's clear that no shiny bandaids are going to make TS4 interesting at this point and if EA doesn't care, why should I?

This pack is the first pack for a while where I really want to buy it (once it’s on sale!) haha The build and buy I think is awesome. I love the Asian theme through out.

I wish the sims team put this much research and outside input into the other packs.

Always look forward to your review. Although I don't intend to buy any more sims dlc, it's still lovely to see your review and get involved in the community after having a long, hard day :') Stay safe Carl!

Carl is the only real one when it comes to pack reviews. I only trust him

Locking away lifestyle... some thing that deepen your sims personality, behind a paywall is beyond outrageous... They could had easily added Lifestyle to the base game and get some extra one specific to Snowy Escape or other packs instead of locking the WHOLE system behind a 50$+ pack...

i like the little nod to sims medieval in that gachapon machine and the grim figure. the lifestyle thing just feels so... well stripped down, i think the free update sentiments and lifestyle were ment to be a singular feature going hand in hand but someone decided to pull them apart to give it a price tag, not only that but it also does exactly what i hate in every single addition to the aspiration or individual impact. CRUTCH ON MOODLETS. and not even in a great way. i for example would have made say as an example a "genius" lifestyle that when you go deep into it you unlock 2 abilities on a cooldown that are in the mean and friendly list (or special), the mean interaction would be "Superior Intellect" which if the target sim does not have the following traits: Genius, Geek, Perfectionist, Paranoid or goofball (cant confuse someone who cant understand) or a +7 in logic they are given a strong +5 dazed state for 2hours that increases their social and fun decay but if they have the following traits the user takes a +3 angry moodlet for 2 hours called "out smarted" that slows fun gain and takes a upfront hit to fun. the friendly side of things would have the "Knowledge is power" that gives the sim a +3 fine moodlet that buffs skill gains and lowers fun decay for 5 hours but if they have the Genius, Goofball, Paranoid, Perfectionist or Snob traits or have +7 Logic they will consider the help an insult and become +3 angry for 5 hours and make the user +3 embarrassed for 4hours with a higher social and fun decay and slower gain. i mean its not a great idea but it will make lifestyles feel like they have an impact, imagine playing as a sim working from home as a handiness DIY furniture seller with the genius trait and your rival who happens to have the genius lifestyle comes along and tries to confuse you with to much information but being a genius he ends up making himself look dumb and storms off in a tantrum. it might not be much but it would be the little things like those that would increase how "lively" the sims world feels. point being the world is the saving grace for this pack in my eyes and sadly gunna wait for it to go down in price same with eco friendly pack, this IS an improvement over the... batuu pack but its still kind of lacking for its price tag :(

i loved this pack,it will go great with my family gameplay style,i don't expect super different things since I don't like doing crazy things with my sims,but I wish hotels came with it,cause it would expand the gameplay in all world's

This is another glorified Game Pack with an EP price tag. Just what the stalest game of the franchise needed!

Resort is one that was highly requested as well. Rental is the very watered down version of that so I don't think they will ever make resort. It would be really nice if they do 😂

not gonna lie, i dont even see the point on holding on to TS4. they just....cant fix it. its sad. back to TS2 i guess

Do you remember when in The Sims 3 almost every expansion pack feature can be applied to ANY world? Miss those times.

Carl taking a deep sigh at 6:00 before continuing HAAHHAA..shows his genuine lack of enthusiasm with this newest pack

YES!!! I was hoping this would be up so I can decide how to spend my weekend (and money). Absolutely trust your videos more than anyone!

BTW... where's the family from the trailer? They even not available in the game anymore... not like those gamepack such as eco-livestyle, realm of magic, vampire, island living....

That was a super helpful breakdown. After looking at the lifestyles, I think it will definitely be worth it to add this pack to my game eventually, but only when it finally goes on sale. That could take a while, but good things come to those who wait.

I think the last time I was actually excited about a DLC, was Seasons. To be honest, nothing excites me anymore when it comes to The Sims 4, not even a free update, or a new announcement. It will never be fixed, it will never be what it should have been. And yes, it makes me sad, but I have come to accept it and no long create expectations because EA will never deliver what we truly ask for. So, not buying Sims 4 DLC anymore (last one I bough was Cats and Dogs) and I will play TS3. Hope TS5 isn't as bad as this mess.

I bought it last night and just like with Island Living, I bought it 100% for the world. I love Asian culture and have been getting really into building lately so that's where my expectations are.

I gladly give you a like. You're the only one I watch who's honest about this game. Actually, what EA is "giving" to us as a "basic" update is about all I want from this pack. Thanks, Carl, for the insights and honesty. I'll give this one a miss.

From this point i declare Sims 4 is building house simulator, cause gameplay better not to talk about

Sometimes I think "are we as simmers too demanding?" But then I remember how expensive these packs actually are...and content to price ratio is just unfair.

I like the aesthetics, but that's all.

The main thing I love about this pack is the base game update 🤷🏻‍♀️ I lost count of the times you said “this is a feature from...” (city living, jungle adventure, outdoor retreat) and that just makes me roll my eyes SO HARD that they lent the “new things” from old packs 👎

One part of the pack thats really cool and I didn't hear Carl mention is that the pre-existing sims have really immersive background stories and the sentiments that go with them which makes me actually want to play with them instead of my own sims

Yeah. Most packs I'm done with in about a week. Every now and then I'll create a few saves to have "dedicated" packs because by the time my Sims have kids, I'm done with the family and ready to move on.

The sims team: sims should shower before entering the Onsen Also the sims team: sims can woohoo in the Onsen I know it's a game buuuuuut gross much ? 😂

everyone: ugh the Sims 4 is so boring this pack is boring!! don't buy it! me: hehe build mode go brr

I'm going to be honest here: I am going to buy this pack when it's on sale, but only for the world. Hotpots, onsens, and taking your shoes off are just bonuses. I am 100% most interested in the world, because I am completely and utterly sick of Suburban America Simulator.

I think I’m just going back to sims 3 and will spend my money getting more expansions for that.

My game crashes after the update that was larger than the exp lol

Oh look, another pack that'll add 2 hours of gameplay for $40. Pass. I've given up on the Sims 4 and switched back to the Sims 3. Huge difference in terms of gameplay. I can actually play a family and not get bored after a couple of hours. I don't think I'll ever go back.

Great review! I’m glad I resisted buying this one as it looks like another letdown. After going back to Sims 3 and remembering how much stuff was in a single pack including gameplay, not building, as the core feature, I wonder what happened to the Sims team...

i feel like this is just an over priced game pack with half the content. Sure if it had 12 slops, some more building areas on the ski mounten and creating and managing your own ski resprt now that is worth more of an expansion pack but we get what we get so i wait for a sale.

Apart from not giving us traditional futon, which was a complete oversight, they could have also given us a new occult with Kitsune shapeshifters; a sim that is a kitsune, so has a fox eared and tailed human form, a glamour to hide themselves as normal sims and the ability to shift into fox’s. They’d be able to pay for things with glamoured, trick money and pull exclusive tricks on other sims. This is really pushing it, but also having a feature, that as they level up through their tricks and experiences, they gain their additional tails. So many missed opportunities.

I feel like any destination pack will lack meaningful gameplay and only add a new destination and couple activities. they should just be game packs.

I've been following you and taking in your advice about the sims for ages (10+ years), no one presents relevant information as good as you do. Thank you for your hard, remarkable consistente and high quality work Carl! You're awesome ^^

I don't think every game changer is biased, but you can definitely tell who is and who isn't way too enthusiastic when it comes to packs and what is wrong with them, including people just not liking them for the theme or focus of the pack. Being too positive is just as annoying as being unnecessarily critical. However, most critical reviews I've seen have pointed out real and pressing issues, so I'll believe them more than the ones who are trying to be positive for positivity sake; I need to know if something is worth my money or not and Sims 4 hasn't been, so far. I've always appreciated Carl and LGR (to a lesser degree, Pixelade and Plumbella) because they tell you exactly what is there, if something is bad or half done, they will say it. If something is good, they will say it. I want reviews like that, not reviews that make me FEEL like EA is just paying for the game changer to just hype up the game without truly going in-depth about it. And I'm sure we know exactly which game changers those are, lol.

I love this pack! My Sims needed some more activities and I absolutely love snow sports. I’m enjoying the build features! Thank you for this video. 👍🏻💕

Waking up to one of your videos was a good feeling

Are we not going to mention how the game is currently unplayable and they still sold this? I don't need some new rims if my car doesn't run.

Disappointed - again. This is supposed to be a life simulator, not a building game. Boring.

I was cautiously excited for this pack when it was first announced. Since then, I’ve gotten a new computer and was finally able to return to Sims 3 and.... man, I can’t go back. I know this sentiment has been beat to death but it really is so much more enjoyable. I just can’t justify spending $40 on an expansion for a game I haven’t touched since returning to its predecessor.

idk if its because of the lack of sounds, but the vending machine death seems more like a draft lmaoo

This looks like a game pack honestly, but still gonna buy it lol. But can't Sims go back to making expansion packs that add to normal gameplay?

I honestly think this is a well rounded pack; -you get new skills -a new non western world and culture -lifestyles that affect your gameplay (I do think it should be in the patch but hey) -the surge emotions stuff that could be genuinely useful say if you needed a focused sim for work -pretty build stuff! Also think of it this way: does going on vacation irl really affect you that much ? It will affect how you set the world but not so much your day to day lifestyle. So we can't expect much from a pack with such a big focus on vacations (I know it's not just for that, I think the combo liveable and vacation world makes it more appealing)

Carl you're the only channel I turn to to find cheats. I've been watching you for a very long time and I appreciate your honesty about the Sims game. When I need to know someting I turn to Carl. Thank you for all the time and work you put into your channel for us 😊

Now I see why the Sims Team disable other packs while reviewing new packs. They don’t want to be embarrassed by the normal offenders showing up. ( The Goths, Marcus Flex, Katrina Caliente, Judith Ward and last but not least The Landgraabs!) When it comes down to it this EA/ The Sims team caters more to builders. Gameplay is slowly disappearing. Soon it will just be an aesthetically pleasing game where you just build and decorate.

I have been having nonstop bugs and crashes since the update. No mods. Personality traits can't be learned at all but one friendly introduction and the friendship bars is 95% full, crashes anytime you're in Forgotten Hollow and occasionally in other worlds.

If I were to buy this pack, I would only be buying it for lifestyles, and that is not worth $40 to me.

i’ll definitely buy this as soon as it goes for 1/2 off, because it honestly feels game pack quality to me...there are so many features that could’ve been included that weren’t and it just isn’t worth it to me personally at full price. hopefully it’ll go on sale soon!

I would like EA to bring back the "scroll lever" thing for a personality. It made the Sims2 simulation of people pretty realistic. I find that the "button" version used in Sims4 really lends to a more artificial or stereotype behavior. So, instead of clicking "outgoing", I liked being able to choose a "grey area" between shy and outgoing for a more realistic person. It also put into perspective for a young me that you can't have everything, so try being well rounded. I had way more fun adding people I knew into the game and watching them behave on-point instead of it looking like a sitcom with overacting on my screen. Without a realistic simulation, all these cool places to visit are just not as fun....because the company you are with kinda sucks. I have resorted to creating outlandish sims who steal and do things I would never do in real life just to keep an otherwise boring game interesting. I would prefer to have dynamic sims that make a neighborhood feel more real.

I count on you and Iron-Seagull for truly unbiased and intelligent deep dive reviews of EA's Sims packs. Thanks you so much. I hope they are listening to you AND taking notes.

So far the pack looks about like what I expected. Neat but lacking in content. The attempts to add some more personality to Sims and the builds being done by game changers is a nice step in the right direction, but at the same time Sims 4 has been out for 6 years now and I doubt we'll get too many more expansions and/or overhauls that continue in this direction. I'll probably pick this pack up when it starts going for $20. That seems like a more reasonable price for the stuff you get in expansions nowadays. Plus new expansions tend to introduce game breaking bugs and mess up mods for a while as well.

You're my go-to guy for anything and -almost- everything Sims related. Thanks to you, I know I'll probably want to wait until a sale to get Snowy Escape.