A spin-off of the best-selling people simulator game, The Sims Medieval takes gamers back where many fans of the series want to be – in the virtual Middle Ages. Mediaeval themes have long been a mainstay of the digital doll house game, with many instalments of the game featuring options for players to turn their virtual modern day suburban homes into ancient castles.
However, The Sims Medieval goes one step further from being simply a mediaeval-themed playground. Its creators have overhauled the game’s mechanics in an attempt to offer a fresh take on the series. Instead of the open-ended sandbox play that defines the main franchise, The Sims Medieval is a story-based gameplay where players can build their own little empire complete with kings, wizards and knights.
While its concept is exciting, the final product has the worst possible combination of gameplay elements. Instead of letting players be creative and coming up with their own stories, The Sims Medieval hand-holds the player through a rather boring and long-winded storyline that had me wanting out after the first few hours.
In order to move the story along, players will have to let Sims take on various quests. Depending on how far you have progressed, quests can be as mundane as gathering wood or slightly more interesting tasks such as slaying a dragon.
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However, many of the quests lacked the action to keep a player interested. All I had to do to complete a stone-gathering quest was to wait for several minutes while my Sim disappears into a mine.
If that is not off-putting enough, the game further bogs you down by bugging you with distractions such as meaningless side-quests and assignments that contribute towards your Sim’s ‘focus’, or its ability to complete a quest more efficiently. While the game tags this as free play, the quest system works against you. Spend too much time doing as you please and you might fail your quest.
One of the features many Sims fans enjoy is the ability to construct houses and furnish them as they please. However, The Sims Medieval takes this element of creativity away from you. You can instruct the game to construct new buildings as you expand your kingdom, but all the virtual buildings have a fixed floor plan and there are no construction options.
While the game offers plenty of Middle Ages-themed furniture to buy and decorate your buildings with, most of them are not very interesting. The majority of the buildings also come pre-furnished and there is little motivation to do a complete face-lift.
Despite its flaws, it did come across to me that the game’s creators were trying to come up with something that feels fresh for loyal Sims fans. However, until a more polished version is released, Sims fans who have enjoyed the main series should stay away.
The Sims Medieval Cheat Code
Understand your Sims
Each Sim has his own personality traits and one fatal flaw. How well the Sim performs a certain task, or thrives in an environment, can be affected by these character traits.
Before getting started on your first quest, click on the arrow button to the left of your Buffs list and select the Simology option. There, you can find out about the Sim’s character traits to see what activities or items will make him tick. A Bloodthirsty Sim, for example, would likely need to wield his sword and win a fight every once in a while to remain satisfied.
Get free moolah
Press Ctrl+Shift+C to bring up the cheats window any time during gameplay and enter the following cheat codes:
- 1,000 Simoles: kaching
- 50,000 Simoles: motherlode
Download The Sims Medieval now.
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