Crusader Kings III Game Review

Crusader Kings III Game Review.A just or tyrannical king? Diplomat or warrior? After captivating millions of players on PC, the formidable Crusader Kings 3 brings its medieval high strategy to Xbox Series X|S and PS5, with its surprising freedom of action as its protagonist. In this review we put its control to the test on consoles and go over some of the crazy things you can do in-game.

I’ve always believed that I have the mind of a supervillain. If someone plays me, I don’t respond immediately, I wait patiently while I devise a revenge plan… which obviously I rarely carry out because if I didn’t, I would be in prison right now and not here at 3DJuegos. But Crusader Kings 3it’s one of those games that lets you be a real s**t, and it’s deliciously fun. Also cruel, things as they are, because seeing your daughter die at the hands of that nobleman you chose yourself to smooth out rough edges between families, to avoid an attempted coup, sinks your morale. So I would understand any of you calling the army to arms to raze the enemy’s domain. I took it easy. Sad, yes, but knowing that my blow would be even more ruthless. My daughter died under strange circumstances? Blessed be my luck that soon after this scoundrel fathered a son. You can imagine where I’m going, right? I orchestrated a murder to eliminate his newborn heir. And when I carried out my revenge, with the Church as support, I began to steal titles and lands; I imprisoned and tortured his most loyal men. And at the end of this glorious act of evil, I caught him and put him to death.

What you are reading sounds like a scripted story in the style of a narrative adventure, but the greatness of Crusader Kings III and so many other Paradox high strategy games is that this is your story, your particular journey through the Middle Ages , and it is totally different from that of any other player thanks to the emergent narrative that splashes each and every one of your actions during the game. But as you can see, these options are out of the norm and pose decisions so absurdly crazy that by proxy, you can eat the Pope in Rome or throw a rotting corpse -and with a plague- to a neighboring kingdom just to piss off its monarch, who obviously is will become your nemesis. There are so many stories, each one more crazy than the other, that it is easy to understand why Crusader Kings 3 enjoys million-dollar sales and the respect of fans of PC strategy. And his next battle is now on consoles, with this exclusive version of PS5 and Xbox Series X | S that has the difficult task of adapting the overwhelming game options of the original to the controller. Gets it?

Although in this article I will cover some key aspects of Paradox Interactive’s video game, the analysis will mainly focus on the sensations of playing Crusader Kings 3 on consoles . It is comfortable? And easy? So I also invite you to read the analysis of Crusader Kings III for PC if you want to know in greater depth everything that this jewel of the strategy hides.

Play Crusader Kings 3 with controller

I don’t even want to imagine the vertigo that the thought of bringing such a keyboard and mouse video game like this Crusader Kings 3 to consoles must cause. The screen is full of drop-down menus with options here and there that in turn display even more menus with their own peculiarities. On PC, over time, you move easily clicking on all these menus as if nothing had happened, but… with a controller in your hands? It’s scary, right? The team at Lab42 have already shown their good work with the remarkable adaptation of Stellaris on Xbox One and PS4 , but the Crusader Kings saga is so large and complex that it is still hard to believe that you can achieve such a feat. However I am happy to say that the game has adapted very well to the use of the controller with a user interfacemore or less friendly that it is easy to navigate using the button shortcuts devised for the occasion.

It allows you to be a real motherfucker, and it’s deliciously funSince it is a complex game it will take a while for you to gain agility, but game after game you will move faster and faster through that ocean of menus and lines of text until you can carry out any action without even thinking about your movements with your hands. But I insist, it is not something instantaneous. The same thing happens with the action of Crusader Kings 3 itself. Although the days when the tutorial in a Paradox game was little more than a bad joke are long gone, it is still difficult to get into the huge tangle of options and menus that this strategy video game proposes, so I would understand that your first reaction is to give up and move on to something else. Do not do it! You have to spend time and desire but I guarantee that the reward is worth it. As the hours go by, the fun increases, because each time you feel more comfortable doing the thousand and one crazy things that the latest from the authors of Hearts of Iron allows.

Crusader Kings 3 is a scary game because, as you can see, it’s all menus, maps, and characters not particularly graced with the gift of beauty. However, it is clear that he wants to attract players less given to this kind of strategy, supporting your game with a series of tips and warnings.which are perfect for always having a goal in mind. There really isn’t much beyond keeping your dynasty alive for centuries, but it never hurts to know that you can declare war on a neighbor, that someone on your council is going astray, that your bed troubles have led you to having every known venereal disease, or that a vassal is pissed off for God knows what. And the good thing about this version for consoles is that it is easy to respond to these warnings using the button commands that I mentioned earlier. It is a very efficient control system that cannot be faulted.

Nor to the user interface, although at times, the consequences of carrying out some or other actions did not automatically appear. You can also see that information by holding down the right stick, but obviously it is not as immediate as it comes out -as it should be-. Apart from that small problem and some typos in the Spanish translation (or rather unnatural phrases), Crusader Kings III works perfectly on Xbox Series X, which is the platform I used for this review. At this point I want to highlight how good the Quick Resume option suits you .because this is a game that lends itself to sporadic games over time, so going from Forza Horizon 4 to Crusader Kings 3 in just a few seconds is wonderful. PS5 players, for their part, also have an exclusive feature related to the DualSense and it has to do with the stress level of our main character. The more stressed you are, the harder it is to pull the triggers, which I think is a very clever way of conveying that feeling of being overwhelmed.

Loading times are also quite fast and overall performance is perfect. I have not noticed slowdowns or any kind of technical error. Obviously we’re not talking about a graphic wonder, but we are talking about a title that manages a lot of data in real time, so fluidity and immediacy are vital for you to be able to enjoy its action. And you will. As you master the spells; whether you are masters of war and diplomacy, rule your court with an iron fist, or even be able to sway people’s faith, the more you will enjoy the formidable strategic experience that Crusader Kings 3 presents. It is such a crazy game and fun that you can even have a great time watching others play , as it happens to me with Maya Pixelskaya and the hilarious misadventures of Los Buenatula.

“As crazy as it is great”

It’s not easy to get into Crusader Kings 3, not even with the abundant tutorials that Paradox Interactive’s game welcomes you with, and yet, as long as you don’t like history and strategy, I can only recommend this video game. Thanks to its abundant management options and its crazy emergent narrative, you will experience game situations so incredible and crazy, that you will always want to return just to try new strategies; to be the most evil or the most crazy in the Middle Ages. Eat the Pope? The best example of how devilishly fun Crusader Kings III is.