Can Paralives Win Over a Long-Time Simmer?

Paralives is a recently released life simulator game. It was released in early access on May 25, 2026, and has now sold 1.1 million copies. According to Steam data, the game sold over 900K copies in its first 15 days.  Additionally, the game has daily peaks of players up to 3,200. Currently, the game is $39.99 on Steam. I purchased it to test it out, and these are my 100% honest thoughts on the game.

How Does it Compare to Sims?

Many Simmers and gamers already have Paralives or have considered getting it, as it is a life simulator. For the most part, the community seems to enjoy this game, but many feel it does not replace The Sims.  However, according to many, Paralives is already introducing features that took years for Sims 4 Players to receive. For example, curved walls are available in Paralives from the release and were not available to Sims until around the time that High School Years Expansion dropped. Additionally, Paralives will soon add infants to the game.

Creation of Parafolks

One of the most important aspects of my gameplay is character creation. If I do not have enough options in this area, I will not be able to play the game. (Literally stopped playing Phasmophobia due to limited character creation.) For me, this is what makes or breaks a game, as this is where I have the most fun.  Paralives has what I believe is the expectation for modern-day gaming character creation for a life simulation or character-centered game.

In Paralives, you can make so many adjustments and create very different parafolk. There are so many options it could be a bit overwhelming for players, and there is most definitely a learning curve to this game. However, there are a lot of preset characters and families that you can choose from if you do not want to deep dive into character customization and creation.

Building in Paralives

There are definitely some wishlist items and concepts from Paralives I wish The Sims 4 had, like the ability to adjust the functional size of the furniture and rugs.  Sure, you can do all this in debug, but if you make something tiny in The Sims 4, the Sims will interact with it all the same.

I never went off-grid, but once I figured out how to navigate the building system’s UI in Paralives, I took off. Easily stretching counters across the kitchen and creating from scratch a nice city townhome that I locked on the grid somehow. Roofs were much easier to build, and it was very relaxing.

Gameplay

And here is where I lost interest… the gameplay and the ‘quests.’ I get that tasks and guiding gameplay are important for a game, even if it is a learning experience, but after spending 3 and a half hours creating characters and building a town home, 20 minutes of gameplay had me turning the game off. The repetitive nature of “get x amount of these,” “community center collection,” and just overall mundane tasks had me thinking this was a Sims + Coral Island + Stardew situation I was just not interested in.

I tried just free-playing and found the interactions less interesting than I hoped. On a positive note, Romantic and social interactions actually take work, which, in my book, is definitely a plus. However, the chance of meeting someone every time I tried to flirt was a bit much, putting me off even more. I explored the world a little bit, and then my Parafolk were broke and needed to work, so I turned off the game. LOL

Final Thoughts

I have been trying to figure out exactly what is off-putting about Paralives, and I have narrowed it down to the overall animation style. It just is not my thing. I really do love the character creation and the building, but the graphics are just too cartoony for the parafolk for me in a life simulator. The Gameplay also seems to me, even tho it is an ‘open world ‘, to be on train tracks, with the rebuilding of the community area.

I honestly want to enjoy this game. It makes sense to me, and the character customization is everything I hoped for. As well as that, the building is much simpler and more enjoyable than many other games. However, I am not sold yet, possibly because I am a die-hard Simmer who has been committed for so many years and is financially invested in all the DLC.

I think that, for these reasons and because I understand The Sims very well, I can’t make the jump to quit The Sims for Paralives, as many others have threatened to. I see The Sims 4 and Parallels as two totally separate games and will not be leaving The Sims anytime soon.