This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
In short, this is the worst out of the 16 (as of 16/02/2020) stuff packs released for The Sims 4 so far. It is the first (and so far the only) stuff pack to require another pack (in this instance, Cats and Dogs) for its full utilisation, and from my experience this type of marketing strategy and the price you pay for this pack is unjustified for what you receive with this pack.
You get 35 new Build/Buy objects, 27 new CAS items to mess around with and with all stuff packs, it comes with one flagship item/function, the rodent and its cage.
Talking about rodents, you get four of them: a hamster, a fictional bubalus, a rat and a pygmy hedgehog. All four may look different but they all function in the same manner, unsurprisingly. There's various different interactions for the rodents, including the usual gimmicks such as friendly interactions, playing with the rodent, observing their actions and feeding them. Because it's the Sims 4, rodent weirdness is also squeezed in such as random actions performed including a nuclear explosion happening at times during the night. Alongside this no-nonsense offering, it also adds in a new death: Rabid Rodent fever, which is contracted through a bite from a rodent; it takes a few days for the infection to progress to fatality in which your sim turns into a hamster outfit in its ghost stage. If you want your sim to not die though, you can research the fever from the computer and purchase treatment to counteract the disease. It's nothing overly exciting but it can be a little bit of fun.
After that though, the pack's Build/Buy offering is a little bit more lacklustre and mediocre, especially given the extra quid you paid for the pack if you own Cats and Dogs. Whilst there are some cool items snuck into the pack, most of the items featured felt like it was held off the original expansion pack and sold later for the extra quid, especially when compared side by side. There is one cool item though, the coffee table aquarium, which is lovely (although functionality like that of a fish tank would have been nice). The tube decals are also fine, with each of the swatches giving off different looks. For Cats and Dogs owners, a few new pet clutter and condos have been snuck in.
The limitations you get from the pack for not owning Cats and Dogs is much more prevalent in Create A Sim, its offering is quite disappointing given almost every item of clothing is just a recolour of an existing item of clothing. The same can be said with pet outfits like said before, can only be accessed if you own its associated expansion pack. The only few CAS items featured are entirely new, which are the hairs and its not going to overly impress you, it's just the standard mediocre offering.
Overall, this pack and its overall package is rather disappointing given the relative shallowness of this particularly entry in this series and its marketing strategy used to sell the pack to us simmers. It would not have been a problem if all of the content mentioned was added as part of the pack in a patch but this feels like a ripoff, it not a ripoff when compared to the Pets pack offerings in previous franchise entries where you get a variety of different pets for one price. But alas, it's the Sims 4, there's always an area of disappointment in there somewhere and for all of that, I cannot recommend purchasing this pack unless you can get a size-able discount from this pack, in which, given the pattern of EA's sale strategy, stuff packs are almost never going to be on sale.
SUMMARY:
Pros:
- Rodents can be fun
- Cool-looking coffee-table fish tank
- Furniture blends in well with my playstyle
Cons:
- Very few content to justify its 'DLC-for-DLC' marketing approach
- Different rodents are just reskins
- Build/Buy content is mostly withheld from Cats & Dogs… Expand
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