On Friday the 13th, Jeanette and I flew to EA's office in Stockholm to try The Sims 3 Supernatural. Yes, I flew twice on Friday the 13th and was still alive. We got to play for about two hours, watch a presentation, and join a Skype meeting with Assistant Producer Megan Myers.
I want to thank Joyce for being so kind to me and SimGoodie, and for all the help. We arrived in Stockholm several hours before the event, so we had time to eat and look around. At the EA office we got name tags and were taken into the same room where we had previously tried Showtime. The room was dark, lit by a projector and green Sims diamonds.
This is my impression of the preview build. It was not final, so bugs could still be fixed and details could change before release. I focused first on CAS, traits, creatures, Moonlight Falls, alchemy, and Build/Buy, then came back to witches, vampires, magic, and the fortune teller wagon.
What is new in The Sims 3 Supernatural?
The new collection journal was especially useful for players who like collecting gems, plants, fish, and small animals. It showed the things you could collect in each category and which pack they came from. It did not simply make collecting tidier; it also supported the new elixir loop, because alchemy pushed you out into Moonlight Falls to find the right ingredients.
The build also added new collectables and harvestables, including plants such as chili and truffles, plus new gems and fish tied to the supernatural theme. Supernatural lets you play with supernatural beings, but it is more than one new creature. The pack adds a collection journal, elixirs, magical objects, new toys, Moonlight Falls, and more than 230 Build/Buy objects. It felt like a systems-heavy pack: CAS was broader, collecting had a clearer purpose, and the world was built around supernatural life.
Create a Sim
The biggest CAS change was that supernatural beings could be created directly in Create a Sim. That included fairies, werewolves, ghosts, the genie from Showtime if Showtime was installed, and vampires. Mummies and SimBots were not available in CAS because they caused too many issues. Sims from toddler to elder could be made supernatural, so you could create a tiny fairy or an old witch straight away.
CAS also had supernatural clothing, accessories, long nails for men and women, different teeth, vampire bite marks, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, pointed ears, new tattoos, and around a dozen new skin tones. Two of the new skin tones used a rainbow slider, so you could push a Sim into very unnatural colours.
New traits, wishes, food, and music
The preview build included these new traits:
| Trait | Description |
|---|---|
| Supernatural Fan | These Sims love supernatural beings and enjoy being where supernatural activity is strongest. |
| Supernatural Skeptic | There is a world full of supernatural beings and events, but skeptical Sims prefer what is normal. |
| Proper | Polite manners may feel old-fashioned, but Proper Sims still use those old manners. |
| Night Owl | Night Owls love the night life and do not want to get out of bed before 10. |
| Gatherer | If it can be picked, planted, or caught, Gatherers are suited for the job. They find ingredients and produce better harvests. |
| Brooding | Brooding Sims cannot stop thinking about mysteries and the meaning of life. Their deep thoughts can even slow the creative process. |
The pack also added Dark Wave music, a dark electronic style that suited gothic Sims, plus a lot of new food because the elixir and ingredient systems needed new plants and harvestables. Lifetime wishes leaned into the supernatural systems, including alchemy, leading a werewolf pack, magical makeovers, mastering mysticism, transforming the town, and greener gardens.
Creating supernatural beings
Fairies
Fairies got a wing animation in CAS, six wing types, and many colour choices. They were natural pranksters with a magic meter, could transform into tiny fairies, use fairy houses, talk to plants, and help nearby Sims build skills faster.
Werewolves
Werewolves could be edited in normal and werewolf form. The werewolf version had stronger jaws, visible teeth, more hair, dog-like body language, and interactions such as attacking furniture or sniffing other Sims. They could hunt for specific ingredients, howl, form packs, and eventually learn more control over transformations through rewards and progression.
Zombies
Zombies could not be made directly in CAS. They came from bites, elixirs, or the full moon, and there were elixirs for both temporary and permanent zombie transformations. When a Sim changed, the animation showed them going down into the ground and crawling back up as a zombie. Zombies wanted brains, but if they could not find brains, they went after garden plants instead.
Ghosts and Bonehilda
Ghosts could be made in CAS for the first time, including choosing how they died. The pack added three new ghost colours because it added three new death types, and that also made ghost children easier to set up.
Bonehilda returned from The Sims 1. I did not find many interactions with her in the preview build, but she appeared to help around the house automatically, and I had both screenshots and a video of her in the event material.
Moonlight Falls and the moon cycle
Moonlight Falls was the new world, built for supernatural Sims. At night it felt foggy, gothic, and Victorian, with community lots for different creature types, including places for vampires and werewolves. The preview build made it feel almost like the world had its own weather because clouds and fog changed the atmosphere.
The moon cycle was a major new system. You could set the cycle length to 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 days, or lock the world to full moon or another phase. Full moon made zombies appear and gave magical Sims more power. The UI showed the moon next to the Sim portrait, including how long it was until full moon.
Alchemy, collecting, and Build/Buy
Alchemy was a new skill based on combining ingredients into magical and non-magical elixirs. There were 41 recipes, so the skill pushed you into the world to find ingredients. The original article called out three skill challenges: making 150 excellent elixirs, learning every recipe as an alchemy master, and throwing at least 50 elixirs at Sims as an anonymous alchemist.
Build/Buy had around 230 new objects, especially magical objects. The article did not spoil every object, but it highlighted that the pack had a lot more than CAS creatures: magical furniture, toys, the rocking horse, and systems that unlocked more items as you played.
Witches, vampires, and the fortune teller wagon
The second article tab focused on witches, vampires, magic, and the new fortune teller wagon. Witches first appeared in The Sims 1 and returned in The Sims 2, so they felt like a classic creature by this point. In Supernatural they could be styled however you wanted in Create a Sim: completely normal, green and warty, sweet and friendly, or much darker. The point was that the player decided what kind of witch they wanted to make.
Witches used wands and had a magic meter. You could buy different wands in Buy Mode, place them in the Sim's inventory, and choose which one the Sim should use. The preview build had several wand options, but Mike Cox said not to buy the cheapest wand, because it could make spells backfire more often. Witches could also get a lifetime wish that let them cast magic without a wand.
The spell set included good and bad magic. Witches could duel each other, cast spells on Sims, bring luck, stir up love, and haunt a neighbor's house. They could practice magic, improve, and fail. If you had Pets installed, cats could help witches by strengthening their magic, which made the old witch-and-cat fantasy work directly in the game.
The broom was both funny and practical. All Sims could use brooms, not only witches, and the broom worked as transportation. There was also a broom arena where Sims could race, and one lifetime reward looked like a vacuum cleaner you could fly around on. That mix of silly object and useful transportation felt very Sims.
Vampires returned without requiring Late Night. In Supernatural they were upgraded rather than simply copied over. They aged from child to young adult, then aged very slowly after that. If you hovered over their age, it said they did not age. Their eyes had a stronger glow, and the bite interactions were easier to see.
Sunlight still mattered, but there were more ways to handle it. Vampires could use an elixir or a lifetime reward to protect themselves from the sun. That meant a vampire household did not have to be trapped inside all day if the player wanted to build a more active vampire story.
The fortune teller wagon was a new rabbithole. Sims could work there as a career, or visit it as a normal Sim to have their future told. I was not completely sure from the preview how much a reading affected the Sim afterward, but it fit the occult theme of the pack and gave Moonlight Falls another strange place to visit.
That second part rounded out the article. Supernatural was not only fairies, werewolves, and zombies from the first preview section. Witches, upgraded vampires, the fortune teller wagon, magic objects, and small systems like cats strengthening witch magic made the pack feel much broader than a creature checklist.
Final impression
Supernatural was clearly larger than a simple creature pack. CAS, alchemy, the moon cycle, Moonlight Falls, fairies, werewolves, witches, vampires, zombies, and collecting all connected to each other. The preview made the pack feel like a darker, more systemic expansion for players who wanted The Sims 3 to lean into fantasy without losing the normal household loop.