Lesbian discovers weird side of internet

Building takes a minute to get used to if you've been a Sims player, but holy shit, you really can build a house that looks like a real, lived-in house. You can stack clutter on top of the microwave and put your shampoos on the floor in the shower. You can place a single bed and stretch it out to make a double bed. You can place a single counter and stretch it to fit between your fridge and stove. You can place a loveseat and stretch it into a full size couch or shrink it into an armchair. You can stretch or shrink carpets to fit the area you put them in. I spent so much time and energy in Sims fitting my house to my furniture but with Paralives you can fit your furniture to your house

Because the game is in early access and not fully developed, the social system can feel a little repetitive, but I like the way it is set up so far. You don't need to queue up a ton of interactions to keep the conversation going, you just watch for a "!" to appear and from there choose the path the conversation takes. And some social interactions are easier or harder depending on your relationship level with the other Para - for example, it shows a percentage that flirting will be successful, and then an animation shows you if it worked or not. Occasionally you receive "Storyteller" cards that increase your relationship levels or add new ones, adding complexity to them. You can make your romantic relationships non-exclusive and build poly relationships (my current household has 1 girl & 2 enby Paras who all romance each other. Currently you can only have 1 marriage and only 2 Paras in a bed but devs have said theyd allow mods that include these functions or maybe adding it in future updates themselves)

The open world is a feature I seriously missed from Sims 3 and I am so glad Paralives has it. No loading screens when you swap households, simply zoom out and select who you want to play with next. Walk from your lot to Downtown without loading screens. Hop on the bus and ride to where you want to go if walking would take too long. Explore beyond your immediate neighborhood seamlessly. While some players have reported lag, I have not had that issue running it on my gaming laptop (happy to share the specs if you are interested)

There are so many great customization options for your Para. It has a system like the Sims where you can create custom gender options (ie you have a female Para who can get others pregnant, you have a non binary Para who uses he/him pronouns, etc). There is currently not an option for neopronouns/custom pronouns other than they/them and not an option for standing vs sitting on the toilet but hopefully it is coming in future updates. The body and facial customization is expansive. Often you can control not only the size but also lift/angle. You can give your Para a high or low waist and change their ribcage shape and even alter their posture. You can make your Para shorter or taller (my favorite Para right now is a very tall enby baddie who wears heels - which legit make your Para look taller unlike the Sims where the legs shorten when you wear heels - and they have to bend down to kiss their very short wife) and you can use a color wheel to customize just about everything. Clothing and tattoo options are limited in early access but will be expanded in future updates. You have the option to tuck or untuck shirts which is a small but really cool way to craft a custom look. You can pick underwear with or without a bulge regardless of any other options you've selected for gender/body shape. Bras you pick will peak out of shirts or dresses if the shape allows. It all leads into the feeling of making real-looking bodies & real-looking outfits

You can adjust how long a minute is in real-time seconds to make your days longer or shorter. The Storyteller feature can be adjusted to make the game easier or harder. Story cards add new goals or quests and even talking to other Paras around town can add new tasks. Occasionally you will receive quests from the daily newspaper. Job listings change daily and you can choose what days and time your Para works for most career options. There is a museum to make donations to and a community center with bundles to complete similar to games like Stardew Valley that encourage collecting. The art style is so charming and makes the game feel like you're inside a cozy comic book.

I have played about 13 hours so far. I encountered bugs, most of which have been minor and fixable with the "unstuck" console command (the worst of which being a menu that got stuck open and caused me to lose the Paras I just created - this has already been fixed in the first patch) and reporting them is super easy with the button on top of the screen. Because the game is in early access and not complete, it is missing some features like being able to use the coffee maker, not being able to put uneaten portions of food into the fridge (you can currently use console command "unspoil" to make all spoiled food on the lot fresh again), no pools or water features in build, etc. However, knowing that the devs are committed to releasing only free content updates and adding in new features without paid DLCs makes me excited for the future of the game. I have probably spent nearly $800 US over the years on packs for the Sims 4 and it is still buggy and missing features that should have been free and included in the base game so I have no problem spending $40 on a game with creators who are committed to continuing to build. Paralives has already made over $10 Million in sales and the devs reportedly said that is more than enough to sustain them for a long time. If you're like me and want to continue to support the dev team, they do have a Patreon as well

Someone posted in a FB group I am in talking about how they are scared nobody will ever love them because they are fat and a lesbian. I said hey listen, I know fatphobia is unfortunately still a huge thing in the queer community, but I am 300+lbs size US 28 FAT-fat and I have a partner that loves all of me and you can find that too

And not one but TWO people commented to say I have "pretty privilege" and nobody is willing to fuck you if you're fat AND ugly so I don't *actually* understand the struggles of being a fat queer bc apparently my profile pic is good enough to make me fuckable

Things I liked:

The nonverbal communication between the twins. This was really cool and the body language/facial expressions that went into it were done well, though reading the on-screen text sometimes meant missing it

The way the father has this duality to him. Truly the scariest monsters are the ones who can convince you they aren't scary one moment and then tell you they'd love to pluck your eyeballs out and feed them to you the next

It was a cool effect that the scars on the sisters and mother literally gave off smoke in crucial moments. They are still burning. That trauma is still very much alive for them and that small detail really brings it into focus how much they still live in that moment

Great visuals

I love media where women get to be violent and messy and emotional. I just wish Racine had gotten a better ending.

Things that I struggled with:

Story development. A lot of things happen very quickly. I enjoyed the story, but parts of it did not feel fully realized.

The amount of victim-blaming was a little shocking and there were no chances at redemption for the other people who were hurt by their father. Trauma fucks people up & makes them act in ways they normally wouldn't. Though the "no mercy" nature in which Racine exacts her revenge may feed into the theme of taking violence farther than it ever needed to go.