Crusader Kings 3 – Sway, Marry Or Murder!

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Ever dreamt of conquering the world or even thought of rewriting history in the country you live in? Maybe expanding the kingdoms to the likes of which have never been done before?

Developed by Paradox Development Studio and Published by Paradox Interactive and the sequel to one of the most popular strategy games ever made, Crusader Kings 2; Crusader Kings 3 is finally being released on the 1st of September on Steam and Xbox GamePass for PC.

Set in the Middles ages, Crusader Kings 3 continues on with the grand strategy experience with a host of new ways to bring success to your royal house with Experience Knights, Peasants, Pilgrimages such as the Holy Wars and of course Viking Raiders.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s bring honour to our Family!

Gameplay

I can write forever on the gameplay of Crusader Kings 3 as each new game is different to the rest however you can only choose 2 starting years: 867 or 1066.

crusader kings 3
Do I start as a Viking or Conquer Wales?

As you can see from the screenshot, there’s quite a lot of scenarios (30 overall: 15 starting in 867 and 15 in 1066) which you can start from let alone the years however, if none of them suit you then don’t worry as you can choose any country from anywhere on the map:

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Now, Where to Start?

You may or may not have noticed but Crusader Kings 3 has tried to be as accurate as possible with the knowledge and history they have to make sure each time frame has the correct representation of each country for the period.  That’s impressive alone as already you get that feeling you can “change” the course of history and, well, Maybe the Welsh can Defeat the English After all?

The one thing that I would recommend to a new school noob like myself, someone who has had a crack at the previous titles or a dab hand at taking over the world: the tutorials are a must.  Not only does it help you understand how to play the game and get an overall knowledge of it but also showing old school players the new features that have been introduced.

Some new features include shaping your destiny; Paradox have introduced a skills tree so each character includes heirs, choose a lifestyle that’s either suited to what the character is strong at, or what you want to play as.  It’s quite interesting as there are some very cool things such as intrigue where you can master the arts of seduction or become a great martial.

crusader kings 3
Becoming a great General in my Norse Empire

With almost ten thousand providences and around several thousand playable characters,  Crusader Kings 3 are bringing in parts from Crusader Kings 2 too. Two of the most popular parts of the final expansion Holy Fury; they have kept in the advance crusade system and the religion creation which now allows you to play everything except republics and nomads. Also, India and West/Central Africa is in from the start too.

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This is my best run so far, lasting 5 generations

Crusader Kings 3 has a great way of tackling successions to the throne and allowing the player to continue on the journey.  This is where you will start re-doing your games over and over again as planning (such as whom you marry your kids off to, which alliances to form and just general shape of your kingdom) will have an effect on your next in line to the throne. This has had me a few times when I would rush in, Conquer and not pay attention to vassals and once my character dies and hands off the kingdom, I no longer own land.

crusader kings 3
Didn’t plan for the Future and my kingdom of Wessex reduce in size.

This, however, is the learning process that player will have so that you start understanding not only your game but long term actions for your kingdom.  Myself, I am many hours and so many games in I lost count and I’m slowly getting to grips to play the long game, or I hope.

crusader kings 3

Graphics

Crusader Kings 3 is not necessary graphically demanding but the maps, the interface and your character at the bottom left of the screen look amazing.  However, as you can see from the images, a lot of colour is used to separate the land, this game does not have a Colourblind mode.  This has hindered myself a few times to distinguish which land is which.  Even highlighting the area doesn’t always show easily (for myself) where the land starts or ends.

With no Colourblind options aside, overall the graphics look superb and all very well done.

crusader kings 3

Audio

I really like the audio in this game, its very chill and talking to the lovely devs in the Crusader Kings 3 discord, the audio was made to be more reactive, more immersive and provide ambiance rather than being a singular track, as was the case with all other titles.  Which is very true and can be seen, in my eyes, a very relaxing and chill game to play and a good one for streaming perhaps too  More details on the Audio can be seen here:

crusader kings 3

Longevity

How Long is a piece of string?  From the middle to the end times two?  Well that’s how much longevity is in Crusader Kings 3.  The thing is, you can go on for days, months or even years (potentially) with this game as it has some many variations on each time you play, it would be quite hard to replicate each game every time.  I mean you can try to play the same country, try to invite the same places but then, BAM, someone different tries to invade your lands.

As I mentioned before, its such a chill game, you can easily sink hours into it without realising you had, which is fantastic to get that feeling out of a game.

crusader kings 3

Conclusion

For fans of RPG, simulation, strategy games and previous Crusader Kings titles, this is a must-have.  I have already seen people crying over on Reddit on how much they want the game to drop already.  Bonus for Crusader Kings 3 fans who have Xbox GamePass for PC that’s available on day one too.

Now I did play the preview version and there were some tiny little niggles but not game breaking bugs, and which were confirmed on the Crusader Kings 3 discord are fixed when going live.  With that in mind I’m going to award the Crusader Kings 3 the Platinum Thumb Culture Award!

Developer: Paradox Development Studio
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Release Date: 01/09/2020
Platforms: PC (Steam, Xbox GamePass PC, Microsoft Store & Paradox Store)

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

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