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 ...
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:
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
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