The Sims 4 Castle Estate Kit is the second of two Kits that was voted for by The Sims 4 community, winning over the other concept of a “high tech futurism” Kit, and releasing on January 18th alongside the Goth Galore Kit. The Castle Estate Kit contains only Build Mode items and allows players to add a dash of the medieval to their game.
Out of the 25 items available in the Kit, there are a grand total of two Buy Mode items, and those consist of an Eavesdropping Llama grotesque (note for the architecturally disinclined: a grotesque is essentially a non-functional gargoyle that exists solely for decoration) and a crest that matches all the wallpaper swatches.
There are no chairs, tables, beds, statues, rugs, fountains, or anything else that you might find in a castle. There are also no roofs, although there is a fence that doubles as an excellent parapet for a battlement. Most notably, there’s a distinct lack of a spiral staircase that would have really promoted the Kit into “must have” territory, although you could also argue that pay-walling the game’s first spiral staircase would be a bad move on EA’s part.
Much like how the Goth Galore Kit missed a trick by not including hairstyles, the Castle Estate Kit definitely missed the mark by not including actual furniture items. Even just adding something like a medieval bench or bed or even a candle or sconce would have been a big step up. The Kit also only contains one flooring selection and one wallpaper selection, although both contain enough swatches for a player to design anything from a traditional fairytale castle to a dark gothic lair.
Despite the lack of actual furnishings in the Kit, you can still slap together a fairly decent castle using just the Kit and The Sims 4 base game items, as shown in the image below. Just note that your Sims will most likely not match your castle’s aesthetic, given that the Kit has no Create-A-Sim items, and the base game doesn’t offer much in the way of ye olde clothing. While this can be remedied with other Packs, players should note that EA has yet to make a Pack that contains actual old-timey clothing.
The Castle Estate Kit is also fairly jarring when it comes to seamlessly blending into in-game neighbourhoods. Castles all seem out of place in the base game worlds and the only places where the castles somewhat fit with the neighbourhood theming without feeling too anachronistic are Windenburg, which is only available with The Sims 4: Get Together Expansion Pack, and Henford-on-Bagley, which is exclusive to The Sims 4: Cottage Living Expansion Pack.
Players who do have these Packs, however, will find that much of the furniture in both DLCs pairs quite nicely with the castles and determined players can even attempt to use the Castle Estate Kit to build things such as rustic chapels or overgrown and decrepit crypts, the latter of which also works well with the Vampire Game Pack and suits the darker swatches provided in the Kit. The Sims 4: Discover University Expansion Pack also contains plenty of antiquated Build Mode items that will compliment almost any castle created with the Castle Estate Kit, meaning that the Kit does work well with several other DLC items while also still managing to introduce a new style of architecture to the game.
For more Sims 4 reviews, check out our look at the Sims 4 For Rent expansion and our review of The Sims 4 Horse Ranch DLC.
