- Publisher: Paradox Interactive
- Release Date: Sep 28, 2004
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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While casual gamers may be put off by its complex political focus, sim and history buffs will love the accuracy this game portrays of medieval politics.
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After hours of working with this game, unless you’re a history buff or ruler-in-training, you will likely find yourself overwhelmed and lost.
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Lack of any good documentation lead us to hours of agony and frustration just to get started. It's a compelling game, and it would have been worthwhile if we knew what we were doing from the outset.
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This is not a game for the weak minded. One must be mature enough to look beyond the glitz and glamour of gaming to appreciate what Crusader Kings is: an uncompromising exercise in strategy and planning.
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What Crusader Kings does not do is expand the "Europa Universalis" audience by making this style of play comprehensible to those who have never played a "Europa Universalis" title.
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While casual gamers will feel like they've been plunged into a maelstrom of names and dates, anyone with a love of history will appreciate the rigorous attention to detail and epic scope.
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The family mechanic definitely adds a lot of much-needed personality to the series.
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A very deep and complex game, which will appeal to the crowd that this game is made for. However, the gameplay is a bit complicated, and may alienate more casual strategy gamers. Only hardcore strategy fans need apply.
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A tour de force of chronometric detail and almost bottomless options, but the glaring lack of a tutorial, criminally sparse documentation, paucity of things you can directly control and frequent crashes to the desktop doesn’t make playing it any more fun for the uninitiated.
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In all, you're given a huge amount of control over every aspect of your realm, and it's gratifying.
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PC GamerA cool new twist on a grand strategy, hampered by technical problems. [July 2004, p.74]
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Crusader Kings has a lot of potential: the underlying historical model is a gem. However, when all is said and done, games need to be playable: and there’s some way to go here.
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A good game, but its convoluted interface, some minor bugs, and the lack of a detailed manual make it a tedious and frustrating game to learn for both old-school Europa fans and newbies alike. There are rewards to be had here—but you're going to need to put in some time to reap them.
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The lack of a tutorial is a glaring omission in a game that is not intuitive at all for those unfamiliar with "Europa Universalis". With no objectives, if the gamer has no passing interest in history, the game is sure to fall flat.
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The missing tutorial is the only glaring flaw as far as I can see. The developer cites anti-piracy measures as the reason, but as usual this hurts paying customers the most.
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netjakThe best game I have played in months. The game managed to create the most complex yet most simple to navigate gameplay mechanism I have ever experienced.
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One of the key features, the Crusades, are utterly broken in this reviewer's opinion and the game would be much better without them enabled.
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BoomtownA fantastically deep strategy game. This is good news for fans of this genre and particularly for fans of Europa Universalis. However, it brings little new to the genre and re-uses an old and tired engine.
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Superb grapics, although some may call them minimalistic, an easy to use interface and fleshed out time line/period mark this down as a genre leader for those with an acquired taste.
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This game is definitely not for everyone since the lack of a tutorial and inadequate manual act as hurdles for anyone who is new to this type of strategy game.
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A very deep, very rich game intended for those who truly appreciate historical accuracy in strategy games. The strategy is deep, rich and fulfilling, without the need for action or adrenaline.
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Be warned, however, that there is a lot of work to do before finally wringing enjoyment out of this title, especially if one is new to the series.
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Game play is not much more than a mere point and click adventure, but it is your brain that will serves as the game’s biggest asset.
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Computer Games MagazinePlays like a series of Shakespearean plays with every king having a character arc and every count's struggle up the ladder of power a fascinating narrative. [Aug 2004, p.62]
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All of this high polish is tarnished by the significant, game-stopping bugs that are currently present in the game. If Paradox is able to clean up these bugs, I could highly recommend this game.
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One of the problems is a lack of meaningful interaction with the rest of the world.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 28 out of 47
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Mixed: 13 out of 47
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Negative: 6 out of 47
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Feb 7, 2011
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EliasOmhavOct 20, 2007
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ZecaDec 12, 2005