Like its predecessors Crusader Kings and Crusader Kings II, Crusader Kings III is a grand strategy game and dynasty simulator set in the Middle Ages. Players begin as a character in either 867, 1066, or 1178.[5][6] The game map is about four times more detailed than the one in Crusader Kings II and slightly larger, incorporating Europe, Africa roughly as far south as the equator, and Asia as far East as Tibet.[7] Upon the death or deposition of a player's character they continue to play as that character's heir. Overall, players develop a dynasty over the centuries, with the game ending in 1453.[8]
Dynasties can form cadet branches that have their own heads and act mostly independently from their parent dynasty. The heads of dynasties are able to use a new resource known as Renown to assert their control over their house. For example, the heads of houses are responsible for legitimizing bastards.[9]
Players' realms may have the feudal, tribal, clan or administrative government types. Republics and theocracies exist as well, but are unplayable.[10] Religion and culture are both aspects of the game. Leaders can advance their goals by warfare, diplomacy, or subterfuge. Players may undergo pilgrimages and wage holy wars, and entire religions can be called to arms in crusades, great holy wars or jihads. Religions have Tenets, which are bonuses given to all practitioners of that faith, and Doctrines, which deal with the religion's stances towards issues like homosexuality and female clergy.[11] The principal resource for interacting with religion mechanics is Piety, and a player with sufficient piety may choose to develop their own faith, with the Tenets and Doctrines being chosen by the player.[12]
Levies are represented primarily by low-quality infantry composed of peasants. Characters will need to hire men-at-arms in order to field higher-quality soldiers, such as crossbowmen and cavalry. Characters can make other characters from their court or realm with significant combat skills into powerful knights.[11]
Characters have full-body, 3D-rendered character models instead of 2D portraits.[12] These character models can be customized with clothes and headwear by clicking the Barbershop button in the character menu. The characters' models change slightly to represent their age, status and health, such as having a flushed face when addicted to alcohol, and rulers of certain cultures donning a suit of armor when commanding an army. As in Crusader Kings II, they have traits that affect their stats and behavior. Making choices that go against a character's traits will increase that character's stress.[11] The game's genetics system allows characters to pass on some of their characteristics to their descendants.[13] Characters are able to frighten their vassals into staying loyal by increasing their Dread, which increases when the character performs malevolent actions, such as executing or torturing other characters.[14] Characters are able to select one of five lifestyles to follow. Each lifestyle has three skill trees that allow characters to enhance skills related to that lifestyle.[15]
Development
Game director Henrik Fåhraeus commented that development of the game commenced "about 1 year before Imperator", indicating a starting time of 2015. Describing the game engine of Crusader Kings II as cobbled and "held together with tape", he explained that the new game features an updated engine (i.e. Clausewitz Engine and Jomini toolset) with more power to run new features.[10]
As is the case with many of Paradox's unreleased and currently supported works, the developers publish a weekly developer diary. Each post focuses on a single aspect of the game, such as government types, user interface, governments, war, etc., how this aspect of the game will be handled in Crusader Kings III, and how it is different from Crusader Kings II. A monthly update video is also published on the Paradox Interactive YouTube channel, summarizing all of the changes which have been made in that month's developer diaries.
Downloadable content
Name
Accompanying Patch
Type
Release Date
Description
Chapter I
Northern Lords
1.3 "Corvus"
Flavor Pack
16 March 2021
Northern Lords contains additional content pertaining to Viking AgeScandinavia including the ability to form adventurer realms, access to holy warriors and shield-maidens, unique dynastic legacies, and culture-specific events and decisions.[16]
Royal Court
1.5 "Fleur-de-Lis"
Expansion
8 February 2022
Royal Court gives players a customizable throne room in which to welcome people to court. It also allows players to decorate the room in order to gain more Grandeur, a feature introduced in the expansion, which, when increased, will give access to higher quality guests. Additional features around artifacts, culture, and liege interactions were also included.[17]
Fate of Iberia
1.6 "Castle"
Flavor Pack
31 May 2022
Fate of Iberia contains additional content focusing on the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista. Features include new cultural traditions and culture-specific events and decisions, along with universal mechanics around friend interactions and chess duels.[18]
Friends and Foes
1.7 "Bastion"
Event Pack
8 September 2022
Friends and Foes contains over 100 additional events surrounding a character's relationships with their friends and rivals. Also includes memories that a character will reminisce over throughout their life.[19]
Tours and Tournaments introduces the travel and grand activities systems.[20]
Wards and Wardens
1.10 "Quill"
Event Pack
22 August 2023
Wards and Wardens adds events surrounding a character's childhood, parenting, and education. Also included are expanded mechanics around eccentric characters, midwifery, and exchanging hostages and wards.[21]
Legends of the Dead introduces the Black Death and other diseases which travel across the map along with the legend system, allowing characters to build their dynasty's legitimacy by promoting tales about the actions of their ancestors.[23]
Roads to Power
1.13 "Basileus"
Expansion
24 September 2024
Roads to Power introduces the ability to play as a landless character, traveling across the map and taking on contracts as an adventurer. Additional mechanics include new administrative and imperial government mechanics, family estates, and content for the Byzantine Empire.[24]
Wandering Nobles
1.14 "Traverse"
Event Pack
4 November 2024
Wandering Nobles adds events and activities around being a landless character.[25]
Mods
Crusader Kings III is also known for its large number of third-party mods available on the Steam Workshop. These mods can add new game mechanics as well as make graphical improvements. Some popular mods include the total conversion mod A Game of Thrones, which is set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, The Fallen Eagle, which changes the game's timeline to around the fall of the Roman Empire, and Warcraft: Guardians of Azeroth 2 (Reforged), which is set in the Warcraft series.[26]
Release
The game was released on 1 September 2020 and is available through Steam and Xbox Game Pass for PC.[10][27] The game is available in two editions: the Base Game Edition, which includes the base game and a pre-order bonus, and the Royal Edition, which includes the base game and an expansion pass. The expansion pass contains a collection of additional content packs and the first expansion.[28]
Crusader Kings III was initially rejected by the Australian Classification Board, reportedly over complications regarding the game's classification. However, the Australian Classification Board denied having contact with Paradox Interactive, who claimed they sought classifiction through the third party distributor Plaion, formerly Koch Media.[29] The game was eventually cleared and released in Australia six days after its initial release, on 7 September 2020. Because of its delayed release, the pre-order bonus window was extended to 21 September exclusively for Australian Steam users.[30][31]
Crusader Kings III received "generally favorable" reviews for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S according to review aggregatorMetacritic;[36][37] the PC version received "universal acclaim".[35] Leana Hafer of IGN wrote that the game "is a superb strategy game, a great RPG, and a master class in how to take the best parts of existing systems and make them deeper and better"; scoring it 10/10 in her review.[40] Lauren Aitken from VG247 also gave the game a perfect score, writing it is "just as bonkers, unpredictable and enthralling as its predecessor."[46]
David Wildgoose of GameSpot praised the procedural narratives of the game saying that they are rarely as affecting and poignant as they are here; on the other hand, as a negative point, he wrote that "when the story engine isn't firing, your actions can feel rote and uninspired".[39]
The console port of the game has been criticized by players due to being "unplayable" during the late-game due to technological bottlenecks, frequent crashes, overheating, and other limitations to console capabilities. Paradox and Lab42 have been working to fix these issues by removing the 3D models in family trees and more frequent clearing of the game's cache.[47]
Sales
The game sold more than 1 million copies within 1 month of release.[48] It was the seventh best-selling game in September 2020 in the US, and had the highest launch month sales for any Paradox Interactive title.[49] In March 2022, Paradox Interactive announced that Crusader Kings III had sold over 2 million units worldwide.[50] In September 2023, Paradox Interactive announced that Crusader Kings III had sold over 3 million units worldwide.[51]
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