Uniquely created sims, many possibilities, customization of housing and fashion and having the ability to tell stories. These were just some of the promises Electronic Arts (EA) made before the release of The Sims Mobile; there were also the promises EA broke with their pay-to-play game that takes out the unique aspects of the Sims and makes it cookie-cutter at best.

When The Sims Mobile came out, many fans of the game series were excited. They had watched the trailers eagerly. The game had a similar graphic look to the Sims 4 with some of the same furniture, clothing and hairs as Sims 4.

On release day, the game seemed entertaining. The familiar clothing and hairs from the Sims 4 was great to see and it was impressive to see how much a player could customize their sim. The initial challenges went quickly enough that they didn’t deter from the overall game and kept the player’s attention.

The overall goal of the game was nice and simple: build up the Lifestyle. This can be done through buying new clothes, buying or earning objects called ‘Heirlooms’ or buying improvement for the world around the sims, like their jobs or house.

Unfortunately, the game got boring fast. The real time challenges required energy for the sim to complete, and as the challenges got longer, the more energy was used. While the energy gain doesn’t take a horrible amount of time, it’s still long enough for the player’s attention to be moved to somewhere else.

The Lifestyle also started to take longer and longer to reach. If the player want to go to the next Lifestyle, then it almost became a requirement for the player to buy upgrades for their current houses to complete a different furniture pack. These upgrades cost virtual cash, which is acquired most easily by spending real money.

Even the familiar furniture, clothes and hair cost money. A bedroom set costs 150 units of the virtual currency, which can be reached with a purchase of $4.99, the lowest increment a player can purchase. The actual pack the bedroom set came from, Kids Room Stuff, cost $9.99; that included furniture, clothing and hair. The bedroom set on The Sims Mobile only has four objects.

For a company that already has issues with downloadable content options for their games, an app with overpriced in-app purchases makes it seem like EA is not listening to their fans’ complaints. Perhaps if the game was more entertaining than the amount of purchases would be okay, but this game is not entertaining.

While the graphics are great, the gameplay does not make up for them. Compared to the uniqueness of other Sims games by EA, The Sims Mobile is a complete joke.