The Sims 4: Enchanted By Nature Expansion Pack is the latest fantastical gift for Maxis and Electronic Arts (EA) The Sims 4. It’s a magical expansion that conjures all manner of mystical creatures, fantastic additional items, cosmetics, and a new world in Innisgreen. 

Innisgreen is a gorgeous place for a sim to lay down roots. From the picturesque seaside village of Adhmor, the coast boasts bright-coloured seaside homes and an eclectic GNOM exhibit packed with lore, featuring a large, Gnomelike deity to worship in the town centre. Sprucederry Grove is a more laid-back area for green thumbs to plant their feet, with greenery galore and a lovely Wading Pond, and the ultimate Garden Pal to visit, Spruce Almighty, perfect for any nature enthusiasts looking to discover Innisgreen’s natural beauty.

By far, my favourite area is Everdew: a lush, mystical neighbourhood, home to the Fairy Council. The Everdew gardens are a glorious glade to wander around, with pristine waters, massive mushrooms, and stunning flora to enchant. The entirety of Innisgreen is vast, comprising 14 lots: 6 residential lots, two vacant residential lots, and six community lots. All in all, the world is pure magic and a joy to explore.

The Sims 4: Enchanted By Nature Expansion Pack adds a wealth of new items. Create-A-Sim potential receives a massive boost with 181 new Create-A-Sim items and 163 fresh Build/Buy objects. All up, a cornucopia of 344 new items. Before delving deeper into the world of Innisgreen, I needed to bring some life into my gameplay by making some Sims. 

I headed over to Create-A-Sim to make my new plant family. There’s a plethora of new items, ranging from casual, cosy wear to nature enthusiast wear and fantasy wear. Most items can blend in well with other expansion packs; however, I found quite a few hit-and-miss items in the bunch. There are limited flattering shirts, pants, and skirts, where most, while free and flowy, are quite unflattering. It’s hard to pair items together to create a complete outfit. I found the most success blending in content from other packs. 

Where the new Create-A-Sim thrives is in creating a fairy form. From satyr “shoes”, horns, fangs, and magical garb, there’s a glorious selection to make all my dreams come true: fantasy skin tones, nature-inspired hairstyles, fantasy-esque make-up, and tattoos. The real standout is the fairy wings, with 12 fully customisable styles for colour, effects like glow and sparkle, and they may change depending on your fae’s traits, mood, or experiences. Fairy form is where a Sim’s true colours are on full display. 

My first family settled in Everdew, in a stunning cottage nestled within a giant tree. Building a home feels a lot more “organic”, with the new Sloped Roof tool, natural roof textures like bark or moss-covered thatching, modular treehouse elements, and more. I usually lose interest in making square/rectangular homes, so it was interesting to have curved walls and roofs. While they looked great, they did limit some object placement options when furnishing the space.

Using the 163 build/buy items to make a home has been much more engaging than I’ve found less inspired pack themes. There’s your standard wood/timber furniture, but the vast selection of cottagecore decor met all my needs. All the items worked efficiently together. I was able to comfortably decorate the entire home with this pack alone; the only exception was bringing in functional items like appliances, which weren’t included in the pack. It makes sense given the pack theme, but the existing appliances I had don’t match the earthy aesthetic. To alleviate this, the Cooler and Foraging basket could be used, as well as the Fireplace and Cauldron, but my Sims looked like they were hankering for a fridge snack.

It is possible to live off the land and engage with digital entertainment by exploring Story Circle Rugs, building skills using Apothecary stations and books, and, most importantly, shrinking into fairy form to hold house parties in fairy hideaways (a small, inconspicuous stump) and playing amongst furniture items in shrunken form. Better yet, garden Gnomes can be enchanted to help with chores, as long as you stay on their good side. 

The fairytale furnishings feature numerous colour-ways in swatches, some of my favourites being the floral-covered archways, vines, and the House of the Forest rug, which can be customised to feature different fantasy creatures. The Midsummer Night’s Swing is another standout for a fairy garden. The only real issue is that it may be hard to integrate with base game furniture and most of the additional Sim packs, since their themes are so different. While I can see myself comfortably spending plenty of time developing the realm of Innisfree, the pack content might have limited use when opting for a more modern Sim life. 

The Sims 4: Enchanted by Nature changes the way Sims live their lives. Being a Fairy Occult brings a skill tree with different abilities in manipulation, emotion, and nature, as well as different needs and spells they can cast, such as applying ailments, enchanting items, and absorbing emotions. I enjoyed watching Sims interact with each other more than usual because my fairyfolk were much more cheeky than usual. There was also a lot more chaos.

On one occasion, I sent out a Sim to fly around the neighbourhood, only to return to an unhappy family member who seemed to have contracted an ailment, and the other two Sims who stayed home were not on speaking terms. It adds an interesting level of immersion to the gameplay, requiring players to keep a close eye on them, but it can be challenging to manage. It can be a heap of fun to manipulate moods and alter relationships. It’s mischievous fun that I wasn’t expecting.

Collecting fairy dust and replenishing it through absorbing emotions will bring out the real life in each Sim. For any issues, the Pack Settings can be adjusted to reduce the frequency of ailments by toggling Balance and Imbalance, as well as removing Good Luck and Bad Luck, which is a significant part of the gameplay hook. Therefore, there are both advantages and disadvantages to switching these off.

There are new aspirations in Fairy Stories, Elixir Enthusiast, and Nature Nomad, as well as new traits: Plant Lover, Mystical, and Disruptive. The skill Naturecraft enables Sims to grow into a Naturopath career, crafting tonics and herbal remedies, which integrates nicely to counter magical ailments as a healer, complementing the heavy-hitting Apothecary skill. Ailments might be the big issue I have with Enchanted by Nature, since it’s tough to prevent Sims from being impacted, and it carries over into the entire game, regardless of whether you have fairy Sims.

Community roles altered the dynamic with other Sims in a way that enhanced my gameplay experience. I mostly got away without focusing too much on the “career” aspect of the Sim, instead aligning skills as a Caretaker, a Trickster, or a Warden. The interactions can get quite repetitive, so sometimes chaos, which throws my Sims off balance, adds a bit more spice.

Quest rewards are also super satisfying, including some additional furnishings, nature soundscapes, and the Starseed Teleporter, which transports Sims to another realm.  The gameplay and environmental storytelling weave together into an entire package, which will be a great addition to any Simmer’s Expansion Pack library. 

I was charmed by The Sims 4: Enchanted by Nature Expansion Pack; it’s a wonderful experience that existing and budding Sims alike can enjoy. While the supernatural has been featured in expansions before, it has never been quite as super to be natural.

Written by: Yasmin Noble