The Sims: Medieval Gamescom Preview

We’re all familiar with the mighty Sims – the all-conquering franchise has sold over 125 million units, after all. But at Gamescom, we got the full low-down on what will be the most radical take yet on The Sims when it arrives in March 2011: The Sims Medieval.

Medieval is no mere Sims expansion pack: it’s a whole, standalone game which won’t require a copy of The Sims 3 in order to run. As the name suggests, it puts the Sims into a medieval setting, which somehow makes eminently good sense, and definitely allows for some great comic possibilities. And gameplay-wise, it’s very different than any previous Sims game – it gives you more control over your Sims than ever, and encourages you to manipulate a whole cast of characters.

Senior Producer Rachel Bernstein – the Sims Medieval guru, in other words – demoed the game to us, talking us through it as she went. “Medieval introduces a new way of playing The Sims – you negotiate it by going on quests, in each of which you get to choose your hero. The first thing you do when you start a game is choose your Kingdom Ambition, which could be to be a builder, conquer territories or fill your kingdom with magic. Having done that, quests become the central feature of the game. Some have nothing to do with your Kingdom Ambition, but the idea is that each quest is a story idea, like improve theatre.”

Time for a quest

“Once you decide what quest to do, the next choice is which hero you will control.” Bernstein illustrated the principle of quests by embarking on one, called The Monarch Is Sick. “I could choose a wizard as my hero, in which case magic would figure prominently, but I’m going to choose a physician instead. And I need to pick another hero sim to help which could, say, be a merchant who would provide exotic ingredients, but in this case, I’m going to choose a priest.”

With the quest initiated, we were taken to the Tower Of Knowledge, where the physician lived and worked – living upstairs from where you work was common practice in medieval times. Bernstein began by attending to a few patients – hero sims must fulfil their designated functions, even when on a quest. This involved an amusing mini-game, in which they were strapped onto a scary-looking table and given leeches to drain the right amount of blood, before medicine was poured into their mouths via a funnel. Humour, as you would expect from a sims game, features prominently in Medieval.

Next, we examined the king, discovering he had “poisoned blood”; a bit of research elicited the knowledge that this could be cured with Angel Balm, made from Angel Weed. After finding Angel Weed, then getting our priest to pray for the king along with his congregation, we were able to make the Angel Balm, send a message to the king via carrier-pigeon and cure him. Bernstein explained that each  quest completion would bring levelling-up achievements and experience rewards, plus money, for the physician and priest, as well as Kingdom Points, which can be used for new buildings and so on.

Play however you prefer

Bernstein said there is a Quest points system:  every time you choose a quest, you use up a designated number of points, and each game will end when you have exhausted your Quest Points, at which point you will be rated for how successfully you achieved your Kingdom Ambition. She maintained that how you play The Sims Medieval is up to you: “You can play it in a goal-oriented way, or you might choose quests to develop a few characters for which you have a personal preference.”

She explained that characters like cooks, scribes and constables have their own personalities, and while they can marry and have babies, those babies won’t progress beyond children – Medieval, unlike other sims games, is restricted to one generation. Each character has two positive traits, plus a third which is a “fatal flaw”, although you will be able to undertake a quest for each character to turn his or her fatal flaw into a “legendary trait”. Bernstein said: “For example, the blacksmith’s fatal flaw is that he is an alcoholic, which gets in the way of his blacksmithing.”

In keeping with the fact that it is a Sims game, Medieval does allow you to customise things like clothing and interiors, albeit in a medieval context – you won’t be able to make anything that jars with the game’s impressive Middle Ages art-style. But you might have to, for example, refurnish the king’s bedroom in wall-to-wall pink, so that he can attract a queen he has his eye on and who is obsessed by that colour.

The Sims Medieval is an intriguing addition to the legendary franchise – it will let you control its characters more than other sims games, and clearly has more structured gameplay than other Sims games. We’re really looking forward to playing it next March.