It’s my first day at a new job and I don’t know what to expect. It all came about aft🌳er a phone call from the Grim Reaper letting me know he’s looking for interns, or Grimterns, as he calls them. As a morbid The Sims player, I was naturally intrigued, so I accepted the position. The next day, I was whisked off to the Headlessquarters - yes, that🌸’s actually what they’re called - where my day began.
I never expected Grim’s headquarters to be an office, but somehow it fits. Nothing screams dark and menacing like an office decorated in shades of black and grey, where you have to analyse statistics and are forced to make small talk with colleagues. Still, this was just the start of my journey through 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Sims 4: Life & Death.
The expansion pack is one of the most in-depth I can recall. It’s crammed with two new careers, one of which is an active reaper occupation, an ability tree for ghost Sims, alongside a world overflowing with secrets, quest chains and lore. The♕re are also new gameplay mechanics involving death, funerals, bucket lists, ghosts, and reincarnation. I’ve been exploring Ravenwood for around two weeks, a💙nd I’m still uncovering new secrets. So many secrets.
The Sims has never tackled death in this way before. Funerals areဣ a completely new addition, and they’ve been constructed in a way that feels meaningful. There are options to change the features of a service, select graves or urns, have a display casket, make a reflective or sorrowful eulogy, and Sims even sit down foꦡr the occasion. Wills also mean a Sim can convey their wishes to the next generation, further adding realism and depth to the experience.
The cemetery lot and new grief reactions provide more profound consequences surrounding the loss of Sims. You’ll see them autonomously react in different ways to death, something which has also come to the base game with this expansion’s update, but the extra addition of cemeteries and funerals here expands on this by offering a t✅angible outlet for grief through services and memorials.
Death is a huge part of life and a difficult thing to tackle. Grief is a very powerful negative emotion and that’s tough to add to a game that tends to veer towards the mundane, lighthearted, chaotic, and supernatural. The Sims has always been known for tackling death in an exaggerated manner. While some deaths are quite harrowing, Sims can be killed by things like comets, chickens, a guinea pig plague, bad cooking skills, and a lack of pool ladders. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Death is fun in The Sims, until now.
During a recent interview with TheGamer, production director Dave Miotke told me how the team wanted to really pack this world full of secrets, and they absolutely deli💜vered on that promise. The three neighbourhoods all have very different vibes,♐ and each one has its own set of Sims, items, quests, and lore.
The humour is still present if you want it to be, and services for the departed can be conducted with a happy, reflective tone, rather than a morbid one. They can even be excluded entirely. The key here is that you can ♚choose. Those who play Sims through their entire lives can now also play out their loss, and for aꦉll those who like to play as black widow brides, killing their spouses for the simoleons, crocodile tears are an available option. Sims who want to be remembered uniquely can even employ hired mourners to add an air of mystery to proceedings. Choice is the key here, and it’s something that has clearly been considered across the pack’s features. Grief is unique and the system to deal with death has been built into its very core.
It’s fascinating to witness how Life & Death feels like so many parts of The Sims reaching their ⭕full potential for the first time. Funerals use the same system as weddings and other social events, the reaper career is a welcome return to active careers, collecting tarot cards makes use of the errands system, and ghosts have similar skill trees to vampires and werewolves. All these are new, creative ways to use features from previ🧔ous packs. Over the years, the development team has planted many seeds that are now coming to fruition.
I’ve always loved active careers, and the Reaper career rea🌼lly works well. While there will always be some repetition in jobs like this, with a good core selection of different types of tasks you have to travel to, it makes a big difference to the longevity of playing Grim. Most importantly, I’ve maxed out my level without hitting any bugs or issues. In fact, the whole experience has been very smooth. The glitchiest thing I’ve encountered is the static channel on my Sim’s TV that offers a pant-soiling experience on hallowed g๊rounds.
I just reaped the plant soul of a Cow Plant after it ate me while I was t𒁏rying to clear up the bodies it left behind. Revenge is sweet. 10/10 no notes.
When playing with Seasons enabled you’ll notice that weather and seasonal effects aren’t as obvious in Life & Death. While snow would have been awesome blanketing such an ethereal landscape, I haven’t felt short-chaꩵnged by its absence. Not every world has snow, thunder, and blizzards, so it’s certainly not the first ဣto be without them.
Ravenwood is unique in many ways, and its weather system fo𝄹rms part of that appeal. You’ll not get snow in winter, but you will get rolling clouds of Silent Hill-esque fog. Sometimes compromises have to be made, and for me, the world is atmospheric enough. It feels like a relief to be able to explore it without having to worry that my Sim will freeze to death in their swimsuit while trying to read an epitaph on a grave across a river.
Life & Death strikes a good balance of new outfits across all ages and genders, a solid selection of build and buy items, and a phenomenal amount of gameplay additions.The Soul’s Journey bꦑucket list system, which even continues into death with playable ghosts, adds goals to everyday life in ways The Sims has never had before.
It combines aspirations, skill building, career climbing and more all into one system that offers flexible targets to aim for. It gives more direction to your Sim’s lives and also some much needed structure, like a virtual climbing frame for The Sims 4 sandbox. It’s there if you want to explore i꧃t, and you can climb to the top, but if you’d rather just play in the sand, that’s ok too.
Everywhere I looked was something unexpected and unique that built🐷 upon my love for this game, while also challenging me to broaden my gameplay horizons. I hope all future expansions are this subversive and spooky.
We’ve played with life for ten years, now finally we can play w♈ith death, and i🦄t was well worth the wait.
The Oreg♏on Trail Is A Wild Game To Adapt To♌ Film
Will the movie’s chances also die of dysentery?
