The Sims 2 - Nightlife

The creators at Maxis did it again. The second expansion pack to the ever popular Sims 2 game, called Nightlife, hit stores in September of 2005. This expansion added many new and exciting things to the base game, including a new "Downtown" destination, dating, cars, and more!

Nightlife offers a brand new destination for your sims: Downtown. Downtown is filled with lots of new places for your sims to have fun and enjoy a wild night out on the town. Bowling alleys, fancy restaurants and hopping nightclubs are some of the many new destinations your sims will have to choose from. Nightlife includes many new objects and decoratives for your sims' homes, as well. One of the more entertaining new objects is the dance sphere. With this object, your sims are able to spin at a slow, medium, or fast speed. This object gives a bit of fun, as well as body skill points.

Probably the most useful and most appreciated new feature Nightlife brings to your sims is dating. Your sims can now ask other sims on dates, or form social groups to take on fun outings downtown. To have your sim ask another sim out on a date, use the phone and select "ask out on date". You will then be able to choose which sim you want your sim to ask on a date. You can even choose whether you want the date to take place on a community lot downtown or in your sims' home. You can also ask sims for dates in person. Keep in mind that other sims do not have to accept the date proposal. If the relationship between your sim and the sim you have asked is not high enough, the other sim might turn you down.

The date, itself, is a mini game, not unlike asking to join a Greek house in University. You have a time limit and a "date meter". When the date meter is visible, you will be able to view the wants and fears of the sim you have asked on a date. Fulfill as many of these wants (and the wants of your own sim) as you can, and you are more likely to have a good date. NPC sims will bring gifts and love letters (or hate letters, depending on the outcome of the date) to your sim hours after the date has ended. It is not uncommon for an NPC sim to give your sim a call asking if they would be interested in another date or outing, if the first date went well enough.

The Sims 2 - Nightlife also adds a fun new aspect to the sims' personalities: chemistry. Sims now have turn-ons and turn-offs. You have a variety of turn-ons and turn-offs to assign to your sims, including formal wear, makeup and different hair colors. Your sim will be "attracted" to other sims with the attributes you assigned as a turn-on, and repulsed by those who possess your sims turn-offs. The chemistry between sims is measured by lightning bolts that appear on the thumbnail (under the relationships catalog) of the sims your sim is attracted to. One lightning bolt by the thumbnail is low chemistry, two is medium, and three is high chemistry. The higher the chemistry, the more likely these sims are to get along well. A lightning bolt with a red X through it means no chemistry, and you would have a more difficult time getting these sims together.

Cars are another fun addition that came with Nightlife. Your sims can now own driveable cars instead of taking the taxi or using the car pool. In order to place a car, you must first purchase a driveway. You can also build a garage to put the car in. While cars do not offer a huge change in the way the game is played, I feel they do offer more realism to the game. Your sims can have alarms installed in the cars, take a spin around the block (which gives a nice boost to their fun), sit in the cars and listen to the stereos, and even make out and "woohoo" with other sims in them.

With Nightlife came a slew of new NPC sims and music. There are D.J.s, wildly dressed party animal sims that are frequently seen milling about the nightclubs, and even vampires! The vampires are seen in the downtown area late at night, stalking the sidewalk and socializing like everyone else. If you wish for your sim to become a vampire, you must first befriend one of the "Grand Vampires" (they are named "Count" and "Contessa"). If you get your sims' relationship with one of these NPCs high enough, they might bite your sim, turning them into vampires, themselves. Once your sim is a vampire, he or she will be allergic to sunlight, and become immortal. Your vampire sims' needs never decay (unless they come out into the sunlight), so you never have to worry about their needs. The downside to this is that the gameplay can become redundant when your sims never need to do anything to up their moods, and only being able to leave their coffins at night makes it nearly impossible for them to find employment. Children can not become vampires, and any infant born into a family of vampires will be human.

The Sims 2 - Nightlife offers many new interactions and over one-hundred new objects for you to enjoy. Any Sims or Sims 2 fan is sure to enjoy at least some of the new perks that come with the second expansion pack. The addition of expansion packs may slow down slower machines, so be sure to check the minimum system requirements on the back of the box before purchasing.