The Sims 4 Life & Death is the best expansion in years

The Sims 4 is more than 10 years old at this point and, while it continues to grow every year, it's become more and more interesting to see how the people at EA and Maxis try to evolve the game in an attempt to keep things fresh.

The past two years of expansions have seen core parts of the gameplay like family and romantic relationships getting an overhaul and features like horses and residential rentals being introduced.

But Life & Death is the first expansion that I can remember that has pushed me to look at my Sims differently and to play in an entirely different way.

EA / Maxis

I usually play with auto-age turned off. I'm generally not into seeing Sims grow older and then die. Part of that is because I like to spend as much time with my Sims until I am ready to move on from them. Death in the game has also felt pretty meaningless to me in the past.

However, the new expansion has changed the way I see a Sim's life in the game. Sims ageing and passing away feels a lot more consequential, to the point where I've really enjoyed having auto-age on.

Life – and the time a Sim has – has more meaning. Sims can think about their legacy and make a will, as well as live in the moment by checking off items from a bucket list (which contributes to a 'soul's journey' bar that offers rewards like increased skill gain and extended life). And when a Sim passes away, a funeral can be planned and held to pay tribute to them in a heartfelt way. Friends and family will grieve properly.

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Smaller and larger features all contribute towards giving greater emotional weight to how a Sim's life is portrayed.

EA / Maxis

Goofy and cartoony deaths are one of the things the franchise has become famous for – and there is a new one here: death by murder of crows – but the expansion's approach of taking death more seriously results in all-around stronger storytelling possibilities in the sandbox.

I also think it helps the new reaper career flourish better (there's also a rabbit-hole undertaker career included). It's a fully playable career, with an office that you can spend time in. It's pretty amusing being a reaper – if repetitive at times – but also, when it comes to reaping the souls of newly deceased Sims, the pack's focus on life makes a visit to someone's house feel a little differently than it perhaps would have otherwise.

The other part of the expansion that really stands out is how a Sim can remain fully playable after they die, as you have the option to turn them into a ghost.

As a ghost, a Sim's bucket list becomes 'unfinished business', which offers a narrative reason for them to hang around and even the possibility of rebirth. But there's also a skill tree where a Sim can unlock powers both on the good and evil side.

EA / Maxis

Again, the expansion does a smart job at making this aspect fun but also potentially impactful from a storytelling perspective.

If you're feeling a little mischievous, it's amusing to haunt a household (possess objects, drain a living Sim's needs, and so on). However, ghosts can also watch over living Sims and impact their lives in small but positive ways. Occults like vampires and werewolves are more involved and you could argue that the ghostly powers are a little on the safe side, but there's enough here to shake up the afterlife.

There's a good amount of other content worth exploring, in particular the world of Ravenwood. The neighbourhood of Mourningvale is the highlight, carrying an ethereal vibe and featuring a lake with otherworldly qualities, but the other locations also have their own bits of lore to unearth, should you want to dig deeper.

All in all, this is an impressive expansion, and comfortably the best one in years. The cohesion between all of its ideas and features, as well as the strong execution of them, helps to metaphorically breathe new life into the game.

There are things I could nitpick, but they're easy to forgive as this is the most engaged I've been playing the game in a long time.