It wasn’t too long ago that The Sims 4 announced its newest game pack, Dream Home Decorator, but it seems the “Summer of Sims” will continue with a brand new expansion pack. The pack has been teased for the last few days, but The Sims 4 finally released the trailer for Cottage Living earlier today and The Sims community seems incredibly excited for it. The expansion releases next month and will feature a quaint, cottage-core neighborhood for players to experience. Farming has been highly requested by certain The Sims 4 players, and it seems like Cottage Living will more than deliver that kind of gameplay.
Despite a farming-oriented pack being requested so often by the community, it seems The Sims 4 still had a few surprises up its sleeve. The trailer showed new animals to interact with like bunnies, cows, and even llamas. Adding llamas to The Sims 4 is by far the most surprising part of the new Cottage Living pack, but it’s not entirely unexpected. The Sims franchise actually has a long-standing history with llamas, stemming all the way back to the original The Sims game.
The Sims History of Llamas
The Sims franchise has included llamas from the start. All Sims live in “SimNation,” and the national animal of the fictional country is the llama. One of the first appearances of llama references in The Sims was in The Sims: Livin’ Large where Sims could wear a “Llamas” baseball outfit. The Sims: Makin’ Magic lets players use an ingredient called “Llama Spit” in some magic recipes, and if Sims reject an invitation to go somewhere, they often say they need to feed their llama instead.
The Sims 2 saw the return of llama references, including a tribe in The Sims 2: Castaway that worshipped llamas. The Sims 2 expansion pack FreeTime included a new game called “Don’t wake the llama,” which actually reappeared in The Sims 4: Get Together. Perhaps one of the funniest llama references in The Sims 2 comes with a pop-up regarding the Head of the SCIA job, stating that “Repeated Llama Bleating” is an illegal questioning method used by the SCIA.
The Sims 3 ramped up the llama references even further, with the sports stadium in both Riverview and Sunset Valley being called “Llama Memorial Stadium.” Certain books available for purchase were also llama puns, including “The Silence of the Llamas”—obviously a reference to the 1990s thriller The Silence of the Lambs. Sims can also insult each other by implying the other one’s mother is a llama or, with The Sims 3: Ambitions expansion, refuse to give someone a makeover because they look like a llama.
Llamas in The Sims 4 and Cottage Living
The presence of llamas in The Sims is a quirk that makes the franchise so unique and fun. The Sims 4 has llama references in abundance, including the return of the Mean “Imply Mother Looks is a Llama” interaction. The pop culture references haven’t stopped either, with Sims being able to watch the premiere of “Game of Llamas,” a reference to Game of Thrones, with The Sims 4: Seasons expansion pack.
Despite all these llama references, though, llamas have never appeared in-game as an actual animal. The new Sims 4 pack, Cottage Living, is changing this, though. The new expansion pack won’t be out for another month, but the reveal trailer shows llamas quite a few different times, including with one Sim shearing their llama. The inclusion of llamas in Cottage Living is only surprising because it would have been easier and more expected to add horses in-game.
However, llamas have never been in The Sims franchise in this capacity before, so it’ll hopefully add some interesting new gameplay alongside all the other features coming with Cottage Living. The Sims has always loved llamas, and it’ll be fun to finally see them in-game in The Sims 4.
The Sims 4: Cottage Living releases July 22 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.