Welcome back!

Sign in or create an account to enjoy GINX perks, enter competitions and access exclusive features.

GINX TV > Reviews > The Sims 4

The Sims 4 Lovestruck Expansion Pack Preview: My Love Language Is New Sims DLC

Sorry Bob Pancakes, I don’t have time for your romance woes.
The Sims 4 Lovestruck Expansion Pack Preview: My Love Language Is New Sims DLC
EA

There’s a brand new expansion heading to The Sims 4 centered all around love that redesigns how your Sims interact and build relationships with each other. In The Sims 4: Lovestruck Expansion Pack, players have been given a huge variety of tools to customize how their Sims navigate their relationships, how they feel attraction to other Sims, and their own personal boundaries. This whole expansion is very much themed on love and relationships in its entirety, even going so far as adding in a new World, Ciudad Enamorada. Filled with the perfect date spots and singles hangouts, Ciudad Enamorada features three neighborhoods tailored to providing your Sims with the perfect romantic prospects. Or not, as one of my Sims quickly found out. 

66992cce3965e-LovestruckEP3.jpg
Live, Laugh, Leave this date because you spent 2 hours talking about your ex before crying into a Tequila Sunrise. (Picture: EA)

You get the usual expansion offerings (new furniture, Create-a-Sim items, social options and more) but paired with the new personality features in Create-a-Sim, it adds up to a significant amount of new content. It all contributes a nice amount of flexibility to how players can customize their Sims’ lives from the get-go, and how they’ll evolve generations down the line. What I particularly liked was the ability to choose specifically what your Sim finds attractive in others: Do they only like wealthy sims? Do they find people with green hair a turn off? Does a guy in a gilet and boat shoes give them the ick? It should. 

You can determine the comfort levels of your Sim, too, such as identifying what makes them jealous, or how they prefer to navigate romance. Is it through gift giving? Or physical affection? Are they even interested in pursuing romance at all? This level of customization for your Sims’ interests and preferences feels like the expansion has been built with The Sims’ LGBTQIA+ community in mind. Interestingly, you can also choose whether or not your Sim is open to talking about their preferences, and whether that changes how they feel. It’s an exciting way of making your Sims’ lives feel more dynamic in a way that few other games offer. 

66992cc820c5c-LovestruckEP5.jpg
You did a little jump when you stepped off the bus and it gave me the ick. Sorry. (Picture: EA)

You can also take your Sim’s romance skills to the next level by making it their job. By choosing the Romance Consultant career path, you Sim can unlock even more ways to bring love to the masses, and some new furniture items to boot. 

The Cupid’s Corner dating app is a notable addition to this expansion. It’s a way for your Sim to navigate their romantic lives to set up dates and meet potential partners. One of my Sims, Wesley Sands, moved into the new town Ciudad Enamorada, accompanied by his two roommates. With dreams of being a master chef, Wesley managed to burn down the flat on their first night in their new home by cooking a grilled cheese, leaving his poor roommate Vanessa with lasting anxiety. Dreams so quickly dashed, he felt like starting anew by trying his luck in the town’s dating pool and opened up the new Cupid’s Corner dating app. He opted for a blind date - he was feeling fearless. Who would he meet? Perhaps a strapping athlete? Or maybe an heir to the Landgraab fortune? Selecting the local bar as the meet-up spot, Wesley made his way over with a skip in his step, to greet his mystery man… Ulises. An unemployed elder with an unhealthy penchant for discussing explosions, and who turned up to the date having seemingly not showered. Ever. Wesley made up an excuse to leave the date early. Cupid’s Corner isn’t for the weak. 

From my early impressions of the upcoming Lovestruck expansion, it adds a significant amount of variety and uniqueness to your Sims that you can use to create in-depth storylines and really flesh out your playthrough. If you enjoy crafting your Sims’ story, curating every inch of their virtual lives, then this feels like a worthy expansion. There’s a level of flexibility that’s offered here that hasn’t always been as readily available in past expansions, and should please fans who love building their own narratives. It encourages you to try new things, create new stories, and explore fully what the expansion has to offer. Bail on a blind date, ruin a marriage, forge a polycule consisting entirely of criminals. It’s all possible in The Sims 4 Lovestruck Expansion Pack.

Pre-orders of The Sims 4 Lovestruck Expansion Pack are available now ahead of the expansion’s launch on July 25, 2024. The expansion will be available on PC via EA app, Mac via Origin, Epic Games Store, Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.