The Sims 4’s free update brings big changes to death and the afterlife

The Sims 4 base game has just had a new update, and it brings some big changes to your sims and how they deal with death. These changes come alongside the launch of the Life & Death Expansion Pack, but even if you don’t purchase the expansion, you’ll still be able to benefit from some neat new changes.

First up is the fact that you can create a ghost in Create-a-Sim, from a ghost child all the way through to a ghost elder. And if you’re creating a ghost sim, you can choose a cause of death. Did your sim die of anger? In a fire? By a… cow plant? Or by embarrassment? There are nine different causes to select, and your choice will give your sims ghost new personality traits. Because, let’s face it, if you died of hunger you’re going to feel pretty different to if you’d died laughing.

Back in the world of the living, sims will now react differently to a death depending on how well they knew the sim. If they have a strong relationship to the recently deceased, they’re likely to be devastated. But if they only just met? Don’t be surprised if they don’t care one jot.

And for your playable sims that perish, you can choose if you want them to become a playable ghost or a “freeroaming ghost”. Choose freeroaming if you want them to randomly haunt the place.

Watch the update trailer below:

Oh, and you can WooHoo with the Grim Reaper. So, er, that’s something.

Not all the changes added to the latest Sims 4 update are death-related. There’s a new bonfire pit added to the game and if your sims get their children taken away by Social Services, they won’t be deleted: instead, they’ll go back to the Household menu in Manage Worlds.

There’s also a large list of bug fixes in The Sims 4 — the full list can be seen on EA’s official website.

For the grand old price of nothing, we certainly can’t complain. Especially considering The Sims 4 base game is now free-to-play on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Have at it.