How Playing a Corrupt Monarch Made The Sims 4 Shockingly Fun

I wasn't expecting to enjoy ruling, but The Sims 4's Royalty & Legacy expansion quickly pulled me into court life. After several hours I was wrapped up in palace politics, backroom deals and a surprisingly satisfying push to secure my family's future.

• The new royalty layer gives players a taste of power without turning the game into a strategy sim: roleplaying options and social pressure create memorable scenes and emergent dilemmas that feel fresh in a life sim.
• Rather than straightforward combat or conquest, influence comes through persuasion, bribery and reputation—you can lean on favors and scandals to shape outcomes, which produces funny and often awkward story beats.
• Legacy elements sharpen the long-term payoff: decisions ripple across generations, encouraging playstyles focused on dynasty-building, inheritance drama and the slow creep of a family's reputation.
• Design-wise, Royalty & Legacy balances new systems with familiar Sims loops, so experimentation is encouraged; you can be indulgent, cruel, or oddly benevolent and the game will respond in interesting ways.