Last weekend, I watched regular, live tv for the first time in a long time (I usually exclusively watch netflix, but I was cat-sitting). As such, I saw my first batch of tv commercials in quite some time. One of which was for The Sims Medieval
. I am a huge fan of Sims 2 (less-so Sims 3) and also a huge fan of the fantasy genre. Which lead to a "start the car, I need this now" moment. Needless to say, I bought it that day and started playing right away!Verdict? Fun.Worth the $50? Yep, especially if you like the Sims family of games and fantasy games. The biggest difference is that it's less of a sandbox game and much more (ok, pretty much entirely) quest-based. But they're not the WOW type, "go kill this and then come back to get XP" quests. They're more along the lines of "the king needs hiers" or "Find out why this man has every disease imaginable." The quests are fun and there are a lot of them (and often different ways of completeing them. Still, I'm not sure it will have the same replayablity of previous Sims games. Still, I'm sure there will be boatload of expansions, as with any Sims.
Another big difference is the elimination of the needs of the previous Sims. Medieval Sims are far less needy than modern ones and the needs have been boiled down to hunger and energy. Mood is based less on needs than previous games and now is determined by a series and buffs and debuffs based on things like hungry, well-rested, recently bathed, scared of the dark etc. All medieval Sims are based on 3 major personality point, some of which can yield strange buff and debuffs (my favourite are the excitable Sims, they love doing everything!).
So overall, I like the game. I've played it a lot the last week, getting a bit addicted. Also, the purchase of the game luckily co-incided with the Diablo 2 ladder reset on last Monday, which has taken up a lot of my boyfriend's time recently. Overall rating?
8.5/10
. I have to say I'm impressed! I haven't had a chance to see it in action yet (fingers crossed for my 
to arrive this week if my makes it here by Friday), but I spend some time staring at it over the weekend and can't wait to try it out! The info on the inside will come in very handy for someone who us new to DMing, like myself (I'm not sure how much the old pros would use it), plus the illustration on the player side is pretty sweet. While I haven't tried it out in a game situation yet, I definitely recommend it. (image from http://roleplayerschronicle.com)
(actually, this lacks a board, but oh well)
/
/