Sims 2: Nightlife: Brings Your Sims a Social Life
Nightlife adds a Downtown you can associate with your towns, but there is only one to select. Downtown features new buildings, restaurants, stores, and various entertainment centers like bowling alleys and parks. Included in the new objects and items is the ability to build driveways and garages for your car.
That’s right, now your Sim has their own car they can take to work, drop the kids off at school, or even head Downtown on a whim. It certainly beats waiting for a taxi or leaving for work an hour early. There are five cars available, from a little hatchback on up to a high-performance sports car, each with a handful of paintjobs to choose from. But like real cars, Sims can sit in them (some have a high comfort rating) and listen to the radio as they make out or Woo Hoo in their vehicle.
Speaking of radio, there are two new stations your Sim can rock out to: Oldies or Trance. I personally can’t stand listening to the music sung in Simlish and replace them all with songs from my music library, but it gives you something new to try if you get sick of what was already available.
You can now see neighboring lots making it feel like your Sim’s home isn’t out in the boondocks all-alone. And if your Sim is in a Community Lot, you can click on the Community Lot next door to get there instead of having to call a cab or click on your car to sort through the options to go.
There is a new aspiration, “Pleasure Aspiration”, making Sims obviously want to do whatever they can to have fun. You can also change the aspiration of your adult Sims with the new ReNuYuSenso Orb. But if you do it under the Gold Level, you’re in for a surprise. In addition to finding a new aspiration to select, you can now designate two Turn Ons and one Turn Off. This helps you realize which other Sims yours may or may not be attracted to. In the relationships menu, you can even see the lightning in the picture designating chemistry. But don’t give up if a lightning bolt is crossed out showing no chemistry between your Sim and another, mine ended up marrying one who originally had no chemistry. Sims 2 Nightlife also brings deeper emotions, as Sims can now get furious. I don’t mean the obviously angry conversations, but their face is in all red in the Relationship Menu. It takes time to fix the friendship, but the anger does subside. I don’t know that the make-up Woo Hoo is all that exciting after the fight, but we can pretend.
Your Sim also has a personal inventory, found in the same area as Career and Aspiration Rewards. You can put items you want to move to a new house in there. I haven’t found a limit as the number of items you can place, but your Sim’s pockets are deep.
Arranging a social outing is easy because you can set up lists of Sims in a group and invite the entire group on an outing with one phone call. If the outing goes well, your Sim can meet new friends, get gifts, and get constant invitations to go out. In fact, your Sim may get so many invitations to go out they will find it hard to go to work and mess up their lives – kind of like the real world. You have a certain amount of time to ensure everyone is happy and having fun, either you make it to the next level on the bar and receive bonus time, or the outing ends.
Similar to the Group Outings, Nightlife also has an option for a Date. Again, how well the date goes is based on how happy the couple is and if any bad things happen. The nifty trick is you can see what your Sim’s date wants to make sure they are having a good time by fulfilling it. If dates actually worked like that, we would all be Casanovas. And if you have great dates, like the Group Outings, you can get rewards ranging from a note and flowers to bigger objects like a pinball machine. The flipside is with a terrible date you may get the ultimate hate letter.
If your Sim has a hard time finding a date, there is a Gypsy you can call to get set up, for a price – really it is a choice on how much your donation is, up to 5000 Simoleans. You are able to select if your date is male or female, but they aren’t always guaranteed to go well. She also sells a variety of potions, including cures.
The restaurants and bars are functioning, in that you can be seated and order food or drinks. There are several options in ordering for yourself or the group and what you want to eat. You can also flirt with your waitress in attempt to lower the bill or hide from the host with the hopes of skipping on the bill completely. Just make sure to hide for 30 seconds or your Sim will get a lecture.
There are over 125 new objects and items including a poker table, DJ station, karaoke machine, photo booth, and more. If your Sim is a whiz at poker, sitting down at the table may be a fun way to win money from the other Sims playing. Or maybe taking a picture in a public booth, or even a public Woo Hoo in one, is more your style. If you do opt to take pictures in the booth, you can also hang those photos on the walls of your Sim’s home.
Nightlife also adds to the Aliens and Ghosts by having Vampires around (kind of like the Zombies in the Sims 2 University expansion). In order to become a Vampire, a Sim has to be bitten by a Master Vampire that hangs around town late at night. They’re dressed in gothic clothes and are still fun to party with if you aren’t hoping to get bitten. It becomes a new game, in a way, if your Sim is a vampire. It is really easy to keep their stats at maximum and keeping them happy, until the sun comes up. Having no windows and closed doors isn’t going to keep the sunlight out, though.
You will have to buy a coffin (one of the new beds available) and sleep in there during the day. It makes going to school or having a day job impossible, but you can work around that. Vampires can walk around, stalk around with their cloaks in front of their faces, or even turn into bats. And even though the Vampires yell at other Sims, Sims don’t seem all that bothered by their presence making for a bowling Vampire to be even funnier.
Other new things include more possible interactions with other Sims. New kisses, groping each other on the dance floor, or even asking other Sims about themselves are only a few of the new options. Again, as relationships develop, you will see more choices as to how your Sim can interact with others.
Some people enjoy playing with cheats. I’m mixed in that some I like and others I don’t (I admit to making Sims with no jobs that seduce people into joining the family and then killing them off once I get their money, plus I get to sell the satellite that kills them for extra funds). Of course, to get to the cheats menu, you have to type Ctrl + Shift + C. Then you will see a box where you can type the cheats. I’ve noticed that sometimes it gets stuck, especially if you type the wrong thing. Simply typing “exit” (without the quotes) will close the cheats box.
Once nice feature is you don’t have to play with a family to give them the “motherlode” cheat. Typing “familyfunds lastname amount” will give the family with the last name typed the amount you want them to have. I made a Snuggles Family, so if I want them to start with 40,000 Simoleans, I would type “familyfunds Snuggles 40000” (again, without the quotes) and that is how much the family would have.
Likewise, you can add or subtract money by typing “familyfunds lastname +/- amount” and it will either add or subtract the amount you specify. The “kaching” and “motherlode” cheats will still give you 1000 or 50000 Simoleans respectively, but the familyfund cheats can be done without actively playing that family. I guess that makes buying the expensive houses from the start a little easier.
You also don’t have to wait around hoping the Count Vampire will find your Sim attractive enough to bite. The “boolprop testingcheatsenabled true” cheat will give you the option to “Make Vampire!” after selecting your Sim and going through More a couple of times (remember, you have to hit Shift when selecting your Sim for these cheats to work).
Sims 2: Nightlife is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB for Crude Humor, Sexual Themes, and Violence. This game can also be found on: PC.
