The Sims 4 Lovestruck Pack Adds New Romance Dynamics, Fears and Relationship Models

The Sims 4 Lovestruck Expansion Pack, releasing July 25, introduces a host of new romance related features to the game, including becoming a relationship consultant, non-monogamous relationships and more!

Within EA’s new blog post, The Sims team discuss these latest additions in the pack and how it will be integrated into gameplay.

Credit: EA, The Sims 4 Blog

Fears

The two new love-related fears and subsequent actions are the more interesting developments relating to mental health that we wanted to highlight. These two fears are Fear of Intimacy and Fear of Being Alone. Relationships can affect and intertwine with our mental health in so many ways, and these new fears can be representative of many people with existing mental ill health.

Alongside this, Sims can also opt to attend counselling in relation to these new fears. Or, perhaps, Sims can sit in the opposite chair to become Romance Consultants, pursuing a new career path entirely. It’s great to see the game highlighting healthy ways to work through romantic issues.

Romantic Boundaries

With the implementation of a dating app, players will now have more ways for their Sims to meet their match(es). Relating to this, a free Base Game updated will add customization for physical and emotional romantic exclusivity through Romantic Boundaries, allowing players to fine tune how their Sims approach romantic relationships and have non-monogamous relationships.

Romantic Aspirations

Finally, Sims can also have new romance-related traits, including Romantically Reserved Sims. These Sims may take more time to get to know their partners, rather than diving straight in, creating new paths for slow-burn romantic advances.

Following the previous update with more inclusive pronouns, non-binary and trans representation, we’re excited to see the spectrum of opportunity that this new pack provides, especially seeing new ways of interacting romantically with other Sims with new boundaries in place.