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Crusader Kings III Preview: A Game of Thrones Style Strategy Game
Crusader Kings III is an upcoming grand strategy game that mixes the empire-building of the Total War series with the backstabbing and character drama of Game of Thrones. Screen Rant recently had a chance to try out a development build of Crusader Kings III to see whether it can outdo its esteemed predecessor.
Unlike most strategy games where the player controls an army or country, Crusader Kings III involves a dynasty. As the ruler of a fledgling nation in the Middle Ages, the player needs to ensure that they have plenty of viable heirs, as control switches to the next person in the line of succession when the current ruler dies. If the dynasty is wiped out, then it's game over. The intention of the game is to grow your dynasty and nation in order to destroy or control your enemies, and there are several different ways the player can go about doing this.
To determine the current ruler's skills, the player selects from one of five Lifestyles (Diplomacy, Martial, Stewardship, Intrigue, and Learning), which will grant them bonuses in their chosen field. Completing tasks based on their chosen Lifestyle will earn skill points that can be spent on abilities. The ruler also has Traits, which determine their personality and can grant buffs/penalties. In the previous game, the ruler's traits could be ignored when making a decision, but the new Stress mechanic in Crusader Kings III will penalize the player if they go against their ruler's personality too often.
Crusader Kings III stars a ruler and their family, but they still need lords and ladies to manage smaller areas of the country. This is where the Vassal system comes into play, as the ruler needs to keep their subordinates happy to receive taxes and ensure that they have the support of their armies when needed. As such, the player needs to keep their vassals happy with the aid of bribes, favorable marriages, appointing titles, or through blackmail.
The ruler can appoint a council of six individuals to help them. The ruler's current spouse has a seat and they can assist different members of the council. The head of the clergy helps to spread the faith, the Chancellor deals with diplomacy, the Steward deals with finances & taxes, the Marshal deals with enforcing laws, while the Spymaster deals with the Schemes mechanic. Schemes are a huge part of Crusader Kings III, as the player can use duplicitous means to achieve their goals. If a vassal is giving the ruler grief, then the player can uncover one of their secrets and blackmail them to keep them in line. If an enemy nobleman is opposing the player, then an assassination might be in order. There is a risk involved with using schemes too often, as they can be uncovered by the enemy and the ruler's underhanded tactics will be exposed to the realm.
The warfare in Crusader Kings III isn't as detailed as other strategy games. The key component of war is ensuring that the quality and number of troops are superior to the enemy, but there isn't much else that goes into the battles themselves. With that being said, the military option seemed to be the most effective way of playing the game in the build of Crusader Kings III that we played. It was usually a lot quicker to raise an army and lay siege to a city than to try out a scheme to undermine a single nobleman. We spoke to the developers about the time it takes to complete actions and they assured us that the game is having its balance tweaked all the way up to release, but that we shouldn't expect to see any dramatic shifts. Warfare might seem like the quickest way to accomplish something, but subterfuge offers opportunities that cannot be won at sword point. The developers are also not discussing the DLC plans for Crusader Kings III, as they are focusing on the base game until release.
The developers of Crusader Kings III also stressed that accessibility is a big part of the changes in the game, as one of the complaints about Crusader Kings II was that it could be difficult for new players to get into. One of the additions to Crusader Kings III is the Issues Widget, which collects a list of tasks that the player should be aware if. Crusader Kings III now highlights relevant text in blue, which reveals the meaning of specific keywords if the player is unsure of what they mean. Together, these aspects make Crusader Kings III a lot easier to understand for new players than the previous game.
There is still a lot to take in when playing Crusader Kings III for the first time and new players might have to endure a few regicides before they can effectively run their kingdom, especially as the tutorial isn't as hands-on as it could be. We reached out to one of the developers of the game, who confirmed that the tutorial is almost finalized, which is a shame, as it could use something more segmented to give new players more context for how different aspects of the game work.
It's easy to be overwhelmed by Crusader Kings III at first, but the game does gradually break you into its various concepts. The player can pause the game at any time in order to issue commands, so they can take a breather if their country is being invaded. Once the game resumes, there are five different game speeds that can be switched at any time, so it's easy to slow things down during wartime or to speed things up when the kingdom needs to hasten production. As time progresses, the game throws special events at the player to shake things up. These can involve things like members of the council being caught committing illicit acts or a vassal switching their religion, any of which can force the need for damage control.
It's these moments where Crusader Kings III shines, as the game can go from comedy to tragedy at a moment's notice, all while the ruler has to do their best to hold their realm together. It's this level of immersion that sets Crusader Kings III apart from its contemporaries and it manages to mesh small scale personal conflicts with epic warfare, in a way that is unlike anything else on the market (outside of its predecessor).
The developers of Crusader Kings III have said that they want to branch out and attract a wider audience to the series, from fans of strategy games and sandbox titles, as well as RPGs and players of The Sims. The game has improved upon the accessibility issues of the previous game, but it's still a lot to take in and could use a more robust tutorial and interface in order to keep players from getting lost among the myriad options available to them at one time. It remains to be seen whether Crusader Kings III will be the game that brings grand strategy to the masses, but we were impressed by the current build of the game and we're excited to try out the full version of the game when it's released later this year.
Crusader Kings III will be released for PC and Linux on September 1, 2020.
