Paralives heats up the race to be the next Sims with early access release in 2025, confirms no paid DLC

rockpapershotgun.com:

After years without a new The Sims game, it seems like three are likely to land in fairly close proximity - sort of, anyway. We know that Paradox’s ambitious competitor Life By You will arrive this June (assuming no more delays), while EA’s own free-to-play evolution of the OG life-sim series - currently codenamed Project Rene rather than The Sims 5 - is probably still a while off yet. Dropping somewhere in the middle will be Paralives, the promising Patreon-funded up-and-comer led by indie dev Alex Massé, which has been given a fresh look and confirmation of a release date sometime next year.

Paralives has been in the works for a good while now, funded via Massé’s Patreon which has revealed looks at its robust character creator and ability to torture your Paras - the game’s equivalent of Sims - to death by shutting them in a doorless room. A true Sims successor, then.

Paralives’ latest gameplay preview offers a look at its job system, which will let you simulate the crushing reality of working every day to pay the bills. Woohoo! In a delightful flight of fancy, though, your Para can gradually earn application points that let you apply to more prestigious jobs, earning more money and advancing your career. If only real life was so easy!

Within each job, you’ll also be able to accumulate upgrade points that let you increase that job’s rank, bumping your salary and enabling other benefits, such as advancing your music skill by listening to music at work. Those traits will then combine with the classic Sims-like skills system, where your characters will get better at things by doing them.

Interacting with other characters will unsurprisingly be a major part of the game, with the preview showcasing Paralives’ group interactions. The player can click-select a group of Paras to form a group interaction, allowing them to both talk and do other activities, such as getting down for an impromptu group push-up session.

Conversations are driven by the game’s ‘Together Cards’,