The Sims Medieval - Review @ IGN and GamePro

*throws a dire chinchilla at Rune*
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2010
Messages
4,813
Skaven - the "freedom" quest comes when you beat the first kingdom, or "ambition". Basically, all it amounts to is a choice to play a sandbox mode wherein you can switch freely between all your hero characters. However, this doesnt sound quite as fun as you'd think since the daily jobs that your toons must attend to in relation to their professions are turned off, and there's no more quests. Sounds a little boring.

And, it must be said that there's only one kingdom in the game, only one map that you play on. Once you beat the map, you restart all over again (carrying over one of your toons as monarch) w/ a different overall "ambition" quest to beat the map. Same hero quests, tho you can do them w/ different characters. So the replay value may be limited if that throws up a red flag for you potential buyers. Some people are not doing the final quest and transferring the kingdom file, and re-enabling all quests thru cheats to keep playing w/ their former kingdom. Me personally, I screwed up my kingdom (kinda intentionally) by just building fun heroes and am facing some difficulties, so I'm fine w/ going thru it again w/ my spy as monarch and a different kingdom "build". Also, there's a lot of recipes, quests, and choices that I'm not messing w/ this time that I'll do next time.

More hands-on comments by me from a thread on this game in the RPG section:
The good:
-the game's got character in spades, it's funny and fun to play. Great atmosphere. Many lol moments.
-lots of things to craft, gather, etc. You can craft cool magic equipment.
-Besides quest-based things, your character has a mini-game employment. that they have to do or they get thrown in the stocks. A fun economy to take part in.
-all your sims heroes can interact w/ each other, and all heroes are customizable from the get-go or you can use pre-set. The classes are all different and they have lots of pros and cons and differences between them.
-everything can be re-decorated, a dizzying amount of aesthetic options. Some of these options, like better beds and implements make your sims more rested, enable advanced recipes, provide positive buffs, etc.
-spells, magic are fun to use
-the relationships can be fun to play thru, you can even progress to marriage/children or dire enemies
-some fun quests, ie intimidate people, etc
-lots of choices, things pop out at you from nowhere and you have to make an instant choice. You can either get a ton of XP if you choose wisely, or suddenly youre injured w/ a "deep laceration" and have to see the physician.
-nice balance between responsibilities as a member of the kingdom, quest missions, and human needs.
-Buffs and de-buffs happen as a result of your sim's actions and environment, and influence how well or successful their tasks, conflicts, quests etc play out.
-speed up/slow down controls so if you want to speed thru a mundane task or get from point a to b instantly you can.
-Being a monarch is fun!
-You can play as good or evil.
-awesome graphics, very nice sim models and everything looks great. Day/night cycles, good sound.

The bad:
- The more dramatic quests are text-based, for instance hunting a great bear. Your character disappears off-screen and reappears. You either fail or succeed at the quest in relation to your characters physical status, mood, focus, skills, equipment etc. Kinda lame, and at first a major disappointment. Whatever, I've gotten past it.
-no choice of new skills when leveling, your heroes all have skills that happen every level whether you want them or not.
-The combat is not that good.
-you just plop down specific buildings in pre-determined places, no choice of location or style of structure.
-The game is based on several quest lines you can choose from, each time you determine which hero is going to be doing the quest line and how. That is the only hero you can directly control during the quest chain, and until it's been finished. Meanwhile, your other heroes go about their lives and you can interact with them, but not directly control them. ****UPDATED There are quests where multiple heroes are involved, and you have to manage them all simultaneously. I see now why they chose the 1-hero approach on a lot of quests because it can be pretty chaotic. Best to pause and get a few orders for one hero racked up (or get them training or something) then actively control the other one.

More on combat:
It's not all text-based, theres actually quite a bit of actual combat available in it. While it's not all that detailed it can be fun and actually quite exciting as the stakes get higher. A fight can have resounding effects on a sims life for a while. I'm having more fun w/ the combat as my characters level and more abilities unlock and they get better gear, and more is also on the line when someone either wins or loses. For example, if someone loses a fight, they get a "lost a fight" type de-buff that hinders their overall quest/life performance for some time. Also, they typically suffer an injury that takes a while to heal. Conversely, if they win a fight they get like a positive +20 buff to their life skills for a while. Better yet, if they have certain traits, like "bloodthirsty" or "cruel", they can get additional buffs for satiating their need to hurt others or see others suffer, or get rid of a negative de-buff. Plus they get Xp for winning.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
5,228
Location
San Diego, Ca
GamePro 4/5 stars:
but a Patrick Stewart voiceover in the opening cinematic convinced me that the game would be lighthearted and fun the way so many Sims games are.

Being a captain Picard fan I got curious. I must say he's not convincing at all! Feeble voice, bit of a downer compared to the effect he once had on me…
But the game's seems to be an upper. I'm looking forward to playing it. Thanks for all your descriptions.
 
Being a captain Picard fan I got curious. I must say he's not convincing at all! Feeble voice, bit of a downer compared to the effect he once had on me…
But the game's seems to be an upper. I'm looking forward to playing it. Thanks for all your descriptions.

Totally off topic, but when he was filming xmen 3 up here in canada I met him....got a good pic of him and my son.
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
5,749
Totally off topic, but when he was filming xmen 3 up here in canada I met him….got a good pic of him and my son.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! (Omega screaming like a hysteric teen.)
I want to be your son! :hug:
 
I've never understood the Picard groupies, women just love the guy. My girl has it, and she's not even a Trekkie. Loves his voice, thinks he's hot - to me he's some old dude that was on the new Star Trek show. I could understand the younger members of the cast, but Picard? Seriously? He's like one of my grandpa's golfing buddies.

This guy needs to put out a book w/ some pointers for us almost old and kinda bald dudes so we can get in on this angle he's got going before we hit his age.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
5,228
Location
San Diego, Ca
I once read that too much testosterone leads to losing hair too soon ... So this could be an implicite indicator to something ... deep buried into our evolution ...
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,909
Location
Old Europe
Not his baldness but his boldness! "To boldly go where no man has gone before."
Try and say that a hundred times to yourself in front of a mirror with a low voice, self-confident, standing firm and manly in a one piece jumpsuit - without looking like a funny, bellied dope, then you *may* begin to understand Picards appeal to women.

"Make it so!"
 
In Star Trek he's mainly rich of mind, he loves Shakespeare for instance.

You're rather materialistic oriented, aren't you? This is the third or fourth time you're thinking about money when talking about men-women relationships.
 
Not his baldness but his boldness! "To boldly go where no man has gone before."

"To baldly go where no man has gone before" … :lol:

Sorry, I just couldn't resist … *chuckles*
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,909
Location
Old Europe
In Star Trek he's mainly rich of mind, he loves Shakespeare for instance.

You're rather materialistic oriented, aren't you? This is the third or fourth time you're thinking about money when talking about men-women relationships.

Did you notice the smiley?

Materialistic, moi?

I doubt anyone here would back you up on that :)

Haven't you heard about my utopian anti-materialistic world society? I think most people are pretty sick of hearing about it around here.

Star Trek and its captains, in a utopian sense, have absolutely nothing on me!
 
I'm liking the "too much testosterone leads to hair loss" idea. If I can convince my wife that my testosterone is too high and we need to do something to lower it....
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
Did you notice the smiley?

Materialistic, moi?
You remind(ed) me of somebody saying:
"I'm not thinking about smoking, I've quit :), I'm not thinking about smoking, I've quit :), I'm not thinking about smoking, I've quit :), I'm not thinking about smoking, I've quit :)"
Haven't you heard about my utopian anti-materialistic world society?
No.
I think most people are pretty sick of hearing about it around here.
Most people ≠ me.
Star Trek and its captains, in a utopian sense, have absolutely nothing on me!
You and Star Trek… Mm, somehow you remind me of the doctor (EMH). Nice having as a pet. ;)
 
Not his baldness but his boldness! "To boldly go where no man has gone before."
Try and say that a hundred times to yourself in front of a mirror with a low voice, self-confident, standing firm and manly in a one piece jumpsuit - without looking like a funny, bellied dope, then you *may* begin to understand Picards appeal to women.

"Make it so!"

OMG
I did that only twice, and I recoiled and was embarassed for myself at the lack of…… shall we say, "oomph" behind my words and appearance.

I will henceforth, go forth, and use that and him as a tool for re-upping my manliness and self confidence. Maybe youre right, maybe he's an inspiration for middle age dudes like me who are slowly submitting to get up/go to work/eat/sleep so much that they lose their ooomph.

Trust me, the worst thing that can happen to a guy is to totally lose his oomph.

So w/ my new diet/yoga/workout regimen i begin monday will have a Picard-like phrase attached to it. I'm going to say it every day, in the mirror until "phase II" of the plan starts and I get a new phrase -

simply - "It Begins"
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
5,228
Location
San Diego, Ca
You remind(ed) me of somebody saying:
"I'm not thinking about smoking, I've quit , I'm not thinking about smoking, I've quit :), I'm not thinking about smoking, I've quit , I'm not thinking about smoking, I've quit :)"

Many materially oriented people consider the condition to be universal - so that fits :)

Most people ≠ me.

I think we can agree on that.

You and Star Trek… Mm, somehow you remind me of the doctor (EMH). Nice having as a pet. ;)

I'm not at my best as a pet :)
 
In the forum I'm usually in we have a special topic called "Misreadings and slips of the tongue" … - A current example would be this :

Many materially oriented people

Many manly oriented people …

:lol:
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,909
Location
Old Europe
Back
Top Bottom