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The Sims 4 Life & Death is the best expansion in years

Pabio November 4, 2024

The Sims 4 is over a decade old at this point, and while it continues to grow every year, it’s become more and more interesting to see how the folks at EA and Maxis are trying to evolve the game in an effort to keep fresh things.

The last two years of expansions have seen core gameplay elements like family And romantic relationships get a redesign and features like horses And residential rentals being introduced.

But Life and death is the first expansion I can remember that made me look at my Sims differently and play in a completely different way.

EA / Maxis

I usually play with auto age turned off. In general, I don’t like seeing Sims age and then die. Part of the reason is that I like to spend as much time with my Sims as I can until I’m ready to leave them. Death in the game also seemed meaningless to me in the past.

However, the new expansion has changed the way I view a Sim’s life in the game. Sims aging and dying seem much more substantial, to the point where I really appreciated having auto-aging enabled.

Life – and the time a Sim has – has more meaning. Sims can reflect on their inheritance and make a will, as well as live in the moment by checking items off a bucket list (which contributes to a “soul journey” bar that offers rewards like as increased skill gain and extended lifespan). And when a Sim passes away, a funeral can be planned and held to pay their sincere tribute. Friends and family will grieve as they should.

Smaller and larger features all help to give more emotional weight to how a Sim’s life is portrayed.

EA / Maxis

Goofy, cartoonish deaths are one of the things the franchise has become famous for – and there’s a new one here: death by killing crows – but the expansion’s approach of taking death more seriously Seriousness translates to overall stronger storytelling possibilities in the sandbox. .

I also think it helps the new Reaper career flourish better (there’s also an Undertaker career included). It’s a fully playable career, with an office you can spend time in. It’s pretty fun being a Reaper – even if it’s repetitive at times – but also, when it comes to harvesting the souls of recently deceased Sims, the pack’s emphasis on living makes a difference . a visit to someone’s home is a little different than it might otherwise have been.

The other part of the expansion that really stands out is how a Sim can remain fully playable after death, as you have the option to turn them into a ghost.

As a ghost, a Sim’s to-do list becomes “unfinished business,” providing them with a narrative reason to hang around and even the possibility of being reborn. But there is also a skill tree where a Sim can unlock powers both good and evil.

EA / Maxis

Again, the expansion does a smart job of making this aspect fun but also potentially impactful from a storytelling perspective.

If you’re feeling a little mischievous, it’s fun to haunt a household (possessing items, draining a living Sim’s needs, etc.). However, ghosts can also watch over living Sims and impact their lives in small but positive ways. Occults like vampires and werewolves are more involved and you could say the ghostly powers are a little cautious, but there’s enough here to shake up the afterlife.

There is a good amount of other content worth exploring, especially the world of Ravenwood. The Mourningvale district is the highlight, with an ethereal ambiance and a lake with supernatural qualities, but the other places also have their own stories to discover, if you want to dig deeper.

Overall, this is an impressive expansion, and arguably the best in years. The cohesion between all of its ideas and features, as well as their solid execution, helps metaphorically breathe new life into the game.

There are things I could nitpick, but they’re easy to forgive because it’s the most engaging game I’ve played in a long time.