Long-time players of The Sims 4 fans can finally get higher education for their Sims in the game's eight and newest expansion: Discover University. As the title suggests, Discover University adds two whole new areas reminiscent of college campuses: The STEM-focused Foxbury and Humanities-centered Britechester. There, Sims can study as little or as much as they want, socialize and flirt with their dormmates, and take part-time jobs to pay off their education (which is a very close approximation of reality, to be honest).
Filling in the gaps
The Sims 4 always had this disconnect when watching a sim live his or her life. They'd miss a crucial step--college--which is perhaps mandatory in some of the career tracks featured in The Sims 4 (when's the last time you heard of an Astronaut without a college, let alone a doctorate degree?).
And pretty much true to The Sims, well, simulating life as we know it, Discover University is all about replicating the college experience that we've always wanted to dramatize. Want to be the A-lister who juggles two part-time jobs and doesn't miss a single class? Go ahead and ace those tests. Always wanted just to slack off and eat pizza with your dormmates while flirting with the cute guy next door? Discover University lets you do that. Want to be the mysterious kid that pops in between classes but is secretly working for the government? Well, with the right choices, you'd be able to pull that off as well.
As an expansion to the Sims, Discover University hits all the right buttons: An exciting new gimmick, new spaces to let your Sim run amok, new items for your house, and yes, new career paths (of which there are five, the most in a Sims 4 expansion to date).
Yet some problems remain
Yet while Discover University adds a lot of flavorful and fresh mechanics and ideas into the game, as a whole, it still carries over the same problems the game has faced ever since the original game launched. Traits still feel lackluster and affect Sims in any major way. Skill progression can still feel very stale and bland, with activities that slowly fill up the Sims skill meter and eventually give them a level in the skill. But the overall effect of the skill still merely restricts or allows their ability to do certain activities or increases or decreases their chances of successfully doing such.
On the technical side, Electronic Arts still hasn't been able to properly fix the queuing system, which has plagued the game for years since its initial release. The integration of several features from different expansions, such as the calendar from Seasons and the school schedule from Discover University, feels nonexistent (though this could be understood because each expansion pack stands alone from the others).
Overall, Discover University is a welcome addition to The Sims 4. Disregarding all the minor technical problems, Discover University finally allows players to fully live out their Sim's life the way they imagine it in their head. The addition of tertiary education opens up so much storytelling possibilities that no other expansion could possibly offer.
SEE ALSO: 'The Sims 4' To Add Vampires, Forgotten Hollow World And Creepy Objects In Upcoming Game Pack
