In a nutshell Nightlife seeks to further expand the life of the Sim beyond the home. In University this was achieved by adding a 'campus' and a new young adult period of life. In this expansion 'downtown' is the new venue, a location Sims can visit that is choc full of places to experience and things for your Sims to interact with. Rock concerts occur in the park and nightclubs pound in time with the music, creating an atmosphere that can really bring your Sims' wilder sides to life. To go hand in hand with this are two new major aspects: namely the pleasure seeking Sim and the dating system.

The pleasure seeking aspiration is a new characteristic that represents the Sim that lives only for fun. They enjoy parties, hot dates, big outings, fast cars and all the other little chocolate sprinklings of life, a perfect accompaniment to the nightlife atmosphere. However players must be careful as Sims focused solely on such things suffer in every other aspect of their lives, namely jobs, family, cleaning etc. A pleasure seeking Sim, then, is probably a better choice for a skilled player than an amateur.

The dating system is very similar to the same excellent system used in Hotdate, and serves as a fast-track way of getting two Sims in the good with each other, so to speak. Players can select the location, the mood and basically calibrate everything else in pursuit of the perfect evening, and a successful date can mean instant love. To further colour this Sims now have preferences based on physical appearances and signs, which may positively or negatively influence a prospective relationship. Two Sims who are positively repulsed by each other, for example, will require a lot more convincing to get together than just a casual coffee.

Other notable content additions includes the ability for Sims to own cars, with the car culture associated with such. A Sim with a car can be a lot more flexible in getting around town and attending locations, and a Sim's car provides all sorts of entertainment, from harmless music to activities considerably more… adult rated.

Bad points about Nightlife are hard to find, although is partly due to the fact that any flaws with it are those that lie in the underlying game, Sims 2. Nightlife doesn't seem as big as University, although the focus change might account for this. Some of the new features and/or gimmicks are also a bit lackluster, for example the ability for Sims to become vampires through a nocturnal misadventure doesn't really mean much except that the Sim now has to avoid daylight and can turn into a bat. Also large gatherings with multiple Sims, while very beneficial if done right, are inordinately hard to pull off when compared with the rest of the game due to the tendency for every Sim to go off and do his own thing.