First Impressions: THE SIMS MOBILE
Coming to a large event like E3 is amazing on its own, but I was also able to stop by the EA Play event to check out a few upcoming games and DLC for Battlefield 1 and Battlefront 2! While I was here, my first stop was an easy choice; The Sims Mobile!
When I was waiting in line, I couldn't help but start to get some concerns on how it will run. With the notorious history of The Sims games having a major lag in responsiveness to the controls and actions you wish for your character to play out, but I am extremely happy to say that this is not an issue featured in this games beta!
The menu is set up so that everything is easily at the touch of your finger, your characters upkeep stats (hunger, hygiene, etc) is listed at the bottom at all times for you to keep track of the needs coming up, NPC's are very easy to interact with since one tap brings your character to them INSTANTLY, with teleportation, so that there is a cut from travel time thus creating less chance of the lag the series is infamous for, go to the park after opening the map (which loads almost instantly, which I found quite impressive), then return back home with the touch of one Home button that is added on the side menu, and this is from about ten minutes of testing the demo!
I do have to say that I hope to see a few aspects put into the next beta update to help make sure the games original launch is done properly. Things like the building menu having all the basic level needs, such as a fridge, require your character to be level 4 to purchase. I will starve to death before I reach that level! There should be an immediate set of necessities available to the players to purchase, or at least already placed in the home you are given.
I can't confirm that this is how the game will start up, since all I did was customize my character a little, hit start, and load up into a house with a toilet, shower, couch, and fireplace... that's it. I would imagine that, similar to the PC and Console launches, they would give you the choice to start with a pre-furnished house or build your starter home set up with a set amount of money, but in order for this to be an option there must be level 1 items to buy!
The game is in very early development and I have faith that it will be updated and brought to mobile devices soon with an excellent set up and proper start, but the beta itself seemed to be underdeveloped to even be so much as a beta.