This is also how religion plays into the game. For example, a “Shy” character will have a hard time in Diplomacy, but other characters who are also “Shy” will have a positive opinion of that character. They either give benefits to the six main skills, or debuff them. Each character in the game has a set of personality traits. Rather than discover new geography, you are tasked with eXploring royal families, complex relationships, and individual people – discovering what makes them who they are and manipulating them for your own desires. Instead, the game forces players to forge in a new direction. Although, if you’re anything like me and haven’t studied the minute details of medieval politics, most of these areas will feel fresh anyway. Instead of finding new continents and discovering new worlds, CK2 has you tracking armies across familiar territory: Europe, the Americas, parts of Africa and Asia, and the Middle East. The downside to having a game based in history is that the term eXplore doesn’t really apply in the standard way. You’ll never forget Alfonso after he invades your precious Castille, for example. Since many of the figures are historically accurate, CK2 offers a fun way to study these monarchs and pretenders versus the traditional textbook method. Of course, for every true historical figure, there’s hundreds that are randomly generated. So accurate, in fact, that if you’re curious about a particular figure, such as Richard “The Lionheart” who’s suddenly sniffing at your English doorstep, you can click the Wikipedia link by his name to learn more about him in history – though, beware of spoiler alerts! It is a shockingly accurate portrayal, right down to historical figures being in the right places at the right times. There’s a lot to do, a ton of options, and sometimes the biggest challenge is not making the best choices, but simply trying to avoid getting buried by the sheer number of them.Ĭrusader Kings II takes place between 1066 CE – 1337 CE or as early as 769 CE, if you’ve got the right DLC.
Take a minute to reflect on that and consider how staggeringly massive this game is – the aforementioned Byzantine Emperor could have hundreds of holdings, each with its own nobles to deal with – and the unique replayability this offers.
Every single holding has a ruler associated with it, and as the player, you can choose to be one of these rulers. A “holding” can be a town, a castle, or the estates of the church and a region can have quite a few of each. You can choose someone as high and powerful as the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, or as low and forgettable as the child of a powerless count, but in either case you are someone who oversees at least one holding. In CK2, you take the role of the head of a dynasty during the Middle Ages. Thankfully, the failures offer just as much satisfaction and insight as the successes – so, slap on some of your favorite dark orchestral music, and allow me to explain. I’ve got 250+ hours of CK2 under my belt, but I still feel like a complete rookie, and fail twice as often as I succeed in the game. It is a bewilderingly complex and intriguing title that I still play often, over four years after my initial purchase. Released in February of 2012 by Paradox Interactive, CK2 holds a special place in my heart. Are you the warmongering “infidel” trying to burn your way to the heart of your rival’s power? Are you the devious spymaster, weaving webs of intrigue to further your family’s name in history? Or perhaps you’re the powerful King, approved by the Pope, driving your people to “honorable” victory. You could describe Crusader Kings II as a medieval dynasty simulator, or a real-time pausable, grand strategy sandbox experience, but no matter how you try to boil it down, CK2 is just a beast of a game.