After many disappointments, The Sims 4 fans desperate for cozy competitors find hope in indie gem Paralives as new gameplay showcases height sliders and more: "My jaw dropped"
Paralives – the promising, colorful indie competitor to The Sims 4 first unveiled in 2019 – is on life sim fans' minds thanks to a plethora of new gameplay videos ahead of its release.
Just in case you're out of the loop, Paralives is set to launch in a few days on May 25, and in preparation for the big day, content creators have been uploading new gameplay footage – footage that has impressed many of us life sim stans.
It's no secret that many folks have felt as though EA is letting us down with The Sims 4, after all, and there's not a plethora of other games to look to. In fact, most of them have met some sort of ill fate.
Sure, inZOI is still receiving updates and all, but it's arguably far emptier than The Sims 4 is still, and other promising projects like Life By You have straight up just… been canceled. So, yeah, it's brutal out here – but Paralives may turn things around for the cozy community.
One of the first elements that has excited fans, for example, is the game's opening. It's not your run-of-the-mill Create-A-Sim knockoff, but rather a more immersive start.
paralives starting out in a train with you being able to select or create a household and npcs to customize your gameplay experience is so cool?? pic.twitter.com/tnWBtzOKhHMay 19, 2026
In Paralives, as one fan notes in an online post, you begin on a train and are "able to select or create a household and NPCs to customize your gameplay experience" – something that's "so cool." I certainly agree, and lots of prospective players do, too.
"My jaw dropped when I saw it," exclaims SimMattically, a well-known Sims 4 creator. Another person comments, "Ong this is low-key giving Animal Crossing vibes with the train start; I can't wait."
The train is an adorable throwback to openings like that of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but it's not the only reveal from all the new gameplay clips that has fans thrilled.
As YouTuber OnlyAbiDoang shares in a thread, there are height sliders – yes, really. No longer will you need to sift through various lists of the best Sims 4 mods to find a way to make your Sims tall or small, as Paralives has that built in as an actual feature.
In Paralives, you can set Parafolks with different heights, with 1.96m (6'4") being the tallest and 1.49m (4'10") being the shortest for adult. Here's what it looks like when the shortest adult kisses with the tallest 🤯 pic.twitter.com/yomAyoisxaMay 21, 2026
"Short and tall kings and queens, your time to shine starts here," reads the top comment – and it so is. Another fan chimes in, "Not even most recent AAA games bother adding a height slider anymore when they have character creators… If an indie game can manage to do it well, what excuse do the rest of games have not to?"
I suppose they've got a point, as a big Sims 4 player who has yearned for proper height sliders for years now.
There's more, as well. The build mode has us Simmers in a chokehold, too. Over on Reddit, somebody admits, "videos of the Paramaker and build mode have completely convinced me on the potential of this game."
Honestly, mood – I mean, just have a look on YouTube at the building… "Being able to flip the toilet paper orientation is ridiculous attention to detail, and I love it," as a fan puts it in the replies. Need I say more?
I suppose we'll find out how Paralives truly runs once it releases to the public in a few days – I know I'll be holding my breath waiting until then, anyway.
Searching for more new games to wishlist? Here are the best games like The Sims 4 out there right now to explore.
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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.
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