TS4 Life and Death Expansion Pack: Preview & Trailer

TS4 Life and Death Expansion Pack: Preview + Official Trailer — Electronic Arts

The long wait is over, and oh, our bones are shaking and clanking! The Sims 4: Life and Death just dropped the official trailer, and we are getting major features added to the beloved franchise. From funerals to reincarnation, this pack is shaping up to be everything we ever wanted it to be, and more! You can just read on to learn everything we know about The Sims 4: Life and Death.

The Sims 4 Life and Death: Features
TS4 Life and Death: Release Date, Price and Platforms

The Sims 4 Life and Death: Features

The Sims 4: Life and Death will add some spook-tacular features we can't wait to tell you about! The expansion pack promises us far more than we ever expected from EA to deliver, and now Halloween seems too far away. We are getting a completely different side to the simulator we've never experienced in any of the previous titles, nor their respective expansions and game packs. No more time to waste: let's dive right into what we know about the upcoming expansion pack!

New World

Behold Ravenwood, a brand-new city with three unique districts all yours to explore! Talk to local grave makers, meet the Mysterious Merchant peddling an assortment of curiosities and collectibles, or happen upon the Try Before You Die Casket Sale in the district Crow’s Crossing. Here, you can also visit festivals, haunted houses, crypts, and graveyards to pay respect to the ones that have passed...or not quite.

If you're into a more laid-back exploration, visit Whispering Glen for an astonishing amount of collectibles and the lingering history of the local monuments. Investigate the Tarot Tome Shrine, or stay until midnight to participate in the Moon Revelry festival, where Sims can swim under the moonlight, share stories at a bonfire, and dance, possibly naked.

Finally, we have the eerie and whimsical Mourningvale, which some say is the home of all that's spiritual. The Grim Reaper can be seen wandering around, seemingly lost in thought. Sims can take a dip in the Baleful Bog to have an out-of-body experience or transition into Rebirth, partake in local customs at the Thinned Festiveil, or make peace with their mortality at the Afterlife Anonymous meetup.

Soul's Journey

The Sims 4: Life and Death introduces a whole new reward system called Soul's Journey. It unites the Wish and Aspiration systems and interconnects with them, adding a new layer of depth to your Sims.

A Sim’s Soul’s Journey enables them to earn rewards by accomplishing various goals, with the greatest reward being the ability to resurrect with the unique Burning Soul trait after they pass away. Sims who are Reborn after finishing their Soul’s Journey can regain previous Childhood Development Skills, Traits, and Infant Milestones, depending on their new age. They may also discover special connections to other Sims from their previous life.

To keep track of their Soul's Journey, Sims can create Bucket Lists that can be generated passively based on their personality traits and events that happen in their lives. New interactions on the computer and journal also let Sims create a random goal, choose one from a specific category (like Travel or Family), or set a particular goal. Completing a Bucket List will give Sims great rewards, the greatest being the ability to experience Rebirth.

New Careers

The Grim Reaper is your boss now! Or at least he can be if you choose to go down the new career paths that The Sims 4: Life and Death will offer. The newly added professions that let you dabble with death are the Reaper Profession and the Undertake Career.

With the Reaper Profession, you start out as a Grimtern, grinding your way up to the Grim Reaper position. Yes, you can actually become a Reaper! You'll work alongside our beloved Grim at the Netherworld Department of Death (N.W.D.D.) and even head off into the ‘field.’ Sims in this profession can practice reaping souls on practice dummies, determine causes of deaths for reaped souls, and more. If your Sim becomes good at what they do, they'll get a say in who gets reaped and who reincarnates.

The Undertake Career is a more classical position that serves both the living and the dead. You will take care of embalming, grave digging, funeral services, and anything in between, depending on which path you choose to go down. You have two career path options: either a Mortician or Funeral Director.

Playable Ghosts

The Sims who die can now linger in a household in playable form! Household ghosts can wreak havoc on the living or lend a helping hand, much like house spirits in real life! And you know that thing they say at weddings, till death do us part? Yeah, no such thing—Ghost Sims who build a special connection can WooHoo anywhere. In absolutely any-shaped object inside the house.

As a Ghost Sim, you can customize your looks, build Ghost Powers, and even earn Fear or Goodwill essences from your interactions with the living to make simoleons. You can still be an active and contributing member of your virtual household, even postmortem! That is a wild sentence to put in writing.

This feature will finally make interactions with Ghosts not just more frequent but much more impactful and meaningful. Life doesn't end at death, at least not in Sims!

Funerals & Will

Before your Sim has ended their life journey, they can create a Will at the Town Hall in Crows’s Crossing, via the computer, or at the Family Day Festival. Through Wills, Sims can assign heirlooms, leave personal notes, specify how they want their remains to be handled, make Funeral planning requests, and designate other Sims to care for their pets or children.

You read it right! Your Sim can now hold Funerals for their deceased friends and family members. Funerals will work very similarly to weddings, where you can choose who attends, the dress code, the activities you'll perform, and the location of the event. Funerals will allow you to hold speeches, mourn together, share fond memories of the deceased, and more.

It looks like we can leave some mods to rest, whether for better or for worse. We really hope that the Funeral feature works as intended and we don't experience the same glitches we did with My Wedding Stories.

New Emotional Phase

After the passing of someone dear to your Sim, or after one of life's many tragic events, such as losing a job, a pet, or going through a divorce, they will now experience Grief. Just as in real life, grief takes many shapes and forms, and Sims will be able to experience four different kinds of Grief: Denial, Holding It Together, Anger, and Blues.

The type of Grief a Sim experiences depends on their traits and, if relevant, their relationship. Grief comes with its own set of behaviors for Sims to manage and usually sets in after the mourning period is over.

Sims experiencing grief can seek comfort from other Sims or attend grief counseling for support. They can console others about death or cope positively by engaging in creative or productive activities during the grieving process. At funerals, Sims will have the option to Offer Awkward sympathy or Offer a Sympathetic Joke.

Other Features

You see how much EA has packed into this expansion for us! We needed to mention some other features that you'll be stoked to see in your game, but couldn't sort into a separate category, so here they are:

New Death Type: Death by Murder of Crows
Three New Traits: Macabe, Chased by Death, and Skeptic
New Skill: Thanatology
New Lot Trait: Hallowed Grounds
New Aspiration: Ghost Historian
New Reward Trait: Ghost Whisperer
New Book Genre: Horror Novels

You can watch the official gameplay trailer that EA dropped on October 3 right here:

TS4 Life and Death: Release Date, Price, and Platforms

The Sims 4: Life and Death Expansion Pack is set to come on Halloween, which is quite fitting and very cheeky on EA's part—except, we want it immediately. And listen to this, if you purchase the expansion pack anytime from October 3 through December 12, you will get three exclusive items: the Lasting Legacy Family Portrait, the Mournful Melodies Music Box, and the Plumed Elegance Mask.

Pre-purchase: $39.99
Planned Release Date: October 31, 2024
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4& 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X│S

Wake us up when October ends. In the meantime, please feel free to indulge in some of our other articles to create the illusion of time passing you by, while learning about the most relevant gaming news: