The Sims 4 Enchanted by Nature whisks Simmers off to the Celtic-inspired world of Innisgreen, bringing a huge dose of whimsy and loads of opportunities to get stuck into nature.
While the focus isn’t entirely on what will be the star of the show for many – Fairies – they don’t feel as underbaked as Island Living’s Mermaids do, with the Expansion Pack providing a mix of features that let Sims touch grass and tap into their inner naturalist.
The Sims 4 Enchanted by Nature screenshots
What is Enchanted by Nature about?
The Sims 4’s 19th Expansion Pack, Enchanted by Nature, has Sims interacting with the world in a whole new way, pretty much removing the need for them to return home at all.
This is largely thanks to two new skills, which get Sims outside to forage more intuitively and utilize their environment to restore needs like Energy and Hygiene, press foraged flowers into artwork, use Fairy Dust to enchant helpful (or downright evil) Gnomes, or even meet adorable Fairy Sims – meaning this pack doesn’t just add content for the Occult fans.
If you’re a fan of magic, storytelling, legacy playthroughs, and loved Outdoor Retreat or Cottage Living, Enchanted by Nature will be right up your… tree.
Nurtured by Nature
Before we get into Fairies, let’s talk new skills. Apothecary has Sims utilizing different ingredients that can be crafted into cures for the new Ailments feature (similar to Herbalism from Outdoor Retreat). A standout is Emotional Void, sprouting grey, stony patches on your Sims’ skin, giving them a dose of perpetual ennui, locking their mood at ‘Fine’ until cured.
Natural Living has to be one of my favorite skills in quite some time, though – it’ll add so much gameplay potential depending on what packs you own. From Rags to Riches playthroughs to Off the Grid lot challenges, runaway storylines, and Spellcaster Sims, you can use it in loads of different ways.
It lets Sims sleep on the ground (more comfortably, inside and out), bathe in shallow bodies of water to get their hygiene up, and even summon a Privy Bush out of thin air to do their business in – all becoming more effective as they get better in the skill. The first time my Sim slept on the ground, they jolted awake throughout the night, getting negative moodlets and contracting an Ailment in the morning – all of which gave me a few laughs.
Three new traits, Disruptive, Mystical, and Plant Lover, each have their charms (like Aura Reading for Mystical Sims, which can affect moodlets), and there’s a new Luck system that brings in a bit of tabletop RNG to keep day-to-day interactions interesting.
The new Balance system has three levels to navigate, and when tipping to the Imbalanced or Very Imbalanced side of things, it creates disruptions to managing a Sim’s day-to-day, like causing Ailments and slowing down skill gains. This didn’t affect my Sim much, and I’m unsure if that’s by design, as it stayed at Balanced throughout all of my playtime, even when receiving Ailments and having her needs drop. I was using the Mystical trait that increases balance when Granting a Sacred Blessing to other Sims, though.
My beloved PlantSims feel more involved in Enchanted by Nature, too, and can be found tottering around the world pretty regularly. You can even chat to them to get a Forbidden Fruit as a new method to turn into one!
There’s also new lore for them that I won’t spoil here, but it feels like it’s been created for the sole purpose of shoe-horning in a reasoning as to why they aren’t full-time lifestates yet. Here’s hoping that changes one day.
The pack’s CAS and Build/Buy offerings are notably fantastical, but at times, I found the latter veering off ever so slightly into ‘costumey’ territory. Being able to care for a new plant type, ‘Live Houseplants’, indoors is a fantastic addition, and I love that there’s customization here by being able to place different ones into a selection of different pots. This is one of the most grounded additions to the pack, and it’s a big draw, especially as I found them to be not quite as hard to care for as other plants.
Fairly fair fairies
Fairies are finally in The Sims 4, and they’re ready to create calm or cause chaos to Sims everywhere, with a focus on manipulating the emotions of those around them and tinkering with nature. As a big fan of Occults, I was excited to try them out, but was left feeling pretty underwhelmed.
I started with the more grounded parts of Enchanted by Nature first, getting my Sim’s Natural Living and Apothecary skills up and exploring the world (don’t talk to me about how the Coast of Adhmor has six of the same shell buildings in close vicinity) before moving onto Fairies for a sense of progression.
With my high-levelled skills in tow, I was let down by how easy it is to become a Fairy: there’s an option to buy the required seed from a computer, which you plant to then summon Mother Nature herself, before she sends you off to a mystical, incredibly emotional spring (yes, you read that right) to transform – all within a couple of minutes.
After my Sim finished transforming, I was left feeling that this should feel more earned, particularly because of the way that it needs to be done in summoning such a force of nature, quite literally.
Their new unlockable abilities are a lot of fun, though, and you’ll have to carefully manage their Emotional Force need while using them to ensure it doesn’t deplete – or they’ll meet their end. Being able to shrink down to get this back up in a Fairy House or raising others by playing in the sink or sleeping on a piano is very The Sims, too – but not having an option to make them smaller at will is a huge miss, preventing Enchanted by Nature from being an Expansion Pack that’s truly one of the best.
Verdict
Enchanted by Nature kicks The Sims 4’s wackiness up a notch in all aspects while not feeling too overbearing, and even though Fairies and the new world are perfectly fine additions to the game, they might not blow Simmers away.
Where the pack really shines is in its new Natural Living skill, enchanted Gnomes, and new items like the Living Houseplants. They’re all standouts of the pack, and while it’s not going to be worth getting this DLC for one of those alone, there’s a big chunk of content on offer here that has something for every Simmer.
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