The Sims 4 has announced a new expansion pack radically different to anything the franchise has released before. The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle is an addition to the base game, where players' actions will have consequences on the environment where their sims live.
InEco Lifestyle, EA introduces Evergreen Harbor, a polluted and semi-condemned neighborhood inhabited by entrepreneurial activists. The Sim characters will get to clean up Evergreen Harbor through actions big and small, from installing a vertical garden in their house to rallying their neighbors, to transform a dumpster into a maker space.
While The Sims 4 already had two neighborhoods with rich stories, where the player's actions could affect the playing field -- Sulani in Island Living and StrangerVille -- the environment was not as intertwined with every gameplay decision as we see in the Eco Lifestyle expansion. The closest thing to this narrative evolution harkens back to The Sims 3's final expansion pack, Future Living, where a sim's actions in the present would affect whether their future was a utopia or a dystopia.
The challenge of cleaning up Evergreen Harbor can be tackled in different ways depending on the player's style. Builders can focus on creating clean-energy houses or renovating the derelict ones that come with the pack by including solar panels, windmills and dew collectors, actions which will also directly reduce the Sims' bills. Gardening, one of The Sims 4 deepest mechanics, gets a boost with composters, vertical gardens and living roofs.
The pack includes a lot of content for Simmers that favor social storytelling, too, as the success of the neighborhood-wide renovation project will depend on the success of rallies. A new profession, maker, has also been added, as well as activities such as collective fitness classes.
The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle will be released June 5 across all platforms.