The Sims 4 latest Expansion Pack, Growing Together, launched on March 16th and it certainly brought some big changes to how Sims interact with one another. The biggest draw to Growing Together are the new social dynamics, meaning that Sims will have deeper relationships and feelings with one another, be it in a good or bad way.

Growing Together is meant to help Sims form more meaningful relationships, and each play through will have different outcomes. The other major additions are new personality and self-discovery traits, and randomly changing an already existing trait due to an activity or an interaction with another Sim.

All of this sounds good on paper, but my play through for this review has been nothing but chaotic, with lots of juicy drama!

There is a new world called San Sequoia, and I started fresh on a new Sim to get the full experience. Think of it as the Sims 4 version of San Francisco. There’s even an adorable splash pad park, and my dog joined in on the fun. There are walking trails and other fun things to discover. I chose an already existing house on the map and got started with a single female Sim named Kyra.

The very first day I got a phone call from my “old friend” Kyle Kyleson, and I figured I’d see where this was going. I let him “crash” at my place for a few days. Kyle is a very handsome Sim, and Kyra got along with him extraordinarily well. Unfortunately Kyle is basically a sim version of a beach bum and comes with the Lazy trait, so all he did was sleep, dance (a lot!) and eat on those first few days. There is an option for houseguests to “help around the house” and Kyle reluctantly cleaned up his messes once Kyra asked him nicely.

Kyle and Kyra were getting along so well that I figured I’d just take things to the next level with him, since my goal of this review was to see how the new baby update and the relationship changes worked in Growing Together. That, and I couldn’t figure out how to get Kyle to leave my house. I tried tossing his suitcase on the front porch but he didn’t get the hint. I later discovered you can end a houseguests stay via your Sims calendar (more on this later) but by the time I found that out, Kyle was growing on me.

Kyle was very easy going, kind, and fun for Kyra to be with, and before long Kyle asked her if they should move in together. One of their favorite things to do together is skygazing next to their dog’s poop piles. Why? Who knows, but I rushed things along into a marriage proposal and then immediately eloped. This was honestly one of the sweetest relationships any of my Sim families have ever had in the game, and I was in love with them as a couple.

Then they had a baby, and that all changed really fast. Before they even got home from the hospital with their newborn baby girl, Kyla (we’re keeping the K trend going), a psychopath Sim named Eleanor Sullivan offered to come stay with us to help care for the baby. She is considered an elder Sim in the game, and at first I thought it was great that this sweet old grandma was going to stay with us to help out.

That is until she began taking my baby out of my arms just about every time I was trying to feed her, only to lay her on the floor in another room and walk away. This happened multiple times, to the point where I got the warning they were going to come take my kid away for not caring for her. Green gas from dirty diapers was flowing off of poor Kyla, and she was passing out from being tired and hungry.

It got even better from there. I went to another world with my Sims, and left baby Kyla with Eleanor against my better judgment. When Kyle and Kyra got home…no baby was to be found. This absolute maniac took baby Kyla and LEFT HER IN THE STREET across town! Not once, not twice, but FOUR different times! I don’t know if this was a bug, or intentional, because I did have issues twice while trying to pick the baby up.

The icing on the cake is somehow Kyra thought that Kyle was flirting with Eleanor, and lost her mind. This happened in the middle of a thunderstorm, and she was not only mad, but terrified. She then became paranoid, and even though I told the game I did not want to adopt this new self-discovery trait, she never shook it. I had several pop ups where the game asked if I’d like to adopt a new trait, or swap out an old one, and I noticed for the most part the new traits were never better than what a Sim already had.

The once sweet relationship with my two Sims took a serious nosedive, and every single time I worked out the paranoia and issues between them, she would see Kyle with Granny Eleanor and lose it again. It got to the point where Kyra and Eleanor were fist fighting, and I could not figure out how to get this lady to leave my house before she further destroyed my family.

This is when I discovered the calendar tracks a houseguests stay, and it was an easy click to end the stay-over early. I was thrilled to see her go, and terrified that another murderous, homewrecking houseguest would show up. Even though Eleanor is gone, Kyra is now constantly paranoid and thinks poor Kyle is cheating on her so she’s always in a bad mood.

So yeah, Growing Together definitely added depth to relationships, and in my humble opinion it’s too much. I wish there was an option to turn off cheating or perceived cheating. Kyle didn’t even do anything outside of talking to Eleanor. I did not enjoy this at all, and was really sad to see probably my favorite Sims couple of all time get destroyed. They really got robbed, and I want a new ending for these two.

As if all this wasn’t stressful enough, my poor dog kept running away, so all my Sims were sad, and Kyra had that to deal with on top of all the other drama. I had an issue trying to get my dog to come home once she reappeared on the map. She remained stuck and I couldn’t even pick her up. I am not sure if this is a known bug or if it’s new, as I know pets running away has been in the game for a while now. Once I left the game and reloaded it, she was fine though.

The new clothing and hairstyles that came with Growing Together are hit and miss for me. Some are really cute, and I love that they added in a lot of styles for elder Sims (lots of sweaters and knitted stuff), but most of them are pretty lackluster and boring.

There are some fun new home items like a family bulletin board where you can leave notes for family members to read. You can also draw or post pictures on it. If a Sim reads a note, it gives them a positive moodlet.

As far as the baby update, and things included with Growing Together…Disclaimer: I have always hated babies in all of the Sims games. I don’t enjoy them as infants or toddlers, and if I am being honest I never enjoyed them as kids or teens much either. The same applies to this new content, except now I dislike them even more. It’s too much to manage for me, and I find it boring and time consuming. I’d rather have my adult Sims doing just about anything else. Plus, my kid looks like a blonde version of Chucky, so there’s that…

Now with that being said, people who DO like babies in The Sims franchise will love this change. There are loads of new interactions and customization options for your kiddos. The new clothing options are adorable, making infants, babies, and toddlers feel more like part of the family now instead of a background object that cried a lot. If you like the family aspect of The Sims franchise, this expansion is meant for you.

While playing through the Growing Together expansion I realized I really gravitate more towards the packs that have skills to learn or lots of fun things to do outside the home. Some of my favorites have been the Realm of Magic, Vampires, Strangerville, Journey to Batuu, Dreamhome Decorator, and Get Famous, while a lot of the content I didn’t get jazzed about revolved around more of a home life.

I’ve loved seeing The Sims franchise progress through the years, but honestly the Growing Together Expansion really didn’t jive well with my playstyle. I think the deeper interactions could be great if it’s something you want your Sim experiencing, but it added way too much complication to my relationships and it ended in me being frustrated.

The Sims 4 Growing Together Expansion is available now for $39.99

Holly Hudspeth is a best-selling author living in Fort Worth, Texas. She has six published novels to date; The Skyy Huntington Series, which is an epic dark fantasy adventure, and One Small Detail, a stand-alone medieval fantasy. Holly also enjoys writing fan fiction based on her avatars from games such as EverQuest, Elder Scrolls Online, and World of Warcraft. Her first major purchase at the established age of nine was the NES, and she has been gaming ever since. She enjoys fantasy games, city builders, RPGs, MMOs, SMITE, and The Sims franchise. Most nights she is in SMITE with her husband and friends, or playing ESO. When she isn’t gaming, she is probably either at Disney or planning her next trip there.