The Sims Medieval

I'm holding a copy of The Sims Medieval in my left hand right now, examining the cover. I shake the case. There's a disk inside. Why, you might ask? The answer to that question reader, is this: I uninstalled it. I have plenty of negative and positive points to make about this game, so trust me—just in case you, unlike me, have an attention span lasting longer than three days.

When I first installed it and booted it up, it worked great. It installed properly, the game-play was smooth, and everything was going well. The first thing I noticed (upon getting to the game's main menu) was the change in the interface. I expected it to look a lot like The Sims 3—it's far from it. The main menu does not include the following: Create a Sim, Edit Town, Choose Household, Bulldoze, or Town View. Instead, one must build one's kingdom from the ground up, starting with, of course, the king. The player does have the option to create a king (using a restricted wardrobe, some new hairstyles, and new traits) or, if the player chooses, the player can also select from a couple of premade monarchs (which, by the way, don't necessarily have to be a king—gender is treated evenly.)

The player continues to do this with the rest of his or her kingdom, until eventually the player has earned enough RP from completing quests with different Sims (such as the king or queen, bard, assassin, or wizard.) At this point, the player may purchase new property for his or her kingdom, which unlocks new and exciting roles for Sims.

If you're interested in the game so far, you're probably going to hate me now.

The game lacks miserably of story progression. Anyone who is a creative thinker probably shouldn't play this game since, for one tiny example, there are two bards for the need tray: Hunger and Energy. That's it. And relationships do not deteriorate as far as I've found out. They remain constant, which totally destroys the realism of the game (a prime reason as to why Simmers Sim!)

As a writer, I wouldn't recommend this to other writers. It drains your juices and fries your brains.

Dare I look forward to whatever EA's putting out next?

Game rating: 6/10.