Exclusive: Death coming to The Sims FreePlay next week

For a free to play game to truly stick around over the years, it needs lots of updates. That’s just what Electronic Arts has done with The Sims FreePlay, pushing out regular updates with new content every few months. Just last month, they released the Golden Age update which introduced teenage and senior citizen Sims to the game.

Next week, The Sims FreePlay will take things even further. The game’s next update adds Life Dreams for each Sim to work towards. And once they grow old enough, the Sims will even be able to die and leave behind a legacy for future Sim generations. It’s quite a big change for The Sims FreePlay, and Android Central has an exclusive preview video and details to help you prepare for the change.

Aging and Death

Starting with the new update, Sims will age naturally for players level 24 and above. If you’re just beginning to play the game, aging won’t affect you until you reach level 24. After that, Sims age a tiny bit every time they complete an action. This applies to Sims of all ages, from infants to senior citizens.

Only Sims that you actively play with will age, so they won’t just get old and die if you take a break from the game and come back to it. Senior citizen Sims will eventually be visited by the Grim Reaper. The Sim he visits will die, giving the player an XP bonus as consolation.

There are ways to slow down and pause aging for important Sims, though Electronic Arts hasn’t shared the details on what those ways will entail. I predict it will cost Life Points (the game’s premium currency) or simply require an In-App Purchase.

Life Dreams, Personalities, and more

In a previous update, the developers removed the ability to assign personalities to Sims. Personalities will return in the new update and can be assigned by the player. Initially there will be two personalities to choose from: Sporty and Geek. More will come in the future.

Just like the console and PC Sims games, Sims now have Life Dreams based on their personalities. Actions, hobbies, and careers specific to that personality will progress the Life Dream and bring the Sim closer to happiness. Sims who complete their Life Dreams will leave behind Life Orbs when they die. These add XP bonuses for completing actions pertaining to the deceased Sim's personality type.

Life Orbs play another, even more important part as well. Energy from Life Orbs can be spent on community lots for each personality. The Sports personality can unlock a beach, where they’ll be able to engage in the new hobbies of snorkeling and shell collecting.

The Geeky Sims will work towards building my favorite location in the game: a Gaming Arcade. The arcade has three fun new hobbies: arcade games, pinball, and skill tester. Those hobbies require the new locations to be upgraded, which costs Life Orbs. Players will actually want some of their Sims to grow old and die in order to unlock the recreation areas and their features. It’s just like wishing for an inheritance in real life!

The primary focus of the Life Dreams update is to give players new ways to play and new goals to work towards. With the new aging and life dream mechanics and new areas to unlock and upgrade, The Sims FreePlay should certainly have some new life (and death) in it very soon.