About a month ago, The Sims 4 announced its next expansion pack, The Sims 4: Cottage Living, for release at the end of this month. Players who buy the game before September 2, 2021 will get three exclusive items not found in the game after that date—an exclusive bicycle, a new gnome, and a tree with twinkling lights on the trunk and branches. The main draw of The Sims 4: Cottage Living is the ability to interact with new animal types, gardening and living off the land, and embracing what it means to be part of a small village community.
Game Rant had the opportunity to preview The Sims 4: Cottage Living and what the expansion will offer to The Sims 4 base game. The preview did not include the special "pre-order" items, but it didn’t need to. It would be an exaggeration to say the possibilities with Cottage Living are endless, but there’s no denying that players are going to be in for a really fun time when Cottage Living does release at the end of July. There are many different ways to play The Sims 4, but all players can find something to enjoy between the CAS, Build/ Buy mode items, and gameplay.
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Some players love Create-A-Sim, while others try to get in and out of that mode as quickly as possible. Though creating outfits in CAS may not be for everyone, the items included in Cottage Living might give pause to even the toughest CAS critics. The outfits and hairstyles included are beautifully rendered, fun, and trendy. The last note is a bit of a surprise as The Sims 4, through no real fault of its own, tends to lag in terms of getting trendy content out while the trend is still happening.
Toddlers get adorable new outfits, kids get stylish new looks, and of course, adult Sims get the majority of the new clothing items. Female-presenting Sims definitely lucked out in the fashion department, having a ton of new looks to choose from. Male-presenting Sims got the shorter end of the stick, but their items were still cute and will add to the game overall. Cottage Living also comes with two new traits and one new, all-encompassing aspiration.
During our preview time, we spent hours in Build/Buy mode crafting a barn-turned-home for a young adult Sim and her toddler daughter. Part of that time was figuring out the new pond tool, but the rest of it was indulging in the gorgeous furniture and items Cottage Living brings to the farm-fresh table. While the pond tool won’t be exclusive to The Sims 4: Cottage Living, it was an immersive experience to be able to choose different pond accents—like ducks, swans, or fish—to place on the water and bring life to the pond.
The aesthetic of the furniture in Cottage Living is “cottagecore” to a T. Doors, windows, and other build mode items can be weathered and rustic to give the impression Sims are moving into an older home. Other furniture items are dated but not obscenely so. Instead, they add to the countryside charm that comes with living in Henford-on-Bagley. The cross-stitching skill also allows Sims to decorate their home with handmade cross-stitches, but players will have to instruct their Sim to make a wall-hangable copy first.
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As far as animals go, players can look forward to forging relationships with a flock of birds, cows, llamas, rabbits, chickens, and foxes. Befriended rabbits and flocks of birds will help tend to gardens, which have been improved with plain four-by-four dirt squares. Instead of having planters for up to four plants or one tree, players can buy a dirt square to house up to four regular plants or one oversize crop. Oversized crops include watermelon, pumpkin, aubergine, lettuce, and mushroom, with each being able to yield four small, two medium, or one large harvest.
Using specialized treats on certain animals can help Sims improve their friendship with the animal quicker, or make the next harvest from that animal a special occurrence. For example, giving a cow a “Flirty Treat” will produce at least one bottle of Strawberry Milk the next time a Sim milks them. Cows have special types of milk, llamas have special wool colors, and chickens produce special eggs that can be cooked or given to residents of Henford-on-Bagley when completing their errands. Toddlers and children were not forgotten in Cottage Living, and they’re able to interact with every animal and build a relationship with them—it’s both adorable and realistic.
The errands system in Cottage Living is interesting. Sims offer to help certain Henford-on-Bagley residents with certain errands, and in turn players will receive special items like produce or rarer upgrade parts for animal sheds and chicken coops. The errands show up where a Sim’s job would be and players can accept up to three errands at a time. Overall, the system seems to function well, but some wording can be clarified for more efficient gameplay. For example, our Sim went to deliver a wheel of homemade cheese and a serving of Beef Wellington, but the prompt didn’t specify it was supposed to be a single serving of cheese.
Competition days are fun, with four different competitions to cycle through in the calendar. The competitions start every Saturday at 3:30 pm (Sim-time) and see a slew of people congregate in the town center. On some competition days, Sims can even sell their produce and homemade items for a slight markup, yielding extra profit. Players can participate in chicken judging competitions, cow judging competitions, pie contests, and crop contests.
If planning on entering a competition, players need to make sure it’s the only one they enter—meaning don’t submit a cow as an entry and then submit a beautifully baked pie, because one will cancel out the other. This could probably be tweaked before release to allow for multiple entries, but it’s not a big deal when compared to everything else Cottage Living offers.
The Sims 4: Cottage Living is incredibly detailed and beautiful, with a preview only showcasing the tip of the iceberg. Watching the interactions between Sims and animals, especially toddlers and animals, is incredibly cute and heartwarming. The gameplay is immersive and will definitely keep players engaged in the expansion for a long while. Additionally, it’s easy to see how seamlessly Cottage Living will fit in with other The Sims 4 packs that have already been released, namely Seasons and Get Together. The Sims 4: Cottage Living is truly a legen-dairy experience that players will have to play to believe, and luckily the wait isn’t much longer.
The Sims 4: Cottage Living releases July 22 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.