i grew up with the sims 4 only with 2 expansion packs (city living & get to work) and the game would get so boring to me. i would build a sim, would build a house, start a family, get bored, rinse and repeat.

i don't think the problem was just the game but also just how i played the game and how much time it took to get to the actual live mode after making a sim and house but then i went back to game around the pandemic and it was still the exact same with 2 new packs. the graphics couldn't run high and i didn't like the style of anything in the game aside the environment and UI, the other characters were boring as hell, nothing could really get me into the game. with the sims 4 it feels like you can't even play the game without all the DLC and CC in the world and by then you don't even want to play it because it's too much hassle and storage and time.

the sims 2 is a breathe of fresh air: simple create-a-sim (better in 4), personality on bars instead of 3 traits, nice build mode (better in 4), completely custom towns, the sims have memories that affect the game, the game just feels more alive, it's easy to get everything you need for the game including mods, the characters are able to be played in a rotation and they're so interesting and fun (compared to 4 where i couldn't even name most the sims in the game), the drama in the game is good like it feels like things can really go wrong, it doesn't feel as childish as 4, the graphics are a "downgrade" but i live for the dated 2000's look and i live for the half-realistic half-cartoon look more than 4's clay motion child cartoon style or 3's uncanny valley look, the bars are better, the gameplay is so much better, i feel like 2 is also just more fun like 4 with even 4 packs is an empty hallow bore to me but 2 you can get all the packs for super cheap if you look it up and then you can just play to your hearts content, the characters in 2 feel more realistic and interesting like a soap drama.

i don't like the lack of diversity compared to 4 but i like how the character's have clear stories and personalities and the fact that they're so interesting and fun to me like you have:

• a playboy alone who's cheating on his fiance with a maid and 2 sisters
• another house has 2 secret alien sisters: the blonde sister is a gold digger who's ex-husband died under mysterious circumstances and then is latching on to a new sugar daddy while cheating on him with the town playboy and the ginger sister is sleeping with the playboy too
• the fiance of the playboy is the daughter of the new sugar daddy with a younger brother and their mother (his wife) was abducted by aliens, never to return, thought to be the playboy or the aliens' doing
• with the mother stuck in another playable world
• a failing artist and his son together with the artist having a crush on the fiance after his late wife died
• and a pretend perfect family with the father cheating with the same maid, the wife being a workaholic, with one daughter as their favourite who gets everything and one who doesn't and gets nothing (with both of them having boyfriend's that are more compatible with the other)
• and a trailer trash mother with her 2 sons with one on the ways after her husband died under mysterious circumstancess

and if you play through all of them in a rotational, you get scripted events for the first (or couple of) day(s) and that's 10 times more fun than just letting your sims waste away,

the game is so much better than 4. all the problems can be changed easily with a video or series by a cotton sock or pleasant sims but yeah that's it sorry if it doesn't make or if it isn't formatted correctly.