The Sims 4's core tools — Create-a-Sim and Build Mode — are genuinely the best the series has ever had. Character creation is detailed and expressive in ways the older games couldn't match, and building a house has never felt more intuitive, with room-based tools that make even ambitious builds manageable.
The problem is everything around those tools. The base game on its own is noticeably thinner than Sims 3 was at launch, and a lot of the systems that made earlier entries feel alive — open worlds, certain career and personality depth — were stripped back and have been sold back piecemeal across a decade of expansion packs. Getting back to something resembling 'Sims 3 levels of content' means buying a meaningful chunk of that catalog, and it adds up fast.
Once you've made that investment, though, you'll be in financial ruin unless you're either rich or a youtuber.