Format: Xbox Series X, PS5
What? Crusader Kings III? Didn’t this already come out?
Don’t worry, your memory isn’t playing tricks on you – Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy did indeed launch to considerable acclaim back in the distant past of September 2020, but only for PC. Now, UK developer Lab42 is bringing the game to consoles, transplanting the notoriously complex, history-redefining title from the computer monitor to the TV.
Ultimately, then, this is about how well the game exists not on a gaming PC, where the player would be sat right in front of the action, controlling every interaction, every battle, and every bit of palace intrigue with a click of their mouse, but on a console, played from a room away, sat on a couch, with a controller.
First of all, fans of the genre can rest easy knowing that nothing is sacrificed in terms of complexity. Quite the opposite, in fact – Crusader Kings III remains almost dauntingly complicated to anyone not versed in grand strategy to begin with. This is most evident by an opening tutorial that will take literally hours to wade through, explaining the nuances of the game in often excruciating detail and, unfortunately, to somewhat soporific effect due to its textbook-like approach. Still, such minute detail is necessary – this isn’t a game played with the focus on an individual character, but rather entire dynasties, with great houses vying for control of the world, gaining and ceding territory over the course of centuries. Power isn’t won or lost merely on the battlefield, but through diplomacy, marriage, subterfuge, and schemes, all of which have their own place in the grand tapestry the game weaves. There’s a lot to grasp to even begin playing.
A sprawling epic that will appeal to anyone who fancies redefining history and reshaping continents to their liking.
Whereas on PC that would all be governed by a maze of windows and endless click-throughs, Lab42 has done a solid job of translating the bottomless pit of options to a controller layout. While simply replicating a mouse cursor’s movement with a floating cursor controlled with a thumb stick would have just about done the trick – and that control option does feature for certain actions, such as selecting highlighted terms to open up encyclopaedia-like explainers – this is instead a release truly catered to console players and controller input.
Radial menus make key categories and options not only easily accessible but clearly identifiable from a distance, while making your way through character or option screens – weighing up potential spouses, for instance, or sending gifts to increase another’s opinion of you – is comfortably mapped to the D-Pad. Everything feels expressly tailored for the format; this is about as far from a lazy port as could be imagined.
However, while navigation is beautifully adapted to console controls, Crusader Kings III still struggles to really work on TV. There’s no overcoming the sheer volume of information that the player needs to absorb and manage – this is, by design, a staggeringly elaborate world where the course of nations can hinge on matters as small as a loveless marriage or a disagreement on taxation. There’s a never-ending array of plates to keep spinning, and despite Lab42’s best efforts at streamlining the experience for couch play, there’s still an almost overwhelming amount of data to wade through. Time with the game was spent inching ever-closer to the TV screen, just to take it all in – not helped by the fact that text remains too small, even on a large 4K TV.
As a game in its own right, Crusader Kings III remains at the apex of its field – a sprawling epic that will appeal to anyone who fancies redefining history and reshaping continents to their liking. Porting it from the desktop to the living room could have gone much worse than it has, and Lab42 deserves praise for making the game as accessible as it is in this format. However, the TV experience is still far from perfect, and anyone without prior love for the game is going to struggle to be won over by its charms. A great game, but one that will always be greater on PC.