This review is courtesy of the Game Changers Program
Welcome to TSR’s Paranormal Pack Review full of spooky things for your Sims! As many of you are aware on Jan 26th there will be a new pack coming out for the Sims4. The Paranormal pack is jammed full of objects, CAS items, animations, gameplay, and features. Due to the size of this spooky pack this review will becoming to you in three parts.
Meet Ghastly Roommates
In the Paranormal Pack, to meet these Ghastly Roommates or play with the paranormal elements and features you will get the most from being on the lot type Residential Haunted House.
New Lot Type – Haunted House
The new lot type in the Paranormal Pack is called Haunted house residential. This must be declared in the lot type and will not automatically set as a haunted house. This is generally great because you won’t have random Haunted Houses within your played households, aside from gigs if you are a Paranormal Investigator.
In this Paranormal Pack, there is a new lot type that offers lots of playable features and rewards. You get Guidry, Specters, Haunted Treasure, Paranormal Activity, Accursed Objects, It’s Alive, Be Brave, Aspiring Investigators Welcome, and ???????? as the Lot ‘Perks.’
Ok so some of these lot features are not positive. The ???????? feature is Temperance, Guidry’s ex who is also now a ghost with a super bad attitude.
For the most part, if you remove cursed objects and perform ceremonies when needed, the haunted house is quite hospitable with friendly specters.
Heroic Mode
If a normal haunted house is not ‘exciting’ enough for you, we suggest the ‘Heroic Mode’ version of the lot.
When you go to enable Heroic mode a photo of Guidry appears asking if you really want to do this. In summary, more rewards, more challenges, and time duration to set it back to normal (24 Hours Sim time). Everyone in the house was ready except Bob. Poor Bob, he was running around terrified before we enabled Heroic Mode.
Throughout this Paranormal Pack Review, Bob regrettably quickly lost his sanity and began talking to his book. However, at the beginning of the Heroic Mode things were not really all that bad. Bonehilda and Eliza got a lot of cleaning, gardening, and crafting completed. Bonehilda even made a wonderful dinner of Salt and Pepper Shrimp Cocktail and dessert.
Fortunately, about halfway through the 24-hr period, Bob had to go to work. Hopefully, when he returns things will be back to normal, or as normal as they could be. He has had a terrible time coping with this event. Whose idea was it to buy this house anyway?
As long as Guidry is around Bob seems to be able to hold it together. Guidry is quickly becoming great friends with Eliza, Bob, and Bonehilda. Well… we will be honest there is something else going on with Bonehilda and Guidry and it is not natural.
Aside from frequent repairs and messes and the occasional fear and light flickering, the first Heroic Mode did not go by too terribly. Bob would probably not agree with this statement. Until the very last few hours, Eliza held it together.
The music started to get intensely spooky and Eliza ran upstairs to perform a ceremony. The ceremony even with her level 5 Medium skill was incomplete, which meant more negative consequences.
This is when it all went downhill, Bob and Eliza were now both terrified screaming and running around. Bonehilda, however, was blissfully unaware of with the distraction of Guidry’s company. This was definitely an unforeseen turn in this Paranormal Review.
Guidry
Guidry or Claude Rene Duplantier Guidry was a paranormal investigator, who met his early demise. He now ‘helps’ the Sims living in the haunted house for a place to crash, as he is a ghost and needs someplace to be. If you do not want him to show up you just use the hand statue.
Guidry has special interactions that you can ask to find out more about ghosts and specters. Guidry in exchange for a place to hang out will give the Sim advice on all sorts of situations and things that may occur in a haunted house. Specters leave loot and Guidry encourages Sims to collect it, stomp dolls, and scream occasionally. You also talk to Guidry to get your Paranormal Investigator License.
One thing to note about the creepy hand is that you can not only disallow Guidry visits and enable Heroic Mode for the haunted house. Your Sims get double the reward points but the Haunted House offers extra challenges and gets rapidly worse.
Cursed items
So there are several cursed items that Guidry advises to get rid of or clean up.
The creepy doll
Not sure what it does precisely but the entire thing is just creepy. Removing it also states that it increases the house’s serenity level. Let’s be real here. Removing it increases my own serenity level.
EErie Hands
Not sure if it was just random or a result of the failed ceremony, but these creepy Eerie Hands appeared in the living room! Hovering over it, the option Remove Eerie Hands appears, when this is clicked the Sim will kick away, removing the cursed object.
Twisted Tendril
The twisted tendril is a creepy looking plant that grows outside and lowers your lot’s serenity level. I am imagining that means more chances of angry ghosts.
Slime Creature
The Slime Creature is a nasty looking puddle of slime on the floor that sims can slip-on. Bob and Eliza about knocked each other out because of it.
Flickering lights
If your Sims live on a Haunted Lot the lights will flicker and your Sims will get debuffs from being in the scary environment. They may even scream or freak out to try to cope with their level of fear.
Expect Visitors
With ghosts popping up now and then, even with some being not all bad, the homeowner will feel the new emotion of fear. There are new debuffs related to being scared.
We can only guess at this point that Sims maybe able to die of fear. I tried for quite some time with the appearance of Temperance, but no luck!
Ghosts
There are two types of ghosts now with the Paranormal Pack; the previous style of the ghost which looks very much like a Sim and Specters.
Specters
The circular floating ghost types are called specters. Depending on the color of the specter depends on the type. Green specters are happy and red specters are angry. The types seem to reflect the Sim emotion color by a general theme, but maybe not exactly as the yellow specters seem to be smart or geeky they wear cute little square glasses.
Need a new way to get rid of an unwelcome Welcome Wagon? Well, there is definitely a perk to living on a haunted lot. Sometimes when we think payback never shows its ugly head. Red specters will actually scare the unwelcome welcome party.
One of the most exciting parts about this Paranormal Pack Review is that finding out that these specters are the new guard dogs!
In the Paranormal Pack, Specters can also leave a variety of loot such as; soul scraps. You can also give Specters handmade offerings or parts of your Sims’ souls. If you give them a part of your soul the Sim will become very sad, but the Specter will be very happy. The specters really enjoy crafted or homemade items.
Specters can also give buffs and debuffs depending on the variation. For example, if there is a playful Specter your Sim can get the Specter Sparkles Buff.
We hope you have enjoyed the TSR Paranormal Pack Review! Don’t worry you will see more of Bonehilda and how to get her in Part 2!
