The Sims 4 Life & Death expansion pack will arrive on Halloween

A promotional image from the upcoming Life & Death expansion pack for The Sims 4.
(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Developer Electronic Arts has revealed a brand new expansion pack for The Sims 4, which will launch on October 31, or Halloween. The downloadable content (DLC) focuses on the suitably macabre topic of death and ghosts.

Titled Life & Death, this expansion pack aims to flesh out the life simulator’s death mechanics. New additions include the ability for your sims to create a bucket list, with goals that they wish to achieve before death. Sims with items left on their bucket lists will be able to return from the dead as a ghost, potentially getting a second chance to complete their unfinished business before moving on or being reborn.

The DLC will also change how sims grieve, with four types of grieving that relate to their personality types and any relationships with the deceased. You finally get the ability to create a will, which can determine how heirlooms or money are passed down and how dependents will be treated.

There’s a new career included too, which sees you taking on the role of a grim reaper and assisting in the reaping of departed souls plus dealing with hauntings. It sounds like a lot of fun, though may end up being a little too similar to the existing Paranormal Investigator career found in the The Sims 4 Paranormal Stuff Pack for some.

Of course, no The Sims 4 expansion pack would be complete without a new town. Life & Death adds Ravenwood, a three-neighborhood town with quite varied environments. There’s a creepy countryside, grim cemetery, and haunted bog to explore. It all looks great from early screenshots and, as a big fan of the similarly spooky Moonwood Mill from the Werewolves game pack, I’m definitely on board.

The Sims 4 Life & Death is currently up for pre-order on PC at the usual expansion pack price of $39.99 / £34.99. Those who purchase it before December 12 will net the Lasting Legacy Family Portrait, Mournful Melodies Music Box, and Plumed Elegance Mask items as a bonus.

It will be available on all the platforms where The Sims 4 is currently playable, which includes PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. That's on top of Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility.

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Dashiell Wood
Hardware Writer

Dash is a technology journalist who covers gaming hardware at TechRadar. Before joining the TechRadar team, he was writing gaming articles for some of the UK's biggest magazines including PLAY, Edge, PC Gamer, and SFX. Now, when he's not getting his greasy little mitts on the newest hardware or gaming gadget, he can be found listening to J-pop or feverishly devouring the latest Nintendo Switch otome.