We dig deep into this unusual Sims game in this exclusive report and come away with magic potions, royal edicts, and a day or two in the stocks.
The Sims Medieval is the next chapter in the Sims series, and while it's not quite a full sequel, it is a step in a decidedly different direction. The Sims games generally start you off at a character creation screen and wait politely for you to create whichever character you like from any age group, shape, or size. Medieval, on the other hand, begins with a tongue-in-cheek opening movie narrated by the always-delightful Sir Patrick Stewart, who explains that in the days of old, little computer people aspired to lead lives of virtue and glory, except that they were too dumb. All seemed lost until their almighty deity, The Watcher (that's you), stepped in to help them lead better lives. GameSpot had the opportunity to dive deep into this upcoming game by hunkering down and playing it from the start, and we have much to report.
Sir Patrick Stewart introduces The Sims Medieval as perhaps only he can. Engage!A new game of Medieval begins very differently than a new game of The Sims. Rather than suggest that you create a new character or move into an existing house, Medieval starts you out at the "kingdom ambition" screen and requires you to choose one of 12 different ambitions for your kingdom--long-term goals that include having a wealthy populace, expanding your demesne efficiently, or spreading one of the game's two religious denominations. Later ambitions unlock after you complete earlier ones--all players must start with the "new beginnings" ambition, which acts both as a full-fledged quest line and as starter material for new players. But don't worry--Medieval also has plenty of the pop-up tip help you've come to know and love from the original Sims games.
At first, your kingdom's monarch is the only character available for play, but you can at least choose to play as a pre-built character or to use Medieval's create-a-sim mode to make a new one. As we've mentioned previously, Medieval's create-a-sim mode is entirely different than what we've seen in previous games, and it comes loaded with all-new sets of clothing and hairstyles better suited to a Middle Ages-era game, including ornate armor sets, wizardly robes, and all manner of winsome new ladies' hairstyles. Medieval has a modified version of The Sims 3's trait system that lets you choose two personality traits (from a list of 21) and a fatal flaw (from a different list of 21) to add to your character. While Sims 3 favorites like evil, good, and excitable make their return to the traits list, there are plenty of new traits, like adventurous (becomes happier when seeking offscreen adventure) and "whale ate my parents," which is just what it sounds like. Fatal flaws include personality blemishes like "insecure" and "cowardly," as well as baser issues like "compulsive gambler" (which will detract from your character's focus if you don't step up to the gambling table every now and then) and "bloodthirsty" (which will make you less focused if you don't challenge someone to a fistfight or a duel sometime soon).
Focus is what determines your level of success. In Medieval, if you're not building out your kingdom, you're playing as one or more characters, and if you're playing as one or more characters, you've already accepted a quest. Character gameplay happens only once you've taken a specific quest and chosen a particular sim (and one or more assistants) to undertake it. However, once you are under way, the next step in your quest helpfully appears onscreen as an icon, and the next point of contact you need to meet in the world helpfully appears as a different floating icon--and clicking on this icon will immediately order your sim to walk right up to that quest character to complete the next step of your journey.
Quest progress is tracked by a meter on the left side of the screen that's reminiscent of The Sims 2's lifetime wish meter, and it even changes color from bronze to silver to gold to platinum the more "focused" your character gets. Focus comes from keeping your character happy and manifests itself in the form of Medieval's "moodlets"--which, just like The Sims 3's moodlets, provide minor positive and negative bonuses based on your character's actions and current needs. A compulsive gambler may suffer a moodlet that subtracts 15 focus if he hasn't hit the gambling table in a while, whereas an adventurous sim might gain a hefty positive focus bonus after going off on an adventure. The higher your focus is, the closer your meter gets to turning platinum (and if you complete your quest while your meter is platinum, you'll earn the most points for it once you've completed it). Unfortunately, characters with a negative amount of focus can't take on the next leg in their current quest, so it behooves you to keep your characters moderately happy.
As you complete quests, you'll earn kingdom points ("KP"), which you can spend to build new structures. The game's key structures, such as wizard towers, bard taverns, or guard towers, cost 40 KP (which is the usual reward for the early game's quests), and purchasing one of these structures effectively unlocks it, and the character that inhabits it, for regular play.
In keeping with the medieval European concept of caste, which separates and identifies people by their profession, all of Medieval's characters are defined by their day jobs. Each character's profession determines the character's dwelling (blacksmiths live at the smithy, knights live at the barracks, and so on). And each individual dwelling comes equipped with any individual items you may need for that character--such as an alchemy lab bench for a wizard--though depending on how much cash that character possesses, you can also open up "furnish mode" (Medieval's version of The Sims' "buy mode") and purchase new furnishings and decorations for that character's dwelling at any time.
And fortunately, each newly unlocked character dwelling also comes equipped with all the furnishings you need for basic survival. Keeping your characters alive and happy is a bit simpler in Medieval since all characters have only two "motives" (personal needs), as opposed to the traditional socializing, bathroom, and fun motives of more-traditional Sims games. This time around, all you need to worry about are hunger and energy, which can be addressed by food and bed rest, respectively. And if your character is at home, filling both of these depleted needs can be done in mere moments by using the cooking fire to serve up a bowl of bland gruel (or something better, if your sims have better ingredients in their inventory) and then hopping into a nearby bed.
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