Sims 4 Star Wars: Journey to Batuu breaks out the lightsabers

The Sims 4 is headed to a galaxy far, far away in its latest game pack Star Wars: Journey to Batuu, launching Sept. 8 for PC, Mac, PS4 and Xbox One. The new game pack sends your Sim, a newcomer to Batuu — the planet where the Galaxy’s Edge Disney theme park is set — on an adventure in which your choices will determine the fate of the Black Spire Outpost. 

Align yourself with one of three neighborhoods — the Resistance, the First Order or the scoundrels — and complete missions to earn the trust of other Sims. Missions earn you Galactic credits, which are the currency on Batuu, instead of the game’s usual simoleons. The missions aspect reminded me of the Sims’ Strangerville challenge, but it adds far more challenging complexities.

Keep track of your reputations, your rankings and every item you’ve unlocked under the Simology panel. You can also defect to another neighborhood, but it’ll impact your reputation. The more you commit to a cause — be it the light or the dark side — the more you’ll see the effects play out on Batuu. 

Read more: The Sims 4: Try these 7 challenges to shake up your gameplay

Because it’s Star Wars, you’ll be able to explore the new Sim worlds with your own lightsaber and customized droid sidekick. Along the way, you’ll be able to interact with characters like Kylo Ren, Rey, Hondo and Vi Moradi. Your Sim can also visit iconic Star Wars locations like the cantina, the droid depot and the Millennium Falcon. 

Journey to Batuu adds a new Star Wars aspiration, which you can choose for your Sim in Create-A-Sim, that splits into two goals to incentivize different ways to play. Since Batuu is a vacation world, you can travel there with your Sim’s phone, the same way you would travel to other locations like Granite Falls. 

The Sims included Star Wars content prior to the Journey to Batuu pack. Fans might’ve noticed Luke’s fighter pilot suit, Leia’s white dress and Darth Vader’s black-cloaked get-up appearing as clothing options in past versions of The Sims. Baby Yoda from the Disney Plus series The Mandalorian also found his way into The Sims 4 last year after a game update: A statue of The Child could be found in the build/buy catalog for a price of 504 simoleons. 

Read more: Sims 4 cheats: Full updated list of codes, from rosebud to motherlode

But the new Star Wars game pack is something that we haven’t seen before in The Sims. It might seem like a big reach after the July release of Nifty Knitting, the stuff pack voted on by The Sims community. As a longtime Sims player, it feels a bit risky to base a pack around such an iconic franchise, with such well-known characters and stories. Despite the massive popularity of the Star Wars films and content that branched off like The Clone Wars, Solo and Rogue One, the movies stir up controversy almost as much as fandom.

I was glad to see that even if you’re not a seasoned Star Wars fan, you can still immerse yourself in the game and enjoy the huge, gorgeous world it creates without feeling like you’re missing something. As your Sim explores, they can chat with people to trigger your adventure and get a better understanding of the environment. 

In addition, your Sim’s stuff from Batuu like their droid, lightsaber and all the intergalactic recipes can come with them when they return to suburban normalcy.

Read more: 20 years ago, The Sims gave millennials a dream life reality couldn’t match

In the uncertain time of the coronavirus, games like The Sims and Animal Crossing (and movies like Star Wars) have been a comfort blanket for many. The Sims game developers’ decision to create games where players can escape to another planet, affect positive change, or effortlessly live off of knitting, can be an emotional and mental safe haven when the real world feels like chaos. 

If you’re craving even more Sims in your life, the life simulation game has become a reality game show called Spark’d, which you can find on Buzzfeed Multiplayer’s YouTube channel.

For more gaming, check out Apple Arcade vs. Google Play Pass: Which $5 game streaming service wins? and the 7 best game subscription services.