Summary
- Paralives aims to compete with The Sims franchise directly, offering advanced AI, open-world town, and animal companions for players.
- The Paramaker mode in Paralives allows detailed character customization, aiming to make player characters feel unique and personal.
- Paralives' Build Mode offers grid-less construction, boathouse building, and resizing furniture options, potentially rivaling The Sims' building system.
Since its debut all the way back in February 2000, The Sims franchise has pretty much had a monopoly on the life simulator genre. While a few competitors have emerged over the years, none have really stood the test of time. Instead, rather than competing with The Sims directly, many games have found success by combining the life-sim genre with something else, such as Stardew Valley's life-sim and farming mix. But despite the odds, Paralives is going to try and give The Sims a real run for its money.
Currently set for a 2025 early access release, Paralives is seemingly positioning itself as a direct competitor to the next Sims mainline entry. An instant mark of death for so many of The Sims' past opponents, Paralives' developers don't seem too phased, instead remaining focused on just trying to make the game as good as it possibly can be, and while Paralives is still quite a ways off, its list of currently confirmed features should already be enough to get life-sim fans excited.
Every Confirmed Paralives Feature So Far
Every Confirmed Feature for Paralives' Life Simulation Mode
The primary part of Paralives' gameplay, the "Life Simulation" mode sees players take control of their characters and go about their everyday lives. According to Paralives' official FAQ page, the game's Life Simulation mode will contain the following features upon its 2025 early access release:
- A small open-world town
- Advanced AI and advanced Parafolk personalities
- Animals including cats, dogs, and horses
- Vehicles including cars, bikes, and boats
- Some weather effects and changing seasons
- A simple, nonsensical language used by Parafolks during interactions
Generally speaking, this is a very solid starting point for an ongoing life-simulation game. A small open-world town should have enough space to allow for plenty of social interactions and should offer enough variety to keep players invested for quite some time. This should be especially true if Paralives' advanced AI and personalities are as impressive as they sound. It's also great to see animals like cats, dogs, and horses get included from the bat, especially when The Sims has a history of locking pets behind a paywall.
Every Confirmed Feature for Paralives' Paramaker
Though Paralives' "Life Simulation" mode will be where the vast majority of players spend most of their time, Paralives' "Paramaker" is sure to hold a pretty tight grip on a good portion of players. An advanced character creator, Paralives' Paramaker will include the following features upon its initial early access release:
- Color wheels can be used for eyes, skin tone, hair, and clothes
- Detailed body and face options including sliders
- Height sliders
- Fat and muscle sliders
- The ability to wear any clothing item, regardless of the Parafolk's assigned gender
- The ability to precisely place moles, tattoos, and scars
- Some clothing items will feature customizable and pre-made patterns
Though most of these features will be familiar to fans of The Sims' latest entries, it's impressive to see them in an Indie game like Paralives. Based on this initial list of character customization features, it seems as though Paralives is trying to make the player's character feel personal to them, with the ability to precisely place moles, scars, and tattoos being a perfect example of that.
Every Confirmed Feature for Paralives' Build Mode
While Paralives' Life Simulation and Paramaker modes will probably be the game's most popular offerings, Paralives' third mode, "Build Mode," seems like it's going to play a surprisingly large role when all is said and done. Right now, Paralives' Build Mode looks like it could be the main area that gives The Sims a run for its money, with some impressive features already confirmed:
- Grid-less construction, with the option to turn grid-based alignment on to help place furniture
- The ability to create straight and curved walls using precise measurements
- Furniture can be resized, flipped, and stacked
- The ability to build boathouses
- Plenty of customization options including a color wheel and pre-made patterns
- The ability to construct both pre-made houses and start building from scratch
- Terrain tools
The Sims' building mode has often been a point of frustration among many fans, with its grid-based system restricting player freedom, but also feeling a tad clunky at the same time. Paralives seems to offer the best of both worlds with its own Build Mode, including the option for both a grid and grid-less system when placing furniture. Paralives' boathouse building feature should also stand out for many Sims fans, with this being fairly difficult to achieve in most Sims games.
The developer has also listed a number of features that won't be present upon Paralives' early access launch but will be added at a future date. Some of these include an active job system that lets players follow their Parafolk to work, a first-person mode, the ability to move characters using the keyboard, some additional towns, and a world creation tool.
Sims 4
- Released
- September 2, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
Unleash your imagination and create a unique world of Sims that’s an expression of you. Download for free, and customize every detail from Sims to homes and much more. Choose how Sims look, act, and dress, then decide how they’ll live out each day.
Design and build incredible homes for every family, then decorate with your favorite furnishings and décor. Travel to different neighborhoods where you can meet other Sims and learn about their lives. Discover beautiful locations with distinctive environments and go on spontaneous adventures.
Manage the ups and downs of Sims’ everyday lives, and see what happens when you play out scenarios from your own real life. Tell your stories your way while developing relationships, pursuing careers and life aspirations, and immersing yourself in this extraordinary game, where the possibilities are endless.
Download for free — The base game of The Sims™ 4 is free to download. Get a plethora of options for building homes, styling Sims, and customizing their personalities. Craft their life stories while exploring vibrant worlds and discovering more ways of being you.
