The Sims Medieval

As an avid sims fan since the end of Sims 1, I've been collecting all of the games, and couldnt wait to pre-order the new medieval spin-off.

If you're considering buying The Sims medieval purely as a sims fan, I would advise against it. If, however, you are a fan of stratagy games such as Civ, or other stratagy-based games, this may be for you.

Although you get the option to controal many characters physical appearences in high quality, Sims 3 standard detail, and you do get to pick 2 traits and 1 fatal flaw for each character, you get very little free style play in Sims Medieval. Through various smaller quests, your goal is to build and run a successful and powerful kingdom, having created the King or Queen sim to begin with after naming your kingdom.

A few small points that, hopefully, will be expanded on and improved by EA in the future but, as of now, are dissapointing:

One-style basic kingdom; you cannot controal the layout or physical appearence of your kingdom. Your goal in the game is to build set, pre-place desagnated buildings, however you cannot re-build, re-shape or majorly change any of these in ways that the average sims fan has come to take for granted.

Very basic choice in clothes & hairstyles; although each type of character (similar to professions in sims 3) has one or two unique outfits, on the whole, there are around 8 outfit choices per profession which, personally, I find dissapointing. You can recolour these, but when compaired to the sheer amount of choice available in previous sims titles, this is just dissapointing

No customize options / downloadable content: one majorly popular factor of previous sims titles has been the community created content available for players to download and share for free. This is not currently available in sims medieval, and, from the game menue screen currently available, doesnt look to be appearing any time soon.

Another major problem I've found is that there is no freeplay or sandbox mode. Having greatly enjoyed the freedom to explore and mess around in the sims, whilst still having my sims fufil their jobs, I found the very strict and limited gameplay in sims medieval to be the biggest dissapointment in the game. You select quests from a set-menue to complete in order to expand your kingdom, sometimes (not always) being given the option of which character will complete this quest. If you spend too much time doing your own thing and exploring, you get negative marks on your quest-trophy (draining it slowly from a starting silver down). However, if you focus too much on the quest at hand and spend no time on your sims needs and personal wants, as well as what is expected of them from their role, you get similar quest draining decreases.

The 'fatal flaw' also became very old very fast. Each sim you create must have 2 traits and 1 fatal flaw. The fatal flaw becomes too overpowering and dictates your characters actions far too much. Drunken sims get a massive -40 mood decrease if you do not give them alcohol each day, sims with a weak constitution get illness after illness without respite, sims who have the romance-based flaw also get the -40 if they do not kiss a sim every 24 hours, etc. Between juggling professions, quests and fatal flaws, there is not much time for your sims to do anything else.

So far, none of my sims have been able to have a family - this could, however, be something you unlock along the 12-playable 'kingdom goals' you gradually unlock the more kingdoms you create and complete, and I know the user guild does say offspring is a possibility - it just seems to be very hard.

The good points?

If you love strategy games and have wanted more in-depth detail than offered by games such as Civ on a smaller scale, then this if for you.

You can controal sims of various professions (King/ Queen, merchant, wizard, bard, spy, healer, preist amoungst others) on individual quests. Each completed quest increases the experience and potentially the level of the individual character, whilst improving your kingdom.

The opening cinematic is beautiful, and the voice over (done by Patrick Steward) is perfect.

I've found the need to complete a quest bypasses the enjoyment of exploring the world created in the sims medieval, as you feel rushed and pushed from quest to quest.

Quests and in-game character reactions are very limited, and become repetative very quickly. After 2 days of gameplay, I am already becoming very frustrated and bored of many of the quests and character dialogue.

Overall, a dissapointment - when looking at it as part of the Sims franchise. If you can forget that it is the sims, and consider it as a bog-standard stratagy game, it's about average. You can get a good 20+ hours of play out of it, though you will more than likely become bored of the repetativeness the limited number of quests produces.

I'd give it a 2.5 - 3 / 5 overall. Beautifully crafted world and clothes, with some clever little details. However, it's too restricted, too repetative, and just is not a sims game.

As well as surprised, I was also very excited when I heard they were making a stand alone Sims game set in the medieval period. As someone who has enjoyed the sims games since the release of the original game all those years and also someone who is excited by castles, knights and everything medieval I imagined I would be bound to enjoy this.

Unfortunately, with the Sims Medieval, the developers have stripped away a lot of what makes the franchise so enjoyable without adding anything of substance to replace it.

The Good:
- Graphically, while not a gigantic leap, the Sims Medieval is a natural progression from previous games. The overall art style is pleasing, character animation is as charming and comic as ever and the water effects on the flowing rivers look especially good.
- On my moderately powerful Windows XP based system the game has run flawlessly. If you are able to play the Sims 3 on your computer this game shouldn't give you any problems either.
- I found the watcher view mode (essentially a 360 degree panoramic view of your Sim Kingdom) extremely useful; in a few seconds you can check out the entire kingdom, watching Sims walking to and from the various locations.

The Bad:
- The game is extremely linear compared to previous Sim games. Instead of controlling a family you choose a quest (a list of tasks) and take charge of a single sim to complete it. Each "hero class" is able only to perform the particular skills for their profession.
- The "rabbit holes" present from the Sims 3 remain, with certain locations being completely invisible. An example of this is hunting; when told to "hunt" the Monarch sim will disappear for a minute or two and reappear with some form of meat in their inventory.
- The quests I've played are not especially interesting: most involve talking to a particular sim, performing the hero's abilities or collecting items. While the quest text and sketches presented are often humorous you quickly realise you are just ordering your Sim to walk back and forth between various locations.
- The kingdom never feels like your own: new buildings are entirely pre-built and have to be placed in the single designated area for them each and every time.
- The simulation of day to day life has been stripped back with just hunger and energy bars remaining. Unfortunately this serves only in making the simulation aspect of the game feel shallow whilst not removing the tedium some players associate with the Sims games. You still have to watch your Sim sleep in bed for 8 hours each night, a problem exasperated by the fact you can only control a single sim at a time.
- Because this is a separate game from the Sims 3 and its expansion packs I found the small selection of clothing and furniture in comparison somewhat of a disappointment.
- Many of the interesting features of the series have been removed: you won't find building tools, ageing, transport or skills to learn in this game.

Whilst a solid and well presented game I have found I am unable to play the Sims Medieval for very long before simply getting bored. Whilst the idea of "questing" is an excellent way to guide players, without engaging gameplay to support it, it is simply not entertaining in its own right.

In the end: while it is admirable that the developers have tried to do something different here they simply haven't had the time or resources between expansion packs to completely follow through with it. What you have with the Sims Medieval is a stripped back Sims 3 combined with the questing system of an RPG and an extremely basic city management game. If you're a fan of the Sims games because of the freedom and creativity they offer I would strongly recommend you consider giving this one a miss.

This is a brave attempt to bridge the gap between role playing games and the Sims. Being someone who enjoys both genres, I thoroughly enjoy it, but Sims fans should not assume that this is just the Sims 3 transplanted into a world of medieval fantasy and lovers of RPGs should not assume the same options to customise a character on levelling up that they may have experienced in other games.
The game allows you to build a medieval fantsay kingdom. Resoure points are used to construct buildings and are earned by performing quests. Many of the buidlings will give you access to new heroes (including hero types that are not typical to RPGs, such as the merchant) and these in turn unlock new quests. You have a wide selection of quests, but you can only embark on one at a time, and you can often use only one of your pool of characters for an individual quests. The quests themselves are quite linear in nature and much of the time there is a feeling that you are being led by the hand. Counter-intutively, you should take as much time as possible over quests, because the rewards get higher as your quest progress bar gets higher - but the quest progress bar has nothing to do with your progress on a quest! Instead, it depends on the number of buffs you have earned for your character, so focussing on buffing your character and meeting quest obligations at the slowest possible rate yields the greatest rewards.
A character may level several times on the longer quests, but levelling up bonuses are set by the game and the level cap is 10. The only way you can customise your character after creation is to change the outfit and, on succeeding in certain quests, to replace the fatal flaw with a stronger characteristic.
Some traditional Sims features are missing. You cannot design the structure of your buildings, although you can decorate and furnish them. You only have to worry about energy and hunger - Sims have no hygiene or social needs, although they can earn buffs by washing or interacting with other Sims. You can only control those Sims that relate to your current quest, so although you may have created a Sim, you can only play him or her if that character is needed for the current quest. Similarly, you cannot take control of your spouse or children (although you do get some extra options for interacting with your own child - you can send him or her to the shops, for example). Oddly, you can change the clothes of any adult Sim that is close by, but not your own child, so you have more control over the king or queen's attire than over your child's! This can be frustrating when the child of a knight or monarch character appears in threadbare peasant's clothing. Children spend 24 game hours as babies before turning into children and then remain as children. There are no teens and no elderly Sims.
If you come into this game looking for a blend of RPG and Sims, you will not be disappointed. If you are hoping to find all of the best points of Sims 3 and Oblivion wrapped into a single package, you will be.