The Sims 2 expansion packs

Apartment Life adds a new neighborhood named Belladonna Cove, inspired by New York City. It features many apartments, and San Francisco's Painted Ladies townhouses. Other buildings in this neighborhood include a trailer park, libraries, coffee shops, and grocery stores in addition to several parks.[22] Several of these lots showcase major gameplay elements not available in previous expansions or the core game. When there is a family living in an apartment building, there will be a green apartment icon over the house.

Apartment Life adds several social interactions for Sims. Children have new special interactions to use with their peers, as do toddlers. Parents and teenagers can now also play "Peekaboo" with toddlers. Sims of aged Child and up can participate in the "Classic Dance" or "Jump Rope".

Apartment Life also lets Sims live in apartments in low or high-rent districts, and allows up to four user-controllable families within an apartment building. The player also has the option to look for roommates whom the player can choose, but not control. When the player reviews potential roommates the player is given a basic personality to help the player decide which roommate would best suit. Though roommates cannot be controlled, the player can view a scale that tells the player how satisfied they are.

Apartment Life lets Sims become Witches (female) or Warlocks (male), similar to The Sims: Makin' Magic. While playing as a magical being, Sims may choose to be Infallibly Good, Good, Nice, Neutral, Mean, Evil or Atrociously Evil, each of which has a unique costume. A sim may become a witch or warlock by building a strong relationship with an NPC high witch until the option to request the transformation becomes available. A playable witch sim can turn another sim into a witch with level 9 magic skill.

Witches/Warlocks may use various magical objects, including brooms and cauldrons. Spells may be cast by using specific ingredients (i.e. Mystic Dust, Dragon Scales, Eye of Newt, Vipers Essence, Crystallized Moonbeams, and the Essence of Light). These ingredients may be obtained in any of three ways: produced in a cauldron, purchased from a Witch/Warlock NPC, or purchased at the secret Witch/Warlock lots.[22]

A character's alignment depends entirely on the alignment of the spells that they cast. A good spell will move the witch or warlock towards the "Infallibly Good" end, while an evil spell will push the caster towards the "Atrociously Evil" side. Spell availability is determined by the caster's magic skill level and alignment. The most potent powers of good and evil (such as Throne creation, zombification, repelling the Grim Reaper) are reserved exclusively for witches and warlocks on the extreme ends of the good or evil alignments. A Sim's initial alignment depends on the alignment of the witch or warlock who initiated them into the magical mysteries.

Witches/Warlocks can use certain spells and magic according to what order of magic they use. Evil witches can light fires, cause sickness, and even bring zombies to life. Good witches are able to create happiness, put out fires, and bring the dead back to life. Good and Evil witches can each build a "Throne of Light" and "Throne of Darkness" respectively.

All Witches/Warlocks can create potions and cast "neutral" spells that allow them to teleport, freeze time, conjure food, and create a potion that turns them back into humans. Players with both Pets and Apartment Life will be able to summon spectral cats. Even if the player does not have Pets, 'lap dogs' are available for purchase in buy mode.

Apartment Life adds a number of playground objects, including a jungle gym, playground slide, merry-go-round, and monkey bars. New furniture items include a Murphy bed, open mic stand, break dancing mat, trash chute, apartment mailboxes, vibrating bed, vending machines, witch-themed furnishings, in addition to new TV sets and a large fish tank.

Build mode adds new types of objects and tools, such as spiral stairs, a new elevator (in addition to all elevators previously included in Open for Business), built-in wardrobes, visible ceilings, heating and cooling windows as well as new wall, floor, garage door, and door styles.[22] New modes of transport available are helicopters and witch brooms.

While the Sims are living in an apartment, as with university dorms, they will only be able to change the floors and wallpaper within the apartment, as well as place miscellaneous Build Mode objects like marble columns. Also new with Apartment Life is the ceiling. A new 45-degree angle view in build mode will make it possible to view the Sims' ceiling which can be covered in the floor tile of the player's choice.

New NPCs include butlers, landlords, roommates, and NPC neighbors. When players move playable Sims into an apartment, NPC characters will move into the other apartments if the player doesn't move other Sims into them.

There is now a new meter called the reputation meter, which shows how high the reputation of a Sim is, the more friendly the Sim is with others, the higher it goes. As the meter increases, the player gains rewards which help them with their occupation, aspiration, and living.