Another post from NomadicGamers – 2011!
I’ve been spending some of my free game time playing The Sims Medieval since it released and I have to say, I am simply in love with the game. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Sims franchise in general, and this game is no different. Well, that’s not completely true, this game has aspects that are in fact, very different. One thing that the game does NOT do well is explain how the controls work. Unless you’re familiar with the regular Sims UI (I’m talking the house one in specific) you may feel a bit lost on some aspects. For example, in the first part of the tutorial you’re expected to go upstairs and use a mirror. The tutorial doesn’t tell you how to get upstairs – but the manual does (for those of you who purchased the physical copy of the game). If you remember the house icon in the basic Sims game, you’ll also see there’s a house icon above and below the direction keys on the UI. The upper one leads you upstairs, the lower downstairs. The mirror is in the bedroom upstairs (at least in my default castle). The camera view is a bit difficult to navigate when it comes to interacting with buildings because you can’t rotate the view to any more then a front “barbie house” view as I call it. You can still decorate your castle in any manor you like, and your characters in the Kingdom are unique to your creations which I adore.
The one thing that’s completely different in Sims Medieval that wasn’t in the other sims games quite so much (Sims 3 has it although done differently) is the quest system. You can decide who will do the quest and that will decide which path you take to complete it. You need to have certain NPC unlocked for a few quests, but the amount of choice each player has is just astounding. I can choose you use a bard or my monarch to complete a quest, and then they each have their own decisions and paths to make about each step of that quest. It’s humourous and the graphics are simply astounding.
If you’re not a fan of the Sims I don’t know how much appeal this game will have, as it still follows the basic Sims rules at its core – but personally, I just can’t get enough of it. Anyone else playing? Enjoying it? Let me know in comments!
It was the one Sims game that I thought I might enjoy. Then read obe preview of it that mentioned problems with the camera ma king it difficult to play so never picked it up. This review though makes it sound really appealing.