The only real gripe that many will have with The Sims Medieval is that you are unable to embody a Sim that is not on a quest, so there is no free roaming element to the game. Just because you want to test the waters of being a Queen doesn’t mean that you can chill out as a Monarch for the whole game; in fact you’ll find that some of your Heroes will barely ever get used.
If you love The Sims, and are feeling a bit hesitant to whether or not you will like Medieval, fans of the series will be pleased with both the similarities and differences to previous games, and newcomers to the franchise will be exuberant at the introduction of quests, if you want to get addicted to a great game, and get caught up in a torrent of questing and swordfighting, then look no further than The Sims Medieval 4/5.
review here (via InfiniteSims)
actually, untrue. When you play your kingdom long enough run out of quest points you can free play all you like. You can still only have control over one character at a time (an improvment in my opinion) but you can do whatever you want. After you get to free play though, you cannot get anymore quest points (no adding new buildings or allys). It takes a bit of time, sure, but there is a free play mode available