Section: Reviews, Exclusives, Originals, PCs, Windows, Game-Companies, Developers, Publishers, Genres, 3D, Sim

Title: Sims 2 Apartment Life

Price: $19.99

System(s): Windows PC

Release Date: August 28, 2008

Publisher (Developer): EA (EA)

ESRB Rating: “Teen” for crude humor, sexual themes and violence

Pros: Witch character class/lifestyle, reputation system, apartments, new items/clothing/decor and a new neighborhood.

Cons: Adding this to the other expansions can slow down your game a bit, custom content you’ve downloaded may not be compatible

Overall Score: One thumb up, one sideways; 88/100; B+; *** and 1/2 out of 5

The Sims 2 Apartment Life is a memorable expansion pack for the Sims 2. It features a slew of new gameplay additions, lots of extra items, a witch/wizard character class/lifestyle and the ability to have multiple households in a single home. In short, the expansion gives fans of the game a lot of things they’ve wanted, all in a single package.

It is easily one of the best expansion packs released for the game. If you’re a newcomer to the series, Apartment Life, Nightlife, University and Seasons are definitely the four expansion packs you will need to maximize your Sims 2 experience.

Expanding horizons in the same building.

Apartment Life adds in a feature players have been trying to mimick since University was released - apartments. You can have multiple households in a single building, and have these households interact with one another. For example neighbors can babysit, or noise pollution can affect people living in adjacent apartments. Its an interesting gameplay mechanic that works perfectly in the expansion.

It also adds new social aspects, perfect for people who use The Sims 2 for storytelling or like to focus on the development of a single family. Characters now have reputations - if a sim is kind to other sims, they’ll have a good reputation, and if they’re cruel, they’ll develop a bad one. This can affect how well a sim does at work, and whether or not you’ll make friends with sims with similar interests.

The witch/wizard class is also one of the best character classes to be added into the series - more helpful and interesting than vampires, werewolves, plant people and zombies combined. The wide variety of good, bad and neutral spells available to players certainly spice up a game that may have grown stale over the years.

As for new objects and items, there are certainly an adequate amount of extra clothing, furnishings and other decor. Its enough to make any player happy, but probably not a drawing point for people who download user-created content from the internet.

An expansion pack on par with Nightlife or Seasons.

Sims 2 Apartment Life is a wonderful addition to the Sims 2 expansion family, filled with lots of extra gameplay additions, aspects and items. It may not be as crucial as say, Seasons, or as memorable as Nightlife, but it certainly is a must-buy addition.

So, in short, Apartment Life is a solid third, proving more helpful than Pets, Bon Voyage and Freetime. If this is the last Sims 2 expansion, then the franchise is certainly ending on a high note.

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