Paralives – A Sims Replacement (?)
Posted on November 12, 2025 by Aywren
I have been a Sims fan since the original Sims came to PC back in 2000. Since then, I’ve owned almost every expansion pack across Sims 1, Sims 2, Sims 3, and Sims 4. While I’m not a rabid Sims fan, I am a big Sims enjoyer. However, the recent situation with the EA buyout is changing that for me.
I try not to get into political topics on this blog as you can get that sort of thing pretty much everywhere else. But there are times when I feel like I must draw a line between what I will and will not buy based on concern for where my money is going. The EA buyout is one of these times. If you want more information on why players and content creators are concerned, I’ll let this post here give you all the details.
All of this is to say… unless something major changes with EA ownership, I will likely not be picking up new Sims DLC in the future. That doesn’t mean I won’t keep playing what I own as I’ve put no little amount of money into the series, despite usually waiting to get it on sale. I still have a LOT I have never explored with my Sims games, and I do enjoy them very much.
I still love life simulations quite a bit. However, there’s very little lack of simulation games out there to enjoy now days, and some that I’ve put just as much time into as the Sims series.
This leads to my new interest in the upcoming life sim game, Paralives. While this has been on my Steam wish list for quite a while, and I’ve been aware of its development, I haven’t followed it all that closely. It will be releasing into early access on December 8, though I haven’t made up my mind whether I’ll be waiting to see what reviews say before I buy it. I think it depends on the price.
I did the same with inZOI – I messed with the demo a little and I just wasn’t that captivated by the game. That was mostly because I don’t really care for the art style and overall feel of the environments. It reminds me too much of something like Black Desert Online - never cared a whole lot for that graphics style, either. I held off buying into that early access and I was thankful I did. It’s currently sitting at a mixed rating and I’ve heard the lack of logical content is hurting the game. I don’t foresee myself picking it up in the future.
Paralives, however, feels a bit different. I really like the stylized graphics, for one. And I like the communication put forth by the team. They are quite up front about what will and will not be included on the EA release.
But most importantly, was this little bit from the video:
If this is true, that’s a breath of fresh air to me. I’m so used to having Sims pulling out content and packaging it as paid DLC left and right. If the Paralives team does keep this promise, then I feel like the price of admission might be worth it from the start. Especially since they list things such as cars and pets in future updates (free?).
Plus, it looks like modding will be available out of the box using Steam Workshop. Again, a breath of fresh air compared to Sims game modding which has become this paywalled experience behind tons of ads or across various mod websites.
Anyhow, it really does depend on how busy I am come December whether or not I want to pick up a game like this, which I expect to drop a lot of time in. I do have a good solid vacation near the end of the month, so it’s likely, especially if I hear positive things about it. I would love to support more life sim games and see more variety, especially something created by a smaller team like this.
I wish them all the best!