Have you ever wanted to be a king, queen, or knight? It might seem like an unachievable fantasy, but with the Sims Medieval, it’s possible. I will be reviewing this game based on factual information, and I will be providing my unbiased opinion on the gaming experience.
About Sims Medieval
Build a kingdom from the ground up with the Sims Medieval game. You’ll start with just a monarch (king or queen) and complete quests to expand your kingdom. As your kingdom grows, new playable heroes can be added such as knights, spies, and even priests.
Sims Medieval Story
A thriving village makes for happy citizens.
The story starts with a king or queen who’s attempting to build their kingdom and gain the hearts of their citizens. From there, the quests you choose are entirely up to you. The making of the kingdom story can be whatever you want it to be.
While there is no specific storyline, the quests can be interesting for story purposes. They sometimes lack depth and can be tedious but they allow you to control your kingdom story and make it your own. Will your knight take on the mighty chinchilla army or will your Bloodletter marry one of her patients?
Sims Medieval Gameplay
During gameplay, you can expect to see some notable features such as fight to the death, send to death by pit beast, and send to stocks. You will also be able to spar with NPCs and discover new lands that will add new quests and NPCs to the game.
The map is very small but contains a decent number of NPCs that will walk around, interact with one another, and sometimes interact with you. Overall, the NPCs are not very notable but there are some that you will see quite often around the castle and the village. Some of them are even designated as bandits or guards which makes the game exciting and more realistic.
The game can be fun for short periods but needs improvement when it comes to quests and gameplay. It is somewhat replayable for when you want to resort to a comfort game but, unfortunately, most of the quests remain the same even when replaying.
Sims Medieval Combat
Sims Medieval doesn’t contain much combat, if any, throughout the game. The main heroes do have the option to spar, or duel with others, sometimes to the death, but most quests don’t require it. They can also practice their sparing on training dummies and as they increase hero levels, their combat skills become better.
To increase hero levels, you must complete quests and daily responsibilities for each hero individually. Heroes can also buy better swords from the village market to use during duels or spars. The only weapons available to heroes are swords containing different metals, the higher the quality of the sword, the better it is for combat.
The game doesn’t contain multiplayer options and is a single-player simulation game. Combat can only occur between NPCs or heroes. The sound effects for swordplay are decent but the animations are the same throughout the game, no matter the hero's level, combat skills, or type of duel.
Sims Medieval Quest/ Mission System
The beast is out for blood.
When it comes to adventures in the Sims Medieval, there are only so many that you can go on with your sim. Most adventures take place in rabbit hole locations that you will send your sim to without being able to follow them.
During quests, you can meet interesting NPCs but they don’t really have any personality or depth to them. They are solely there for added depth to the game or their participation in a certain quest.
The quest system is interesting because it allows you to control your gameplay. However, most quests are boring and just involve having your heroes perform certain tasks within a reasonable timeframe.
For each quest, you can choose to work with the same hero or a different one; some even require two heroes. You will have them complete the objectives required to fulfill the quest. Based upon their mood, and how quickly they complete each objective, the quest can be given a bronze, silver, or gold medal which will determine how high their hero level rises.
In the beginning, you can complete the New Beginnings quest, which involves having the monarch increase kingdom happiness by getting rid of bandits. During this quest, you will receive a maid after saving her from an attack. You will also be given the option to fight the bandit to the death to rid the kingdom of his presence.
Sims Medieval Graphics
Since the game was created in 2011, the graphics need to be better with modern-day game graphics. However, they are still good for the period that the game was made in. The world is decent and the animations, though repetitive, are clear.
Though I do hope that they overhaul the game graphics and make them more modern for players, they are not bad for a game that was made over 13 years ago.
New Content Updates
There is only one DLC for the Sims Medieval game currently and it is called Pirates and Nobles. It introduces new quests, treasure hunting, and new objects for the game. It was also released in 2011 and adds additional gameplay to the world.
New content has not been added to the game since this DLC was released. There is a huge mod community for the Sims franchise but not many exist for this specific Sims game. And those that do exist have not been updated recently and are a little difficult to add to the game now.
Sims Medieval Developers
The game was developed by none other than Electronic Arts, the creator of all the games within the Sims franchise. The game is not as glitchy as other Sims games, although it is way older. EA has also not patched the game or fixed any issues with it in years.
Simmers have been asking for either a new version of this game or an updated version of the existing one containing better graphics. However, EA appears to be preoccupied with the Sims 4 franchise right now and has not commented on any of these requests.
Sims Medieval Price
The Sims Medieval is currently available on the EA App, the EA website, Origin, and Amazon. The game retails for about $19.99.
There are no pay-to-win elements or in-game purchases. Once you purchase the game, it’s yours to play as much, or as little, as you want.
Final Verdict
Overall, I would give the game a 7/10.
Pros:
- You get to run a kingdom.
- It’s an inexpensive game.
- Pick and choose between quests.
- Some mods/ CC are still available.
- Compatible with modern-day technology.
- There is a DLC that can enhance the storyline.
- Classic Sims game.
Cons:
- The graphics are outdated.
- Storyline can be boring.
- NPCs just exist, they’re very basic.
- Create A Sim items suck without CC.
