Highlights
- The Sims franchise has a history of unresolved mysteries, with The Sims 3 having the most unanswered questions.
- Don Lothario, a popular character, has a mysterious backstory and is linked to the disappearance of Bella Goth.
- The Goth family has an unsolved mystery surrounding the death of Lolita Goth, which may explain their aversion to technology in other games.
Secrets are an essential component of gaming, and titles across every genre have unique ways of sending players on a wild goose chase for the meanings of these conundrums. While most puzzles have their solutions eventually revealed by discerning players, like the Athletics Team Murder Mystery of Red Dead Redemption 2, quite a few still leave gamers scratching their heads for years, searching for a definitive answer. In this regard, The Sims franchise has had its fair share of unresolved mysteries through the years, from The Kingdom in The Sims Medieval to the fire at the Von Haunt Estate in The Sims 4. The Sims 3, perhaps the most iconic Sims game to date, has the most unanswered questions in the franchise, and lovers of the simulator are still on the prowl for solutions.
No stranger to the mystery dynamic, Maxis has incorporated an investigative element to each edition of The Sims, culminating in the Detective career in The Sims 4 Get to Work DLC that finally involved Sims players in hunting down criminals across the installment's many worlds through clues and interrogation. The Get to Work DLC would have come in handy in the title's predecessor, The Sims 3, as the prequel is rife with mysteries that require players to put on their proverbial thinking caps -- and many of these riddles are still unsolved as the game approaches its 15th anniversary.
Don Lothario: The Love Aficionado and Man of Mystery
While being irresistibly attractive to most Sims as the name implies, the Caliente family also has a cloud of mystery hanging over its head. Don Lothario, casanova and Katrina Caliente's romance interest in The Sims 4, has a head-scratching piece of lore in The Sims 3 that stretches back to The Sims 2. Don's personal bio in The Sims 2 reveals the character is torn between marriage to Cassandra Goth and continuing to be a serial flirt, and this is related to his confusing appearance in Riverview in The Sims 3. In the franchise's canonical timeline, the events of The Sims 3 occur before The Sims 2, but the lover boy finds himself teleported back in time -- and not by accident.
Lothario's family bio tells players he arrived in Riverview after stepping onto a teleporter, and he remembers several women laughing at him before waking up in the new world. Given his promiscuous history, a commonly accepted theory in The Sims' community is that his scorned flings and ex-lovers banded together and forced him back in time from Pleasantview to Riverview as punishment for his unfaithful ways, although there's no official explanation for this phenomenon.
The Lunar Lakes in The Sims 3 also hold details of an essential Sims mystery, and Don Lothario has another part to play. Bella Goth is the subject of fan interest due to her disappearance in The Sims 2, last seen by other characters at Don Lothario's home, with the Caliente sisters showing up in Pleasantview shortly before she vanished. Bella never returned home, appearing as a ghost in Lunar Lakes, supposedly dying of old age in outer space. Don's close relationship with the Calientes suggests this is more than a coincidence, although their involvement in Bella Goth's alien abduction is unclear.
The Sims 3 Deaths Aren't Always a Finality
In a world filled with eccentric characters, the Goth family stands out to players of The Sims, with their isolationist behavior and inexplicably dour moods across the franchise's editions. The family has an unsolved mystery in The Sims 3 -- the identity of Lolita Goth. Never mentioned in any other Sims game, Lolita is a deceased household member in The Sims 3, meeting an early demise due to electrocution.
However, The Sims fanatics will note the conspicuous absence of electronics in Goth homes in all other installments, so Lolita's cause of death raises eyebrows. Her relationship with the family is unknown, but some suggest her death is the family's reason for staying away from technology in other editions of The Sims.
Another haunted household in The Sims 3 is that of Hannah and Aiden Jones, inheritors of the Remington Estate in Riverview. Passed down to Hannah by her uncle after his death, the Jones residence is under possession by the restless spirits of the Remington family, who all met unfortunate ends. Hannah is the last surviving member of the household, and some believe it is only a matter of time before she and her husband join their family in the afterlife. There is no known correlation between the deaths of the Remington family members, but the unnatural manners of their death suggest the household is cursed, and the continual presence of ghosts on the property spells doom for Hannah and Aiden.
While no Sim appears to be behind the demises of the Remington family, the same can't be said for Hank Ferdinand, who strangely disappeared just before the start of The Sims 3's timeline. Before his death by starvation, the acclaimed artist and Riverview resident took on Billy Caspian as a ward, and the former pupil inherited Hank's home after his passing.
A quick look at Billy's bio places the Loner Sim under suspicion of involvement in his mentor's death. Billy expresses frustration at how easily things came to Hank, and many players believe he killed his teacher out of envy of his fame and talents, getting away with his crimes and inheriting his master's house. These mysteries have largely gone unsolved since The Sims 3 made its debut, and Maxis could expand on a few in the franchise's next installment.
The Sims 5 is in development.
