After spending dozens of hours with it, I can confidently say thatThe Sims 4 Enchanted by Natureis the best Expansion Pack sinceLife and Death.Fairies have finally arrived alongside apothecary potions, lore-filled NPCs, whimsical furniture, and much more.Though it has a few glaring shortcomings, most of the DLC feels well-thought-out, magical, and made with love.
Fairies have rightfully stolen a lot of the spotlight when it comes to the promotion of the DLC - they’re a great new occult. However,Enchanted by Natureis about much more than that:it’s about expanding the ways Sims can love the natural world as a whole. From the ability to live outdoors to crafting cure-all elixirs, the Expansion Pack largely delivers on its enchanting promise, even if some areas could’ve used a bit more fairy dust.
This Expansion Is All About Sims 4 Fairies
Taking Toying With Sims’ Emotions To New Heights
Fairies follow the same basic structure as most otheroccults inThe Sims 4: there’s a large, branching abilities tree spanning five tiers, which players can invest in with Ability Points earned by Sims using their powers. These tiers span four categories: Manipulation, Emotion, Nature, and Customization. Fairies areone of the most powerful occults to date, especially when it comes to influencing other Sims and impacting nature.
They can do things like sway Sims’ emotions, impact their relationships, torture them with magical ailments, force plants to fully grow and bloom, and even bring gnomes to life to do their bidding. A Sim isn’t receptive to your Sim’s advances? Simply change their mood to flirty. It almost makes things too easy, but it also makes growing as a fairy very satisfying. These abilities cost emotional energy, which can be regained in a few ways, like absorbing emotions from Sims, recharging in a fairy home, or with fairy dust.
All fairies can also perform fun new interactions, like shrinking down to play in objects, fairy home dance parties, enchanting things with fairy dust to improve them, and they can even make another Sim temporarily tiny for a magical WooHoo session in the sky. There are also two new deaths: one from absorbing too many strong emotions, and another at the hands of evil gnomes brought to life.
Create A Sim & Build/Buy Mode
Enchanting Furniture, Lackluster Clothing, & Lots Of Customization
The Build and Buy catalog is one of my favoriteaspects ofEnchanted by Nature. It really embraces the natural world, filled with toadstool shelves, moss-covered pieces, and a waterfall shower that is incredibly ostentatious, yet something I have immediately tried to start incorporating in all my builds. This is a recurring element of the DLC:if you want to lean into a theme, this is the perfect Pack. However, it’s not completely devoid of practical pieces - there’s some lovely rustic wooden furniture, a canopy bed, and leafy wall lighting that comes in a myriad of versatile shapes.
There are a few new fun magical items, like a miniature home for fairies and a Starseed Transporter - a new way to get toThe Sims 4’s hidden worlds. Sadly, there’s no terrain paint or outdoor plant life in the Build section, which is disappointing for a pack with “nature” in the title. However, indoor potted plants have been introduced, which require less care than outdoor ones, and are a fun way to surround Sims with greenery. I wish more botanical art had been included; however, there is a flower press object that allows Sims to craft floral wall decor.
Conversely, CAS is one of the weakest parts of the DLC. There are manyveryfairy-centric pieces, which is fair to a point given the Pack, but leaves few options for non-occults. Of the four new feminine shoes, for example, one is very clearly fairy, and another is hooves - yes, literal hooves. There’s also a lot of overlap between male and feminine pieces, making overall new additions much lower. Thebest inclusion is the fairy wings section, which isreminiscent of theWerewolvesDLCfur designer, with the ability to make custom color palettes and utilize tools like stamps.
There are three new Aspirations: Nature Nomad, which ties into the new Natural Living skill, Elixir Enthusiast, which is all about the Apothecary skill, and Fairy Stories, which is a somewhat tutorial-esque way to explore the new occult. The first two are impressively detailed, requiring high skill and career progression to complete, and even Fairy Stories comes with a more detailed secondary Aspiration when finished. The Traits are Plant Lover, which is similar to Loves Outdoors, but has a few special interactions, Mystical, which lets Sims do things like read auras, and Disruptive, which is great for causing chaos.
Enchanted By Nature’s New Simology & Career
A Cure For What Ails You
There are two new 10-level skills inEnchanted by Nature: Natural Living and Apothecary. The former is all about surviving off the land: bathing in ponds, foraging for food, and sleeping outside are all big tenets of the skill. Apothecary comes alongside a crafting table used tocreate ailment cures, luck charms, andother elixirs that can be very powerful at higher levels, such astemporarily halting need decay or causing immediate bladder failure. Both of these tie into the EP’s new career, Naturopath.
Naturopath is an active career, but instead of players following Sims to work, patients will come to their home lot seeking a cure for various ailments. It’s a pretty fun 10-level career that lends itself well to roleplaying, with several unlockables along the way. Ailments themselves are a very entertaining new mechanic that affects not only Sims but the world around them. Sonic Sinuses, for example, will cause Sims to break nearby objects randomly, but also gives them temporarily-improved Handiness, while Fiery Passion will make them so flirty they light other objects on fire.
This all connects very much with the existing Gardening skill, which can be used to growthree new magical plants: Lightning Root, Moody Shrub, and Aura Bush. Harvestables from these are used in Apothecary, and things like Emotion Potions from the Moody Shrub can also be used independently. The Aura Bush can be used for improving things like Luck, and the Lightning Root can be connected to the grid to save on electric bills.
Luck and Balance are two new elements tracked in the Simology panel, though they can be disabled in pack settings. Balance is affected by experiencing positive or negative emotions, and imbalanced Sims are more susceptible to Ailments and fulfill Needs less easily. Luck is partially random, but can also be impacted by things like charms and magic; good luck leads to better foraging finds, interactions, and even career advancement, while the opposite is true of bad.
The New World Of Innisgreen In Sims
A Magical World Inspired By Ireland’s Coasts
Inspired by the Irish coast, the new world of Innisgreen is absolutely lovely. It has three neighborhoods: Coast of Adhmor, the seaside village, green-yet-suburban Sprucederry Grove, and fairy-centric Everdew. The residential builds are stunning - one is even situated in a giant tree - and a few lots are just ponds designed for Natural Living Sims, which is a nice touch. There’s also a bar, lounge, park, and an incredibly amusing gnome museum, all of which are botanically beautiful.
One of my biggest complaints with many recent DLC releases is the inclusion of a lot of useless set pieces that have no interactivity for Sims, andthis has definitely improved inEnchanted by Nature. It’s by no means fixed - the Coast of Adhmor, in particular, has an entire plaza area with absolutely nothing to do - but there are a lot of fun rabbit holes like a used bookstore and gardening supply shop, vendors like an apothecary stall, and a lot of lore sprinkled around Innisgreen for players to find.
Fairies are one of the strongest occults seen so far - sure, werewolves can cause great destruction, but fairies can break up a marriage with a single spell.
Besides things like plaques, a lot of lore is disseminated from NPCs and townies, and there are several interesting ones. There’s the magical Spruce Almighty and Mother Nature - who are also ex-spouses - a gnome enthusiast named Glen Nhoam, and Todd, the magical vendor fromThe Sims 1, even resides in Innisgreen. I was impressed with how many of the residents’ backstories are intertwined, with lots ofSims 2-style beef between them. Many of them can offer players Fables, which are new quests with magical rewards that will have Sims doing everything from consulting with mushrooms to bringing gnomes to life.
Enchanted By Nature Is Truly Magical
The Sims 4 EP Is About Much More Than Fairies
Since I largely played with an early access version of the Pack, I wasn’t able to experience a lot of interactions with other DLC, but what I did see was impressive. Fairies can cure sick animals, for example, and soothe the fury of werewolves. It’s heartening to have a DLC that actually thoughtfully interconnects with others, andI think it’s indicative of the level of attention put into the EP as a whole.
There are still weak areas, such as CAS and the lingering specter of useless set pieces, but the beautiful builds, items, and various ways Sims can interact with nature are truly impressive. Fairies are also one of the strongest occults seen so far - sure, werewolves can cause great destruction, but fairies can break up a marriage with a single spell. Though it may not appeal much to players who don’t care about occults,The Sims 4 Enchanted by Natureis much more than that: it opens up a lot of new avenues for design and overall storytelling in an absolutely enchanting world.
ScreenRantwas provided with a code and an early access build for the purpose of this review.
