Polyamory is coming to The Sims 4 for free alongside the Lovestruck expansion pack this month
The "romantic boundaries" system will open up your Sims' relationships.
Last week, EA released details on the upcoming Sims 4 Lovestruck DLC, which'll include a new urban world called Ciudad Enamorada, dating apps for your Sims, death by heartbreak, and polyamorous relationships. That last part seems to be what has a lot of players psyched, but there's been a little confusion over whether or not polyamory is paywalled.
Rest assured that although you've got to pay for the DLC to get the dating apps, having multiple partners is free. It's your Sims' social calendars that won't be free, trying to maintain all those relationships.
"Free for all players is the new Romantic Boundaries system that will allow you to customize your Sim's experience with boundaries and jealousy," says EA's news post. "You can now define how your Sims approach romantic relationships in terms of physical and emotional romantic exclusivity. This allows for Sims to date multiple Sims without impact to other relationships."
It's another part of life, love, and sexuality that players have wanted to see in a Sims game for a long time. Sure, it's really fun to get your flirtatious Sims into hot water by chatting up the neighbors, but more options—very literally—are great to have too. This way, you won't get slapped for cheating so long as your partner is on board with your open relationship.
Inevitably, a new gameplay feature like this will bring its own weird bugs, though EA recently said that it has assembled a team to strike down lingering Sims 4 bugs. I'm most interested in seeing what all you Live Mode weirdos manage to do with it by pushing polyamory to its limits. How many partners can one sim feasibly juggle? Forget the 100 babies challenge and bring on the 100 dates challenge.
As for new Create-A-Sim and Build/Buy Mode options, we don't have the full itemized list of additions yet, though we'll likely see that on the preorder page soon. In the trailer you can spot lots of floral print shirts and dresses as outfits, some lingerie choices, and lots of gold jewelry. There are a few different long hairstyles that incorporate claw clips, which seems rather on trend.
The Build/Buy Mode seems a little more scattered to me. There's a lot of gaudy clubbing stuff like wacky wallpaper and neon light signs but also a lot of modern build mode pieces like a curved pool, very stylish plant decor for walls, and lots of upholstered furniture. I guess you can tell where my heart's at and it's not Live Mode.
The Sims 4 Lovestruck expansion launches on July 25. Here's a quick rundown on features that are coming in the expansion versus in the accompanying free update:
Free game update:
- Romantic Boundaries system for determining how your Sim views romantic or physical exclusivity in relationships
Lovestruck expansion:
- New world Ciudad Enamorada with three neighborhoods
- Botanical garden cafe and bar, nightclub, dive bar, park, and gym community lots
- Love hotel Beso Rápido
- Singles Hangout lot trait for attracting eligible Sims
- Cupid's Corner dating app and customizable Sim profile
- Date planning system for picking venue, date type, activities, and goals
- Romance Consultant career
- Interactive picnic blanket
- New actions like sharing food, stargazing, sultry dances, and new kiss type
- Three new WooHoo spots (one in a closet, and one on that picnic blanket, based on the trailer)
- Romance dynamics per relationship: wholesome, steamy, strained, and unpredictable
- Turn-ons and Turn-offs based on personalities, traits, or styles of other Sims
- Option to attend couples councelling
- New aspirations: Paragon Partner and Romantic Explorer
- New traits: Romantically Reserved and Lovebug
- New fears: Fear of Intimacy and Fear of Being Alone
- New death: Heartbreak, it appears