A superior expansion with a lot to add to the game.
The Sims 2: Nightlife adds yet another chapter to the already extensive Sims story. Possibly the largest selling PC franchise ever (Tetris and Myst are the other contenders), the tradition in the Sims is to add more and more content with many expansions. The tradition continues with Nightlife, the second expansion for the series.
Nightlife adds pretty much exactly what the name suggests... a nightlife. A new downtown neighborhood is opened up, with residential and commercial lots in abundance. This neighborhood is associated with your main community, and your Sims can live in it just like the original. In truth, you could ignore the main community altogether and play only in downtown if you'd like.
Like in the original Sims 2, you can leave your home to visit any of these community lots to shop or whatever. Now, though, you can do so on a date or with a group of friends. Dates are scored according to how well they are going, and group outings can either be casual (unscored) or scored as you choose. Dating is the main focus of the expansion, and everything else added more or less supports that. Good dates and group outings, as determined by the score, can result in rewards and benefits. Bad dates can get you the scorn of the one you were seeking to romance.
Of course, with the addition of a new neighborhood and more activities, the Sims need more objects to satisfy their consumer urges. Nightlife contains numerous items designed to be used in the new downtown social lots. Items like bowling alleys, a DJ booth (a money making opportunity also), new lighting options and new furniture are included, as are some new party clothes. These objects support the group nature of the expansion, allowing people to bowl, dance, kareoke and otherwise party. With the new items, the Sims now have many new opportunities for socializing with their friends.
Some of the more important additions are new traits for your Sims. Now, in addition to their personality traits and aspirations, they also have turn ons and turn offs. That is to say, things that attract or repel them on other Sims. Based on the turn ons, personality traits, zodiac signs, etc, Sims can now feel attraction or repulsion to one another. Attraction allows higher level interactions earlier and more easily. After all, you are attracted to each other. There are even new interactions that allow Sims to scope rooms for new flames, check people out for attraction and even ask other Sims if they feel any attraction. A new aspiration focused around pleasure and partying is another significant addition. Plus, there is a cool new medical condition... vampirism. Your Sim can be bitten by one of the master vampires in the game if they get a high enough relation with one of them. The condition can be spread to others by interactions. In fact, one of the complaints that has been going around is that it is very easy to have your entire neighborhood become vampires after being changed yourself.
The graphics and the sound are up to the standards set by the original game, being that they are just extensions and additions to it. As usual, the voices of the Sims are in Simlish, the artificial, nonsense language that was developed for this series of games. While it is impossible to accurately translate the words, the mood of the conversation is still easy to determine by listening to the tone of voice and the body language of the speaker. The graphics on the new items are good as usual, but there is still the problem of the visuals being very demanding on the computer processor. There can be noticable slowing and hesitation at times even with up to date, modern systems. There is no sign that any real optimization has taken place with the new expansions.
Nightlife adds significantly to the Sims 2 experience, much as Hot Date did for the original Sims game. The greater social opportunities add more challenge and different goals to the world. With the new aspiration to support a clubbing lifestyle and cool properties and items, your Sims can have a truly wild time on the town. Nightlife is a worthwhile addition to the game that will add a lot to the gameplay, and should be part of any Sims fan's collection.