Post by Admin on May 15, 2011 14:38:56 GMT -5
The Sims goes Medieval
Life is full of disappointments. Elephants can’t fly, you’ll never truly get to taste a rainbow and despite what your parents have told you it really is time to stop leaving teeth under your pillow. Life’s latest disappointment comes to us from Maxis games; the company that brought you The Sims and it’s near countless expansion packs.
In the Sims: Medieval you take on the role of one of several hero character classes and use them to quest for the realm. This is a distraction from other Sims titles where you take on the role of Joe Nobody and create your own story and setting.
The Sims: Medieval seems like a great idea on paper. You take your best-selling life simulator game and turn it into a fantasy RPG. What could possibly go wrong? As the game opens a voice that sounds mysteriously like Patrick Swayze explains that you are “The Watcher” which is political correct middle manager speak for god.
Seeing your people unhappy, you (god) decide to directly interfere in their lives in hopes of bettering their mundane existence. This is ultimately a failed premise as anyone who plays this game for more than a few hours will inevitably resort to throwing their Sims into dungeons or death traps just to get a rise out of their 6$0 investment.
Part of the allure of previous Sims titles was the lack of clearly defined goals. In any other game setting this would cripple the enjoyment factor; however, allowing players to set their own goals has proven to be successful for the franchise. The Sims: Medieval has rid itself of that mantra, instead giving players a constant stream of pointless tasks to carry out.
It seemed like every second of every moment was occupied by some unavoidable odd job. A typical Sims day looks something like this: wake up, eat gruel, rush to do your daily chores, eat more gruel, decide if you have enough energy to do this portion of the quest and then eat more gruel. Then you fast forward through numerous walking animations or conversations before getting back to your home in bed time, and have some more gruel.
The game does have features that fans of the previous installments would appreciate. For example, if you hated designing your perfect home and decorating it with the best stuff Simoleons could buy good news, you no longer have to.
That’s right; the Sims Medieval has cut out the design aspect of the Sims game so now you don’t have to worry about building a bustling tavern or a dark tower. You can still choose to decorate the interior if you’d like, though there isn’t much of a point. There are only two needs that still need to be met by Sims now, eating and sleeping.
The camera controls have been entirely revamped for The Sims: Medieval and by revamped I mean redesigned by a monkey with a crayon.
One of the aspects of previous Sims games that I really appreciated was the ease of use when it came to operating the camera. You could shift quickly from floor to floor and jumping between portions of the map was smooth. Because Medieval uses prefabricated buildings the camera doesn’t wrap all the way around.
As such you are cut off from viewing the entire building which causes trouble when trying to move around your own property line. This was clearly done to save time and money, however, the effect is a poor game play experience.
On a positive note questing brings all of the comedy I have come to expect from a Sims title. I especially enjoyed my holy mission to eradicate the evil chinchillas of the land. That being said I would have appreciated actually seeing the action instead of just reading that my character did it. From a gamer’s perspective this doesn’t seem like too much to ask for.
In fact it’s hard to understand what we’re really getting in The Sims Medieval. The entire game is built off the Sims 3 engine, so no redesign was needed not to mention the lack of building options baffles me beyond explanation. While an entire new wardrobe is available for your Sims, any third-string modder could have created the same thing in a week.
The truth is all Maxis has done with this game is cut up their previous installment and rewrap it with a big shiny bow.
Life is full of disappointments. Elephants can’t fly, you’ll never truly get to taste a rainbow and despite what your parents have told you it really is time to stop leaving teeth under your pillow. Life’s latest disappointment comes to us from Maxis games; the company that brought you The Sims and it’s near countless expansion packs.
In the Sims: Medieval you take on the role of one of several hero character classes and use them to quest for the realm. This is a distraction from other Sims titles where you take on the role of Joe Nobody and create your own story and setting.
The Sims: Medieval seems like a great idea on paper. You take your best-selling life simulator game and turn it into a fantasy RPG. What could possibly go wrong? As the game opens a voice that sounds mysteriously like Patrick Swayze explains that you are “The Watcher” which is political correct middle manager speak for god.
Seeing your people unhappy, you (god) decide to directly interfere in their lives in hopes of bettering their mundane existence. This is ultimately a failed premise as anyone who plays this game for more than a few hours will inevitably resort to throwing their Sims into dungeons or death traps just to get a rise out of their 6$0 investment.
Part of the allure of previous Sims titles was the lack of clearly defined goals. In any other game setting this would cripple the enjoyment factor; however, allowing players to set their own goals has proven to be successful for the franchise. The Sims: Medieval has rid itself of that mantra, instead giving players a constant stream of pointless tasks to carry out.
It seemed like every second of every moment was occupied by some unavoidable odd job. A typical Sims day looks something like this: wake up, eat gruel, rush to do your daily chores, eat more gruel, decide if you have enough energy to do this portion of the quest and then eat more gruel. Then you fast forward through numerous walking animations or conversations before getting back to your home in bed time, and have some more gruel.
The game does have features that fans of the previous installments would appreciate. For example, if you hated designing your perfect home and decorating it with the best stuff Simoleons could buy good news, you no longer have to.
That’s right; the Sims Medieval has cut out the design aspect of the Sims game so now you don’t have to worry about building a bustling tavern or a dark tower. You can still choose to decorate the interior if you’d like, though there isn’t much of a point. There are only two needs that still need to be met by Sims now, eating and sleeping.
The camera controls have been entirely revamped for The Sims: Medieval and by revamped I mean redesigned by a monkey with a crayon.
One of the aspects of previous Sims games that I really appreciated was the ease of use when it came to operating the camera. You could shift quickly from floor to floor and jumping between portions of the map was smooth. Because Medieval uses prefabricated buildings the camera doesn’t wrap all the way around.
As such you are cut off from viewing the entire building which causes trouble when trying to move around your own property line. This was clearly done to save time and money, however, the effect is a poor game play experience.
On a positive note questing brings all of the comedy I have come to expect from a Sims title. I especially enjoyed my holy mission to eradicate the evil chinchillas of the land. That being said I would have appreciated actually seeing the action instead of just reading that my character did it. From a gamer’s perspective this doesn’t seem like too much to ask for.
In fact it’s hard to understand what we’re really getting in The Sims Medieval. The entire game is built off the Sims 3 engine, so no redesign was needed not to mention the lack of building options baffles me beyond explanation. While an entire new wardrobe is available for your Sims, any third-string modder could have created the same thing in a week.
The truth is all Maxis has done with this game is cut up their previous installment and rewrap it with a big shiny bow.