6 years ago

Realm of Magic - Early Access - Honest opinion/review

*Thanks to EA for providing me with an Early Access code for this pack*

Game Packs are in my opinion the saving grace of The Sims 4 DLC. Apart from Strangerville, I love them all, despite the bugs (Dine Out, I’m looking at you!).
If the team will announce that they will stop creating Stuff and Expansions Packs and will instead release 3 GP per year, I will not be that bothered. I think you get the most out of your money with GPs by far.
So, I was very excited to receive an early copy of RoM. After Strangerville I wanted my love for GPs to come back, I was ready.

*disclaimer: I am not usually an occult player*

CAS

I will address the CAS elephant in the room straight away: there are no items for kids or toddlers, none, zero. That is sad and it irritates me to no end. At least with vampires we got some things for kids! Why do they keep doing this? Give us at least a pair of boots, or a gender-neutral hairstyle, or…a necklace with a broom, I don’t know, something, anything at this point.

With that out of the way, I must say that the CAS in this pack is pretty good. I love when the team doesn’t only focus on one style and pays a bit of attention to different ones. In here we have a goth/darker style, a high-end spooky stylish style, and a more druid/one with nature style. (as you can see, I don’t know fashion terms, I am doing my best! haha)

I believe packs like Vampires, Get Together, and Get Famous are great companions to this pack when it comes to style your sims.

Here are some outfits I made while exploring CAS:

https://i.imgur.com/nqv5byp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ZgJ1Qq4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/i6k6qFc.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KsmbaMy.jpg

Male clothes are really nice in this pack and now I realise I only prepared one collage with them…sorry. There are plenty of well designed male clothes in this pack, I promise.
The textures are really well done and many of the items have a lot of detail.

Hairstyles and accessories are very beautiful as well, those new earrings…aaahhh! I love them so much! It is a shame that we don’t get any new facial hair though, some sort of wizardly beard or moustache would have been very welcomed.

https://i.imgur.com/BymPyS3.jpg

There is a bug when it comes to spellcasters eyes: you have all the past occults eyes to choose from, however, they don't seem to be working properly. I am not sure if it is something that will be/was fixed before release and it just apply to the early access version. I hope they fix this soon.

I know that even if I won’t really be playing a lot with Spellcasters, I will be using this pack’s CAS assets all the time in my game.

expansion packs

AlbaWaterhouse
6 years ago
Build/Buy

https://i.imgur.com/Ql5I1zK.png
https://i.imgur.com/t6NsPa0.png

The versatility of the swatches in the new windows and doors is awesome. You could potentially use them for any style of build. The windows can look modern, rustic, or magical. I love the stained glass versions and there are plenty of combinations to explore.
For a Game Pack I think we get a fair amount of items.
Like with CAS, I will definitely use all these assets (apart from the more occult looking ones) very often from now on.

I have to point out 2 things that are a bummer in BB though.

1 - Why don't we ever get a FULL set for the kitchen? This time around they didn't forget the island counters but yet again, we don't get matching cabinets. And I really don't understand why this keeps happening. Also, the counters we get are basically recolors of a base game one, so the design jobs was kind of done already, why not add the new swatches to those existing cabinets?
- on the left, the base game set, on the right RoM's one -
https://i.imgur.com/xS5vmLZ.png

2 - Why do we keep getting items that should have the same swatches but that are slightly off?
- same swatch, different shades of black -
https://i.imgur.com/VMpLR6c.png
AlbaWaterhouse
6 years ago
Gameplay and the World(s)

Becoming a spellcaster is very easy. If you created a sim before getting the pack and are annoyed that you can't turn them into a spellcaster in CAS straight away, fear not. It takes 5 minutes of real life time to turn your beloved sim into an occult.
Here is how:
Spoiler
1 - Travel easily and without even chance cards through the portal in Glimmerbrook. (no animations for the portal, it is very anticlamatic)
2 - Go to the ugly main building there (it is a really ugly build, seriously, it breaks the whole aesthetic of the awesome Realm of Magic world)
3 - Find any of the 3 sages (they are around all the time, you can't miss them)
4 - Ask them to give you the gift of magic or something like that and to their question answer "I was born ready"
5 - Collect 7 magical motes (they spawn literally EVERYWHERE around the ugly lot)
6- Bring them back to a Sage (doesn't even need to be the one you asked earlier)
7- Your sim is a spellcaster now
At least, there is a bit more of a build-up to it than with mermaids, that's for sure, and even a cool animation when they are being turned.
https://i.imgur.com/Notgaf2.png

Magic is super easy and requires very little effort, the only challenge your spellcaster might face is curses. But if you learn the potion or spell to cast them away (which happens fairly quickly) then there is not a worry in the world.

The easiness of the gameplay and lack of challenge is not exclusive to RoM though, it is a TS4 problem.

I started playing a household of 3 young spellcasters and explored the worlds with them. Here are some screenshots
https://i.imgur.com/4LEBQDj.png
https://i.imgur.com/WhF4E1N.png
https://i.imgur.com/sBruMWE.png

The Realm of Magic world is so magical and well done! But! Most areas are completely pointless and useless, pretty yes, but useless.
The "gardens" have like 3 harvestables and nothing else to do, that gorgeous structure is not accesible. Why didn't they make it like the airplane from Strangerville or the ship from Island Living?
https://i.imgur.com/Zrm1WuL.png
You can look inside but you can't take your sim there.

Another issue I have with the Realm is that you will see sims from other worlds that are not spellcaster practicing maginc around like it's no big deal. Really immersion breaking, specially for a rotational player like myself.

I quickly got bored of my 3 young adults and decided to go full in and make a coven of magical/fantasy looking coven of 4 witches.

https://i.imgur.com/WPM2jJe.png

I got bored quickly as well. As I pointed out in the first post, I am not really an occult player, sorry. Also, I find no challenge in any of it.

HOWEVER!!! Something beautiful happened:

https://i.imgur.com/KYzxXXG.png
I decided to create an elder spellcaster based on Circe, the greek sorceress/goddess and a cat. And then, my fun began.
https://i.imgur.com/DPhldCa.jpg

I made her a loner, I took her to Granite Falls to learn herbalism, I made her cat her familiar, I got her to grow a nice garden usefull for her potions and set the lifespan on normal. My aim was to have her learn the immortality potion before passing away from old age.
Since I love playing with outdoorsy and nature focused sims, and I enjoy the simple life, I found peace and fun in this style of gameplay. It also gave me a new purpose to have a pet again.

https://i.imgur.com/DrqLmbw.png

I love her!

I don't think there is much to say about Glimmerbrook, it is very similar to Granite Falls but with a base game vibe to it. 5 lots, ugly houses. However, I love that they made it separated from the Realm of Magic so we can use it for regular sims to live in. I have plans to play on rotation with 5 households there soon.

All in all, I would recommend this Game Pack but be aware that existing general issues with how the game is designed are present here.

Thanks for reading!

P.S: I am all for the latest harvestables we are getting to have different designs (Island Living ones and nor RoM's)
https://i.imgur.com/TYontpB.png
AlbaWaterhouse
6 years ago
Oh, one more thing: This is Circe's home!

https://i.imgur.com/f1XJ4gI.png
https://i.imgur.com/VzUN4ka.png

All the sims you see in my review and Circe's home will be available in the gallery today if you like to have them in your game :)
WolfNate
6 years ago
Ah well as an occult fan I think I'll enjoy it.

Also everyone says Sims 4 too easy I enjoy that about it. Also seriously magic has always been "make things simple" Till you learn Decursify you might run into a lot of problems
Dglbr1969
6 years ago
Thanks so much that was good of you to post. Agree about the counters not having cabinets though why? All the other stuff looks amazing, just cannot wait now!!
rjssim
Rising Scout
6 years ago
This looks good! I love the looks and style of the new worlds. I really do hope that EA follows up with a full out expansion adding even more of this kind of content to the game. This is definitely going to be the best game pack, there is no doubt in that.
paigeisin5
New Spectator
6 years ago
I agree seeing pre-mades from older packs and worlds running around The Realm is weird. And the fact the teams gave their Sims magical abilities before we even started to play the pack is just wrong. I always delete the pre-mades when I start a new save but a lot of players don't. I am probably wrong, but didn't the gurus say we wouldn't see this during their live stream? I understand the teams' reasoning for creating the Sages so they are available to teach our Sims the ways of magic, and adding two families/households with some skills in their respective crafts, but they went off the rails a bit when they randomly assigned magical abilities to pre-mades in my opinion. In doing that they took away some of a player's control over who has magical abilities, and how many one might want in the game.

The new world of Glimmerbrook and the B/B assets are very nice, and I am looking forward to using them. But I think I am going to wait to buy it. The new animations are nicely done, but the gameplay itself looks a bit shallow and too easy. I was hoping there might be more complex gameplay in this pack, but it just doesn't seem to be there. Again. Thank you @AlbaWaterhouse for taking the time to post your lovely pics and writing your review. And the new kitchen counters and lack of cabinets are a big disappointment for me, as well as the other Game Changers I have watched today.
simmyfroggy
6 years ago
@Paigeisin5 I think (someone correct me if i'm wrong) they didn't mention anything about premades and townies showing up in the Realm, just that the townies won't do magic in the regular worlds.

Thank you @AlbaWaterhouse for your review. Glad to see you found an angle to it that made the pack enjoyable even if occults aren't your thing :)
paigeisin5
New Spectator
6 years ago
@darrenfroggy Thanks for clearing that up for me. :) Perhaps I was simply hoping pre-mades from past packs wouldn't suddenly be granted the ability to roam about The Realm or have magical abilities assigned to them. But I still don't agree it was a wise move.
simmyfroggy
6 years ago
"Paigeisin5;c-17240082" wrote:
@darrenfroggy Thanks for clearing that up for me. :) Perhaps I was simply hoping pre-mades from past packs wouldn't suddenly be granted the ability to roam about The Realm or have magical abilities assigned to them. But I still don't agree it was a wise move.

It would absolutely make sense if it was only Glimmerbrook-specific townies. But I don't know if the mechanic is there to limit them that way.
It's just weird because I'm guessing they won't be Spellcasters if you grab them from the household management :/