The Sims Medieval
Preview
Playing Medieval God
by Danielle Harrison
previewed on PC
Going medieval
Prepare to don the robes of a magician or the armor of a knight as EA presents us with the next installment of Sims games, The Sims Medieval. There has been some speculation as to whether The Sims Medieval is a stand alone game or an expansion pack to the popular The Sims 3 game. Sufficed to say, The Sims Medieval is a brand new game and offers a totally different experience than you are used to. Although The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval are separate games, there are still similarities remaining between the two. The create-a-sim mode and the buy mode where you can move, place, and customize objects are still there, but the build mode has been removed as to create a more stable medieval game.
At the heart of the game, you will be telling a story, and just like in every sims game, you will be creating, controlling, and nurturing these characters to build up their stories. EA have stated that they are using a modified version of The Sims 3 engine and they have changed a great deal of it to produce a totally new art style. They are trying to keep roughly the same specifications as The Sims 3, but are at the same time attempting to balance their goals of having the medieval world be visually stunning, and yet make sure that the majority of players out there will be able to play the game.
Play God
This time around, we will play God in a totally new scenario as we overlook a medieval setting. Delve deep into the middle ages and begin to build up your kingdom by placing heroes and completing quests. Of course, along side the quests, your heroes will have to go about their daily lives with their professions and relationships. Each hero will have different attributes, so different heroes will fit certain quests more than others. You can build up your heroes' skills and send them out to complete quests, earning you kingdom points which you can use to expand your kingdom and make it look better. Your kingdom will have a “kingdom ambition” and some of the confirmed ambitions include "Best In Show", "Busy Builder", "Efficient Expander", "Fame", "Filled Coffers", "Hard Workers", "Imperial Domination", "Legendary", "No Quest For The Weary", "Safe And Sound", "Thoughts And Prayers", and "Wealthy Populace".
There is also a new achievement system were you will be rewarded for reaching your kingdom's ambition and completing your quests. The senior producer of the game, Rachel Bernstein stated in an interview that the game will be more dangerous for the sims, with death and failure a possibility during the game's quests. Dangers include the plague, peasant revolts, wildlife, poisons, duels and more. Religion played a big part in the medieval ages, so to try and capture a more realistic setting, EA decided to include religion. Real religions would be far too sensitive to use, so they came up with two fictional religions; Peterans, followers of Peter and Jacobians, followers of Jacob.
