Sims 4 Vampires – CAS Review

Woo, Vampires! I hope you’re excited for the release of the vampire gamepack tomorrow. I received a free copy of the pack from EA for review so I hope I can provide you with some insights on the pack so you can decide whether or not you want to buy it.

This particular review is about the Create-A-Sim part of the pack only (check here for the gameplay review). Although it is notable that for this pack it doesn’t only include clothes but also a range of skin details, new eyes, ears and more. Exciting!

Here’s what I’ll be reviewing in this post so you can jump straight to the section you’re interested in:
1. Skin Tones

2. Teeth

3. Skin Details

4. Eyes

5. Dark Form

6. Male Hair

7. Male Clothes

8. Makeup

9. Female Hair

10. Female Clothes

11. Children

12. Conclusion

Now, let’s get started!

One thing I will have to critcize first of all is that you cannot make a normal sim into a vampire in CAS. You can add a new vampire but the only way to copy the appearance of a normal sim to a vampire is by having them transform ingame. So be very careful when doing a vampire CAS, so you won’t have to start over! Then again, you can’t make a sim into an alien in CAS so I guess this has to be expected.

Skin Tones

This isn’t part of the pack but a free update that was issued a few weeks ago, so these new skin tones are also available in base game! But of course they mostly cater to vampires.

There’s a total of 7 new skin tones. One of them is green which is interesting since I consider green more a witch type of skin tone rather than vampiric. Maybe this is a sign? But that’s just speculation. The other 6 skin tones are what you’d expect, different shades of gray (haha), a gray with a violet sting to it and a dark black tone. All of these work well for vampires and the range is good, so I’m satisfied.

Teeth

I was really excited about the new teeth. Customising your Sims’ teeth is something that came with the free update that also had the skin tones (you can change teeth in base game, too!).

The vampire pack adds 4 new teeth styles, which is honestly more than I expected. I thought you’d get one standard set of vampire fangs, so these other 3 came as a happy surprise. Two of the teeth are more of a aggressive/evil style fangs while the other two are more toned down, which I like. I think these four give you an ok range of teeth to not make all your vampires look the same in terms of fangs. Not sure if I could think of any more ways to model vampire teeth myself. Note, that these particular teeth are only available to vampries and not normal sims.

Skin Details

Now this is where vampires really get their unique looks, the skin details. You can have vampire brows, vampire cheecks, vampire eyes, vampire eye sockets and vampire mouths. If you’re overwhelmed with the combination possibilities there’s even a selection of “styled looks” called Vampire Archetypes that combine the different details for you.

I haven’t screenshotted all of them because there are just so many! This is what makes vampires really stand out from normal sims. It’s especially useful to differentiate between a vampire’s normal form and his dark form – simply add more horrific skin details (more on dark form see below). I especially like the “porcelain cracked” looks but there are also scars or clefts to chose from. Customize your vampires to your hearts content! Big plus point for these here. Note, that these skin details are only available to vampries and not normal sims.

Eyes

The vampire pack also offers a whooping total of 10 new eye colors, most of which are glowing somehow. Some even have different kind of pupils or no iris at all like the alien-like black eyes. I like the selection and all of the colors feels very fitting for a vampire. Again this is a useful tool to make a vampire’s dark form stand out. Note, that these eye colors are only available to vampries and not normal sims.

Ears

I almost didn’t see these, because body details don’t have this yellow “new” tag like other CAS stuff has, but there are new ears! 6 new ear types in fact all of which feature pointy ends. Very cool! Sadly, these aren’t available to non-vampire sims, which makes me sadder than the other vampire details being vamp-exclusive. So don’t say goodbye to your elf/fairy custom content ears just yet.

Dark Form

Vampires can have a so-called dark form which they change into in certain situations, such as being very thirsty for plasma or biting another sim. You can modify the dark form in CAS (and even copy your sim’s looks to his/her dark form if you’re adding it later).

  

The dark form CAS has this dark mist in the background to differentiate it from normal CAS which looks kinda cool.

Now a vampire’s dark form can be completely different from his/her normal form, you can change eye color, ears, skin details, hair, clothers… you get the idea. Not only can you make hungry vampires look really scary, you can also make a vampire that looks like a normal sim…

… but then has a super crazy scary dark form. Awesome!

I like the dark form feature a lot since it allows for great story-telling opportunities with your sims and also makes high thirst a much more prominent issue that you can immediately see.

Male Hair

Starting off now with the more typical CAS stuff, hair and clothes. Now male hair fell a little short in this pack, as there is only 1 new hairstyle for men. It’s cool but I feel like there are a few missed opportunities here to go all out on more crazy vampire hairs. Also no new facial hairs, boo. But I guess that wouldn’t have made much sense for vampires anyway.

Male Clothes

Now we’re looking at male clothes. While there aren’t a lot of items here, I mostly like the ones we get.

First off, there’s 1 new hat, a tophat. Looks like something that could also work with vintage glamour stuff. Sadly, at least the new vampire hair seems to have it’s issues with it. Other hairs I have tested seem fine.

There are no styled looks for males so next up are the 3 new tops. I mostly liked these though the first one looks more like a chef’s attire…

… and even the various color options couldn’t change that for me. But hey, this probably works well with dine out. Make a vampire restaurant!

The other two tops have more of a vampire-feel to them and while they are very different I like them both. This one is vintage vest…

…that comes in dark colors as well as light ones, which is always nice if you want to use these clothes for non-vampire sims.

The other one is a leather jacket that gives me the “cool, shady vampire” vibe. I like this one a lot since works great both on vampires and normal sims. Again you get some diverse color options ranging from black to pink.

This pack gives you 2 new pants for males, though they are very similar. The only difference is that one has a pattern and the other one hasn’t. Both look great in my opinion and again come in lots of fancy colors.

There is 1 new pair of shoes which fits the theme of most of the clothes in this pack – vintage but classy.

The best new things for males are in my opinion the full body outfits. In my opinion we didn’t have a lot of viable options for male full body outfits so far, but for vampires, you’ll have 5 full body outfits to chose from and I love all of them!

The sims team really made an effort here to cater to everyone’s color taste. Some of your vampires can be a bit more… unusual if you want to.

Of course there are always the traditional dark color options for these outfits involving a lot of black, red, blue and purple. You can probably use some of these on normal sims, but the goal is definitely dressing vampries (which is okay given that it’s a vampire pack).

This last outfit is very similar to the first one, again the only difference is the pattern on the sleeves. If I were picky, I’d say this artificially increases the number of items but eh, not everyone likes giraffe print, so I guess that’s fair.

Makeup

Now we’re getting into the female vampires. They also have their own archetypes and when you look at those you’ll notice some fancy new makeup.

There are 3 new makeup items, two dramatic eyeshadows and one lipstick. While might not seem like a lot, I found that the alien makeup from Get to work and the makeup from luxury party stuff works really well with my female vamps.

Female Hair

The panel shows 5 new hairstyles for females, but I’m gonna call that 4 new hairstyles because one is the male one. 3 of these hairs you’ll probably never use on normal sims, but they look great for my new vampire countesses! They’re unique and classy which I like a lot.

As per usual the flowers and accessoires will change color depending on the chose haircolor – but the combination is set and not customisable.

The last hair is one I’d also use on normal sims. And while we already have a straight-with-bangs hairstyle in the game, this one is a little more relaxed and wavy, so definitely a nice addition.

Female Clothes

On to female clothes. As a first I think in any pack ever there aren’t more female than male items. Crazy, right?

But as opposed to males, females get 1 styled look which I quite like.

There are also 1 new earring and 2 new necklaces which look absolutely stunning and fit in well with the rest of the clothes.

Females get 4 new tops which I all love! I’d use any of these in a heartbeat. As with the male stuff, there are quite a lot of color options both dark and light. I can see myself using at least two of these on normal sims too.

This top (that we already saw in the styled look) is probably my favorite for vampires since it looks very unique and sleek while still being classy.

This is next one I particularly like because it looks great on vampires and on normal sims.

Next up are 3 full body outfits (less than for males, omg). I like all of these and I can see myself using them quite a lot on my vampires. I do wish though there were more classy dresses, things might get repetitive for my vampire countesses.

We get 2 new female bottoms. I know the screenshot shows four, but again two of them are the male pants so they don’t really count.

These pants I love because they go great with the tights in this pack (which you can see a bit further down).

The skirt is slightly awkard in my opinion but I’ve never been a big fan of 3/4-long skirts. Maybe you like it.

There’s 1 new bracelet (two technically but it’s the same just for each arm), 1 new pair of gloves and 5 pairs of tights. Now I reall like all of these accessoires, espeically the gloves! And the tights have different and unique patterns with fun colors. Great additions!

There are 2 new pairs of shoes for females, both are boots. I do like both and they go really well with the outfits in this pack as well as many of the clothes from other packs.

Speaking of other packs, I’ve found it notable that this pack works great with a few clothes I have never used before, such as this skirt from Get Together.

So while there aren’t a lot of new items, the combination possibilites are definitely there which is surprising given the unique theme of the pack but it’s a nice surprise.

Toddlers & Children

Toddlers and Children are not getting a lot in this pack, in fact toddlers get 0 new toddler items. The only good thing is, that toddlers can still be vampires and use the skin tones and eyes.

Children get a total of 4 new child items, two hairs and two full body outfits. Again, children can also use the new skin tones and the vampire eyes.

I like both hairstyles, especially the one for girls with the buns. I just wish there were more clothes…

This dress for girls is probably a bit over the top in most situations but let me tell you it looks great if your sims live in a haunted mansion.

The boys outfit I like but it doesn’t particularly excite me. I’ll see if I will use this.

Conclusion

I don’t have any hard numbers so correct me if I’m wrong but I feel like this pack is on the lower end concerning the number of new items. Still, I like all the items we do get and they really have a thought-out theme and obvious vampiric vibe to them. While you’re not going to get much out of this pack if you want to buy it purely for CAS, it definitely provides some nice looks for vampires and even historical-styled normal sims.

However, a big plus for the CAS side of this pack are the skin details for vampires – amazing variety! The dark form option also really adds to the experience. And if you combine the clothes with stuff from other packs you’ll get some more great outfits.

So while there are a few minor let downs such as the lack of male hairs, all in all this pack is going to get an A- for CAS from me.

Hope this review was helpful! Let me know what you think of the pack in the comments below.