The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits review: Is it worth it?

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The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits Expansion focuses on experiences beyond the usual home life, taking your Sims outside to explore the brand new world of Gibbi Point. It really emphasizes life away from home, sending Sims outdoors into the new world of Gibbi Point.

Okay, so this DLC kinda reminds me of the Outdoor Retreat pack from 2015, but honestly, it brings a huge amount of awesome new stuff. There are a couple of things that didn’t *quite* hit the mark, but overall, it’s totally worth checking out – it’s like getting a kayak-load of fun!

The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits screenshots

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What is Adventure Awaits about?

Adventure Awaits is the 20th Expansion Pack for The Sims 4, and it heavily features Child Sims. You can look forward to Modular Playgrounds, Imaginary Friends, and a brand-new Formative Moments system – these are new challenges that give children reward traits which stay with them for the rest of their lives. Expect lots of new ways to play!

If you felt the Businesses & Hobbies pack didn’t offer enough hobbies, you’ll be pleased with this update. It includes activities like archery, catching and raising butterflies, papercraft, and classic gaming systems. Plus, there are new fitness options such as diving, weightlifting, and spin biking, making this a much more complete and detailed pack.

Getaway to the Outdoot Retreat

When I first heard about Adventure Awaits, I was hoping for something like The Sims 3’s World Adventures or Island Paradise DLCs – you know, tons of new vacation spots, cool things like becoming a Mummy, houseboats, or even building hotels. But what Adventure Awaits actually delivers feels more like a really big update to the Outdoor Retreat pack, if I’m being honest.

Gibbi Point, drawing inspiration from New Zealand, is truly breathtaking. You’ll find all the classic fishing locations, interesting landmarks, and distinctive characters to chat with – offering quests and revealing the world’s history. There’s also a massive geyser, and you can now explore the open water using the new kayak. It’s a very captivating place to discover, easily making it one of the most impressive worlds since Ravenwood from Life & Death.

Three new locations of the Custom Venues type have been added to Gibbi Point: Love Highland, where Sims compete in romantic challenges during the Getaway; Camp Gibbi Gibbi, designed as a summer camp experience; and Revive & Thrive, focused on Sims improving their fitness. Both Revive & Thrive and Camp Gibbi Gibbi include two of the game’s newest Build/Buy items: blenders and diving boards. What a great addition!

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Initially, I was a little let down that this collection didn’t include traditional hotels. However, the Getaways feature is so well-developed and comprehensive that it offers plenty of options to design a personalized experience, such as a staycation or a bed and breakfast.

Rather than operating like a traditional resort, Getaways is more akin to a scheduled trip away from home.

When you create one, you have complete freedom to decide what your Sims do, choosing from a range of pre-built roles and activities for them to enjoy together – like swimming in the ocean, improving their Archery or Diving skills (I’m still amazed it took over a decade to get diving boards and water slides!), or simply going through their daily routines and playing Rock, Paper, Scissors according to a set schedule. This system works incredibly well, and it’s easy to relax and just observe what unfolds.

A Toy’s Story

Imaginary Friends and Formative Moments are definitely highlights, significantly enriching the Simology system. The first feature lets Child Sims play with one of four new dolls, and through continued interaction, these dolls can evolve into an Imaginary Friend – and potentially even a real Sim later on.

This really brings the game to life, and it’s amusing to watch your Sim seemingly interact with nothing when you switch to controlling a different family member. It complements the new ‘Play Pretend’ feature nicely, where visual cues appear around a Sim to show what they’re imagining. It’s these little details and unique moments that truly define The Sims – they create memorable interactions while still allowing you to shape your own stories. It’s a fantastic addition, and we highly recommend checking it out.

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Experiences like Be a Survivalist and Childhood-specific Sentiments like Fictitious Friend give your Sim even more unique personality and depth in their relationships. These work much like existing in-game features; for example, Be a Survivalist can boost skills or help your Sim make friends faster as they overcome challenges. We always welcome more options for developing a Sim’s identity.

Last-minute letdowns

The pack isn’t perfect, though, with some small oversights really holding it back from greatness.

It’s strange that Sims just vanish and then reappear when they get in and out of their kayak. Also, the new butterfly and moth terrarium – used to showcase your catches – is much too large. A smaller version would have been a better addition, since the current size really only suits an outdoor lot.

The Create-A-Sim and Build/Buy modes feel a bit underwhelming, and it was a missed opportunity that the new Park Worker career isn’t an Active career – there’s even a Park Ranger tower in the game world that would have been ideal for an Active career track.

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In my recent reviews of the Enchanted by Nature and Businesses & Hobbies Sims packs, I’ve noticed they share a lot with, or feel like extensions of, packs that are already available. Unfortunately, Adventure Awaits follows this same pattern.

It’s understandable that a game this long-running might revisit familiar territory, but it would be fantastic to see completely fresh content in TS4 – something with a new theme so we aren’t retreading ground already covered. I’m particularly hoping we don’t see a repeat of themes like Life & Death.

That being said, the content that is here is just too good to be mad about.

Verdict

The Adventure Awaits pack isn’t only for Sims who love the outdoors; it also adds more depth to the Child life stage, introducing features that will stay with your Sims as they grow up.

With its typical charming style – featuring distinctive Imaginary Friends and plenty of new skills and hobbies – Adventure Awaits delivers the kind of rich content and creativity you’d expect from a great DLC. If future Packs are as good as this one and Life & Death, The Sims 4 still has a very promising future, even 10 years after it first came out.

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2025-09-30 20:21