The Sims 4 battle royale, part 2: Fear the Reaper

Another fire has broken out in my Sims 4 Battle Royale arena. Last time this happened everyone just stood around staring at it while it tragically consumed two chairs, but this time Hayley actually shows some initiative, conjures up a fire extinguisher, and puts it out.

In fact, I'm largely changing my mind about Hayley's chances. I initially chalked her up as a lost cause, since she's mainly interested in owning a mansion and reading books—not the sort of Sim who would thrive in a winner-take-all, life-and-death struggle to make polite conversation about computers and Simoleons. But just look at her grabbing some food and running off with it:

That look on her face! I think Hayley has figured this game out. She's swiping food and saving seats from being consumed by fire. She's one to watch.

Also one to watch: Adan, athough for a different reason. See, as the blue wall advanced (in other words, as I added new blue walls in front of the old blue walls), they began encroaching on the cabin, until one of them cut off the back porch completely. Thing is, it cut directly along the back wall of the cabin, and the door to the back porch remained in place. Meaning the back porch was still accessible through the new blue wall.

I considered deleting the door, but it sort of makes sense to leave it: in PUBG, you can cross back and forth through the blue electrical field, after all. It just hurts when you're on the wrong side of it. In this Sims version, it just means people can continue to use the porch bench as a sleeping spot.

However! When I added the next set of walls this morning, they cut deeper into the cabin, walling off the porch door. And Adan happened to be sleeping on the back porch at the time, behind yesterday's blue wall. Now, he's stuck there. Maybe it's not a bad strategy: PUBG players hunker down and hide behind the electrical field, after all, sometimes for a good portion of the match (which makes for scintillating viewing). Adan can't leave, but he at least has a couch to himself.

He's not missing out on any meals, at least: airdrop luck hasn't been so kind for the past two days. Instead of a crate of food, a punching bag dropped from the sky. No one bothered to punch it. Today, a guitar that looks like a bunny rabbit landed nearby. No one seems interested in playing it.

I was thinking with all the stress of being trapped in a national park by blue drywall might make Sims desperate for distractions, but I guess moping their way to the restroom is a bit higher on their priority list. 

As night falls again, Gunnar, the most dapper Sim in this battle royale, suddenly groans, clutches his stomach, and collapses. I guess that's to be expected: he hasn't eaten in about two days (the outdoor grill was consumed by the blue wall very early in the match). The Grim Reaper arrives and a moment later, the arena claims its first victim.

Well, finally. At the very least, I get to update my family portrait.

Though there's still eight Sims in the arena, technically, since the Grim Reaper, after harvesting Gunnar's soul in front of his horrified friends, just kinda hangs out in the cabin for a while, chatting (mostly about himself) and learning about butterflies. It's a little weird, but there's not much sense in him wandering off.

As Gunnar's urn sits in a puddle of urine (perhaps his own, perhaps someone else's), Crazy Hande, the evil and insane Sim, weirdly seems to be taking it the hardest. She just stands there crying for ages. I have a brief moment where I wonder if maybe I'm a horrible person for subjecting Sims to this sort of treatment, but thankfully there's not much time to reflect on it. Jade, who has been handling Gunnar's death like a real trooper by sleeping face-down on the floor just feet away, suddenly stands up just so she can keel over again.

Unfortunately, you'll have to tune in tomorrow to see who dies next! Ah, what the heck. I'll just tell you. It's Adan. The guy trapped behind the wall. Adan dies next.

Tomorrow: Find out who dies next! (It's Adan.)

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.