The Sims 4: High School Years Critic Reviews

The Sims 4 High School Years fulfills its purpose: giving players as much gameplay possibilities as it can, with one of the richest Sims 4 packs yet. Despite some stubborn rabbit holes, the recriation of High School's highs and lows is very well done, from the clothing to Copperdale High's hallways.

The whole point of The Sims 4 High School Years Expansion is to expand your teen Sims' lives - and it does not fail in that mission at all. Before this Expansion came along, teen Sims felt a little overlooked, but High School Years ensures that will never happen again. It's not perfect, there's always room for improvement, but this is certainly an Expansion worth investing in if you want to expand your gameplay, plus the new clothes, objects and world are a great addition.

Ultimately, there’s a lot to love in The Sims 4: High School Years. It feels as though the Sims community has been waiting a long time to finally be able to accompany their teenage Sims to school – and we think it’s been worth the wait. Provided you’ve not been affected by a bug, this is a fantastic, well-rounded expansion, bringing a beautiful new neighbourhood, plenty of new items and a whole new experience to The Sims 4. All the stress of high school, without ever stepping outside of your front door. Ah, bliss.

Teen Sims have become a whole lot more engaging and satisfying to control here, in large part thanks to a variety of features and moving parts that help to capture the teen experience. With an impressive range of clothing and furniture targeted towards teens included as well, the expansion succeeds in turning this previously-overlooked life stage into one that feels unique and worthwhile to play. For us personally, that's a big win and outweighs the pack's imperfections and lack of polish.

The Sims 4 High School Years truly excels when it comes to building personalities for teen Sims, and wonderfully captures teen moments like asking your crush to prom or starting drama online. Although somewhat dampened by its large amount of useless set pieces, the world of Copperdale is quite beautiful and the perfect setting for high school. The lack of depth and functionality in some elements of The Sims 4 High School Years Expansion Pack is particularly disappointing because of how deep other features of the game go, but the title does an excellent job overall of encapsulating most of the key parts of adolescence.

The Sims 4 High School Years is executed well when looking at what’s on the surface, and the features included with the expansion have undoubtedly fleshed out the teen life state to keep things interesting for a while. However, elements that could be taken much further — such as a funfair full of rabbit holes and a classroom that includes situations that are just tied to pop-ups — keep it from truly flourishing as an Expansion Pack.

There’s hope that the technical issues with The Sims 4: High School Years will be resolved, but frustrations abound during the launch window. The pack goes a long way towards defining the teen experience in digital form, but there are a few pimples to be popped before it can be considered truly worthwhile.

The hefty price tag and two-dimensional gameplay may keep some away, but the pack goes a long way for Sims 4 players that want every kind of world, career, and experience - and the extra aesthetics in High School Years.

Though I’m less interested in the dynamics of high school life, like getting my Sims to ask other Sims to prom or navigate socially awkward situations by the lockers, High School Years has a ton of extra content that I love. Namely, the Create-a-Sim additions and furniture options in the expansion pack are incredible — some of the best I’ve seen added with an expansion.