Lately, there has been another push for EA to bring The Sims 2 back to Origin, after offering the Ultimate Collection back in 2014. EA has said that the game is too old to run properly on modern PCs, but many players have speculated that EA wouldn't offer The Sims 2 again for fear of hurting sales for The Sims 4.
As it turns out, adding The Sims 2 to Origin may not be technically possible, but there are still plenty of ways for players to get their hands on the game, providing that they have a disc drive available. For players on the fence about which game to play, or for those that feel like reminiscing, here are a few things from The Sims 2 that still aren't in The Sims 4.
10 Memories
The Sims 4 actually does have a memory system—or, it used to. Once upon a time, players' in-game screenshots would capture the emotions that their Sims were feeling at the time, and could then be assigned as memories in the screenshot manager. However, these memories didn't actually affect your Sims in meaningful ways, and the system was eventually eliminated altogether. In The Sims 2, on the other hand, memories definitely had an impact. Memories could either be green or red, which indicated whether they were good or bad. Even cooler was the fact that pre-made Sims came with fully fleshed-out memories, which added a lot for players who loved storytelling and lore.
9 Deep Personalities (And Autonomous Actions To Match)
Anyone who has played The Sims 2's Pleasant family knows how difficult it is to get Angela and Lillith to stop fighting. For The Sims 4 players, on the other hand, it's difficult to make Sims fight at all.
Why such a difference? In The Sims 2, Sims had personality-specific autonomous interactions, which meant that each Sim acted differently, depending on their personality. Mean Sims would start fights, playful Sims would juggle, and so on. In The Sims 4, Sims now have individual and specific traits. This makes them seem more diverse on the surface, but in reality, every Sim seems to act the same way no matter what traits they have.
8 Cars And Transportation
This has been a popular request for The Sims 4 players for years, and the addition of firefighters in 2020 made some players think cars (or at least, firetrucks) might be coming. Unfortunately, they didn't. Many players have taken to sizing up toy cars for their builds, but in The Sims 2, cars are actually drivable. For players with The Sims 2: Nightlife, Sims could drive cars ranging from really run-down to luxury sports cars. The Sims 2: Free Time also added fixer-uppers for Tinkering enthusiasts. The Sims 4 doesn't have hobbies, either, but that's a different conversation for a different list entry.
7 Wants And Fears
In The Sims 2, each Sim had specific wants and fears that would give players clues about what their Sims were looking to do. Wants and fears were usually Aspiration specific— Fortune Sims want to buy things and get promoted, Family Sims want to have babies, Popularities Sims want to have parties—but sometimes they were age-specific too, like when Teen Sims wanted to go to college. In The Sims 4, wants and fears have been replaced with Whims, which is another feature that was actually better with the base game. Initially, whims were tied to a Sim's traits and emotions, so even when whims overlapped between Sims, they still felt personal and specific enough to give variety to the game. But, with the introduction of mechanics like Seasons, whims have gone out of whack, and now every Sim wants to buy a bee box just because it's Spring. Unfortunately, instead of reworking whims, EA turned them off altogether (but they can be turned back on in the game settings).
6 Burglars
In The Sims 2, hearing the burglar's music was often a source of pleasurable terror, followed by dread for forgetting to buy a house alarm (or helplessness, for Sim families without the funds).
Sims could fight the burglar—much like they can fight their own fires in The Sims 4—or they could call the police to fight the burglar for them. In either case, if the burglar won, they'd leave with the stolen items; if they lost, they wouldn't. Unfortunately, there are no burglars in The Sims 4, but at least the repo man made a comeback.
5 Hobbies
The Sims 2: Free Time introduced hobbies to the game, which included not only a ton of new items, but also a new hobby system. Each Sim would also have "one true hobby," which would raise their fun meter faster than other activities (plus, they would naturally build hobby and skill points faster when using hobby-related objects. In The Sims 4, there are a lot of items that could be considered hobby items, but there is no system that tells players what their Sims like or dislike. Sometimes, Traits will have little hints, though.
4 Liberated Babies
Babies in The Sims 2 had it all: cribs, changing tables, bottles from the fridge, baths in the sink, and freedom to move about the world. Or, more accurately, the freedom to be left on the floor constantly.
In The Sims 4, babies are bound to their bassinets. They have many of the same interactions as they did in The Sims 2, plus the addition of being breastfed, which is a great touch. Unfortunately, though, babies still can't go anywhere. In fact, many players feel that babies are more like objects than Sims.
3 Greek Life
The Sims 4: Discover University added a lot of new features to the game, even expanding on previous University expansion packs. But, one thing notably missing from Discover University is Greek life. In The Sims 2, Sims could move into fraternity or sorority houses, providing that they were friendly enough with the other housemates. In The Sims 4, the only shared housing spots are dorms, where players can't choose roommates. Technically, players could create a sorority or fraternity house themselves by applying for roommates, or even using the clubs feature from The Sims 4: Get Together.
2 Private School
In The Sims 2, children and teens entered public school automatically, but families with more Simoleons could invite the headmaster over for an evaluative meeting. From there, the player had to make sure their Sim family impressed—nice furniture, a high quality meal, and some schmoozing for good measure—and if they were successful, their children went straight to private school the next day. In The Sims 4, private school is not an option. There are no headmasters to invite, no uniforms to wear, and no embarrassingly bad dinners, unless you add mods.
1 Better Aspirations
No longer a rewarding challenge for a Sim to pursue throughout their life, aspirations in The Sims 4 function as tutorials or guides more often than not. In The Sims 4's base game, aspirations actually did provide a nice challenge, and many were akin to The Sims 2's career or skill-based Lifetime Wishes. However, enough players found these challenges too hard that EA had to tone down their difficulty. Now, instead of the career or skill-based aspirations of The Sims 2 (or the base game), aspirations feel more like a checklist for a new pack's features than a cohesive or significant life goal.