Not a Review: Crusader Kings 2 (Electric boogaloo)
Apr 24, 2015 15:47:07 GMT -5
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Post by Lenrat117 on Apr 24, 2015 15:47:07 GMT -5
Not a Review: Crusader Kings 2 (Electric boogaloo)
So I need a break from all the revision I’ve been doing and just life in general so I thought I’d kick back and write a (not)review of Crusader Kings 2! Enjoy!
Crusader Kings 2 is one of the funniest, hardest, enjoyable, lengthy, unfair, totally fair, creepy, weird and just all-round great games ever to be brought out. Brought to us by Paradox, the company that distributed a SimCity clone that wasn’t shit (Cities: Skylines), CK2 is labelled grand strategy but if I were to elaborate more I would call it a dynasty simulator. You create yourself a character in any period of the Middle Ages and try to keep your dynasty alive and successful. You could start off as a king and have the unenviable position of trying to gain new land and protecting your family’s title from pretenders and revolutionaries, or you could begin as a lowly Duke, marrying and murdering your way up the hierarchy.
I am not very good at this game. I don’t know it enough to be good and sure as hell haven’t given it the vigorous going over needed to do a proper review of it. That little titbit of information gives reason to both the (not) review and my goal in the recent playthrough I was doing. Because of my lack of skill and just overall idiocy when playing the game I never took a dynasty very far. In this playthrough, however, I was determined to create a dynasty that will last hundreds of years! My goal was simply to survive.
I chose my title to be Duke of York, going for a low rank instead of king meant I could mess about and not face the wroth of international politics. I created a character named Reginald of York, Duke of York. And so the family of York was born and dropped straight into 1066. Not the most sensible time to be dropped into, I was under direct attack from Harald Hardrada the King of Norway. Thankfully the King of England drove him off and I was left to forge my way through the years. Reginald ruled York ‘til his mid 40’s when he died on crusade in the Holy Land (embarrassingly his cause of death was the plague, not battle). During his life he had two daughters and a son, the Duchy of York passed onto his son; Brandon of York.
Once your character dies in CK2, you start playing as the heir to your titles (provided he/she is of the same dynasty as you). Even though Reginald’s daughters were older than Brandon, Medieval politics dictated that the titles passed to him. Fat lot of good it did for Brandon, he died the year he came of age, of an unexplained illness.
Without any children to succeed Bran the Unlucky, the titles passed to Reginald’s older daughter, Siouxsie (yes, named after Siouxsie and the Banshees) who, unfortunately, was married to the Earl of Essex. Fortunately, I had him assassinated, returned to court in York and married the son of the Bishop of Kent (matrilineal so he got no claims to my titles, he was purely there to help produce heirs). From this new marriage she produced two male heirs, Reginald II and Geoffrey. Reginald died shortly after Siouxsie passed away, aged only 13, he died of Pneumonia, leaving Geoffrey to become Duke of York.
Geoffrey lived ‘til he was 64 and sired 7 children (technically 8 but I’ll get to that in a minute). He went on several crusades, making him become a tactical genius and made York the wealthiest Duchy in England. He helped crush several rebellions made a ton of European allies. He also had an affair with his eldest son’s wife, siring a son with her (the 8th child I mentioned). He had 4 daughters and 3 sons, the daughter of his eldest child will eventually become Queen of England. His eldest son was Reginald III, second eldest was Ozymandias (as you can see I was running out of names) and the last was Brandon.
Anyway, Geoffrey died at the age of 64 after a period of illness. Frankly, I doubt he would have lived much longer if he recovered from the illness, so no problem there really. Reginald III became Duke of York and immediately trouble started. Ozymandias was married to the Duchess of Wessex, making him the Duke of Wessex. He was also a Baron under Reginald III and was moving to claim the Duchy for himself. I tried to arrest him, I failed and he rebelled. Reginald III died shortly after of a heart attack.
I was delighted to find out that I would be playing as the secret Bastard son of Geoffrey; Geoffrey II. I was less delighted to find out I had inherited Ozy’s rebellion. After hiring some Lithuanian mercenaries, I defeated Ozy, locked him up in my dungeon and had all his titles revoked. I married off Brandon to a French princess, which forced him to leave. With Ozy in prison, all other claimants to the Duchy either dead or preoccupied abroad, the line of succession was safe for my sons; Reginald IV, Brian Llewellyn and Geoffrey Jr.
And that’s all I got up to. 115 years after I began the game I’m still going strong (ish).
I love this game. It has a natural flow to it; it contrasts so starkly with most triple A games, games that want you to stare at the set pieces and play the game the way the devs want you to play it. CK2 drops you into a world and expects you to sink or swim. Once you learn how to swim, as it were, you begin to see a completely open experience unfold around you. There are rules but you don’t have to play by them and the game will disrespect you whether you choose to or not.
It is a difficult game, but learning to play and constantly losing is surprisingly entertaining. The compelling nature of this game comes from its realism, I feel like I’m playing through a David Starkey documentary whenever I log in. The realism causes you get invested in the characters you’ve created and you’ll see hours of your life seep away as you guide your dynasty through the ages.
With it being a grand strategy, and such a unique one as well, it wouldn’t be recommended for new players. I made the mistake of buying this as my first Paradox grand strategy game and I had no idea what I was doing. For a good introduction into the grand strategy genre I’d recommend Europa Universalis 4, another paradox game that runs on the same engine as CK2 and has a much lower barrier to entry, making it a good choice for beginners.
The expansions are pretty superb as well. Medieval Europe and the Middle East was a diverse place and the different expansions allow for different play styles and different starting dates. Though the amount of expansions helps the product, I do have a major criticism. The Expansions are too numerous and too expensive, they have gone down in price, but still burn a hole in your pocket. If I were to do a recommendation it would be; buy it with all expansions, but only do so if you are willing to invest a lot of time into playing it and get your money’s worth.
So that’s my (not) review. If you don’t like it because it’s not a proper review feel free to pay attention to the fact it’s not a review
So I need a break from all the revision I’ve been doing and just life in general so I thought I’d kick back and write a (not)review of Crusader Kings 2! Enjoy!
Crusader Kings 2 is one of the funniest, hardest, enjoyable, lengthy, unfair, totally fair, creepy, weird and just all-round great games ever to be brought out. Brought to us by Paradox, the company that distributed a SimCity clone that wasn’t shit (Cities: Skylines), CK2 is labelled grand strategy but if I were to elaborate more I would call it a dynasty simulator. You create yourself a character in any period of the Middle Ages and try to keep your dynasty alive and successful. You could start off as a king and have the unenviable position of trying to gain new land and protecting your family’s title from pretenders and revolutionaries, or you could begin as a lowly Duke, marrying and murdering your way up the hierarchy.
I am not very good at this game. I don’t know it enough to be good and sure as hell haven’t given it the vigorous going over needed to do a proper review of it. That little titbit of information gives reason to both the (not) review and my goal in the recent playthrough I was doing. Because of my lack of skill and just overall idiocy when playing the game I never took a dynasty very far. In this playthrough, however, I was determined to create a dynasty that will last hundreds of years! My goal was simply to survive.
I chose my title to be Duke of York, going for a low rank instead of king meant I could mess about and not face the wroth of international politics. I created a character named Reginald of York, Duke of York. And so the family of York was born and dropped straight into 1066. Not the most sensible time to be dropped into, I was under direct attack from Harald Hardrada the King of Norway. Thankfully the King of England drove him off and I was left to forge my way through the years. Reginald ruled York ‘til his mid 40’s when he died on crusade in the Holy Land (embarrassingly his cause of death was the plague, not battle). During his life he had two daughters and a son, the Duchy of York passed onto his son; Brandon of York.
Once your character dies in CK2, you start playing as the heir to your titles (provided he/she is of the same dynasty as you). Even though Reginald’s daughters were older than Brandon, Medieval politics dictated that the titles passed to him. Fat lot of good it did for Brandon, he died the year he came of age, of an unexplained illness.
Without any children to succeed Bran the Unlucky, the titles passed to Reginald’s older daughter, Siouxsie (yes, named after Siouxsie and the Banshees) who, unfortunately, was married to the Earl of Essex. Fortunately, I had him assassinated, returned to court in York and married the son of the Bishop of Kent (matrilineal so he got no claims to my titles, he was purely there to help produce heirs). From this new marriage she produced two male heirs, Reginald II and Geoffrey. Reginald died shortly after Siouxsie passed away, aged only 13, he died of Pneumonia, leaving Geoffrey to become Duke of York.
Geoffrey lived ‘til he was 64 and sired 7 children (technically 8 but I’ll get to that in a minute). He went on several crusades, making him become a tactical genius and made York the wealthiest Duchy in England. He helped crush several rebellions made a ton of European allies. He also had an affair with his eldest son’s wife, siring a son with her (the 8th child I mentioned). He had 4 daughters and 3 sons, the daughter of his eldest child will eventually become Queen of England. His eldest son was Reginald III, second eldest was Ozymandias (as you can see I was running out of names) and the last was Brandon.
Anyway, Geoffrey died at the age of 64 after a period of illness. Frankly, I doubt he would have lived much longer if he recovered from the illness, so no problem there really. Reginald III became Duke of York and immediately trouble started. Ozymandias was married to the Duchess of Wessex, making him the Duke of Wessex. He was also a Baron under Reginald III and was moving to claim the Duchy for himself. I tried to arrest him, I failed and he rebelled. Reginald III died shortly after of a heart attack.
I was delighted to find out that I would be playing as the secret Bastard son of Geoffrey; Geoffrey II. I was less delighted to find out I had inherited Ozy’s rebellion. After hiring some Lithuanian mercenaries, I defeated Ozy, locked him up in my dungeon and had all his titles revoked. I married off Brandon to a French princess, which forced him to leave. With Ozy in prison, all other claimants to the Duchy either dead or preoccupied abroad, the line of succession was safe for my sons; Reginald IV, Brian Llewellyn and Geoffrey Jr.
And that’s all I got up to. 115 years after I began the game I’m still going strong (ish).
I love this game. It has a natural flow to it; it contrasts so starkly with most triple A games, games that want you to stare at the set pieces and play the game the way the devs want you to play it. CK2 drops you into a world and expects you to sink or swim. Once you learn how to swim, as it were, you begin to see a completely open experience unfold around you. There are rules but you don’t have to play by them and the game will disrespect you whether you choose to or not.
It is a difficult game, but learning to play and constantly losing is surprisingly entertaining. The compelling nature of this game comes from its realism, I feel like I’m playing through a David Starkey documentary whenever I log in. The realism causes you get invested in the characters you’ve created and you’ll see hours of your life seep away as you guide your dynasty through the ages.
With it being a grand strategy, and such a unique one as well, it wouldn’t be recommended for new players. I made the mistake of buying this as my first Paradox grand strategy game and I had no idea what I was doing. For a good introduction into the grand strategy genre I’d recommend Europa Universalis 4, another paradox game that runs on the same engine as CK2 and has a much lower barrier to entry, making it a good choice for beginners.
The expansions are pretty superb as well. Medieval Europe and the Middle East was a diverse place and the different expansions allow for different play styles and different starting dates. Though the amount of expansions helps the product, I do have a major criticism. The Expansions are too numerous and too expensive, they have gone down in price, but still burn a hole in your pocket. If I were to do a recommendation it would be; buy it with all expansions, but only do so if you are willing to invest a lot of time into playing it and get your money’s worth.
So that’s my (not) review. If you don’t like it because it’s not a proper review feel free to pay attention to the fact it’s not a review