Fun and adorable tales of your kingdom!
If you have played previous Sims titles, you should be familiar with the user interface almost from the get-go. There is still a minor learning curve to familiarize with how the game works, and this is where the brilliance of Sims Medieval comes in. You start off the game in tutorial mode and soon realize you are walking in the shoes of a king who's building a new kingdom.You'll also realize that you no longer need to keep track of your sim's need to go to the bathroom or tending to his/her social needs. In fact, all you need to watch out for is hunger and energy. With that being said, Sims Medieval revolves around a questing system where the game is divided into miniscule sections each with a unique storyline and objective. Without spoiling too much, these stories may range from finding a missing child to winning a sword fight, usually with much deeper plot embedded within.
Each kingdom starts off with a certain amount of quest points that are used to start quests by your heroes. You will be able to select from a large number of available quests, then choose the appropriate hero(s) to participate. As you complete the quests, you will be rewarded with resource points that are used to put more buildings in your kingdom. These buildings include tavern, barracks, and the mill and much more. When you create a main building, you also create a sim(or use one of the premade sims) and make them in charge of that buliding. For example, the sim you created for the tavern will be the bard by default, and you'll create a spy when you create the spy tower...etc. Resourse points can be earned by completing each quests, as you finish more quests, you are able to create more buildings and sims, which then opens up even more quests to be completed. There are large amounts of quests with surprising but appropriate interactions between your characters that the game feels like a carefully thought out novel or a TV show where character developments really makes the world richer, interesting and just a really immense experience.
Your sim has a focus bar, and the amount of focus energy you have will dictate your success and pace of your quest progress. There are several elements in the game that can affect the amount of focus your sim has. For example, each day at 9 a.m., your sim receives 2 objectives. If you are able to complete the objectives before the next morning, you will gain focus. You will also receive focus (as well as decrease in focus) from random buffs in the game, such as being injured(-focus) or having a great meal (+focus). Unlike previous installments of Sims, you do not have to be stuck practicing a particular set of skills in order for it to level. Instead, as you progress through quests, your player will gain experience. As your sim levels up, skills that are relevant to his/her class will automatically level up as well.
There were moments where camera angles can get in the way of gameplay, and oddly enough, the game texture feels slightly a step back from its predesessors. The game also suffers a bit from framerate issues although it does not occur enough to be distracting from the core gameplay. The soundtrack of the game is great, however, there doesn't seem to be enough number of songs that you start getting tired of the same background music after few hours of playing time. Also, as good as the narrating was in the introduction of this game, it would have been extremely appropriate if the same voiceover was applied to the cutscenes throughout the game.
The game also gets frustrating at times because of the unclear and vague directions for the quests. For example, you will more than likely find yourself confused about how to get ingredients for your quest objects, and be forced to either quit the quest or look for answers else where such as an online forum. Some quests are also available for multiple times even after you have completed them, and when that occurs, there is generally a sense of break in the story simply because the story no longer makes sense. For example, saving the same missing child over and over becomes a rather odd experience.
When you finish your first ambition, depending on your performance, you will be able to create a new kingdom with different ambitions such as ruling X amounts of foreign countries. However, you will be creating sims with the same exact professions from before, and from the exact same geographic settings as your first kingdom, which makes it somewhat repetitive. You do have the choice of freeplay of your "finished" kingdom, but there doesn't seem to be a way to create new sims. No doubt the new expansion will lean towards new geogrphic setting, new available classes, new quests and hopefully much more.
This ambitious game really seem to open the door for many possibilities in the future, whether it's more game modes or a brand new genre. Despite some of the technical issues, Sims Medieval is a game that will suck you in for a long time because you want to learn more about your characters in a fast growing kingdom filled with fantasies and memorable tales.