The Sims: Makin' Magic: A Farewell to Charms
Written: Jan 10 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: New magic system is deep and fun, Magic Town is interesting, yet more Sims!
Cons: You mean to tell me that after I spent over $200, it's all done?
The Bottom Line: Makin' Magic isn't quite as good as makin' bacon, but almost.
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| B_Campbell's Full Review: The Sims: Makin's Magic for Windows |
When The Sims was released, it was hailed as the game of the year almost unanimously by the gaming press. But that was somewhere around five years ago, so how could it still be going strong? No one would have predicted then that it would be such a successful franchise now, thanks to EA's rapid marketing of expansions. The seventh and final expansion is the seemingly Harry-Potter-esque Makin' Magic.
As with the other six expansions, Makin' Magic is not a standalone, and thus one must own The Sims to play it. Because of this, I'm not going to get into the basic gameplay; you can read my review of The Sims for that. What I will do is focus on the additions.
By now, you'll have probably guessed that there are new objects, walls, floors, and building items. There are also a couple of new jobs (the Circus career track is probably my favorite, who hasn't wanted to run away and become a carnie?), and the requisite new area. This area is called Magic Town, and is of course where you go to get your magic done. The twist is, as opposed to the other areas introduced by expansions, you can live in Magic Town. In addition to the several 'town' areas to visit, there are three house lots to move into.
As the name implies, Makin' Magic lets your Sims, well, make some magic. No, not in the bedroom (well, okay, some of it can be used in the bedroom), but actually cast spells and create charms. Here's how it works; there are two types of magic, spells and charms. Spells reside in a Sim's magic wand, whereas charms are actual items - the difference is largely semantic. To create either, your Sim collects three ingredients, puts them in the proper 'magic maker' item, and voila, you have magic. Every magical Sim has a spellbook, and this book tells you What combinations of ingredients have an effect - but not what effect, that's for you to find out (at which point it's automatically recorded in the spellbook).
Most of the spells have to do with the basic mechanics of The Sims, like making people happy or helping them fall in love. There are some interesting ones, like 'Toadification', the first spell most Sims discover, or a spell that can animate some objects. It's not that the magic adds as much to the game as it does enhances it; magical Sims just have a new way to accomplish all the same things regular Sims can.
Magic Town is dedicated to magical Sims, and is where they'll go often to get almost everything they need. There are many minigames that can be played to earn ingredients. There are also some challenges one can take, like magical duels, snake charming, or animating a mummy, to earn MagiCoins, the currency of magical Sims. These coins can be used to buy ingredients, and they are also needed to buy the houses in Magic Town.
There's another magical feature - magical interactions. When a magical Sim interacts with someone else, over time they'll gain small magic tricks they can perform. These are like the trick's you'll see street performers do; hidden coins and the like. This spices up the gameplay and gives another reason to make your Sim magical.
It's hard to talk about this expansion without spoiling things for those who want to buy it. Much of the surprise comes from discovering the spells and charms, but much of the additions are the spells and charms, so it's hard to go into depth. Just suffice to say that there are some very interesting and amusing magical effects.
To be honest, I was skeptical of Makin' Magic at first. All of the other expansions had their roots in the real world: Superstar let you live the Hollywood life, Unleashed added pets. Makin' Magic seemed to be piggybacking on the success of Harry Potter, and EA has been extremely creative with expansions so far. But, once I started to play it and explore some of the additions, I realized that while the magic may be fantasy, the feel of the game has not been lost.
Before installing Makin' Magic, I highly suggest installing all of the other expansions. That is, in order:
The Sims, Livin' Large, House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Superstar, and Unleashed.
I would also suggest a beefy machine, with lots of RAM to take care of the number of Sims that hang around the town areas. A 1.2Ghz or faster processor, at least 256MB of RAM (512 if using Windows XP), and a 128-bit 32MB or better graphics card should do the tricks, but more is always better.
Makin' Magic is a fitting end to the legacy that is The Sims. Fans get to explore a really deep and inventive new world, while they wait for the early 2004 release of The Sims 2. Speaking of which, there is also a 'Sims 2 Preview' disc included, so if you're curious to see what the next iteration will be like, you have another reason to get this game. Makin' Magic is fantastic in all sense of the word.
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: Bennett Campbell
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