The Sims 4 just saw its seventeenth expansion pack come to life on Halloween. The pack, Life & Death, focuses on achieving your lifelong dreams by completing your Bucket List and finishing off any Unfinished Business as a Ghost and so much more!
Expansion Features
- Build a Bucket List for your Sims to complete or return as a Ghost to complete any Unfinished Business
- Choose to Rebirth, Move On or live out the rest of your days as a Ghost
- Join Grim and their career of reaping souls and helping ghosts or become a Mortician
- Master the Thanatology skill and Ghost Historian Aspiration
- Bond with your pet Crow
- Collect Tarot Cards
- Grieve Sims in new ways and new ways to honour those Sims no longer with us
- As a Ghost, choose whether to help or cause chaos for living Sims and enjoy a range of Afterlife activities.
This new expansion pack is crammed full of new and exciting features. With many new ways to tell and even re-tell stories. I’ve deliberately not followed the build-up to this new release compared to normal as I wanted it to be a surprise when I started exploring the pack.
Welcome to Ravenwood
First things first, it’s time to create a new Sim and find somewhere to live in the world of Ravenwood. The first time I saw the world map I started thinking about how it reminded me of The Sims Makin’ Magic. There was just something about it that got me thinking about it, somewhat mysterious yet magical at the same time.
Now, regarding the lot sizes, I feel The Sims Team has done well with incorporating a variety of different-sized lots including three larger lots for bigger builds. As someone who prefers building on smaller lots, I would have liked to have seen one or two more smaller lots however, at the same time, I like the challenge of building on bigger lots and pushing myself to exceed my own abilities when it comes to building in The Sims.
I moved my Sim into a small pre-made lot in Mourningvale, a neighbourhood located at the top of the Ravenwood world.
The specific lot I went for was the Cozy Casket House. A smaller 30×20 lot with the On Hallowed Grounds lot trait. It certainly will make for some interesting gameplay going forward. I decided not to make too many changes to the house since I needed to save some more money first.
The First Few Days in a New Neighbourhood
My first few days were spent navigating the new world, primarily in the immediate neighbourhood where my Sim lives, and then exploring further into the new areas. I spent time with the various ghosts and residents I bumped into during my mini adventure.
Once I was a bit more familiar with the world around my Sim, I started to dive into the new features of the expansion a little more.
I’ve busted some ghoulish dance moves, read tarot cards for other Sims, done a spot of gardening and levelled up some of my skills in the hope that it will help me with my new career.
My Sims’ first day at work isn’t for a couple of in-game days yet. Out of the two new careers, I settled on becoming an Apprentice for the one and only Grim. I haven’t read much about the new careers as I wanted it to be more of a surprise. It will certainly be interesting to make my way through the career.
I’ve also spent some time exploring the Crypts to see what mysteries I discover from exploring those as well as temporarily becoming a ghost and starting to complete the Ghost Mastery.
Create A Sim
The new Create A Sim additions are pretty good. While they aren’t my usual go-to style for my Sims, there is certainly something about the new choices that I can see my Sims wearing in my save file. However, for the pack itself and the theme of it, I think they are excellent additions. The detail in some of the different outfits as well is spot on too!
Build Buy Mode
Love, love, love the new Build Buy objects! I’ve already got some ideas for how I can use them in some builds and more ways that I can create things in styles I haven’t done so before. What I do like as well is that there is a mix of more modern objects but also more gothic-inspired, and it’s not a bad mix at all. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into building with the new objects in my build save file!
First Impressions So Far
After spending a few hours with the newest expansion pack, I guess I could say it’s very promising. I still have so much to explore within the pack that currently I’ve barely scratched the surface. I have plans to try and turn this save into more of a family gameplay experience. Maybe even some kind of legacy-esque challenge. I know there are still many gameplay features I’m yet to experience, and will do so in time, I feel this will be easier to explore as I progress with my save.
I’m certainly not disappointed with what I’ve experienced so far, I just wish I had more time with the pack itself before writing this post. This is certainly an expansion pack with a lot of potential not only on its own but also how it works with the other additional content packs with The Sims 4.
While this is a brand new save file, it is the perfect time to work on and expand my gameplay experience utilizing this pack and its new features. I want my Sims to be able to aspire to reach their full potential while living, completing those bucket lists, but, if needs be complete all of that unfinished business as a ghost. On the other hand, I can always come back and use the Rebirth option to see how that changes up my in-game story. Both options do seem quite interesting if I’m honest.
For now, I’ll be working on growing my household and starting a family as well as exploring the finer details of the expansion pack!
Have you been playing The Sims 4 Life & Death expansion pack? Let me know if you have in the comments below!
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