The Sims 4 Werewolves review: One of the best packs in years

Occults in The Sims 4 have been a little bit of a mixed bag over the game's lifespan, with aliens and mermaids a little lacking but spellcasters and especially vampires being a lot of fun to play with.

Werewolves are the latest occult to be added as part of the latest Game Pack, and we'll cut to the chase: they've been done justice, and arguably rival vampires as the best in the game. There are plenty of satisfying parts to The Sims 4 Werewolves, but more than that, they work together to open up a surprising amount of storytelling possibilities.

For starters, the Create-a-Sim for werewolves is impressive, with a good variety of options to customise the appearance of a Sim's wolf form, from their coat colour and pattern to individual facial features like their nose and teeth. You can even draw on the coat using a range of colours, paintbrushes, stamps, and stencils to make them look even more distinctive.

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More importantly, the pack does a great job at making individual werewolves stand out from a gameplay perspective. The most obvious feature in this regard are the abilities – which can be unlocked by either spending accumulated ability points or completing certain objectives.

The earlier abilities in the tree are fairly tame and mostly give you more convenient ways to meet your basic Sim needs, like being able to sleep anywhere on the ground and hunt for food in the wild. But the more advanced abilities open up some interesting potential directions for your werewolf to go in. If your Sim wants to become the strongest and fastest werewolf, they can do that. If they're more interested in turning non-werewolf Sims into 'werewolf allies' through diplomacy, that's possible as well.

Temperaments are another thing that distinguishes one werewolf from the next. These are essentially traits, giving more personality to your Sim depending on their actions. One may have sensitive hearing and feel like an outcast. Another may feel remorse for their actions.

A werewolf can transform at will, with the right ability unlocked, but each werewolf Sim also has a Fury meter, and when that fills up, they go through an uncontrolled transformation, where they struggle to control themselves in beast form and go on a rampage – wreaking havoc and scaring everyone around them.

The full moon being out will obviously raise this meter (lunar cycles are now in the base game, with various moon phases affecting all Sims in subtle ways). But Fury can also be increased through regular interactions and emotions, depending on a Sim's specific abilities, temperaments, and preferences. It's another way in which the various systems combine to make two differently-built werewolves feel and play differently.

Despite its small size at first glance, the world of Moonwood Mill is impressive, with distinct personality and feeling lived-in. Specifically crafted characters and lore fill the town, begging to be explored. Among the highlights of this world are a hostile and reclusive werewolf named Greg and two rival werewolf packs – with conflicting goals – that your Sim can join and climb the ranks.

This is an impressive package that fits well within the sandbox nature of the overall game, offering an experience that enhances ways for Simmers to tell their own stories. It's a greater success than the recent My Wedding Stories, which may have had a similar intent of wanting to expand storytelling options (specifically for romance on that occasion) but left some fans feeling hindered by the high levels of micromanagement.

Werewolves excels because, in addition to allowing players to personalise how they play, a lot of things play out organically – from interactions and discoveries to the challenges that come with managing Fury and the downsides of being a werewolf.

Whether it's the best occult or not is another matter. As a package, Werewolves is a shade above Vampires by 2022 standards – with supporting content like the world and accompanying lore fleshing out the occult beyond the core gameplay. But we'd also argue that a vampire Sim, by itself, has more engaging interactions with other Sims and weaknesses that have greater impact on everyday moments.