First Impressions: The Sims Medieval
So I got The Sims Medieval last night. If you're not interested in my mini review, have a nice day, otherwise click on the cut. I forgot to reinstall Fraps on the new computer, so I didn't get many screenshots using the in-game camera. Hope to later.
Also - there may be what some people consider spoilers contained herein - so be warned.
Disclaimer: I never played The Sims 3 so some gameplay that is "new" to me may be carried over from TS3.
Things I knew going in: I knew from pre-release articles that this was not going to be the usual open ended Sims game. I also knew there would be no real build mode to speak of, that lots were prebuilt and you could decorate them, but not build your own. Rumors are that children do not age, and that you cannot control any other Sim but the Hero sime - this seems to be bearing out in the little I've played.
I played through the tutorial game and a little beyond it, but not much so I just have some general observations. My starter Sim is Talia Balfour (I used the choose random name function)
There is a new cutscene opening, narrated by Patrick Stewart. I did not know this, and I *squeed*. It's a pretty amusing wink at what veteran Sims players already know about being "The Watcher" as they call it in this game. People are dumb. :)
Create-a-Sim
Looks modifiers are Skintone, Body shape (sliders from skinny to fat) Muscle (slider from no muscles to really beefy), Face Shape, Eyes, Mouth, Nose, Hair, Eyebrows, Clothes. I may be forgetting something.
Traits: Can't recall them off the top of my head but there are about 20 traits and 10 fatal flaws. Each Sim gets two traits and one fatal flaw. Traits are things like Earthy, Friendly, Loves Family, Adventurous, etc. Fatal flaws: Licentious, Compulsive Gambler, Fool.
Positives
- Ability to make actual fat Sims, not just thinish Sims with big butts. This is not to say the fat Sims are all that realistic looking, but no more neighborhoods full of only willowy Sims.
- Ability to choose voices and vary the pitch on them, though because the Sim says something different everytime you test a voice it's hard to pin down differences.
Not so positives
- My first impression is that the number of traits and flaws is too limited, so you get a lot of repeats. I had three different people in my Throne Room with the trait "Whale ate my Parents" which is funny but come on...
- Like any base Sim game, the lack of variety is annoying. There are about 10 different outfits for each hero archetype. They each have 3 base color schemes and you can tweak those colors to your hearts content - but it still makes for a lot of Sims in the same outfit. Same goes for hair. There is a custom content star (grayed out for now) so maybe it's coming, I just hope it isn't limited to crappy Sim Store stuff.
- For the large number of Face, nose, lips and eye shapes - a lot of the seems very similar to my eyes. Also, once you pick one the customization options are fairly limited. For example with eyes, you can adjust the inside and outside corner tilt a little and I think how high/low they sit on the face. I played with my starter Sim for a while but she looked the same most of the time unless I picked a really distinct nose or the Bert eyebrows.
Gameplay: So far, it feels very much like the Sims Stories series (of which I only played Castaway Stories). Technically it's free play, but you are guided along by various quests and responsibilities, so you don't get to run around and do anything you want too much. I'd like to give it some more playtime before I make any real judgment on the gameplay but this are my thoughts so far:
- Each hero has a general overarching Quest to complete. Once complete, your Hero levels up, you get XPs, hero and reward points to spend on new lots, heroes, etc. and then you pick a new Quest from those available to your hero type. I only completed the tutorial quest so far, so I can't speak too much to that yet.
- Instead of mood, your Hero Sim has Focus. High focus (green) is the equivalent of being in a good mood, Low focus (red) is the equivalent of being in a bad mood. Actions and traits give you buffs - sometimes positive, sometimes negative. For example, Talia has the Earthy trait - so she gets a focus buff when she's outside. Focus is also affected by completing Responsibilities (think Wants in Sims 2). You get a new set of two Responsibilities each day at 9AM.
- There are only two needs Hunger and Sleep. Though your Sim does get a focus buff for peeing and bathing.
- You can only control the Hero Sim, and only one Hero Sim at a time.
- Each new game is a "neighborhood" to use Sims 2 terminology, a.k.a your kingdom. It starts fairly empty, as you complete quests and build up hero points, you can build other lots. Again, these lots get plopped in fully formed and are placed in their specified locations. The Watcher cannot change this.
- So far, I've only unlocked the Throne Room (Castle) and Barracks. Each lot comes with it's own Hero archetype (which you can create or use a pre-made) - for example Throne Room is the Monarch, Barracks in the Knight, Tavern is the Bard, etc. I have not figured out how to switch between heroes yet, if you even can, as I was doing the tutorial.
Some annoyances that may change as I play more:
- Fights. One of the first things you do in the tutorial game is fight a bandit. I thought, Hey cool! Then I realized once I click "Challenge Bandit" I was essentially expected to sit back and watch the fight unfold. The only choice I had was to click my opponent and perform a "Hilt Slam" and I could only do that once in a while. Now, as I played through a while more, I did earn what appears to be a new fight move - so I am assuming as you Level Up you will earn more moves and I hope have more input during fights because otherwise - Zzzzzzzzzz.
- Travel. You walk everywhere, at least at first. The scenery in the game is lovely, but after the third time you walk the enormous distance from the Castle to, say the Town Square area, it gets tedious. There are three speeds, like in all the Sims games, and also an "Ultra move" speed that is Speed x4 but then automatically puts you back to normal speed when you reach your destination. This is nice, but at the same time if I wanted to super speed through a Sims game I'd do a Toddler Madness Challenge *rimshot*. Maybe once the neighborhood starts getting built up it won't be as bad.
- Mundane Actions take too long. For example, one of Talia's responsibilities was to hear three petitions. To do that, she must Hold Court (a.k.a. sit on her throne) and wait for people to petition her. She can't do anything while on her throne because it will cancel the Hold Court action. So, she sits there while I watch and wait for someone to come up with a petition - and then each petitioner goes through a longish animation of bowing, being acknowledged and then presenting the petition. Again - Zzzzzzzzzz.
- Relationships take FOREVER to build. I played for the equivalent of a Sim week, and Talia talked to the resident builder Anthony every day, played some cards with him yet, asked how he fared, complimented his clothes, etc. and he is still only an acquaintance. I don't want her to marry him, but can he at least be a friend already? Ugh - if I ever decide to do the Heir to the Throne quest, it better go faster.
- Since I haven't had any Sims marry up yet, I don't know if you can control their spouses as well as the Hero once they're wed. A quick scan of the instruction booklet does not seem to make allowances for that. That could be potentially sucky.
I don't mean to dog on the game with the above, as I said, I haven't played that much yet and coming from not playing The Sims 3 - some of this stuff may be standard and I just didn't know it. The usual Sims Humor is there, aside from the aforementioned hilarious cutscene opening, the kingdom starts with two neighboring regions - one is called Crafthole because it's where the crafters are from. As I said, I came into the game expecting it not to be very typically Sims like - so I know it will take getting used to.
Also - there may be what some people consider spoilers contained herein - so be warned.
Disclaimer: I never played The Sims 3 so some gameplay that is "new" to me may be carried over from TS3.
Things I knew going in: I knew from pre-release articles that this was not going to be the usual open ended Sims game. I also knew there would be no real build mode to speak of, that lots were prebuilt and you could decorate them, but not build your own. Rumors are that children do not age, and that you cannot control any other Sim but the Hero sime - this seems to be bearing out in the little I've played.
I played through the tutorial game and a little beyond it, but not much so I just have some general observations. My starter Sim is Talia Balfour (I used the choose random name function)
There is a new cutscene opening, narrated by Patrick Stewart. I did not know this, and I *squeed*. It's a pretty amusing wink at what veteran Sims players already know about being "The Watcher" as they call it in this game. People are dumb. :)
Create-a-Sim
Looks modifiers are Skintone, Body shape (sliders from skinny to fat) Muscle (slider from no muscles to really beefy), Face Shape, Eyes, Mouth, Nose, Hair, Eyebrows, Clothes. I may be forgetting something.
Traits: Can't recall them off the top of my head but there are about 20 traits and 10 fatal flaws. Each Sim gets two traits and one fatal flaw. Traits are things like Earthy, Friendly, Loves Family, Adventurous, etc. Fatal flaws: Licentious, Compulsive Gambler, Fool.
Positives
- Ability to make actual fat Sims, not just thinish Sims with big butts. This is not to say the fat Sims are all that realistic looking, but no more neighborhoods full of only willowy Sims.
- Ability to choose voices and vary the pitch on them, though because the Sim says something different everytime you test a voice it's hard to pin down differences.
Not so positives
- My first impression is that the number of traits and flaws is too limited, so you get a lot of repeats. I had three different people in my Throne Room with the trait "Whale ate my Parents" which is funny but come on...
- Like any base Sim game, the lack of variety is annoying. There are about 10 different outfits for each hero archetype. They each have 3 base color schemes and you can tweak those colors to your hearts content - but it still makes for a lot of Sims in the same outfit. Same goes for hair. There is a custom content star (grayed out for now) so maybe it's coming, I just hope it isn't limited to crappy Sim Store stuff.
- For the large number of Face, nose, lips and eye shapes - a lot of the seems very similar to my eyes. Also, once you pick one the customization options are fairly limited. For example with eyes, you can adjust the inside and outside corner tilt a little and I think how high/low they sit on the face. I played with my starter Sim for a while but she looked the same most of the time unless I picked a really distinct nose or the Bert eyebrows.
Gameplay: So far, it feels very much like the Sims Stories series (of which I only played Castaway Stories). Technically it's free play, but you are guided along by various quests and responsibilities, so you don't get to run around and do anything you want too much. I'd like to give it some more playtime before I make any real judgment on the gameplay but this are my thoughts so far:
- Each hero has a general overarching Quest to complete. Once complete, your Hero levels up, you get XPs, hero and reward points to spend on new lots, heroes, etc. and then you pick a new Quest from those available to your hero type. I only completed the tutorial quest so far, so I can't speak too much to that yet.
- Instead of mood, your Hero Sim has Focus. High focus (green) is the equivalent of being in a good mood, Low focus (red) is the equivalent of being in a bad mood. Actions and traits give you buffs - sometimes positive, sometimes negative. For example, Talia has the Earthy trait - so she gets a focus buff when she's outside. Focus is also affected by completing Responsibilities (think Wants in Sims 2). You get a new set of two Responsibilities each day at 9AM.
- There are only two needs Hunger and Sleep. Though your Sim does get a focus buff for peeing and bathing.
- You can only control the Hero Sim, and only one Hero Sim at a time.
- Each new game is a "neighborhood" to use Sims 2 terminology, a.k.a your kingdom. It starts fairly empty, as you complete quests and build up hero points, you can build other lots. Again, these lots get plopped in fully formed and are placed in their specified locations. The Watcher cannot change this.
- So far, I've only unlocked the Throne Room (Castle) and Barracks. Each lot comes with it's own Hero archetype (which you can create or use a pre-made) - for example Throne Room is the Monarch, Barracks in the Knight, Tavern is the Bard, etc. I have not figured out how to switch between heroes yet, if you even can, as I was doing the tutorial.
Some annoyances that may change as I play more:
- Fights. One of the first things you do in the tutorial game is fight a bandit. I thought, Hey cool! Then I realized once I click "Challenge Bandit" I was essentially expected to sit back and watch the fight unfold. The only choice I had was to click my opponent and perform a "Hilt Slam" and I could only do that once in a while. Now, as I played through a while more, I did earn what appears to be a new fight move - so I am assuming as you Level Up you will earn more moves and I hope have more input during fights because otherwise - Zzzzzzzzzz.
- Travel. You walk everywhere, at least at first. The scenery in the game is lovely, but after the third time you walk the enormous distance from the Castle to, say the Town Square area, it gets tedious. There are three speeds, like in all the Sims games, and also an "Ultra move" speed that is Speed x4 but then automatically puts you back to normal speed when you reach your destination. This is nice, but at the same time if I wanted to super speed through a Sims game I'd do a Toddler Madness Challenge *rimshot*. Maybe once the neighborhood starts getting built up it won't be as bad.
- Mundane Actions take too long. For example, one of Talia's responsibilities was to hear three petitions. To do that, she must Hold Court (a.k.a. sit on her throne) and wait for people to petition her. She can't do anything while on her throne because it will cancel the Hold Court action. So, she sits there while I watch and wait for someone to come up with a petition - and then each petitioner goes through a longish animation of bowing, being acknowledged and then presenting the petition. Again - Zzzzzzzzzz.
- Relationships take FOREVER to build. I played for the equivalent of a Sim week, and Talia talked to the resident builder Anthony every day, played some cards with him yet, asked how he fared, complimented his clothes, etc. and he is still only an acquaintance. I don't want her to marry him, but can he at least be a friend already? Ugh - if I ever decide to do the Heir to the Throne quest, it better go faster.
- Since I haven't had any Sims marry up yet, I don't know if you can control their spouses as well as the Hero once they're wed. A quick scan of the instruction booklet does not seem to make allowances for that. That could be potentially sucky.
I don't mean to dog on the game with the above, as I said, I haven't played that much yet and coming from not playing The Sims 3 - some of this stuff may be standard and I just didn't know it. The usual Sims Humor is there, aside from the aforementioned hilarious cutscene opening, the kingdom starts with two neighboring regions - one is called Crafthole because it's where the crafters are from. As I said, I came into the game expecting it not to be very typically Sims like - so I know it will take getting used to.