Travel to the great outdoors and roast some marshmallows with the first official game pack released for The Sims 4. Nothing beats a little trip to the mountains for a getaway for some virtual fresh air, away from the mundane stresses of life and to disconnect from modern life for a moment. With Outdoor Retreat, you can look forward to camping under the stars, the warmth of a campfire, the taste of roasted marshmallows, and taking in the natural beauty of nature.

Outdoor Retreat was a first for the series as it introduced a new Sims 4 instalment known as a game pack, which was launched in January 2015. Basically, a game pack is smaller than an expansion pack but bigger than a stuff pack. Games packs usually are more focused on adding more gameplay to the game, whereas a stuff pack theoretically adds more stuff like objects and CAS items.

Worlds & Vacationing in ‘Outdoor Retreat’

One new world is introduced in this pack, known as Granite Falls, but unlike other worlds, it is not a liveable word. It is a new type of world known as a vacation world, that you’ll be able to visit anytime.

Lodging Options in Granite Falls 

• Sleeping under the stars has never been this fun, and can be enjoyed in the rustic camping section. But staying here will require a tent (available in two sizes), a cooler box, and camping chairs to place around the fire. If you haven’t prepared beforehand, the ranger station will have everything you will need.
• If sleeping outdoors is not your thing, there are a number of cabins available for rent of different sizes and styles, that provide your Sims for their basic needs to be met.
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The Forest

The forest of Granite Falls serves as a great place to start your exploring, with dig sites for collecting rocks and gems, fishing spots, new types of plants to collect, and of course the beautiful mountain scenery great for taking pictures. The lot that your sims can visit is a national park and has a great spot to hang out with the family.

Deeper into the Woods

There is a hidden area in the forest that has a secret entryway, which is like a cave, that you’ll have to enter to gain access to this hidden oasis. Finding it can be difficult, but if you look hard enough, you’ll definitely find it. You’ll have to guide your Sim through the cave correctly with the action popups, and once you’ve made it through you’ll be able to explore this secret cove. You’ll even be able to meet a strange fellow living here known as the hermit.

New Skill and Aspiration

There is one new skill and one new aspiration that came with this pack.

• Herbalism Skill
  The new herbalism skill comes with Outdoor Retreat, which is an interesting skill but one that ties in quite nicely with the outdoorsy nature vibe this pack offers. With this skill, you are able to make remedies (concoctions) that can be used in numerous ways, and can even help you with your adventuring with your stay at Granite Falls, like Insect Repellant or to help hygiene, and many more other recipes, that you’ll get as you level up.
• Outdoor Enthusiast Aspiration
  The new aspiration that comes with this pack is one that you would expect. This aspiration is ideal for sims who enjoy fishing, are good at catching bugs, and are happy to sleep in a tent. The aspiration kind of guides you through the world and touches on mostly every gameplay activity in the game. A great trait that helps with achieving this is the ‘Loves The Outdoors’ trait, as your sim is going to be spending a lot of time outside. And after completing this aspiration, your sim will be rewarded with the ‘Survivalist’ reward trait. This reward trait allows your sim to enjoy living off the land, spending time outdoors and going camping, their enjoyment level will usually remain much higher than before.

Gameplay Activities in Outdoor Retreat

There are some new and exciting things for your Sims to do with this pack.

• Tents have been introduced, which is what is used as part of the camping experience in Granite Falls and can be placed and used anywhere. (What I love about tents, is that they are great for starting any Legacy or Rags-to-Riches challenges).
• Fire pits are a great addition to any outdoor excursion. Your Sims can hangout at the fire, telling stories, singing songs, roasting marshmallows, and just catching up with the family. Just watch out your sim doesn’t start a fire!
• A new social event can be thrown called a Weenie Roast.
• There’s a portable game table, where you can play ‘don’t wake the llama’ or cards. (A great little group activity for any time, anywhere).
• A horseshoe ring game, another great group activity.
• Your sims can now observe the stars or the clouds, depending on the time of day. (This action be done solo or with another sim). Doing this action will give your sim an inspired moodlet, and it can help social gains quickly between two sims.
• New collectables like insects or bugs, with new types of plants, and fish, can be collected.
• You can make herbal remedies with the new plants and insects you’ve collected, which are tied to the Herbalism skill that comes with this pack.
• The ‘Outdoor Enthusiast’ aspiration can be a great way to navigate through the new world.

  

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Being able to go on vacation is a great change of pace, which definitely fun to spruce up your gameplay, or even for storytelling.
• The woodland forest world is beautifully done, with lush vegetation and beautiful lakes and waterfalls, nature has never looked so good.
• A fun place to go on for a weekend trip with the family.
• The herbalism skill can be fun if you are dedicated to the outdoor lifestyle, as it adds a lot to sim types with the love for the outdoors. As well as making Granite Falls more attractive as the ingredients you need are all grown there.
• The CAS and Build items match well with the rustic lifestyle and are great to don your sims with touring around the forest and decorating your log cabin.
• The fire pit is a great addition and is a great way to add more to your sims social activities, like telling ghost stories and playing the guitar. And placing a fire pit in any home makes those summer nights outside more fun.
• Tents are really fun and can be used back home, for if you want to play with a Sim who’s starting from scratch or if you want your kids to play around outside in the backyard.
• With the disappointment of having no open worlds in the Sims 4, Outdoor Retreat addresses this a bit by giving us the feeling of an open world with huge engagement in the outdoors throughout the neighbourhoods.

Cons

• The lack of community lots, it would have been nice if there was a communal area for your sims to check in or engage with local staff.
• Toddlers are unable to come on trips with you, as there is no way to look after them, they have nowhere to sleep and no way to wash them. This is because toddlers were added after this pack was released. (An update was released that allowed toddlers to sleep in tents and you are now able to purchase portable toddler beds)
• As fun as the firepits can be, use them at your own risk, as when using the firepits you have an 80 to 90 percent chance of starting a fire, practically burning your whole camp down, or even killing a sim. This can be really frustrating as it happens almost all the time, to the point where you don’t even want to use it.
• The aspiration reward trait is not beneficial for most sims back home, as can be an easily overlooked aspiration.
• With so many bodies of waters in the two main areas, it would have been nice if you could be able to swim in them and enjoy them like a real mountain lodge.
• Collecting the new harvestable ingredients in this pack can be fun, especially if you pursue the herbalism skill, but the introduction of the Seasons Expansion Pack has now deterred that. As plants only bloom in certain seasons, which is a problem when you visit as not all the plants are in season, which means you have to visit the world in every season to be able to harvest them. Even this can be annoying as you don’t even know which season of the ingredient you need will bloom.

  

Final Thoughts of ‘Outdoor Retreat’

Outdoor Retreat is a great example of how Game Packs have evolved and have gone beyond the concept of stuff packs, and have so much to offer. The additions aren’t anything game-changing, but I’m sure any true Sims fan will appreciate and love how much more things their Sims can do now.

Playing with this new pack was great fun, and seeing how my Sims interacted with the environment as well as their reactions to their surroundings of Granite Falls was incredibly fun and pretty realistic! As a lover of nature myself and environment friendly, and of course, the element of adventure, this Pack meshed quite nicely with me. The good thing about this Game Pack is the addition of a nice new selection of CAS items, build items, new interactions, collectables, and beautiful environments to the game. The not so good thing about this pack is that this pack may not appeal to everyone who doesn’t like the rustic life, grunging it out in the woods.

Overall, Outdoor Retreat was a great addition to the game and any addon that enhances my sims lives and at least adds some excitement, I’m all for it!  It was a great start for many great new and exciting things to come for Game Packs.

For more reviews like this, please check out my ‘Get to Work‘ review! 🙂