Yeah, I know I’m a little late to be writing a review. After getting my hands on Crusader Kings III for the first time a few days ago, I can herby say that this game is amazing and is a worthy to successor to its prequel, CK2.
Okay, I realize that Crusader Kings III came out over two years ago and that I’m a little late to the party to give out a full review of the game that doesn’t sound repetitive, but I was waiting for a few things from Paradox before I played. Namely, the Royal Court DLC and the Northern Lords DLC.
Oh, and the mods.
I love the Crusader Kings franchise as much as the next person and have currently logged 1,228.3 hours into Crusader Kings 2 (my entry point into the franchise), but we all know that Paradox is especially slow in rolling out deleted content to add back into the base game through ‘DLCs’.
Now, I’m not trying to hate on Paradox as I respect the company for the games it has created, but I also think it’s fair to say that features included in DLCs like Royal Court, Northern Lords, Fate of Iberia, and Friends & Foes could have been included in the base game on launch day.
I mean, it’s not like Paradox didn’t already produce an ubber complex, sophisticated, revolutionary strategy/RPG in CK3 to begin with. The developers have always had the talent to include these DLCs in the base game on launch day, but the executives usually leave them out in pursuit of the green stuff that makes the world run.
Don’t believe me? Then why do the DLCs of the game cost more ($60.96) than the game ($49.99) itself as of me writing this.
Anyway, enough with my grips over Paradox’s somewhat shady business practices, and back to the game itself as it deserves my full attention. To put this simply: everything CK2 introduced and did well was not only improved upon in CK3 but was also made infinitely better.
It’s had to point to a specific aspect of CK3 is better than CK2 as I’d have to list out every knock and cranny that has been written into the game’s code.
But, for the sake of being brief and transparant, my favorite additions/improvements to CK2 are the intrigue system and world creation. In CK2, you were rather limited (by CK3’s standards) to either plotting to murder, imprison, or disgrace a rival with the truth about their child’s parentage in the intrigue system, while also being able to sic your spymaster on developing plots.
It was a great system for its time, but CK3’s intrigue has just taken the system to a whole new level. Now, you can sic your spymaster onto rival courts to learn the juicy, dirty secrets of rival barons and dukes, you can seduce/romance/befriend rivals’ wives, children, councilors, and courtiers, you can blackmail people into doing your bidding with the hook claims, and you can inspire fear into nearly everyone through the new dread system.
Plus, you can also develop new torturing methods (and the dread that comes with such developments) through the newly created intrigue skill tree, which breaks down to tourtuing, seducing, and scheming. And as one who loves to play a notorious, deceitful, seducer duke/king that can wiggly their way to power through either force or intrigue, this new system has me hooked (yeah, bad pun).
(Paradox Interactive-Crusader Kings III-Release Trailer)
As for the world creation, I find it awesome that you can actually plot new villages, towns, metropolises, castles, fortress, etc. in every single open plot in your counties. In CK2, you could build buildings (ex: barracks, training yards, hospitals), but, in this game, you can literally raise castles and villages from the ground up.
It’s great to play with especially when you use a little know character/made up character as they try to make a name for themselves in the world of CK3.
And that’s just a small fraction of the new features this game brings. The diplomacy, education, way-of-life events, royal court, etc. systems are just as fantastic and definitely deserves to be checked out if you haven’t played the game yet.
The only thing I wish as a little better was the combat system. In truth, there isn’t a duel system at all as you only get a notification if your character and A.I. characters have been wounded or slain in battle. Yes, I know there’re mods that fix this, but they have all gone out of date since the latest 1.8.1 Robe update.
After playing this game for 10 hours, I think I can definitively give it a 9.8/10. It’s just an awesome game for anyone that likes dynasty building in medieval and fantasy settings, which I certainly do.
Now, I can only wait for the AGOT mod for CK3 to drop, which will add at least another 1,000 hours of playtime for me into this game.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Paradox Interactive) (Crusader Kings III – Release Trailer – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Paradox Interactive) (Crusader Kings III – Release Trailer – YouTube)
