As fans will already know, Crusader Kings is defined by Paradox Interactive itself as a "Grand Dynastic Strategy." This means that the player does not go to exercise control over all his domains through an evolution hundreds of years long, like a traditional 4X strategy, but is called upon to experience the events of a single dynasty and its leading characters.
The focus of the play experience offered by Crusader Kings thus becomes more intimate: the player, starting with the progenitor of the chosen lineage, can lead his or her family over the course of many generations, shaping its history through a number of scenarios covering a well-defined historical period. There are six preset scenarios in all and they cover a time range from the middle of the Early Middle Ages (867 A.D.), up to the date of the invasion of William of Normandy known as the Conqueror (1066 A.D.) or, if you will, to the most turbulent period of the Christian "Reconquista" of the Iberian Peninsula. Of course, in addition to these scenarios, events and characters, there is the possibility of choosing any other personality from the then known world. In short, it is possible to range from the Pillars of Hercules to sub-Saharan Africa and decide to follow the smallest tribe on the Mongolian steppes to the great vassals subjected to the regents of the French throne.


The game map is immense and allows the player to spread the wings of imagination to compose his or her own epic poem. Here, in that sense, the experience with Crusader Kings can be summed up as an immense cauldron overflowing with events, characters and stories in which to immerse and lose oneself for a long time. The title is nothing more than a boundless database of narrative elements put at the complete disposal of the player, who can decide what kind of ruler to become and what legacy to pass on to successive generations over the decades.


We are not only talking about territorial conquests but also about education and the art of ruling, the legacy in terms of prestige, interpersonal relationships or major goals achieved, for example related to the founding of a religious or knightly order. In short, in every single session the player has the opportunity to create something unique and worthy of rightfully entering among his most cherished videogame memories. On the other hand, complicit with its majestic complexity and richness of content, Crusader Kings knows how to embrace it and not push it away, always providing it with the right motivation for it to follow its own path without wavering.