when I was growing up, the genre-defining dollhouse sim Sims was the ultimate escape. I built my dream home, grew the neighborhoods of strange and wonderful friends, and lived a fantasy adult life.

So when EA drops surprise Sims 1 and 2 Last weekend, all expansions are included to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series (my 9 year old self dream) I was naturally forced to return to my happy place. Beginners, rooms, goths, and sometimes, I removed the pool ladders while swimming a bit, and only had the pauses I needed for my mommy roast dinner.

I’ve introduced familiar music, tragic pool accidents, and my own personal nostalgia of French maids, but there’s something lurking beneath the game’s quirky and hilarious look. Surprisingly, this game now feels more like a struggle simulator than a chance to live your dream life. (I forgot how much time the Sims spent playing chess.) Like the town of Picket Fence in Lynch, I realized that there was darkness lurking under the sheen of the suburbs.

The original Sims Game was more dystopian than the cheerful and brightly colored Sims 4 of today. Contrast is not just about aesthetics. Twenty years ago, Sims had no dreams or ambitions. Your virtual family has worked long hours for a pricey life, some of the most poignant music in the history of death and gaming.

Forget your personality, desires and preferences. Sims 1 is a capitalist nightmare where survival outweighs self-realization.

I forgot the time my original Sim actually spent on work. They are doing boring and boring work from your vision. Create a simple message you get when they are oddly shocked (or handed over). It’ll probably be fired and kill you, heading towards the cheapest oven that’s offered that small wage packet. This is a game that punishes you for being poor. It means that, like the iconic Goth family of rich people, the poor remain in their stay in stone mansions, still surrounded by charming cemeteries while the poor are poor. I have learned that social mobility in Sims 1 is nearly impossible.

And do you live in a social life? Forget that at least when you’re at the bottom of your random career ladder. There’s no time to make friends. I didn’t remember from my time as a tween who was obsessed with Sims. I now find that the nasty EastEnders-level entanglements in my neighborhood are mostly scripted in my head. Instead, you should remove the ++ and –relationship scores until you’ve finally “played in bed” anti-climic. -olds. There’s nothing dark about that heart-shaped bed of extension. I still want that in real life.

Even these moments with the most meaningful love in my Sims life seemed to offer them nothing. They were transactions and no use was helpful other than unlocking new interactions. They are playing for my enjoyment, not for theirs.

Friendships are also very traded here. To improve your rank at work, you need a certain number. Keeping yourself alone will make you poor and you will likely die of having a cheap, spontaneously burning microwave. This is particularly sad for Sims, who live alone. I’m exhausted from work. If you don’t have time to call friends over the phone for hours, or if they refuse to come, your relationship will quickly break

alleys. Like the award-winning No Deeve episode of Black Mirror, when you lose social credibility, the spiral will soon go downhill for your Sim.

And it’s not as fast as music that announces the stomachs of millennials of a sudden, terrifying robbery. It’s still terrifying 25 years from now, so I hope there was a foresight to spend a small savings on theft alarm. That’s before we enter from a visit from the harsh Grim Reaper and even from a creepy prank call. These unexpected callers scared me just as they did back then.

Perhaps my new, dark perspective on the game comes from the world we live in now. I’m finally living a fantasy adult life – I’ve been on the brink of less relaxation in my gothic apartment dream home, more overwork, lower wages, and spiral breakdowns I didn’t realize that it was. In a time of economic insecurity and burnout in 2025, Sims’ crushing feels brutal.

For all existential horrors, Sims 1 is still an escape. Certainly, it presents a kind of capitalist nightmare. But it’s a capitalism nightmare you can control. No matter how hard your daily slogans work, you can always enter your cheat code and click to wipe out any financial stress. This is the ultimate fantasy. It’s also strangely accurate. Just like in real life, external benefits (and systemic misconduct) are more likely to lead to success than shattering rules and following them.

Yes, Sims 1 was and remains a dystopian suburban treadmill, but there is also room for humor. Confusion is interesting, failure is temporary, and the worst tragedy can be reversed by clicking the mouse.