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The Sims Medieval
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- Publisher:
- Electronic Arts
- Category:
- Simulation
- Release:
- Mar 22, 2011
- ESRB:
- Teen
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- 8. Batman: Arkham City (X360)
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The Sims Medieval Impressions - First Details
Hear ye! The next Sims game for the PC will not be The Sims 4. Nay, good lords and ladies. Twill be a tale of nobles and peasants. Who talk funny. Attain the first details here!
While EA's The Sims series has seen amazing success on the PC as a continuously successful series that, every few years, gives rise to a sequel and then a bunch of expansion packs, EA's Play division, which is responsible for the Sims games, is going in a brand-new direction. Specifically, it's going backward in time to the days of old when knights were bold and modern medical technology amounted to a jar full of leeches (and really cutting-edge medical technology was a second jar of leeches). Yes, rather than purchasing a house in the suburbs outside of SimCity, in The Sims Medieval, you'll have all your little computer people living in and around a castle. And rather than play as your little virtual family members throughout the course of their entire lives until they have children of their own who eventually grow into a new generation of parents (and so on and so forth), in Medieval, you'll instead play through a single story arc with your characters and be assigned an overall score once you've completed enough of their quests, bringing your game session to an end.
Sound different from what you're used to with The Sims? It is. While there's a lot of The Sims 3's technology under the hood powering Medieval, this is a fundamentally different game that's focused less on open-ended designing and building and more on story-driven, quest-driven experiences. The game even looks different. Rather than going with the usual bright, sunny, colorful look of The Sims, Medieval has a subdued color palette and an aesthetic that the team describes as "painterly" and "illustrative," which recalls the classic artwork of Renaissance-era Europe. We watched a brief, hands-off demonstration of the game and didn't even see a single mention of any llamas anywhere (but then again, this was an early, work-in-progress version of the game, so everything in this report is subject to change).
Our demonstration started with a flythrough of a medieval city built around a majestic castle, flanked by cathedrals, gallows, and guildhouses. When starting a new game session of Medieval, you'll choose a large-scale kingdom ambition (which effectively replaces the life ambitions of The Sims 3) that applies to your entire kingdom. And you'll use the strengths of various hero characters to complete quests that earn points toward this goal, including venturing forth to slay dragons or marrying off a princess to strengthen ties with a neighboring country. However, there will be other, subtler social dynamics at work in the world of Medieval, such as class strife between lowly peasants and haughty nobles, as well as conflict between two competing religious orders. One of these conflicts attempts to gently appeal to the hearts and minds of the local citizenry; the other attempts to gain influence through fear and intimidation. (And the god that each religious order worships is none other than…wait for it…wait for it…you!).
In Medieval, you don't necessarily switch control from one character to another and then another; instead, you will control a primary character by accepting an outstanding quest for that character (and if you wish to keep playing that character, then you can simply keep accepting quests for that character). One of the many heroes you can choose to follow as your active character is the realm's king or queen, who resides in the castle, which itself can be edited and designed…somewhat. To keep the game's look and feel consistent, your view of the castle in build mode won't cut away all the walls; instead, it will give you cross-sectional views that encompass the entire room at a glance.
Also, while you will be able to purchase and place period-piece furniture in different castle rooms; make additions to certain parts of the castle's layout, such as secret chambers beneath the castle to house spies; and even do some limited color editing, there won't be any neon-colored, leopard-print patterns for you to make a glam-rock version of Camelot. Besides, the castle will be a busy place because it will not only be the site of important matters of state (such as royal decrees and dramatic, Macbeth-esque duels), but also the living quarters of king and court. Back in the days of yore, courtiers didn't see to their affairs and then call a taxi to drive them across town back to their split-level apartments afterward. Instead, they held court with the king and then retired to their chambers upstairs. Living and working in Medieval will be a much more intimate experience, at least for the royal family and its associated nobles.
