For many people, Crusader Kings II is one of the best games of all time. Those folks will be happy to hear that for Crusader Kings III they have kept the soul of the game intact, but enhanced pretty much everything else. This is a grand strategy game with a real emphasis on the word grand.
How to Download Crusader Kings III
To download the game from Steam, click on the Download button below the review.
The Game Review
The thing about this game is that it is very hard to talk about as there is so much to cover. I will give you the highlights of what I found impressive and fun about the game. You start by selecting your house and the game world here is truly massive. It has far more locations than its predecessor.
The idea of the game is that you want to create a dynasty and have them rise through the ages. The way you lead is ultimately up to you. I for one decided to dabble in the world of heresy and pretty much came up with my own religion. Those that dug it and feared it were on board, but as you can expect this did not go down well with other nations.
While Crusader Kings is most certainly a grand strategy game and with that comes all of the things you would expect. You can wage war, try your hand at diplomacy, learn new technologies, and so on. For me, this is a game about people and their stories and it is the kind of thing that you do not appreciate how immersive it is until you play it.
One of the best “gimmicks” that this game has going for it is the way your dynasty will grow over time. I do not think I have played a game where incest has such a strong role as this one, but trying to keep it all in the family can have dire results in just a few generations. Your characters can inherit traits from their predecessors and you can even try your hand at some genetic matchmaking by trying to get two particular houses together.
It sounds like complicated stuff, but it is so intriguing it is impossible not to get swept up in it. You can select the kind of personality that you want your leader to have and then you have character traits you can work on. The thing here is that if you decide to do things that are not in your character’s personality/traits they can get stressed.
Stress can manifest itself in many ways and it is an interesting gameplay mechanic. For example, my character started to develop a real reliance on alcohol! The game is filled with so much “quirkiness” that I am sure what I experienced will be different from what you do. One of the members of my house developed a sexual attraction to a horse for goodness sake!
While it may seem like going to war is the best way to get the message that you are number one. You can also try a bit of diplomacy or the one I preferred, espionage! It is pretty cool to have a gut feeling that someone has it in for you and then using a spymaster to uncover a sinister plot to have you done in!
I have just touched the surface of what Crusader Kings 3 offers. This is a truly phenomenal game and one that as I write this is getting near perfect scores from everyone who has played it. The best compliment that I can give this game is that reading or watching a review may make the game seem interesting. However, it is not until you play the game you realize just how incredible the game is.
