Crusader Kings III

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Crusader Kings III – The Grand Strategy game genre is an old game genre originating from the board game. Still, fewer and fewer titles are released because of the tempo too slowly, which is no longer suitable for today’s increasingly fast and dynamic social atmosphere.

But in that situation, there are still a few very prominent names, mainly the “masterpieces” of Paradox Interactive. One of the oldest names in the gaming industry today with many high-quality game series, which has maintained its reputation and fanbase throughout its more than two decades of existence.

As a fan of this genre, but thanks to the longest social distancing period ever, the writer has enough time to enjoy Crusader Kings III, a complete grand strategy game brand new of this “King of Great Tactics.”

That is also a long-awaited game because, after more than eight years of success of Crusader Kings II with dozens of DLC updates, the third version of the new series has reached the hands of gamers.

With so many elements that have been perfected through the previous two versions, will the third version of the series still be new and attractive enough for gamers?

There are many games played on the map with a large battlefield space and dozens of metrics for players to consider, such as Imperiums: Greek Wars or the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI series, but the Great titles Tactics like the Crusader Kings or Hearts of Iron series that attract players lies in real-time controls instead of 4X gameplay (“eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate”) turn-based chess style.

But that’s also why Grand Tactics games are often developed with an extremely strict balance game mechanism, just like a person balancing on a cable, if you don’t want to make players mess with the lines. Many facts and parameters to consider and major changes require meticulous testing and calculation.

It’s easy to understand why Crusader Kings III took a few years to launch to the gaming community after the second part of the series. The writer asserts that this wait is extremely worth it when the game offers perfectly balanced and stable gameplay despite many fundamental gameplay changes.

That shows that the game development team at Paradox put a lot of effort into testing and perfecting the game’s mechanics without creating confusion that could lead to loss of control in the second half of the game.

The entire game is divided into three main sections: personal affairs, rule, and conquests.

These three pieces are designed to blend to create an overall picture of colorful medieval politics.

Unlike many other Grand Tactics games, whose personal elements were pale in the era, Crusader Kings III focused on the lord himself. Making it the center of changes about the game’s mechanics brings more “spice” to the inherent strategic gameplay of the whole series.

As a feudal noble lord, you will have a title, personality, and distinct social relationships that can profoundly affect your rule and conquest.

You also have to get married, have children, educate and maintain relationships with your children. Even marrying to maintain the clan’s strength is important for your rule to last as the game circuit can span many lords spanning hundreds of years.

That is why the game forces the player to take care of himself and his descendants. A lord with dignity and insight will easily gain more benefits than even communicating with the elite aristocracy, in governance, in choosing a mate, and in soldiers’ beliefs when conducting campaigns.

The lord personality profoundly affects the policies and bonuses you can choose from, thereby helping you manage your “territory” with trends in commercial, diplomatic, or military development.

Meanwhile, education and good relations with children will avoid the situation that when your lord, unfortunately, returns to heaven, the successor to replace him has bad characters. Bad stats can seriously affect the prosperity of the domain and the loyalty of the vassals.

The personal element in Crusader Kings III is also highlighted when players can even through exchanges, chats, even … chat to know the secrets from small to large in the aristocratic circle, as a means of intimidation (hook) for negotiations to gain a certain advantage.

You can even change the mind of a stubborn opposition lord or get a “genuine” wife with “top” stats even though she hates you outright.

The war mode has also been upgraded with a status bar that tracks the battle, showing the superiority of the two sides, showing the war’s progress in real-time, something very new and intuitive compared to the second version of the series.

The system of recruiting troops and transporting legions has also been redesigned to be more intuitive, reducing many operations to divide soldiers, combine soldiers, and control groups of reinforcements to create a “life force” for battles fighting like in the previous version. Allowing the player to focus on large armies and many other factors that can affect the battle.

In which there are famous horsemen, individual leadership elements of the lord also have the opportunity to create variables for the battle, not simply a duel between two groups.

For example, a loyal horse rider may be willing to sacrifice the end for you to run away, avoid the sight of the entire army being annihilated, a general who has an important influence on your rule dies even When you’re on a winning streak. It can eventually create unexpected turns in the course of the game.

This element is somewhat similar to the strategy game series Romance of The Three Kingdoms developed by Koei Tecmo. Making the role of the even individual clearer in Crusader Kings III and creating excitement for players when playing the game monitor the game’s war array, instead of just giving orders and waiting to see the results as before.

The complex political system with vassals of the same rank as Gong, Hou, Earl, in contrast to the church’s divinity system, also created a distinctive picture of Europe in the Middle Ages, which culminated in epic crusades with hundreds of armies moving across the map towards the holy land.

Those are also the “cards” of the forces. Through marriage and social relations, players can gradually escalate in the ranks of titles, even defeat kings or receive the church’s favor and be crowned the emperor.

Of course, there is also no lack of diplomacy, different political tricks, and tricks with a European color in the Middle Ages that Asian players have to take some time to get used to and understand and master the operation.

where can you get a Crusader Kings III online

Crusader Kings 3: Console Edition – Xbox Series X: Buy it now

It must be said that, in this regard, Crusader Kings III is like a vivid and intuitive political textbook about this era, an era that schools rarely talk about other than words “grieves” about the Middle Ages Night.

The visual side of the game is carefully cared for in the measure of a Grand Tactics game, not too heavy and “splendid” with many advanced graphic effects, but also a long step forward in comparison. With the second version of the series, it is somewhat enough that new players are not too “bored” when dealing with too many tables and figures.

Meanwhile, music has always been an important highlight of the game series, demonstrating extremely well the role of air conditioners for players.

You will enjoy various medieval music in the game with diverse tunes composed by talented composers such as Andreas Waldetoft or Philip Wareborn for symphony orchestras with extremely impressive quality images, especially for fans of the genre.

Overall, Crusader Kings III is a perfect game in many ways that fans of the Grand Strategy genre cannot ignore.

All of the game’s changes are extremely smooth, almost causing no discomfort for loyal fans of the whole series.

From there, giving players an extremely excellent and impressive experience.

The random event mechanism is very easy to lead to the lord’s death, whose consequences can sometimes cause a loss of interest for the player.

As a result, you immediately meet the end of the game, even though you own a large land with a strong economy and powerful armies.

Less seriously, you will see the uncultured situation of the characters in the game.

This problem also stems from the game’s random character creation mechanism causing the problem.

However, these small grains do not affect the player’s game experience and are difficult to notice unless you are an extremely “observant” gamer for this game.