Enchanted by Nature is the latest expansion pack for the life sim The Sims 4, which adds a great variety of content: three new Aspirations, a great deal of additions for the Build and Create-a-Sim modes, new Naturopath career, new Natural Living Skill Line, and, of course, the returning and long-awaited Occults: Fairies.
Whether you are into cottage core, have a green thumb and want your Sim to match, or have always wanted to sprout glorious wings, there’s something to find in Enchanted by Nature. And if you love having great power and great responsibility to use it either for benevolent means or mischief, there’s all the more reasons to try out Fairy Sim gameplay.
How does The Sims 4: Enchanted by Nature compare to the previous expansion packs? Is it worth diving into if you’ve been away from the game for a long time or purchasing if you are an avid player? Read on to find out!
The expansion introduces a new playable world, Innisgreen, that is split into three neighborhoods: a quiet town called Coast of Adhmor, Sprucederry Grove and forest of Everdew.
Over the years, The Sims 4 added a variety of worlds, but Innisgreen is one of the most beautiful ones yet. Whether you want to move to a little town, live in harmony with nature, or settle in the middle of the magical forest and party it out with the Fairies, the new world has endless possibilities.
The developers didn’t lie when they said that this expansion is all about nature, and so it is at the front and center of the new region. The Coast of Adhmor is more of a tourist destination, with The GNOM Exhibit Museum, colorful architecture, iconic landmarks, and the coastal views.
Meanwhile, Sprucederry Grove takes it one step further and is more suitable towards nature enthusiasts who plan on pursuing Natural Living or the new Naturopath career. There, in the perfect blend of civilization and nature, you will feel right at home living off the land, foraging, and working on your Apothecary skill. For your social needs, there’s the Gringle’s bar and Whistling Thistle Gardens.
Finally, the magical forest of Everdew, home of the mysterious Fairy Council. If you are playing as a Fairy or planning on becoming one, there’s no better place to choose – after all, you’ll get swarmed by Fairy neighbors almost right away, welcoming the new settler! The magical vibes are quite literally in the air.
Sure, this is not the first world that is split into distinct neighborhoods: just think of Mt. Komorebi with its Wakaba and Senbamachi, each with their unique vibe. But here, it feels like it is almost a progression from a city-acclimated tourist, to a local with a certain bond with nature, to finally a mythical Fairy who can be quite the force of nature on their own.
Once you choose the new world, and move to the Create a Sim mode, you will get to see three new Aspirations (Fairy, Nature Nomad and Elixir Enthusiast), as well as 181 additions to your character customization. While there are new outfits, accessories and more, the most exciting additions are, of course, the Fairy-related options. Especially skin tones and various wings, to really give your Occult Sim a unique appearance. You can also add flower crowns, colorful tattoos, little antlers and floral design elements to make your character look more mystical.
The visual and gameplay additions to the Fairy Sims make the poor Mermaids look even more lackluster in comparison. Step aside Werewolves and Vampires, now we know for sure who the developers’ favorite Occult child is.
Nature Nomads are the Sims who embrace Natural Living and fulfilling their needs in the outdoors. This aspiration includes such tasks as fishing, harvesting plants or foraging… before upping the difficulty and immediately requiring you to use a high-level skill for the progression. It feels like there’s a step or a level missing when it comes to it due to the sudden jump in demands.
Elixir Enthusiasts want to learn everything there’s to know about the Apothecary skill, Elixirs, and Cures. If you want to explore the new Naturopath career, this aspiration is tailor-made for it. The goals include such things as foraging, crafting items at the Apothecary table, giving Cures to Sims and more.
And finally, the Fairy aspiration – either for Sims that are already Fairies or for those who seek to become one. With this aspiration, you’re looking at throwing Fairy parties, befriending other Fairy Sims, using Fairy Dust and more. Regardless of which aspiration you choose, it will tie in nicely with the general gameplay vibe of the expansion, but don’t expect too much from them.
The pack also includes three new traits: Mystical, Disruptive, and Plant Lover. The Mystical Sims are more in touch with nature and find it easier to connect with the supernatural and learn the Apothecary skill. The Plant Lovers unironically really love their plants and would prefer the company of their green leafy friends to any Sim or pet out there. Disruptive might seem a bit out of left field, but it works for one of the Fairy skill lines that would encourage you to pursue mean and disruptive interactions with other Sims.
For me, The Sims 4 is a guilty pleasure that I dive in a few times a year to enjoy a couple weeks long deep dive. With Electronic Arts and Maxis set on supporting and expanding the game with new features and additions, including free base game patches, there’s always something new to look for.
However, it also makes returning to The Sims something akin to returning to an MMORPG of choice a few expansions or major patches down the line: while it remains mostly the same, there are now new features and ways to play, your character is not playing exactly as you remember it, and there’s so much content and menus and stats that it becomes mildly overwhelming if you haven’t been keeping up.
Even if you purchase a DLC occasionally, the sheer amount of possibilities steadily grows, and so does the Simology panel. At this point I am somewhat anxious even to open it. Of course, the new expack is no exception, further stretching out that menu with a Balance/Imbalance bar and the indication of your Sim’s luck.
The balance/imbalance meter is affected by your Sim’s mood over time: the persistent low needs and negative moods such as tense or scared will tip the scales toward Imbalance, while fulfilling needs and being in positive moods like happy or confident will shift it closer to Balance. This bar affects the Sim’s needs decay, the speed of learning a skill, as well as their luck (affecting basically all aspects of life), and can even lead to Ailments, which there are a total of 8 of.
Keeping a Sim well-cared for is usually enough to preserve their balance. But if something unexpected were to occur, such as some unfortunate incident tipping the scales too far into the Imbalanced/Very Imbalanced state, you might want to try visiting a Naturopath (new career added in the expansion), meditating in nature with the Natural Living Skill, or drinking an Apothecary Elixir for a quick fix.
When things are going as normal and your Sims are in good state, Balance and Luck is something you might not even notice or pay any attention to. However, it is simply just one more thing to watch out for in a negative situation. Is your Sim feeling down after a bad breakup or grieving after losing a loved one? Watch out for potential complications!
Note that if you don’t want to deal with it, you can disable the system in Game Options -> Pack Settings.
The new skill line, Natural Living, is all for living off the land. These Sims prefer the great outdoors to provide everything they need – but they’re still bound to their household by the game’s systems. If you decide to pursue the Nature Nomad aspiration and this skill line, expect to go out fishing, harvesting plants, foraging, sleeping and bathing outside for the extra points.
While fun, admittedly I wasn’t drawn to it when compared to the Elixir Enthusiast/Naturopath and Fairy options offered by the expansion. Somehow, those felt like they had more of a sense of progression to them. Perhaps throwing Fairy parties wasn’t exactly fulfilling, but leveling up the Fairy skill tree while doing so more than made up for it.
However, Natural Living is still a fun option to have when you are looking for something new. Especially when you find yourself in the middle of the gorgeous Innisgreen world. Roleplaying an overworked manager or office worker finally losing it and running off to live in the woods is an inviting idea that I might keep for some future character. Perhaps they will end up becoming a Fairy in the end, too, or learn to live in the balance somewhere in Sprucederry Grove as one of many local Naturopaths/Apothecaries.
Speaking of Fairies, the new supernatural Sim type feels like the cornerstone of the new expansion. In fact, I’d say that everything outside of Fairies felt more like an afterthought given to the characters that decided to avoid embracing nature to its fullest potential.
How do you become a Fairy? It’s actually a quite straightforward process. First, you can create a Fairy Sim in the CAS, spawning a perfectly good Fairy ready to mingle with other supernatural Sims. If you pick the Fairy Aspiration, it will have the first point crossed off right from the get go.
Second, if you decide to follow the full process manually, you’d need to summon Mother Nature and ask to become a Fairy. That’s it, from here on it’s the Fairy living for your Sim which means certain changes to needs. No more do you need to care about your Bladder or Hunger stats, now it’s all about Emotional Force.
This stat decays over time just like Hunger would, but also decreases when you actively use Fairy abilities. Running out completely means dying on the spot! Thankfully, there are multiple ways to restore it: you can actively siphon other Sim’s emotions (with certain Fairy passives providing bonus from positive or negative emotions), consume bottled emotions or Regenerate Emotional Force by using Fairy Dust.
Certain unlockable passives also allow you to restore extra emotional force from Regeneration or even by sleeping, but it’s a long way there! Last but certainly not least, you can spend some time in the Fairy House.
Fairies have unique ways to interact with the world and other Sims, which also includes messing with them such as affecting their mood, being nosy and sensing extra facts, bottling up or outright consuming their emotions, applying or curing an ailment, and more.
When it comes to the surroundings, a Fairy can enchant plants, making it so they don’t require any more watering, weeding, or spraying. Such plants also mature and evolve faster, but can attract pixies that need to be shooed off. In a way, it felt both convenient but also mildly cheating-like to be able to basically automate most of the plant care in the plant care expansion.
Other interactions include shrinking and playing with objects such as a sink, a mailbox or even a trash can. No more waiting until your roommate is done singing in the shower and doing a terrible job of it, you can dive right under the tap in the sink instead. Perhaps the funniest Fairy interaction is using Fairy Dust to bring garden gnomes to life to carry out certain tasks.
There’s also a new Fairy-specific WooHoo session (which can be enjoyed with a non-Fairy Sim), but it’s for you to find out!
Overall, The Sims 4: Enchanted by Nature Expansion Pack left a positive but slightly confused impression. In particular, when it comes to the overall reactivity and interactivity with nature. Despite being the seemingly central part of the expansion, it takes the back seat when it comes to Fairies. That includes much of the CAS and Build mode options that seem to be made specifically with Fairy Sims in mind.
Enchanted by Nature could have benefited from a bit more nature and a bit less enchantment overall. Sometimes it feels like the central pillar of the pack was supposed to be the new Occults, and then everything was built up around them as a way to include non-Fairy Sims and add more content, but it still feels somewhat lacking and standard.
Note: a free early access copy of the expansion pack was provided for the purposes of this review.
