The Sims 4 Paranormal Stuff Pack is set to be released on January 26th, 2021.
Stuff packs for The Sims 4 usually sell at the £9.99 price point so I imagine this will be the same.
Despite the pack cost staying the same over the years, stuff packs have got infinitely better! Now rather than only including ‘stuff’ they contain gameplay so you get a little more meat for your money.
Initially, as I played through this pack I was quite disappointed. There was no tutorial to greet me and tell me what’s new and figuring out how to do the things I’d seen advertised was pretty difficult. Other packs were popping up trying to get me to improve my eco-footprint and journey to Batuu but there was nothing from this new pack I had just installed.
I am already a little salty about The Sims as it stands due to its persistence in existing despite how flawed it is. I am angry that there are players out there who have unplayable games and things that should be fixed are not being fixed. These factors and others I’ve mentioned before in previous blog posts are really impacting my experience.
But we’re here to talk about the new pack.
On my second launch of the pack, my experience greatly improved. There was a pop up to place a haunted house and plenty more new experiences came my way.
So let’s get into the Pro’s and Cons of The Sims 4 Paranormal Stuff Pack.
Pros.
Bonehilda.
Top of the list.
This pack would be nothing without Bonehilda and I’m sure she’s a huge reason why a lot of players will pick up the pack.
She herself has pros and cons.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s extremely cute and fun. I love how my sim can interact with her with pretty much every interaction available too.
She does maid duties when you summon her through the Seance table (rather than the coffin we saw in The Sims 1 and The Sims 3). She will spawn food and ominous-looking drinks out of herself (yum). She will even fix things (when she’s finished gyrating that is).
She doesn’t seem to like the Grim Reaper as much as she used to though.
And if you do decide to add her to your household you will see she is just a regular Sim at heart.
New Stuff.
What would a new stuff pack be without new stuff?! There’s an good amount of build/buy stuff and it is beautiful and really creates a vibe. The CAS items are stunning.
Stuff to unlock.
Similar to how unlock items work in The Sims 4 Nifty Knitting, some CAS items are locked when you first play the game. They will be unlocked after you ‘survive’ 7 nights in a haunted house.
Gameplay.
While it’s confusing, I love that we get gameplay in stuff packs now. Anything that gives a player more for their money is fab. This pack has a ton of overlaps too with other packs. I get the feeling there is plenty more I haven’t experienced yet too which is great.
When the specters appear you can offer them handmade goods (I bought mine on Plopsy). I gave mine a candle and it was promptly pooped out. How else was I gonna get a sacred candle?
The specters made my sims sparkle too. That’s a pro for me!
Skill.
There is a new medium skill with this pack. It has 5 skill levels and each one unlocks new abilities. The animation and interactions are pretty repetitive but it encourages new ghostly activity and spurs on some fun happenings.
Paranormal Investigator.
A new career! I didn’t even get around to trying this yet. This is an active freelance career so it really adds depth and even more gameplay to the pack.
Cons
Sims are deadpan.
A downside of The Sims 4 that isn’t going to be improved by any pack but will always affect the gameplay experience of anything new unless it is fixed.
The Sims not involved in the seances and Bonehilda, etc, don’t react to things going on around them unless it directly affects them. I had one sim doing a seance and the other was doing press-ups (of course).
Reactions are fleeting.
The based game patch yesterday introduced a new scared emotion.
At one point I had Caleb the vampire on my doorstep surrounded by specters. My sim went outside and for 1 second they were scared and then they were confident and smiling straight away after that. This was a common occurrence.
Stuff is inconsequential.
It takes a long time before anything in this pack really affects a Sim. The most you will notice is how they’ll constantly be slipping over on slime left behind by ghosts and specters.
No tutorial.
Like I mentioned earlier in the post, I felt a little lost to start with. I had no idea you had to turn the lot into a haunted house lot, for example. I’m sure seasoned players won’t struggle but a little more guidance should be available for everyone if they need it I think.
Haunted House build didn’t show up straight away.
Luckily I was offered the wonderful haunted house lot pre-build made by Doctor Ashley the second time I launched the pack which I promptly placed and moved into. This is also a pro because of the fact that it’s in the pack. It’s an extremely cool house, perfect for the vibe of the pack.
Conclusion.
All in all, I think it can be a little repetitive at times but for a stuff pack, it’s pretty decent. I am actually quite impressed with it. I’ve only been playing for about 3 hours at the point of writing this and I’ve advanced through most of what’s available BUT there is still plenty more for me to discover which is scattered throughout the game. The Paranormal Investigator freelance career itself will be a huge chunk of this game and it is quite impressive to be included in a stuff pack. I have yet to play that. I haven’t met Guidry other than a brief introduction yet either! It’s nice to have more left to play with. I hope all stuff packs go forward in this way with this amount of content.
I don’t condone how EA is presenting the game right now so I’m a little put off saying ‘yeah, go buy it’ but I do think it’s a pack worth £9.99 if you like the haunted style things and you could have a lot of fun with it IF you enjoy The Sims 4 as it is. There’s plenty of gameplay to explore and funny things to discover.
If you don’t enjoy how the Sims 4 is right now anyway this pack won’t fix your game so maybe hold off for bug fixes and a sale.
