What was that? The Electric bill was paid a week ago? Who’s there? The ordinary just became unordinary in the brand new Sims 4 Paranormal Stuff Pack. The new pack includes many adventures into spooky old mansions. (EA Electronic Arts 2021) said “Your new-to-you home might be home to someone else”, but is the pack worth the $10 price? 

  The surrounding detail about the pack is the new haunted house residential lot type. There is either the pre-built house in the gallery or you can create your own. In these houses, weird happenings occur. The 2nd night at 9:00 PM the hauntings begin, events include: flickering lights, rattling pipes, babies crying, pipe organs, slamming doors, even freaky footsteps. The ghosts will show up next following three different types: happy ghosts (green) just want to have fun, mysterious ghosts (blue) have secrets, and mean (red) ghosts want to scare a sim and see them run away from the house. If these spectres are getting old Guidry the Ghost would be able to help. He is a ghost of the prebuilt mansion that suffered a murphy bed accident, but is there to be a guide. Ghosts can be removed in multiple ways asking them to leave, removing accursed objects, giving them gifts, and if all else fails a seancé is needed. The medium skill, which is increased by performing seancés, will need to be practiced to use the seancé table and crystal ball in many different ways. Rituals include ghastly (turns sims into ghosts), communicate with the dead, group, invoke the dead, summon Bonehilda (The skeletal maid from previous games) and check the current state of the house. All actions are fun and different every night.

  Along with the pack comes a new career, Paranormal Investigator which is found under freelance careers. The job is obtained by getting a license, either by maxing out the medium skill and asking Guidry, or buying one in the rewards store. After that gigs are ready to be taken, they begin late at night and fall into three difficulties: easy, medium, and hard. After accepting a gig the sim will go to the house that needs to be freed of spirits. The sim will be given tasks to complete within the time limit. These tasks include: removing creepy dolls, reasoning with ghosts, seancés, and being prepared. Warning from the sims team “SHE IS COMING FOR YOU!” Who is it? That remains unknown. The career is fun and randomly generated.

  The last detail is CAS(Create-a-Sim) and Build/Buy mode. The clothing and hair are inspired by a hippie/Scooby-doo style, very “Far Out”. The clothes come in handy, but even better are the objects you can buy which are inspired by New Orleans, Louisiana which the base game town Willow Creek is modeled after. The objects include: a couch, an armchair, several clutter items, a crystal ball of course, and many “possibly haunted” objects, keep an eye on the paintings of Guidry. Even when not living in a haunted house the objects can be used for beautiful living rooms and dark seancé rooms. 

  Overall this is the most the team has put into a Stuff Pack for the Sims ever, and quite a lot of detail too. The final question needs to be answered. “Is it worth $10?” With the New Orleans architecture, spooky manors, new career, weird hauntings, the pack is definitely worth the $10. Enjoy the pack and have fun every night. Have some “Happy Haunts!”