[typing]
So there's The Sims 3 and a small army of expansions and Stuff packs available for it.
Just like all the other Sims games.
But then The Sims Medieval comes out and...
Hmm, there's no "3" on the package.
It doesn't say "expansion." I mean, what is this?
Is it any good?
Well, that's what I'm here to tell you today
through yet another somewhat snarky review.
But before we get into the nitty-gritty,
let's go over some of the most frequently asked questions regarding the game
because I know several of you are going to ask without even watching the rest of the video,
so I may as well get it done right now.
Question #1: Does it require The Sims 3 to play?
Is this an expansion?
It has nothing to do with The Sims 3,
except that it uses some of the same game engine and gameplay elements.
It's not an expansion or anything like that.
It's an entirely new standalone game series
based in the Sims universe.
You can customize existing castles and buildings,
but you can't just go around building things from the ground up.
Do Sims act autonomously or age and have families on their own?
The game is very scripted,
much like a narrative-driven linear RPG.
You can have kids, but they'll never grow up
and adults never get older, either.
Do expansions or mods for The Sims 3 work with it?
NOPE!
It has nothing to do with The Sims 3, remember?
There may be mods someday, but as of now, they're incompatible.
Is there a console version?
NOPE!
At least not yet.
Will my computer run it?
NOPE!
Ah, I'm just kidding. It probably will.
It's easier to run than The Sims 3 due to its restricted gameplay,
so just check out this website for more information.
Yeah, it's both and neither at the same time.
It has role-playing elements, but it also has Sims elements.
It's really its own thing.
[grunting and yelling]
That would be...
depending on whether or not it's European or African.
Alright, so with that said, let's just get right into the game itself.
The Sims Medieval starts off with an awesome introduction narrative
narrated by none other than Jean-Luc Picard himself,
Patrick Freaking Stewart.
NARRATOR: You watch the land grow and mature,
waiting for the first people to arrive.
LGR: The gist of the story is that you play the role of the Watcher,
who is pretty much God.
The Sims are being Sims,
and as such, they are complete fools who are always setting things on fire
and getting jealous for no reason.
So you decide to send heroes into their medieval world to set things right.
You can then start a new game with a new kingdom and a new hero Sim
by choosing an ambition for your kingdom to pursue.
These ambitions are basically a set of quests or stories you will be able to play.
Complete one, unlock a couple more.
The first you can choose is the tutorial titled "A New Beginning"
and the hero you start with is the Monarch,
which is either a king or a queen, depending on your gender.
You'll then enter Create-A-Sim and create... a Sim,
which is similar to what you'll find in The Sims 3, but with less things to choose from.
You can still choose hair, facial features and customize their clothing colors,
but for instance, you can't create blue people,
you can't choose differing outfits like nighttime wear,
and you can only choose two traits.
Although, there is a fatal flaw to choose now,
which affects how your Sim will react to daily activities and situations.
Things like being a compulsive gambler,
an insomniac or a drunkard.
Yes, there is alcohol in the game. Friggin' finally.
There's also an enhanced look to your Sims,
which is especially noticeable in the faces.
They just look a tad more realistic
due to the new sub-surface scattering technique that's used,
which hopefully is something they'll bring over to The Sims 3, eventually.
Now, you only have the option to create one Sim here,
that being the Monarch.
However, there are many more that you can choose later,
you'll just have to unlock them.
The next step is choosing a quest.
You'll have a choice as to how you'd like to complete each quest,
depending on what heroes you've unlocked
and what path you'd like to take to complete them.
Once you've committed to a quest,
you can then enter the game and get medieval.
While you only get to choose from the Monarch at the very beginning,
I'd just like to give a rundown of the different professions,
since that's really where the variety of the game is,
and playing as different heroes will affect how the game turns out for you.
First, there's who you'll start with.
First. Initially.
Which is the Monarch.
And it's the king or queen, and they're obviously top dog in the kingdom,
and as such has the last word over everything that happens.
You have the Servants to serve you,
the Advisors to advise you,
and the royal woohoo chamber
to ensure your legacy continues.
And to spread your kingly love to lands far and wide.
You also have the ability to pass edicts
that affect surrounding kingdoms which may become your allies,
or you can just annex them completely.
The Monarch also has the ability to call the Constable on Sims,
sending them to the stocks
or even tossing them to the pit monster.
[screeching]
Just be careful in your actions,
as Monarchs have a tendency to be assassinated.
The Knight is mostly around for combat purposes,
learning new fighting moves and preparing for duels in the barracks.
They also do lots of hunting and learning special tactical moves,
which are useful for taking on troublemakers.
They basically do a lot of stuff that the Monarch can do
that the Monarch is too busy to do.
A great companion to the Knight and Monarch is the Blacksmith.
They are the ones who make the weapons and armor for your kingdom,
in addition to whatever you may find during quests.
They're the only Sims that can mine ore
and then smelt and cast it into something useful
while looking hardcore,
smashing hot things over an anvil.
Merchants are the traders of the kingdom
and can be found at the market.
They provide the regular wares,
as well as special rare items which may be needed for quests.
They can also make use of the docks
and trade with foreign territories,
bringing in even more rarities to tempt your flagrant consumerism.
Next is the Bard,
which is an absolute staple of the local tavern and the castle.
They aren't exactly huge moneymakers,
but they'll make you shake yours,
spinning those hip, cool grooves on the lute.
They can also compose poems and plays about random events
they are inspired by.
And they make hilarious drunks.
Now just in case something goes wrong, you have the Physician.
Medieval times pretty much sucked as far as diseases and pain,
so thankfully the doc is in
and they've got plenty of fresh leeches for your every need.
Broken bones? Leeches. Open wound? Leeches.
Infection? Leeches.
They can also craft tonics and medicines from the local flora,
so they're great to have around.
Playing as them also gives you the chance to play some pretty fun mini-games.
So give them a shot as soon as you can.
There's also the Wizard or Witch,
which... is pretty much what you would expect.
These magically-inclined Sims are born with the ability
to use spells and craft magic items.
Basically, they shoot glowy stuff from sticks
at Sims you don't like, so they're awesome.
Being the Watcher, the priests will be of particular importance to you,
The two religions of the Watcher are the fear-inducing Jacobans
and the peace-pushing Peterans,
who are introduced by building Jacoban
and Peteran cathedrals and monasteries, respectively.
These will allow you to create priests in either of these two religions,
and consequently influence the populous,
by using either dick move fear and power
or hippie-like compassion and evangelism.
They pretty much go around blessing and cursing Sims, depending on how you're feeling.
Ah, there's nothing like a little religious oppression to start the day off right.
And finally, you have the Spy.
Spies are awesome in any game,
and these guys are no exception.
They're pretty important to the goings on of the kingdom,
although, by design, you wouldn't know it.
They can either aid the Monarch by bribing, passing secret messages
or even killing other Sims,
or they can subvert the monarchy
by doing pretty much the exact same thing,
even going so far as to assassinate him in his own castle.
They can also craft potions and poisons from herbs,
go hunting,
engage in combat,
free prisoners,
pick pockets,
pick locks and generally do all kinds of awesomeness.
And you can make them look a lot like Altaïr or Ezio from Assassin's Creed,
so that's plus five points to the Spy.
So, now for the gameplay itself.
The basic gist of The Sims Medieval is that you've got a kingdom to manipulate,
and a storyline to complete.
The beginning and end points are basically always going to be the same,
but it's how you get there that changes.
As you've probably guessed by now,
this is absolutely nothing like The Sims 3
where you have an open world sandbox to explore
and do whatever you want with no real goals,
except to virtually fulfill bizarre personal fantasies.
[clears throat] However, if you've played games like The Sims Stories series–
Life Stories, Pet Stories, Castaway Stories–
you'll know what to expect here.
Or even the challenges of World Adventures or the job activities
of Ambitions expansion for The Sims 3,
yeah, it's the same kind of thing.
That is, you have a Sim to influence, but the main goal
is to improve things – in this case your kingdom –
by upgrading four aspects:
In order to improve these aspects,
you'll need to complete quests which affect them.
These quests are multipart stories to complete,
usually by going somewhere and talking to someone,
collecting something, or participating in some activity
that would otherwise be mundane
if the story weren't forcing it down your throat that it was interesting.
For instance, at first you'll have to get your kingdom started
by collecting some supplies to build new buildings.
You're a Monarch. You'd think this would be the Servant's job.
But who am I to question Sim logic?
And in doing these first missions, you'll probably run into your first big disappointment
and that is that many of the areas that seem interesting are just rabbit holes:
areas that your Sim can enter but you can't see what's going on inside.
You can have your Sims enter these areas and... do stuff,
but while you'll be told lots of cool things are happening,
you'll never get to see it.
You'll get a "choose your own adventure" style choice box here and there, and that's about it.
Dang it, I wanted to SEE my Sim fight a bear,
not just read about it.
Thankfully, there are several new activities and locations that are not rabbit holes,
sword fighting duels being one of the biggest.
If your Sim is capable,
you can don any armor and weapons you may have in your inventory
and challenge a Sim to a duel,
even to the death.
You can't really do anything but watch, though,
as the outcome is mostly affected by the level of your hero Sim.
You can click to perform things like a hilt smash,
but this doesn't seem to do anything but display a new animation.
Another slight disappointment is the camera and the way the buildings work.
Instead of being able to view things from any angle inside buildings
...like The Sims 3...
you can view it only from a dollhouse perspective,
with a cutaway front wall peering inside.
If something is in the way of something you want to see,
well that's just too darn bad because you can't move the camera but only so much.
And there is no Build Mode,
so you can't remodel your castle very much, either.
No moving walls or making new rooms,
so if you're expecting castle building, just forget it.
Purchasing pre-built upgrades to your castle is an option later, but that's it.
You can, however, place, remove and customize objects inside of the castle,
so you do have some degree of customization.
You can place these items by earning money,
and you earn money by completing quests, collecting taxes and random events,
and then you can also earn building add-ons
by gaining experience.
You'll gain experience points for doing pretty much anything,
but successfully completing quests
is the main way that you'll level up your hero.
This little chalice here determines how well you're doing on the current quest
so the more things you do successfully,
even above and beyond the bare requirements for the quest,
will determine how many experience points you earn.
Another way to earn XP is to fulfill your daily responsibilities.
These depend on the hero you're playing as
and work basically the same as fulfilling wishes in The Sims 3.
There are only two per day, and they only last for a certain amount of time,
but if you perform them, you'll gain some XP
and your Sim's focus will improve.
Again, this is pretty much like The Sims 3
where completing them will increase their morale
and also give them a related Moodlet.
You'll also notice that you no longer have a large list of needs to keep up with
like hygiene, bladder, social.
All you have is hunger and energy,
which makes things a lot simpler
so you can focus on completing quests,
instead of doing things like peeing every five minutes.
Although, you can still pee if you want to,
and I recommend doing so at least once,
because seriously, how many other games do you get to pee into a vase?
[tinkling]
You'll also notice a totally new feature to keep up with in The Sims Medieval,
and that is your Sim's religious status.
Every Sim starts off as Agnostic;
that is, not necessarily believing in the existence of you, the Watcher.
But they're open to the idea,
so long as they start seeing some proof that you exist.
The more Sims believe in you, the more they'll listen to you,
and follow your unseen, possibly masochistic, hand.
You can improve this by reminding them of your existence,
accomplished by things like building a monument to yourself
or setting up religions in your name.
This is also the same way you unlock any of the other professions,
by building the appropriate edifice
once you've unlocked enough points to do so.
Eventually, you'll have all ten professions unlocked
and hero Sims for each of them,
but you can't play them all at once.
Since the entire game consists of completing quests,
you can only control the Sims that are needed
for the currently activated quest.
This keeps things from getting too bogged down in complexity,
because otherwise you'd have like a billion things to do
and nowhere near enough time in the day to do them.
Of course, that means if your favorite hero isn't in the current quest,
too bad, wait until later.
To encourage you to play as more heroes,
there's also an achievement system in the game.
This not only gives you a list of things to do,
but also allows you to unlock new items for your Sims,
and it panders to achievement whores.
There are also lots of other little things to keep your Sims occupied,
like the typical collecting items outdoors,
hunting or fishing for better meats,
trading with merchants, brewing hard beverages,
having woohoo, cooking in a variety of ways.
These aren't exactly required, depending on how you're playing,
but they do provide ample distraction from all the questing.
There's also the ability to have relationships
and get married and have kids and all that,
but I just never felt a huge reason to unless a quest required it.
You don't get to see Sims age up,
and the Sims you control changes with every quest.
so there's no real sense of continuity or fulfillment
by starting a family, at least for me.
So is The Sims Medieval worth checking out?
Well, this really just depends on what you're wanting from the game.
As usual, for a new EA PC game, it costs 50 bucks,
and the Limited Edition entices you with a few extra bonus items.
Just some clothing and throne room options,
nothing that great.
It at least comes with a manual inside,
even though it's pretty thin.
The in-game tutorial is really where you'll get your information while playing.
There's a lot of gameplay here,
and even when you beat the game, there's reason to play it over again,
if you really wanna see what some of the other quest paths provide.
The story is lighthearted and fun, the graphics are nice,
the gameplay is familiar enough to Sims players.
But if you're expecting The Sims 3 in medieval times,
you will be disappointed.
It's very much like The Sims Stories games,
in that you have a confined area to play in,
you have a story to follow,
and you won't be able to do the kind of customization
you'd expect in a normal Sims game.
For me, it was pretty refreshing as an old school Sims player.
So if you're bored of the same old
eat, sleep, woohoo, make a blue person and die routine,
then I'd give this one a go.
If you've never played The Sims at all,
or are a fan of RPGs,
I'm not sure I'd recommend it.
If you want the whole medieval kingdom-building simulation,
there are games out there that do it a whole lot better.
Whatever the case, The Sims Medieval really isn't that bad at all,
but only if you know what you're getting into.