Video Review:
The Sims Legacy Collection Review
As of January 31st 2025, The Sims Legacy Collection and The Sims 2 Legacy Collection are available on Windows via Steam , Epic, and the EA app. I didn’t hesitate to grab both day one, and on Steam, at least, I had two options for purchase (I can’t speak for the other stores, so your mileage may vary):
- To buy The Sims Legacy Collection and The Sims 2 Legacy Collection separately
- To buy both in the The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle which also included The Sims 4 and a couple of outfit packs for it.
Even if you don’t have any interest in The Sims 4 or the outfits, the second option is far better bang for your buck ($54.99CAD/$39.99USD/£34.99GBP) in my opinion, because you actually end up saving money compared to if you bought The Sims Legacy Collection and The Sims 2 Legacy Collection individually.
Keep reading as I take a deep dive into The Sims Legacy Collection and find out if it’s worth the price!
Read More:
You Can’t Go Home Again, or Can You?
Making Time For the Things You Need
What’s Included in The Sims Legacy Collection?
In the days leading up to the rerelease of The Sims and The Sims 2, there was some speculation online as to whether there would be expansion packs included, and whether it would be all or some. Now that the rerelease has launched, I can confirm that The Sims Legacy Collection includes:
- The Sims Livin’ Large
- The Sims House Party
- The Sims Hot Date
- The Sims Vacation
- The Sims Unleashed
- The Sims Superstar
- The Sims Makin’ Magic
Also included is The Sims 4 Throwback Fit Kit.
As you can see, all of the expansion packs are included, and at the not-too-gougey price of $30CAD/$19.99USD/£17.99GBP, it’s easy enough to justify if you’ve been looking for an easy way to play this classic on modern hardware. However, there are some issues worth noting before you buy.
The Sims Legacy Collection: How Does it Hold Up?
Growing up with The Sims and The Sims 2
Let me get nostalgic for a second. I was about 10 or 11 when I first played The Sims, as The Sims: Deluxe Edition was available from a popup book shop that came around our school every year. I was so excited to finally play The Sims, as I’d heard the other kids at school starting to talk about it, and I immediately saw why. It was an easy timesink, with edgy humour and exciting events, colourful characters, the ability to play god and wreak havoc with fires, pools, and potions, and there was also that one super scary sound effect that happens when the burglar comes that I think will scar us for life.
I love The Sims. I love how merciless it is. I love the creepy phone calls. I love the bizarre tantrums the sims throw when they don’t get their way, I love the odd things they say, the random deaths, and all those weird and wild aspects that define it as one of those games where you never quite know what’s going to happen.
The Sims, Then vs Now: A Steep Difficulty Curve
Even with the rerelease, there are ways in which it’s more limited than its shiny, modern counterparts:
- Fewer career options
- Less customization
- Slower movement
- Clunky navigation
- Fixed lots
- No skill progress while performing actions (for example, cooking won’t raise your cooking skill organically)
- Tougher relationships and career progression
- The need to have a certain amount of friends to get promotions
- No aging (aside from the jump from baby to child)
- Faster mood depletion and more fickle, slower mechanics when boosting your sims’ moods back up
- No days off to use skill building or socialising; your sims go to work every single day, so you may need to skip work to catch up on the skills and friends your sim needs to succeed. Just don’t skip two days in a row or they’ll be fired!
For me though, I actually think all this is all part of the challenge and part of the charm. It’s rough around the edges, it’s a bit long in the tooth, it’s got a bit of a chip on its shoulder, but it knows what it is: chaotic.
Is The Sims Legacy Collection the Same as the Original?
In all this, I’m happy to report that nothing’s really changed. The neighbourhood map UI is definitely a bit messed up, and will probably pose a challenge for people (like me) who have vision problems, as you kind of have to squint a bit to see what you’re looking at. As well, community lots get really laggy, and when playing on my sim’s lot I’ve found myself missing the ability to zoom right in and get up close to the action during live play, but at least at that point the game actually takes up the whole screen. I was worried during character creation and picking lots that I was going to have to put up with a small square in the middle of an otherwise black screen the whole game, but if it’s only those screens, I can live with it.
More than that, actually; I lost an easy hour trying the game out to see how it ran. And unfortunately, it’s there that I have a real issue with The Sims Legacy Collection.
The Sims Legacy Collection Verdict: Growing Pains, but Home Again
Aside from some clunkiness with the camera controls, the sometimes jerky movements of the models, confusing pathing choices, and a want for some quality of life (such as being able to mute or turn down the TV, or like I said before, to zoom in more), I’ve truthfully had very few complaints. Sure, there’s a bit of a difficulty spike involved after being spoiled by The Sims 3, but there’s plenty to love as well, like the inundation of nostalgia I was met with with the return of the old carpools, the old prank phone calls, being swarmed by stray animals, familiar characters, and seeing celebrities like Sarah McLachlan and Christina Aguilera living their best lives in Studio Town.
Truthfully I’ve really only scratched the surface with The Sims Legacy Collection, but unfortunately that’s all it’s permitted me to do with how it currently runs. For the most part, I’m happy to say that it performs well.. Ish, and based on what I’ve seen online, your mileage may vary. Unfortunately for me, my copy of The Sims Legacy Collection has a nasty habit of exiting to desktop every time I try to save. And it doesn’t even save! From what I’ve been able to tell, this is due to memory leak issues that I hope can be fixed soon so I can resume hiding in the 2000s as soon as possible.
What’s Wrong with The Sims Legacy Collection?
I’m only a few day-night cycles in (long enough to get invested in the family I was playing) and everything was running great, until it suddenly wasn’t. Now my game appears to have settled into a Groundhog Day style loop where it crashes whenever I save, meaning I have to make up the progress I lost that day, only for it to crash again. This is only one of a couple of issues I’ve heard happening–for others, it doesn’t launch at all, so maybe I’m lucky? It’s hard to say. There are definitely some performance issues that need patching or ironing out for me to whole-heartedly endorse The Sims Legacy Collection, but in fairness I am playing on day one. If EA fixes these problems, then by all means go ahead and buy it.
[Update: As of February 1st, the Sims Community website has shared an update from EA saying that they’re aware of the problems and have plans to patch both Legacy Collections to address them. Let’s hope this will iron out the problems!]
Like it says on the tin, The Sims Legacy Collection is a rerelease, not a remake or even a remaster. On the one hand, this is great because it means the experience is completely authentic, but it also means there’s going to be instability. I wish EA had spent a bit more time with the wires and pipes of the thing to optimize its performance on modern systems, but at the same time, I was happy for the short time that I could play it. Maybe in the future the community will come to the rescue and fix the thing, but until then, I’ll play what of it I can. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to report back with better news of making my sim a superstar in Studio Town, or be able to share my experiences digging into expansion packs I didn’t get a chance to play the first time around.
Should You Buy The Sims Legacy Collection?
If you’ve been on the fence about picking up The Sims Legacy Collection, I’d say keep an eye on the reviews regarding its functionality, and if those issues are resolved, then do it if you have the money. Alternatively, chance it if you feel confident that you can get it running yourself with community mods or some technical tinkering that’s beyond a layman like me. Aside from the crashes, it’s well worth the price, and it’s the perfect way to revisit happier times.
Have you tried The Sims Legacy Collection? Did you have these issues too, or is it behaving for you? As always, I’d love to hear about your experiences with the game and reminisce about the crazy things your sims have gotten up to so far.
As always, take care of yourselves and have a great weekend! See you next time for more Tails by the Foxfire!
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