TS4: Strangerville in The Sims

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't played through the Strangerville story and want to be surprised do not read anything else. Some of how I explained what happened didn't happen that exact way. It was quicker to simplify it and condense the story in some spots.

This is where I’ve been escaping to and probably won’t be the only Sims 4 entry this week as I’ve had one sitting in my drafts folder since before I took two months away from PB. This one and the next one are quite late as Strangerville came out in February and Get Famous came out in November last year. Better late than never. I really enjoyed this pack but glad I got it 50% off.

A lot of simmers hate directed game play like this but I like it. In small doses like this. It reminds me of the Sims Stories series, those were absolutely fantastic games, they were Sims and there was a free play mode but first you had to play through the game. They were really well done and my favourite was Castaway Stories. Even Matt played that game and he’s not a big Sims player.

It was different than any other Sims game. It used the graphics and most content from The Sims 2 game engine. It was how The Sims Medieval was to The Sims 3, not an expansion pack but a standalone game based on the coding and graphics from The Sims 3. This kind of brought that aspect of play into The Sims 4 instead of a standalone game. I really don’t have any complaints.

I chose the pre-made Sim, Alice Martin, who lives in Strangerville. She originally had two roommates but I separated her from them. For starters there were three Sims living a big house with only two beds. Where was Alice meant to sleep?

These are her outfits.

I had Alice join the military career and I moved her onto a little trailer lot. It's super cute.

The trailer park she lives in is cute too. It's only background decor though. The only playable lot is the one Alice lives on. That's okay, neighbours are annoying anyway. LOL!

As soon as Alice moved in she noticed these plants EVERYWHERE around Strangerville.

Then the neighbours came by to welcome her but there was something VERY wrong with these people. They don't speak or do anything but twitch around the the place.

She tried talking to a fellow soldier but this one appeared to be infected with the same thing. Scared the crap out of Alice lunging into her face like that.

Alice asked a few people around town, who weren't infected, what was going on. No one really knew but most advised her to go check out the Secret Lab in the crater which was created by an explosion a week before this infection started hitting people.

She searched through the labs files and found a discarded key card.

Alice checks to see if it works on the big door behind her. It does and as she enters she coughs on the spores that are released. She thinks nothing of it and goes deeper into the lab.

Walking through a fog filled with spores on a lower level Alice realizes she's in trouble.

She's infected or possessed as the game calls it! Only for 3 Sim hours though (so about three minutes in real time). When you're infected the only thing you can do is wander around, babble, and plant more spore producing plants that grow a fruit you can eat and become possessed for three Sim days instead of three hours.

Once she was exorcised (what? They are calling it possession) it was time to visit the curio stall to buy a hazmat suit with a respirator that filters out the spores.

Ahhh, much better! No more Crazy-Pants McGee.

Armed with her suit Alice penetrates the lowest level in the compound.

AND FINDS THE GIANT MOTHER PLANT! I was not expecting it to be so big. Alice tried talking to The Mother but it only seemed to anger... her? It? Who knows, except that she clearly hates normal people who aren't under her possession control.

Alice was told that to get around without the suit and defeat The Mother she needed to make a vaccine. The first thing she had to do was seduce a scientist to get that spore detector she's holding. It shows spore clusters which need to be used in the vaccine (5 per vaccine).

After finding a bunch of spore clusters it was time for the second ingredient; the Bizarre fruit that comes from what else? The Bizarre plant. You have to nurture the plant for it to pop a fruit. These plants aren't really plants and can't be grown in other towns or even in Strangerville unless you revive The Mother and trigger a replaying of the story.

After collecting all the necessary ingredients Alice went home to get some rest. While she was napping I noticed this creepy cloud over where the crater and lab are.

It's always fun waking up from a lovely nap to find your tub infested with tendrils from The Mother. At least these cleaned up easily. Still gross (and nightmare inducing).

It's time to make the vaccines!

To defeat The Mother Alice needs help so she asks Erwin to fight with her.

The Mother is NOT pleased when we get there.

But with some plant spray, some thrown vaccines (and almost killing poor Alice) they get the job done. Alice slumps in her hazmat suit while Erwin plays the trumpet in victory.

Strangerville returns to whatever normal is for the town. At least it's not covered in those plants anymore though. This is the town square with the redecorated library.

The Strangerville Hero received a reward for saving the town. A koi that had gone bad. Gee, thanks, she feels VERY appreciated with a nasty rotten fish. So as a better reward Alice took a few days off from work and lounged in her kiddie pool to keep cool.

A couple shots of the things around town I thought were neat. The top of the curio stand with a Cowplant skull on it. Love it!

This lot is really neat. On the surface it's a crashed plane but if you go through the door it takes you into an underground home where an odd Sim lives. The story is he crashed the plane in Strangerville years ago and means to eventually fix his machine but he never does.

Lastly these are all of Alice's medals. She joined the Military career that came with this pack. It was weird not having that career in the base game as it was in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. I told you The Sims 4 base game is the most watered down one I've seen in this entire series. I love all the military stuff, its absence has been noticed, by me at least.

That's it for now! Until next time, happy simming!

Last updated March 08, 2021