OXCGN’s Steal It For 360?

The Sims Medieval (PC)

Ruling a kingdom has never been this much fun

by: Allegionary

©2011 Alex Hilton

First up I’d like to say that this game might not technically be a steal as The Sims 3 was developed for consoles but at the moment The Sims Medieval is not for consoles.

Have you ever wanted to rule a kingdom, run a store or slay great beastly bears? Well in The Sims Medieval, all this and more is possible in this open world of humour, fun and… village stocks.

The Sims Medieval is a life simulation game based in the medieval ages and is developed and published by EA games.

This particular Sims game is somewhat different from the other Sims games in that the menial tasks like going to the toilet and performing tasks to get certain attributes up have been removed for the better, as it now focuses on only two attributes: hunger and energy.

Also a focus meter has been added so that if your sim is performing all of his/her daily tasks then the focus will go up. If they ignore these daily tasks it will go down. Also doing all the other tasks that used to be essential like going to the toilet now just add to the focus meter. You need focus to complete your quests.

You play The Watcher, a divine being that has the power to create and control hero sims, who are sims (characters) that excel in a particular occupation.

There are many hero sims to create, ranging from the monarch to the physician and of course the knight.

The comforts of Royalty

The sims’ occupation reflects on their daily life. Monarchs sleep in a comfortable bed with servants to call on for their every need while the rest sleep in less comfortable surroundings and they must perform every daily chore like making their bed after they sleep in it (however it is your choice to do this; you could just have a messy living space).

When I was playing as the monarch I never got bored sending people to the stocks and throwing tomatoes and eggs at them. The Sims Medieval is full of these moments of humour and fun.

The aim of The Sims Medieval is for you to complete many quests so that the kingdom you watch over can grow into the nation that you want it to be.  For example you can have a powerful dominant nation or you can have a wealthy isolated nation.

There are a diverse range of quests from quelling protests to taking a vacation.

Ahh, the quests – what about quests

These quests are enjoyable at times but also annoying as some of them are just about becoming a messenger and talking to different people. This feels very degrading especially when you are playing the monarch.

A great feature that has been in the series since the start is the customization. In this game it continues this tradition with the creation of hero sims. However, you not only choose their appearance, but also some traits and a fatal flaw.

The traits can be the average traits people have: good, evil, and the especially normal ‘whale ate my parents’?! The fatal flaws are the usual as well; compulsive gambler, insecure, greedy, morose or even the embarrassing weak constitution.

• The Sims Medieval screenshots slideshow

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The Sims Medieval now not only lets you make choices about what furniture to buy and how to decorate them but choices that affect the kingdom as well.

When you are playing as the monarch, choices come up when you are holding court which affect the way people think about you.  Or you can pass new laws to try and win over the favour of your people.

In quests you can take different paths; for example if you are playing the knight you could solve something militarily or if you are playing as the monarch you can choose to go the diplomatic route.

Also during the quests choices pop up frequently in how you perform the quest you have chosen. This freedom of choice and the effect these choices have make you feel like you really are the monarch or the knight.

Another choice you have to make is at the beginning when you start your game. There are different ambitions that you can choose which direct where the kingdom heads. Do you want your kingdom to be wealthy, powerful or happy? First up there is only one ambition to choose though, “New Beginnings”, which teaches you about the game, but the rest can be unlocked as you play.

Just like the other Sims games, the conversation options are versatile and numerous- from the friendly expressions, to the romantic engagements, or the cruelty you can subject the sims to.

In this Sims game there are not only conversation options but also actions you can take depending on your occupation. The monarch can send people to the stocks, bards can entertain and knights can go on adventures.  This game is all about the replay value.

But is this for 360?

Sims has been developed for the consoles before with decent results. The Sims 3 was released for consoles with minor issues, however The Sims Medieval is very different so it might not be able to be ported onto consoles.

One problem with the game was its camera control. I sometimes just had to zoom out as far as I could and order my sim around a way which does not give me a good view of my sim. So the problem of camera control would be an issue for this game to go to consoles, as controllers are even more difficult to use this way.

The Sims Medieval is a great game with a lot of customisation but if it was ported onto a console would all the features still be available? The game takes up around 6GB of space on the computer, after all.

Overall if the game was able to be ported with no features lost and the camera control improved, then this game would definitely be a steal.

Steal It? YES!

©2011 Alex Hilton

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• The Sims Medieval screenshots gallery

Filed under: Blogbanter, Editorial, PC Reviews, Steal It For The 360 Tagged: | Alex Hilton, Electronic Arts, Middle Ages, Sim, Sims, Sims 3, Sims Medieval, The Sims, The Sims Medieval, video games