[Review] The Sims Medieval

After the trials and tribulations of my college graduation, I was gifted with the Sims Medieval. My family, obviously, rocks at gift-giving. (My other gift was a writing desk. It's like these people know me!)

Overview

The first thing you need to keep in mind is that, despite the name, The Sims Medieval is a medieval simulation, not The Sims in a medieval setting. The focus is on the people acting in the medieval setting, yes, but for the growth of the kingdom. You, the player, are the Watcher of a new kingdom. You begin with very few buildings and a Monarch. My Monarch character, Elisa d'Aire, is above on the left. The Sim-making is basically the same as in the Sims 3. You can customize your character's features, body, and all clothing/hair colors. The skin color, unlike in the Sims 3, cannot be an unnatural color. You are, yes, allowed to make your Sim an elf. The ears go very, very pointy. (My queen is theoretically an elf-queen. I couldn't resist.) So, you stay with a character until you complete the Quest you've assigned yourself. Then, you go back to the Kingdom View and choose a new quest and character. There is a limit of 10 characters, one for each available Hero-profession. Hair, however, can be unnatural colors, as seen with Peyton du Coeur, Wizard, below, who has greenish hair.

Besides the actual quest, you need to do your Hero's duties and are assigned two tasks per day. Monarch's need to Hold Court and hear petitions; the Physician needs to see patients; the Bard needs to play his lute or compose poems. Completing Quests allows you to build your kingdom's reputation and afford new buildings, new characters, and more Quest options.

The Sims Themselves

As I stated previously, the Sim building system itself is excellent. The Sims can fall in love, court, marry, and have children. The children DO NOT grow up past child unless its Hero-parent dies, at which point the child grows up and takes over the job. No Sim ages, but you can adjust the apparent skin-age in the Create-a-Sim screen. If your Sims woohoo, they have a fairly good chance of someone getting pregnant, since this is medieval times. My Knight Sim ended up pregnant because I forgot about that. I'm still not 100% sure who the father is....

Helene Saint-Claire, Knight, who became pregnant without her Watcher's consent.

You assign your Sim two traits and one fatal flaw, similar to in the Sims 3. My Knight, for example, was Adventurous and a Jokester, with a fatal flaw of Licentious. That means that if she goes too long without smooching someone, she gets a negative moodlet, which affects her Quest performance and overall mood.

Jobs/Character Classes

There are ten jobs that you can create Heroes for: Monarch, Knight, Merchant, Bard, Jacoban Priest, Peteran Priest, Spy, Wizard, Physician, and Blacksmith. Of these, I currently have every one except Blacksmith. The number of character traits and fatal flaws enable for unique characters to be mixed and matched, and creates interesting situations when they try to do their jobs sometimes. My Jacoban Priest, Matthias, for example, has Cruel as his fatal flaw, so he regularly has to let off steam by arguing with his attendant. My Physician, Conrad, has a Weak Constitution, so regularly loses his lunch.

In my experience so far, Knights and Priests are the most fun to play. When you have control of a Knight, you can make her challenge people to Duels regularly and take advantage of her squire. What? I made her Licentious. Priests are just fun. They can give hair-raising sermons and heal people. Another bonus is that the Priest Sims worship you, the Watcher, which is just awesome, and can ransack each other's places of worship. Also, when my Jacoban Priest needed to chase away a woman of science (shame on her, distracting people from my worship!), he had some pretty hilariously awful methods of going about that. However, since he was Cruel, it also made sense for him. I haven't yet played Wizard, Spy, or Blacksmith but I have high hopes for them.

Conclusion

The Sims Medieval is a very fun, light game. I haven't even gotten out of the first Kingdom challenge and I'm having loads of fun, haven't explored all of the possibilities. The general rule is, the more outrageous and awful of a person your Sim is, the more fun they are to pick on. At least, that's been my experience. Experienced players of the Sims might be disappointed by the lack of family-focus, but that isn't the point of this game, and I think would defeat the purpose. I wouldn't be happy if one hero's child grew up into a teenager while I was off questing with someone else, for example. However, I think I would like the OPTION to let them age. I am the Watcher; I should have the ability to decide whether my people should be immortal or not.

Highly enjoyable. Probably about 4/5.