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We all have different player archetypes when it comes to life simulators like Paralives – in particular when playing that titan of the genre, The Sims. You've got type-A perfectionists micromanaging every move their character makes, roleplayers who embrace themed challenges and make their own narratives, and those who plot the downfall and murder of everyone that stands in their way. Me? I'm a builder. I'll routinely spend several hours putting together the perfect character – an outfit for every occasion, carefully considered traits to fit their backstory – only to birth them into a world where they are cursed to stand forever idle while I faff around in Build Mode for another few weeks. This poor avatar will probably never see a single in-game sunset, let alone find a chance to use any of the endless clutter I'm meticulously placing around their home.
Building, decorating, and abusing the vanilla versions of these games is my idea of a good time, but much to my annoyance, I've increasingly come to rely on mods as my architectural ambitions have developed. Which makes what I experienced while playing Paralives such a big deal. If the game keeps moving toward the promise it's already showing, I might never have to download another mod again.
If you build it...
What is immediately clear is that the Paralives devs have been listening to the fans of their closest contemporary. We've been asking EA for curved walls, color wheels, in-game image upload, and layered clothing for years, getting nowhere. But Paralives gives us all these features and more, allowing for incredible levels of customization without the need to use cheats or edit any settings. I started off with a bungalow build, a safe bet. The basic build is intuitive, and handles very similarly to The Sims – you draw walls, snap on windows, level terrain, and place objects. But there's something more tactile about the way Paralives handles these actions. Place a window on a long wall, and you can drag it to fill the space. If a door is too tall, you can simply pull it down to make it shorter. If you don't like the wood grain on the flooring, you can rotate, remove, or even replace it with another pattern entirely. Everything can be tweaked through color wheels and texture maps… you can even play around with the ceiling.
Already, Paralives feels like it might soon be a more capable diorama tool than anything else on the market. A fully custom-built dolls house rather than a standardized playset. It's an interesting achievement, though, given how limited the options are at this stage in the game's development. My Sims game has more than 200 wallpaper types with all the mods I've wedged inside, but somehow Paralives' meager Early Access selection still feels more appealing. It could be that it's just a shiny new toy, but I think it's more to do with the game giving the player more control from the outset.
My personal favorite feature of Paralives' interior design tools is incredibly simple – the ability to freely place clutter. Not being stifled by a snap-grid by default feels revolutionary. I can finally live out my lofty dreams of replicating my own house, in which almost every surface is home to some sort of trinket. You can back chairs right up to the wall, rather than leaving them out at an awkward angle, and objects pushed toward the edges of a room automatically slice off the back end rather than poking through into the next room.
It's hard not to gaze forward into the far future and become giddy with the potential of Paralives, but to bring things back down to earth is, sadly, my job, and expectations have to be set. The game is currently undeniably very limited and incredibly bug-ridden for its Early Access launch. I ended up with a phantom bath tub in my living room, for example, which could neither be removed nor interacted with, and at one point the floor just vanished.
Once you dip into gameplay, you find more and more of these odd quirks. I dragged myself away from endless color wheels to try giving my character, Margaret, a shot at being the art teacher she was so clearly destined to be. As the sun rose on her first day, she took care of business – applying for a job, and painting three identical anime girls in a row, stopping only to do push ups inside a wall.
Now hungry, Marge decided to look for a place to eat. The map is scattered with restaurants and fast food joints. I picked what looked like a fine-dining establishment – after all, we were celebrating a new job. Inside, there were no staff and no menus. It was every man for himself, but Marge wasn't easily deterred. She cooked herself a frozen pizza and left it out on the counter for the other bewildered patrons to share.
After speaking to a man about shiitake mushrooms so many times he agreed to be her boyfriend, she came home and cried in the shower in her full clothing, which curiously didn't make her any less smelly. She stood inside the fridge for a while until her new boyfriend came over, just in time for her to immediately ask if he wanted to have a baby, which he did. Things move fast in this town.
Already, Paralives feels like it might soon be a more capable diorama tool than anything else on the market.
Selecting both partners, I directed them to the bed to try for this baby, which didn't take long. I then forgot to actively tell him to not join Marge in the toilet, so he innocently followed her in, watched her pee, and then got so embarrassed he ran all the way home. A successful first day.
Once the baby was born it was somehow more chaotic. Born directly into the pavement and unable to be carried home, the baby was first removed to daycare and then eventually deposited upside down in its crib. Taking care of it was fairly straight forward, and Marge even got a promotion at work the next day. Over time I worked on her skills through the hobby items available – but most of the items in the house still sit there like a pile of unopened presents, or shelves of toys with no batteries.
I know Early Access requires patience. It's a backstage pass before the show. But I can't help but let my imagination run, picturing how they might incorporate actions and wants and skills into the items – video game consoles, baby toys, kitchen appliances, bar stools – I'd so carefully placed in every room.
I am probably the exact demographic the team had in mind when dreaming up Paralives – a hardcore Sims fan looking for a way out after years of weird gameplay bloat, DLC extortion, and increasing sanitization. The Sims has a crushing monopoly over the life sim genre, and any game that skirts its USP inevitably ends up in a pros-and-cons comparison with it, often to the newer game's detriment. But, for once, perhaps it isn't hubris to want people to come from one and go to the other. Despite a sea of glitches and gameplay centered more around future promise than current offering, I'm hooked. If and when Paralives can do all it's set out to do, I may finally be able to drop my other toys.
Want more games like The Sims 4? We've got plenty of recommendations!
