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.

I was greatly looking forward to this games release, as i am a sims fan, and also a fan of medieval or warcraft type games. This game is as if its tried to mix the two together, but taken out all the good bits.

The worst problem, in my opinion, is that you cannot control anyone but your heroes. they can get married and have children, but you cannot control them at all. The sole purpose of the game is to complete quests, like on Sims world adventures, but this is the whole time, and you must do what it says, such as 'visit the shoppe,' and then 'write a new law.' There is no freedom to create it the way you want, which to me is the best bit. The children do not age past children, and there is no 'family tree', as in, when your king dies, the son does not become the new hero king. You simply create a new one that has no connection to any other sims. There is no family life.

Problem 2: There are no skills, like writing and athletic, which you can just choose to do. Only certain 'heroes' can do certain skills, and even that its not clear how you 'level up.'

Problem 3: No custom content. And no building. Only furnishing.

Problem 4: Cannot start as a wizard or blacksmith or whatever you want. You have to start with a monarch, complete a long boring tutorial, and then have enough 'kingdom points' (or something) to buy one building, fomr which you can have 1 new hero. As yet, i have not found a quest that uses more than one hero (although i think there are).

Problem 5: The kingdom is the same every time. You cannot change the layout.

Problem 6: Although there is a map of neighbouring kingdoms, you cannot visit, invade, or particularly interact at all with them. They seem to be there only to vote on passing laws and things, which too have no effect on your sims lives.

Sorry this has been such a negative review, but i was deeply disappointed and frustrated, as i thought they could have done a lot more with this game :'( On a lighter note, i have heard that there may be expansion packs for it, perhpas adressing theese issues, but im not sure if i want to take the risk of buying them only to be disapointed...