Crusader Kings 2 Review

THE GAME WAS PLAYED WITH THE LATEST PATCH AND ALL THE DLC

If you want to create Kingdoms and Empires, and have the weirdest interactions with many characters, Crusader Kings 2 is your game. It has many mechanics that would make any Grand Strategy game fan fall in love with it.

That being said, it is not so much sunshine and roses. Being a game made in an old version of the Clausewitz Engine, it has your usual clunky interface.

Genre

• It not only improves from CK1, but it goes beyond, and adds more.  It reshapes what a Paradox game is.

Crusader Kings 2 is a Grand Strategy game, meaning that the game is played in a wider scope than many Classical RTS games. You control a single character (he could be an Emperor, King, Duke or Count) whose main objective is to maintain the dynasty; if you don’t have any living members, you will lose the game.

In terms of others things to do, it pretty much depends on what the player wants. If you start as a count in the Kingdom of England, and want to rank up, you can do it. Invade Persia as a Viking and convert to Islam? You can do it, and many other possibilities. The term “the sky is the limit” is embodied in Crusader Kings 2.

Game Play

• The warfare in Crusader Kings is very simple. It has different retinues and flanks, giving a form of complexity, but the rule of thumb is “Big numbers always win.”

• The game can be very hard depending on the circumstances; the campaigns are never the same. It really dependent of the RNG (Random Number Generator), which can be very unpredictable.

• The A.I. can handle interactions with other characters.
• Civil wars and Conquest wars are very frequent, but when clashing against the player, it can be easily “cheesed.”
• It does an okay job in developing the holdings (A.K.A.: Baronies)

• You have the ability to create your own kingdom, secret societies, crusades, jihads, interactions with China, and many others options.
• Crusader Kings shines in the huge quantity of mechanics that it presents to the player.
• The only mechanic that is lacking is technology; the player will rarely interact with it.

Combat and Warfare

Combat in CK2 is very simple. You raise your levies, and send them to battle the enemy. Since it is a Grand Strategy game, there is no way to make the battles more tactical than this; this is not by any means a bad thing, as it works for what the type of game this is. There is a flanking system with commanders that has some influence, but is mostly minimal. The golden rule is still “if you have more numbers, you will win.”

Difficulty

In the early game, things might be hard, but that’s because of RNG (Random Number Generator). Events can make your campaign really hard, and they will be affected by your character stats. For example, if you don’t have a really good intrigue stat, you may die under suspicious circumstances. Events can also make things really easy; by someone giving you a present, or you can even re-connect with God, and are now virtuous. It really just boils downs to luck.

A.I.

The A.I. can do character interaction really well. They setup betrothals, alliances, factions, and schemes. Civil Wars happen a lot too, but that’s where it’s pretty weak. The A.I. can be easily exploited in combat, and since warfare is already a simple mechanic, it’s not like it needs to have deep tactical thought. Still, by no means it is the A.I. bad; it does work when it is more important, which is seen in character interaction.

Mechanics

Want to create your own empire? You can do it. Want to revive the Greek pantheon and reform it? You can do it. The amount of mechanics in this game is huge, and a good portion (if not all) intertwines with character interaction. Like the council, where you assign your vassals to be a Chancellor (who deals with diplomacy), a Marshal (who trains your army and commanders), a Steward (who improves the economy and your holdings), a Spymaster (who can create spy networks and sabotage other realms) and a Court Chaplain (who prosecutes heretics, and can even convert counties.)

There is also a very good religious system (depending of the religion of course.) Catholics need to elect the Pope, and they can enact an Anti-Pope. Orthodox Christians have the five Pentarchy, and Orthodox Kingdoms outside of the Pentarchy territories have an autocephalous (independent) patriarchy. Pagans can conquer the holy site of their religion, and then reform it to a more organized version; it is very customizable, like making the African religion having you as the religious head, or making the Norse pantheon a bloodthirsty cult. Possibilities are numerous, which make religion a really well done system.

There is also societies and secret societies. Depending on the religion of your character, you can join a society that gives you bonuses and new abilities. The Saint Benedict order for example, allow you to teach a virtue or convert a county, with a cost, of course. To do so, you spend the “devotion” points to do these actions. Nordics can enter warrior lodges to inspire warriors, and to make great gatherings for your warrior lodge.

There are interactions with China, where you can send gifts to the Emperor, and in turn receive gifts and deals from them. There are different governments that interact work differently, like trade posts. Although the technology mechanic is the least used, and laws are bound to technology. It works, but it could have been better and more fleshed out.

Visuals

• Graphics are dated. It is not super ugly, but it shows it is from 2012

• The Art style captures the Middle Ages, adding a lot to the immersion

• The U.I. can be a little difficult to get used to in the beginning

Graphics

The Graphics show it is a game from 2012, it is not an eyesore, but you can see by the quality of the models, the water and terrain that it is from that time period, you can even argue that in the time there were games with better graphics and I tend to agree with this view, nonetheless it is not really a hindrance.

Aesthetics and U.I.

The art style really captures the Middle Ages, and the best example is the U.I. The U.. changes depending on the religion (or even government) of the character, and though it can be confusing when played for the first time, it is easy to find your own character in it. The only negative is the technology U.I. in that it is unnecessarily convoluted, and really confusing; it took me some time to get used to it.

Audio

• Ranging from normal orchestral to Viking metal, the soundtrack does add to the experience of playing the game.

• The sounds effects are high quality enough, somewhat repetitive, but not a big issue.

Music and Sound

The music adds a lot to the experience. When in peace time, most of the music will be orchestral and electronic remix. But when you declare war, it’s when the Viking metal and heavy metal starts playing; it does make you excited to win the war and defeat your enemy.

The sound effects are high quality. When an army encounters another, a battle sound will play. Death cries (and there are many) when someone dies, a baby crying is heard when a baby is born, an angelical piano when you enter the religion tab, etc., etc. It can be repetitive, but it is not a big deal.

Series Expectations

• It improves a lot from Crusader Kings 1, adding a lot of new mechanics.

Crusader Kings 2 Expectations

Expectations arise, not only from the obvious graphical improvement, but in the way you raise your levies, the religious mechanics, and of course the ability to play with other types of governments and religions. (At launch, CK2 was similar in that aspect; you could only play as a Christian.) Later it added interactions with China, and made interaction with other characters more organic, increasing the number of events, too. This game really exceeded expectations, and it is one of the best games of Paradox.

Replay Value

• No game will be the same, mainly because of the RNG.

In one game you might be the Duke of Tuscany, conquering Italy and trying to expel the Lombardians from the peninsula. But while you are doing that, Asturias was annexed by the Umayyads and they are now invading France. Then, the Saxons invade Paris, and settle down, weakening the Catholic faith. Or in another game you are playing as an Irish tribe, and while you are uniting Ireland, the Byzantines conquer Syria and Iraq. These two examples encapsulate the re-playability of CK2; no game will be the same. If you want to make it more insane, there is always tons mods in the Workshop to try.

Conclusion

Crusader Kings 2 is by far one of the best Paradox games and for a good reason, the re-playability, the RPG elements, the mechanics, and the community content make this game incredible. Currently it’s free to play now: you can download for the base game. If you want the full package, Paradox offers a subscription to access all the DLC, though nothing is stopping you from buying them. I guarantee you, if you like RTS and want something more grandiose without feeling regret, CK2 is the right choice.

This was the criteria I used to break down and weigh each of the categories of analysis. This pie chart represents the denominators.

• Genre Expectations
• Game Play
• Visuals
• Audio
• Series Expectations
• Replay Value