RoM....m'eh?
Am I the only one who feels a little m'eh with Realm of Magic? I've been playing for a few hours and I just don't get the same excitement as I did with vampires or even Spa Day! Glimmerbrook looks ...
Forum Discussion
I'll have to agree. For a concept that allows the imagination to run wild with possibilities, the kind of magic we got in RoM is tame, safe, and uninspiring with a few exceptions. Personally, I was impressed by the cloning spell, even if you could already do that in the game. But the spells themselves to even their animations are just not very interesting generally. Most of them use the same casting animation which I wouldn't mind so much if the casting itself was impressive. In TS3, the effect was big, flashy, and just cool to look at. In TS4, they're just sparkles.
I agree that the realm itself is very nice to look at, but it's sad that it's actually the most inspired feature in the pack. It's still as hollow as a lot of the other worlds.
The schools aren't that different from each other either in the sense of creating the kind of spell caster you want. The trailer says you can choose to master one school or all of them... but if you were creating an evil spell caster, for example, why wouldn't you master all the schools? An evil Sim can still use Practical and Untamed magic for evil purposes. Personally, I would've liked more themes put into the pack, either by elements or by "Good, Evil, or Neutral".
So far, the most impressive occult is still Vampires to me because they allow you to create different kinds of vampires with traits that actually flesh out the vampire's personality (crying too much or having no emotions, for example). You can choose whether that vampire can sleep in only coffins or beds as well. If they're immune to sunlight or not. If they're a social butterfly or a plasma-sucking monster that alienates everybody around them. Vampires actually fix some of the problems with the Sims themselves... minus the fact that your Sim has to be a vampire to get flaws in their personalities and some depth. With spell casters, there's no true difference between them.
There's even little details missing from the pack that I hoped would be there. For example, in TS3, your Sim will use magic to light a fireplace or to cool it down without having to select the spell itself. Once I learned the fire spell in TS4, I chose the option to light it. Instead, the Sim brought out a lighter which makes me question the "smarter Sims" claim in the marketing. Curses are just minor annoyances that can easily be solved by purchasing a potion with your satisfaction points. There's no real consequence to actually being cursed except your Sim doing things you don't want them to do. Which is already a problem in the base game.
In my opinion, this pack was about on the same level as Strangerville. I like what it's trying to do, but I do not think it did it well at all.
I agree that the realm itself is very nice to look at, but it's sad that it's actually the most inspired feature in the pack. It's still as hollow as a lot of the other worlds.
The schools aren't that different from each other either in the sense of creating the kind of spell caster you want. The trailer says you can choose to master one school or all of them... but if you were creating an evil spell caster, for example, why wouldn't you master all the schools? An evil Sim can still use Practical and Untamed magic for evil purposes. Personally, I would've liked more themes put into the pack, either by elements or by "Good, Evil, or Neutral".
So far, the most impressive occult is still Vampires to me because they allow you to create different kinds of vampires with traits that actually flesh out the vampire's personality (crying too much or having no emotions, for example). You can choose whether that vampire can sleep in only coffins or beds as well. If they're immune to sunlight or not. If they're a social butterfly or a plasma-sucking monster that alienates everybody around them. Vampires actually fix some of the problems with the Sims themselves... minus the fact that your Sim has to be a vampire to get flaws in their personalities and some depth. With spell casters, there's no true difference between them.
There's even little details missing from the pack that I hoped would be there. For example, in TS3, your Sim will use magic to light a fireplace or to cool it down without having to select the spell itself. Once I learned the fire spell in TS4, I chose the option to light it. Instead, the Sim brought out a lighter which makes me question the "smarter Sims" claim in the marketing. Curses are just minor annoyances that can easily be solved by purchasing a potion with your satisfaction points. There's no real consequence to actually being cursed except your Sim doing things you don't want them to do. Which is already a problem in the base game.
In my opinion, this pack was about on the same level as Strangerville. I like what it's trying to do, but I do not think it did it well at all.
