Crusader Kings III

So you think you're ready for Crusader Kings III, huh? You fired up Steam, saw the words “grand strategy,” and thought you were about to play a nice little game of Risk with knights and castles. No. You’re not ready. Nothing can prepare you for the generational hellscape of betrayal, incest, witchcraft, and passive-aggressive Pope drama you’re about to unleash. This isn't a strategy game. This is a medieval chaos simulator, duct-taped to a family tree that looks like it was drawn by a spider on meth. You don’t play a character—you play their entire bloodline, across centuries of bad decisions, aggressive inbreeding, and mysterious “hunting accidents.” You start off with a decent ruler. Charismatic. Just. Beloved by their vassals. Naturally, they die choking on a chicken leg during a feast. You’re now playing as their 6-year-old heir who’s terrified of birds, has a lisp, and is somehow already an alcoholic. From here, it’s a slow-motion dynastic car crash. Your vassals hate you. Your siblings are plotting against you. Your aunt is trying to seduce your husband. Your court physician keeps suggesting “leech therapy” for everything, including syphilis, cancer, and a stubbed toe. And yet... you love it. The actual gameplay? It’s a paradox of emotions. One moment you're reforming the kingdom’s laws, carefully arranging alliances through strategic marriages. The next, your rival queen has called you a “naked coward” during a feast, and you're now plotting her murder with your court jester and a bag of bees. Stress mechanics? Amazing. Every time you go against your character’s nature—say, executing a heretic when you’re compassionate—you gain stress. Enough stress, and you start snapping like a medieval rubber band. This means your noble ruler could spiral into full-blown depression because someone insulted their embroidery skills. You’ll spend hours trying to create a pure bloodline of genius warrior-poets, only to realize your heir is an obese lunatic who believes he's literally descended from a bear. Oh, and he's married his first cousin. Twice. Wars? You can fight them. But why do that when you can simply marry someone with a claim to the kingdom, murder half their family, and “inherit” it in what historians will politely call “a series of unfortunate events”? Also, let’s talk about religion. You can literally invent your own. You can create a faith that encourages cannibalism, nudity, and human sacrifice, and then demand everyone take it seriously. The Pope hates you. You love it. You are the Pope now. Multiplayer? Oh yes. Want to play with friends? Prepare to witness the absolute worst sides of humanity. One friend will seduce your spouse, another will excommunicate you, and a third will “accidentally” press a claim on your kingdom and burn your capital down. The good news? You can stab all of them. It’s the CK3 way. Final Verdict: Crusader Kings III is not a game. It’s a medieval family drama written by a drunk raccoon with a PhD in backstabbing and no understanding of genetics. It’s confusing, ridiculous, and often downright cursed—but once you start, you can’t stop. It’s digital crack for history nerds with god complexes. 10/10. Would marry my sister to a lunatic duke, steal his title, imprison her for “treason,” and then die of stress while possessed by demons again. Long live House Dumpsterfire.

Quality Assurance is NOT optional in a game-as-service that gets constantly updated with very expensive DLCs. It runs very badly at this point, minimum requirements on the Steam page are almost a scam and in a few months the game will double in size, cutting off other people that can manage to run it now.

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 82: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (9/10) [i] Crusader Kings III [/i] is the kind of game that turns history into a sandbox full of drama, dynasty-building, betrayal, and bizarre storytelling. With over 800 hours in the game, including 400+ hours spent in the incredible CK3: AGOT mod, it’s safe to say I have a love-hate relationship with it. This is a title bursting with potential and personality, held back by writing inconsistencies, strange design decisions, and a frustrating DLC strategy. Despite that, I can't stay away. 🏰 [b] Pros: [/b] [list] [*] Narrative-driven gameplay. Every character has traits, relationships, and quirks that lead to amazing emergent stories. A gluttonous, paranoid king might alienate his council and get murdered by his own son. A zealous second son might join and win a crusade, thus eclipsing his older brother. A lustful wife could try to pass off her bastards as trueborn. Anything can happen, with or without your consent. [*] The stress system adds an incredible layer of roleplay. Acting against your character's nature has tangible gameplay consequences, which makes every decision feel more immersive. Accumulating too much stress leads to negative Traits like Lunatic or Irritable, all of which have repercussions. [*] Incredible UI and Visual Design. The clean, parchment-style interface is beautiful and practical. Nested tooltips, character finder, inheritance previews, etc., are all leagues better than CK2. [*] Modding scene that rivals entire game releases. CK3: AGOT alone is worth the game. The level of detail, lore integration, and unique mechanics (dragon taming, bastard legitimization, knight system, etc.) is mind-blowing. Other mods like Community Flavor Pack, Princes of Darkness, or LotR overhauls can completely transform the experience. [*] Art Style grows on you. The 3D portraits are highly detailed and reflect changes over time (aging, illness, wounds). Map visuals are clean and the terrain is visually distinct without being cluttered. [*] High replayability and emergent drama. Start as a Viking count, a Mongol horde, or a Zoroastrian in India—every region has flavor and potential. Inheritance systems, dynastic marriage, secrets and hooks, and branching family trees make no two campaigns alike. [*] Frequent updates and dev transparency. Paradox releases regular patches and quality-of-life improvements, and the weekly dev diaries offer consistent communication and previews of what's to come. [*] Accessibility improvements. Compared to CK2, onboarding is significantly smoother. The tutorial is helpful, and systems are far more readable. [/list] ⚔️ [b] Cons: [/b] [list] [*] Writing is shaky and often immersion-breaking. The tone of CK3 veers wildly. One minute you're immersed in a serious political drama, the next you’re dealing with events about farting courtiers, poop jokes, or affairs of some lowly courtiers. It’s juvenile and undercuts the otherwise rich setting. Compared to CK2’s often moody tone, CK3 feels like it doesn’t know whether it’s a parody or a simulator. [*] Buggy and poor performance in mid to late game. Even on powerful machines, the game slows down as empires grow. Pausing is slow, the game starts to freeze, and bugs pile up—especially post-patch. Ironically, mods are often more stable than official patches. [*] Weak late game and AI. Once you're powerful, there's often nothing left to challenge you. The AI struggles to handle succession, war, or complex diplomacy. Even with new mechanics added, the late-game remains a bit of a chore unless you roleplay your way through it. [*] Pop-ups are too frequent and shallow. In an attempt to create a narrative, the devs have focused on events. However, many events feel procedurally generated in the worst way. After a few hundred of hours, you’ve seen every “poisoned plant while travelling" event ten times over. Flavor is missing—and when it’s there, it’s oddly flippant. [*] DLC model gates important content. This is probably the most important one. The base game is light on depth in key areas like court life, travel, intrigue, and economies. Unfortunately, many of the most interesting mechanics [i] (Royal Court, Roads to Power, Tours & Tournaments) [/i] are paywalled behind pricey DLC. It creates the feeling that CK3 was released as a framework—waiting to be finished. You will likely miss out on fun or historic content. [*] Underbaked official systems. Mechanics introduced in DLCs often feel unfinished. For example: [i] Royal Court’s [/i] grandeur system adds little once you click all the upgrades; [i] Legend of the Dead's [/i] plagues is just non stop event spam; [i] Friends and Foes [/i] is just a pathetic murder system, not much else. They add breadth, not always depth. [*] Much of the base game needs a rework or polish. Despite CK3’s impressive systems, several major pillars of the game still feel underdeveloped or shallow—especially when compared to the depth fans expected post-CK2 or from major modding projects like CK3: AGOT. [list] [*] Trade, for one. There's essentially no dedicated trade system in the base game. While development and gold income abstract some of this, the lack of any real merchant republic mechanics, trade posts, routes, or resource dynamics makes the economy feel basic and static. [*] Feudalism: The feudal contract system is a step in the right direction, but it's overly simplistic. Vassal management boils down to opinion, and contracts rarely matter once you're stable. Feudal relationships could use more personality and dynamism—factionalism, personal favors, intrigue, and military obligations should all have more weight. [*] Religion: The faith system has lots of potential, especially with custom religions. But most faiths feel mechanically samey outside of heresies or tenet-swapping. Head of faith mechanics, holy sites, and clergy roles lack nuance and don’t significantly change your playstyle. [*] Culture. Cultural hybridization and divergence are great ideas, but beyond that, culture lacks gameplay teeth. Ethos and traditions are often minor modifiers, and the system doesn’t react dynamically to major world changes. Innovations are largely passive. [*] Crusades and Holy Wars. Crusades still lack gravitas or meaningful player interaction beyond "join and send troops." The AI often loses them without your input, and your involvement can feel disconnected. Post-war rewards are static and barely interact with character motivations or diplomacy. In CK3, they’re just calendar filler. [/list] [/list]

super fun game, but sadly its another death by expansion game. Nobody wants to pay multiple hundreds of dollars for all the content. No choice tho, you want this game? Pay $250 and its yours

[h2] Gameplay is restricted by DLC sold at absurd prices [/h2] I can't deny I enjoyed the game, and with 400+ hours spent, I'm happy that CK3 exists. Yet I'm [b] constantly inconvenienced by the new bugs, balance changes, reworked base game features being gated by DLC [/b]. In-game balance of resources/events/etc. is gated severely by whether DLC's are active. You can't separate the DLC-based gimmicks that tie your characters/realm down, without refusing to patch the game ever (which would mean no bugfixes either). Devs limited content so they could sell DLCs. I would accept this if DLC was either priced lower, had more content, or revamped graphics/sound/etc. Hypothetically, the full CK3 collection could be sold at a fair price of 80-100 dollars. Currently, for the price of CK3's full DLC collection, you could build an entire Steam library of exceptional games (approx. $150-250 USD total). [b] Paradox cannot justify individual CK3 DLCs being listed at a full-game's price, when they are ADD-ON's !! [/b] As I write this, I have most DLC's but completing my collection today would cost me 40+ dollars, same as 3 whole games (LiesOfP, Hades2, ManorLords). This is Summer Sale pricing too, imagine that. Paradox wants its new customers to spend upwards of 200+ dollars, but is baiting them with high discount on base game (with all the good content gated behind DLC, and in-game penalties for not having DLC saving events/etc.). Boycott won't work, so for any new players, go spend your cash on more reputable publishers/developers. Even on sale, Paradox won't settle fairly.

Spent hours doing a world conquest as Temujin to try and get the achievement for it. Turns out you need the dumb ass DLC for that to unlock. Too many DLCs are ruining this game. Would be nice to know what achievements are possible without each DLC.

CK3 is a shallow, deeply unsatisfying map painter about a fantastical version of the Medieval world where vassals are actually not that big of a deal and kings all strive to create gigantic regional empires. The game features 500 unique mechanics with the purpose of racking up as much prestige and piety as possible. Read through 156,529,523 unique events about inconsequential courtiers making demands to your characters for the sick reward of even more prestige and faith. Stack really cool county-level bonuses and maluses, and watch your manas go up with no significant positive or negative ramifications for you or your realm. Quell peasant revolts and assist your fellow Christians in a failing Crusade against the Fatimids 5 times in a row. Create works of art with the amazing artifact mechanic, yet another mana manufactoring mechanic. Forge ephemeral alliances with a faraway king just so you can nab one province off of your neighbor. I assume you can see where I'm going with this. The only way to play this game is to create the biggest fuck you empire the world has ever seen and pump out as many kids as possible while repeating the same hunting and feast events to prop up your prestige to pass the events you want to pass. The roleplay is shallow and consists of repetitive events granting you prestige, gold or piety. If CK2 was a medieval grand strategy game disguising itself as a Sims game then CK3 is the opposite. Not to mention the INSANE lack of flavor. Playing as the Holy Roman Emperor is mechanically identical to playing as some fuckwit Wendish count with a peasant levy of 6 trillion armed murderers, the same can be said of faraway Indian kings or Arabic sultans. I can say with complete confidence that this game is truly not ready to expand into the totality of Asia if the CORE BASE OF THE GAME which is Europe and the Middle East is already so historically inaccurate and shallow. edit: fallen eagle is good though, play fallen eagle

Game crashes constantly, cannot even play 30 mins without multiple crashes, sometimes it doesnt even boot up and just crashes. Not sure what happened, but it has been like this for months now for me

game is increasingly crashing more as the updates continues on, even when your on mid end with the lowest possible settings(with mods, since they make the game better)

I tried, but it’s really just not fun. Nothing about this game is fun, it’s a bunch of half assed jumbled up systems and features that trip over each other merged to give a terrible half baked experience full of bugs, things that don’t make sense, unbalanced BS etc etc. They just keep adding more features instead of making sure the ones already there are balanced and function well and give a cohesive experience. Playing this game is literally an unfun nightmare, which is sad because I really liked CK2. The only thing I like about this game is that you can learn languages and even that is half baked. I own many DLC for this game but I’m not gonna support this company anymore. Everything they touch gets ruined.

- playing as Kingdom of Denmark. - Invades a small north german/polish county outside of the HRE - Somehow unknown to me, im 3rd in line for Emperor of HRE. - a bit of knife work - Emperor of HRE -plus I killed my grandson to get the throne of Sweden. -10/10

one of paradox's best games. amazing mod support with overhauls that give the game with endless replayability a fresh and new world to explored

Started game. Chose Rurik. Almost converted Rus into Islam. Plague came and killed half of the dynasty. 10/10 old Rus expirience.

Just another Paradox game with a ridiculous DLC policy.

this game on paper is fun, but not being able to actually play it half of the time consistently without it crashing destroys it, and dont even try multiplayer

The game has a really neat feature that keeps you from losing track of time. It crashes every hour or so, without fail. Don't bother clicking the crash report button, it's just gonna fail every time.

I create spreadsheets at work and I read them at home. 10/10 - this game is a fantastic skin for Microsoft Excel.

while I do enjoy the graphics and gameplay, you're better off playing ck2 is ck3 a good game? YES! it's amazing and has many great mods to go with it. is it better than ck2? NO! ck2 allows for more "historical" decisions & motives, and also has many awesome mods to play

Way too expensive DLC's. Convoluted, poorly explained gameplay. Limited potential. This game couldve been so great but even for me who likes strategy games, this one is just way too difficult. I got 24 hours into gameplay over the months, and I still barely understand basic mechanics. I just genuinely dont understand whats happening or why everything doesnt go well unless I use exploits.

I love CK3 more than my own family. No other game released over the past half-decade has captured my attention and time so profoundly. Is it a good game? I mean...it's pretty good. It could be a lot better. Is it an addicting game? Yeah. Yes it is. There's nothing better than getting a big achievement you've been working on for days or finally perfecting your inheritance laws or successfully killing your evil ugly children. Truly a dopamine rush like no other.

Good game, however the previous incarnation of CK2 is a significantly better buy. This is for two main reasons: 1. Far too little depth: For all the new players, the DLCs lock most of the features in CK2 behind this huge paywall. Furthermore, even with the DLCs included you would note that the game is sorely imbalanced and does not have a good flow compared to CK2. 2. Far too many bugs: From a 15 minute load time to the menu, and multiple save file and play bugs, the game is significantly worse with every update. Each one breaks something while fixing another thing. All in all, this is not the Paradox of yore, but the Paradox of taxation.

It's not stable, and now they want to add China to it, so it'll be laggier and more unstable. This game would be truly awesome if not for memory leaks and crashes.

awesome game. Allow me to learn more about historic events and shit talk accurately to my friends

This game runs SO BADLY. I've never had problems running any vanilla games on my system in my life until I got CK3. It crashes so much. I couldn't even get the game to run until I tinkered with the settings, and even then it crashes every little while in the middle of playing it. I think the gameplay is fun, but I wouldn't know since I've spent more time messing with the files then actually playing it.

Purchased Chapter IV. Game immediately started crashing on character select. Had Chapter IV refunded. Game keeps crashing. Thanks for ruining my game, paradox.

Was kinda fun until it just kept crashing constantly making the game unplayable. Waste of $. Don't bother unless you like games that crash all the time.

Fun and goofy, but annoying when you realize some features are locked behind a DLC. If you are okay with playing the base game, go for it and enjoy. Just realize if you wanna do anything unique, you gotta buy many DLCs.

Perma-bricked on my computer after 200 hours of play time despite doing everything I can to fix it (Save wipes, re installs, troubleshoots etc) , and even when I do get it working it won't pass the second loading screen. That, combined with the sheer breadth of unnecessarily expensive DLCs , has sadly disillusioned me from the game. I loved it, but it's just not worth all the work it takes to try and resuscitate it every time a new update rolls around. Who new a strategy game could be so player-averse?

Crusader Kings III is a great and deeply immersive grand strategy game when it works. The amount of detail, storytelling, and player freedom is truly impressive. The multiplayer experience has been nothing short of a nightmare. The mods are also great. Every time I try to play with friends, we run into constant technical issues. Crashes are far too frequent, and we've experienced game-breaking bugs that ruin the entire session—like all characters suddenly turning into 0-year-olds and dying, which completely destroys the save. It’s incredibly frustrating to invest hours into a game only to have it fall apart due to bugs that shouldn't exist in a title that’s been out for years. Even getting into a game is a chore. Load times are excessively long, and syncing between players often takes forever. It’s hard to get excited for a multiplayer session when just launching and connecting can feel like a mini endurance test. It’s clear the developers put a lot of love into this game, and it shows in the mechanics and world-building. But until the multiplayer is stabilized and these major bugs are resolved, it’s very hard to recommend this to anyone who’s looking to play with friends.

played it for 4 hours total, it forced me to hard restart my pc 3 times in those 4 hours. my computer is not bad, ive played plenty of unoptimized and beefy games with no issues. i can't even remember the last time a game crashed out so hard i had to hard restart my pc, the worst a game should do is crash/freeze and be end tasked. gameplay is fine, gets repetitive and a bit complicated at times, but that's crusadar kings and most managerial sims. until it's optimized, i would not recommend this.

Good with lots of improvements but it still lacks a lot of content. I am sticking with CK2 because I have all of it's DLC's until they finish this game, but I'll probably complete my EU4 collection instead of this one... It feels like Demo because of lack of content. But it's a good game.

I dont like the constant upselling through content packs, but i like the game nevertheless

This game is an immense amount of fun. The story building is top tier. Easily get lost playing this game for hours

A very complicated but indulgent royal simulator. One of the only flaws in the game is that the map is sometimes hard to see in the middle of all the tabs I have open to arrange marriages between my daughters and powerful neighbors. They keep coming for me, but still I persist.

Such a fun and in depth game with so much involvement and management, great game.

this game is amazing! I used to play it on xbox game pass but it stopped working so I purchased it outright here on steam. when I came back it had so many more features added! I love creating my own characters and getting a truly customized experience.

Great game, similar to EU4 good if you like painful conquests less so if all you want to do is paint the map your colour.

Timeless. That's all I can say. Huge replayability, even with base game. I've done dozens of campaign within 100 hours with base game alone. DLCs are pricey, especially the cosmetic ones. But the best thing? Each DLC comes with free features added to base game, enhancing the experience for players that don't own it. Can't wait for All Under Heaven to play SEA kingdoms, making this undoubtedly the most expansive CK game ever.

Such a fun game, can get lost so easy for hours in this RPG. Its my first game in this genre, too. Lots of content, endless possibilities. Highly recommend if you're at all interested in rpg, history, or games driven by choices. 10/10. Don't listen to those bitches leaving negative reviews.

very fun. in love with the idea of starting as a man a building an empire to watch it withstand the test of time

Amazing game! I love the Enhanced Character Customisation! That is the way you connect with characters!

"Crusader Kings 3" is not a dynasty simulator — it’s a desync simulator. Multiplayer collapses every hour. Paradox has had years to fix it. They didn’t. Instead? They sell more $20 flavor packs while the core game rots. Fix the damn game before selling new hats for Vikings.

I started the game, it stays stuck on a black screen, and then an endless loading screen. I had to request a refund. Don't buy this game while it has stability problems. When the product actually works, I might come back to rewrite this review.

i played this game because this is the game you can play while babysit your child, don't wory to pause when holy roman empire invade your kingdom because your baby want to drink milk. i invade mordor while i try to get my baby asleep (using LOTR mod yes there are plenty of mod like being an ancient ROME, Elder Scrolls theme, post apocolapse Americas, some cultural art and man at arms, make boobies bigger, and many more) Play as Viking adventurer, getting a land in persia, hybrid culture, ending intermezzo as the the Flame of Persia, conquer northern land, hybrid with steppe culture, choose last child as favorite child, become adventurer, become nomaden, Temujin emerge, cant defeat temujin, swear fealty to temujin, waiting temujin, temujin child, temujin grandchild died, ursurp the mongolian empire, fighting rebel all over the map, facing black death, rebel dead, every dynastic member dead, mongol empire survive. 10/10 would try to become Norse Emperor of Majapahit in next major update

I hate historical strategy games. Why? No idea. Just vibes. I am... However. Possibly the biggest Elder Scrolls fan alive. So. 10/10, Elder Kings mod team, you may have my firstborn child.

Highly recommend for others. I have played CKII as well and I enjoy the direction this game is headed. I like the DLC and how it offers different flavor packs but also changes to game play. My only wish is that there are customizable start dates like CK II.

CK3 has a lot to offer---role playing, conquest, political intrigue, you name it. Like with so many paradox games, DLC or mods are necessary to get the full value out of it. Highly recommend waiting for a sale and getting a bundle. Northern Lords and Royal Court are the 2 DLC I have that I think are particularly good to have. Road to Power and Tours and Tournaments are the 2 currently existing ones that I would most want to add. The upcoming All Under Heaven (?) looks like it will be well worth having, if only for the expanded map and political systems.

Before i played CK3 i never played/bothered to play paradox games but after i started playing this i have not stopped. This is a fantastic game to play and get stuck into as it melds RPG, Fantasy and strategy all into one game and if you a fan of these genres i highly recommend this game to you. Below i will list some positives and negatives that i think are relevant to note when purchasing this game. Positives: - Dev updates and fixes are very regular and Dev's do pay attention to popular concerns or bug's that occur and fix them quickly and also are constantly updating the game adding in new mechanics or are aware of the want and need of the community. - Endlessness of play, its really up to you how to play this game as it is very flexible in the way that you engage with it. you could start a new campaign with a specific goal or decide to see what RNG the game throws at you and go with it. - Multiplayer accessibility, i think this is very positive (also a negative later for a very big DLC sized reason) as this allows friends and other players to join a multiplayer session and use ALL DLC's that the host has so it allows players that are thinking of getting DLC's to try out mechanics but this is also good as it means that people don't need to buy DLC's to enjoy the game with friends. - Modding on this game is a big reason i am still playing this, the amount of mods is fantastic whether that be small additions or changes to mechanics to a huge mod overhaul that adds the world of Ice and Fire into the game it really is a fantastic modding community that this game has. Negatives: - PERFORMANCE, this game can tank hard on performance especially if you have been playing long campaigns or start in the latest start date (1178) this means there are frame drops and stuttering a lot of the time as you go into the later stages of your campaign. there are ways to help this and looking for population control mods does help counter but not stop these issues. - DLC (Bloat?) this is normal paradox really with lots and lots of DLC's as i said above this is a problem for people that don't want or cant buy all of these DLC's and should wait for sales or they will probably do that subscription thing once they go mad with DLC number in this game. There are more positives and negatives but as a brief review of the game i think this covers the basic reasons why this is a very good game if you are a fan of historical grand strategy games with a big side of RPG in it and i would recommend picking this up as they do release free updates alongside DLC's so there are fresh additions without paying for the large amount of DLC's

Replayability is bad, DLC don't do much to fix it. The nuance and number of little things you can do (formables, unique decisions, idea groups, economy management, region or nation specific mechanics and units, culture shifting, great projects, more events) compared to Eu4 or Stellaris is disappointing. Many of the features such as pilgrimage, hunts, character scandals, etc feel extremely repetitive after 2 or 3 times, its the same <12 events that roll back and fourth and the rewards are not that good with no profound impact on your game. The thing people come here for, is of course designing and breeding their "sims" and watching them do stupid things, and incest, theres so many good mods for lewd things. I would only recommend for this reason.

I had to uninstall this game to clear my addiction to it. If Paradox made Hearts of Iron with this interface/gameplay, that would be the best game ever made.