The next big life simming expansion pack is on the way and we officially know it's called The Sims 4 Lovestruck. As you'd guess based on the title, this one is all about romance. The expansion pack is bringing dating apps, a turn ons and turn offs system, and some new woohoo spots, unsurprisingly. Oh and polyamorous relationships are coming to the base game alongside it, which a lot of players are pretty psyched for.
Here's a quick list of the new stuff in the Lovestruck expansion:
- New world Ciudad Enamorada
- Cupid's Corner dating app
- Romance Consultant career
- Romance dynamics
- Turn ons and turn offs system
- New traits, aspirations, fears, and death
- Free update: Romantic boundaries system
Sims 4 Lovestruck Release Date and Trailers
When is the Lovestruck release date?
The Sims 4 Lovestruck release date is July 25, 2024. It will cost $39.99 / £34.99 when it launches on Steam, Epic Games, and the EA App.
Here are the two Lovestruck trailers so far
The first trailer for Lovestruck and its accompanying announcement post gave us a lot of details on what's in the expansion pack. Some, like the Romance Consultant career, are spelled out in the news post, while others like death by broken heart are teased in the trailer.
The Lovestruck gameplay trailer focuses in on dating through the Cupid's Corner app and how you'll choose a date type, venue, and actions. It also shows off just a bit of how turn ons and turn offs can affect how your Sim connects with others while on a date and how they may choose to heed the red flags and just head home instead of staying out.
Interestingly, it also highlights how Lovestruck isn't entirely about pursuing new relationships. The trailer also shows old mainstay townie couple Bob and Eliza Pancakes suffering the marriage doldrums and going on a "romantic repair date" to keep the romance alive.
Sims 4 Lovestruck Gameplay
The Sims 4 Lovestruck world: Ciudad Enamorada
The new Sims 4 world for Lovestruck is called Ciudad Enamorada, which has three different neighborhoods:
- Vista Hermosa: "a central neighborhood with greenery and walking areas"
- Plaza Mariposa: "a residential suburban neighborhood"
- Nuevo Corazón: "an uptown neighborhood with a small high rise area, with penthouse suite, and upscale venues"
There are also references to several different public lots that we'll find in Ciudad Enamorada:
- A public gym called Sudor
- A lounge called Laguna Del Abrazo
- A park with a cafe and bar called Media Naranja
- A nightclub called Mirador del Amor
- A hotel called Beso Rápido where you can meet for a hookup
The Sims 4 dating app: Cupid's Corner
Another major feature in the Lovestuck expansion is the new online dating app where your Sims can make their own profile, set their dating preferences, and swipe through potential matches to find a date.
You can customize your Sim's profile with all these choices:
- Genders they are romantically interested in
- Genders they are sexually interested in
- Age ranges (young adult, adult, or elderly) that they're willing to date
- Two of their chosen traits you'd like to share
When swiping through matches, it looks like you'll be able to see their profile pic, age, which world they live in, and their two chosen traits. You can choose to save the matches you like best.
There's also the new "date planning system" where Sims can choose a date type, venue, invite other Sims (maybe a double date scenario?), activities, and goals for the date. In the gameplay trailer we've now seen three date types so far:
- "Get to know you" date
- Romantic date
- "Romantic repair" date
As for the activities, the event planning screen says to choose a minimum of three with options like watching TV, having drinks, socializing, and woohooing. So it seems like a sort of date itinerary of interactions that you want to do. It even differentiates between different categories of socializing actions, whether they're romantic, friendly, or funny.
Lovestruck romance dynamics and attraction system
In the expansion there will be four different "relationship dynamics" that can develop between partners:
- Wholesome: Genuinely loving and healthy relationship
- Steamy: A relationship focused on physical intimacy
- Strained: Sims who are together but are unhappy and don't treat each other well
- Unpredictable: Relationships that go back and forth from fighting to, er, woohoo-ing often
That plays into the attraction system of turn ons and turn offs. Like how you currently choose all sorts of general likes and dislikes, your Sim can now be turned on or off by "way of life," traits, romance styles, hair color, outfit color, and fashion style of other Sims.
There are also "romance styles" to choose, which seems like a sort of play on "love languages," where a Sim can be turned on or off by: affection, flirting, gift giving, physical intimacy, and WooHoo.
What else is new in the Lovestruck expansion?
- Singles Hangout lot trait for attracting eligible Sims
- Romance Consultant career
- New actions like sharing food, stargazing, sultry dances, and new kiss type
- Three new woohoo spots: in a closet, picnic blanket, and love hotel
- Option to attend couples counseling
- An eggplant costume, yes really, along with more traditional flirty costumes like a maid outfit and a cute devil
- New aspirations: Paragon Partner and Romantic Explorer
- New traits: Romantically Reserved and Lovebug
- New fears: Fear of Intimacy and Fear of Being Alone
- New deaths: Heartbreak and Choking on box of chocolates
Sims 4 Lovestruck Build/Buy and CAS items
What Create-A-Sim items are in Lovestruck?
We don't have the full rundown on all the Build/Buy and CAS items coming in the expansion yet, but we got some clues from the reveal trailer and a walkthrough of several different clothing and costume options in the developer livestream.
There are lots of large floral patterns in the clothing choices, some mesh tops and dresses, hairstyles featuring claw clips, and those funky costumes from the trailer. There's the eggplant costume, maid costume, firefighter, catfish, peach, and a couple more.
Build/Buy items coming in Lovestruck
As with CAS items, we don't have the full total of Build/Buy items yet, but we did get to see most of them during the developer livestream the week before launch. It does feel like the decor this pack isn't particularly focused on one style. There's modern gym stuff, art deco-adjacent bar decor, casual hangout bar stuff, and some more cabaret looking bar stuff too. It's awfully bar focused.
Here are some other build/buy items that stuck out to me:
- Sliding shower door and shower heads
- Giant living plant wall art
- That new closet WooHoo interaction comes from a specific 1x2 tile closet object
- A bear rug
- The return of the giant heart bed
Sims 4 Lovestruck free update
What's in the Lovestruck free update?
As usual, there's a free base game update—which happened on July 23—alongside the Lovestruck expansion. This one brings the "romantic boundaries" system which a lot of folks are just referring to as the "polyamory update."
"You can now define how your Sims approach romantic relationships in terms of physical and emotional romantic exclusivity," says the expansion announcement post. "This allows for Sims to date multiple Sims without impact to other relationships."
As demonstrated in the developer livestream, this revolves around jealousy. For each Sim, you can chose whether they experience jealousy when their partner does non-physical romantic interactions with other Sims, physical romantic actions, and for physical interactions except for WooHooing. You can also toggle whether or not your Sim is open to reconsidering those bounaries through conversation with their partner. Hopefully this will let players set up all sorts of complicated household scenarios to play with.
Here's everything else that we now know is coming in the base game update:
- New "relationship" category in the interactions menu
- Romantic boundaries system
- Remove Sims from the relationships panel
- Gender-neutral language for relationships: Spouse, Engaged, Partner
- In "Configure Neighborhood Stories" a new option to allow unplayed households to change friendships and relationships autonomously
- Curved pools
- New makeup category in CAS for eyelashes
- New coffin nail shape and new nail colors in CAS
- Livestream safe music setting to avoid content strikes
- New loc braid hairstyle collaboration with Dark and Lovely
- An "apply all" button in CAS to apply makeup, hair, and accessories across all outfits
