I'm in real trouble now. Squeakyclean loves the game. My pc time is in definite jeopardy! So, since I had some rather strong feelings about certain aspects of it, (the camera tops the list), I asked her WHY she liked it. Her response was, you really don't have to think a whole lot. Everything is spelled out for you so you can just play, like with dolls. (She had a ginormous doll house as a kid)
She also loves the fact that you don't have to worry about your Sims age. They just are whatever age you make them and no messing around with nooboos, teens and so on. You get what you make and you play it. Sure, you can have babies but they aren't the work Sims3 babies are. She also loves the simpler rpg aspect of it. The quests are hard enough and interesting enough that it's fun without being frustrating. (She's an avid Final Fantasy player so she really does get into rpg/adventure type games). This rpg is easy enough that after a hard day of studying at school it's just pure relaxation and no stress. (She hasn't done two person yet! That is a tad stressful, at least till you figure out how to work it well.)
Mind you, her "you don't have to think about it" is much different from the way I look at it. You DEFINITELY have to think about it. If you haven't planned your characters well from the get go you are going to be in trouble. At the moment I'm trying to marry off the most obnoxious character ever created, (gee, thanks squeaky!), with little luck, and her maid of honor is almost as hopeless. Like Metro and Carl, I learned it's better to kick it back a bit. Make sure those daily things that pop up and need doing are done first, otherwise you will never make it to platinum. The quest can take a tiny bit of a back seat while you deftly take care of business, but don't let it slide too long or you will fail. There are a lot of small things to take care of as well. You don't have something showing you that your character needs to pee, but they do at least once in awhile and same on bathing. The true clue on that one is the green cloud wafting around them. I happen to particularly like this aspect of the game because it is rather true to the medieval times. It was a royal pain to take a bath then. Buckets of water had to be heated and schlepped wherever you were going to bathe. Then it all had to be emptied out and poured away. Bathing did not happen very often if at all. Sanitation was not a high priority.
My need to build is sort of being taken care of. As my characters earn more money I can sell off the ugly stuff and replace items that are more high tone. Also, some of the buildings, the castle at least, is starting to expand. The graphics are good enough that, while I can't put up my own castle, I'm becoming slightly happier with theirs. Now if they would just make a privy, (garde robe/aka toilet), so folks would stop prancing through my queens bed chamber all night long I'd be happier. I was surprised that not all of the buildings have a chamber pot either.
Tonight my Peteran abbess was hungry, broke,exhausted and the larder was empty. So I sent her to the castle where she whipped up some bear soup! Nice to know you can always sponge off the royalty when in need! After she was fed and rested she went fishing so her larder would not be empty again. You only get one fish per spot where they are leaping, but do you really want to spend hours standing there fishing like you do in 3?
Oh, and those flowers, seeds, etc. really do have a purpose. The moss is for making bloody moss drinks, like bloody mary's, with a big kick for those morning afters. The brewing aspect was fun for me. I think I made just about every beverage possible so there were a lot of casks laying around. After all, there is soon going to be a wedding, I hope.
The more I play it the more fun it is. Figuring out the traits is rather fun. Many of them are recognizable but some are new, (I think). I like the language better than regular Simlish. It sounds like french/saxon/gaelic and almost makes sense. I like the duels too. I'm not one to be able to slug it out so am perfectly happy with the game doing it for me.
I'm pretty slow at strategical thinking so it took me awhile before I figured out that it really can matter which building you place first and to actually acknowledge the little symbols that tell you what aspects the particular building brings to your land. You only have a very few points you can spend, so you best spend them wisely, and figure out which aspects you want to bring to the land you are playing. I did not notice if leftover points carry over or not.
It's also interesting to see your population grow both in numbers and types of characters. The mill is a rabbit hole, but there is a miller who wanders around. So many different jobs and YOU don't have to worry about selecting which LTW you need to go for. (Another reason squeaky liked it). And these npc's actually do their jobs visibly for the most part so it's fun watching all the antics of the npc's.
I'm glad I stuck with it and I'm learning a lot by doing so. It may not be my all time favorite game but I like it a whole lot more than I did initially and I would recommend people buying it.
