Despite the popularity of home consoles, there are still a few game genres that remain more or less exclusive to the PC. Rightly or wrongly, everyone will have their own opinion. So it's an event in itself when a pure real-time strategy title officially lands on our TVs and that's why, despite the fact that I don't like this kind of game, that I volunteered to attend the presentation of Crusader Kings 3 and to put my little mimines on a preview version of the game for a few hours. The title will be released in its finalized version on March 29, 2022 on Playstation and Xbox, the game having already been available on PC for a few months.
Presentation
Moderated by Alexander Oltner, the Director of the original game at Paradox Studios, as well as Justin Forest and Joao Perreira, respectively Design Director and Game Designer at Lab42, the development studio responsible for this port on Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X| S, this presentation focused on a brief presentation in gameplay of the concept of the game and especially the handling of the controller and the few systems to make the game more accessible. This is something that will be covered in more detail in a possible test. For the moment, it is just important to know that this grip is designed to make navigation with the controller as easy as possible without sacrificing gameplay simplicity.
This presentation was also an opportunity to glean additional information on what we are entitled to expect in the final product in terms of ergonomics and gameplay. Game that will be released, let's remember once again, on March 29, 2022.
Thus, we learn that our decisions and actions in the game, even if they allow us to gain different resources according to our choices, can also generate stress, especially if they are against the nature of the character we play. Nature is determined by our character stats as well as chosen lifestyle. With the Dual Sense (PS5), this stress has been "materialized" by providing resistance via the adaptive triggers.
Another PS5 specificity, the touch pad will be used to manage the speed of the passage of time.
- The DLCs already released on PC will arrive later on console, but in the long term the studio wants a simultaneous release of future DLCs on PC and consoles.
- Crossplay and cross save are not planned at the moment, but can happen later if there is a real demand from the game community, the priority today being to bring the base game to consoles.
- Keyboard and mouse will not be supported on consoles, at least not for the time being, but again this is something that can be considered in the possible future. Conversely, there are no plans to bring controller gameplay to PC.
-The console version has in no way been amputated compared to what was offered on PC. Everything is here. The console version brings tools and features to make navigation and gameplay more fluid on the controller.
Getting started
Having been able to confront myself for a few hours with the preview in its Xbox Series X version, it was clear that doing a test was not going to be possible, on the one hand because the game was not presented in its final version, while full of text artifacts among other things (for a game based on menus, it's essential that they are finished and all translated into French to judge), but above all because I'm far from the ideal person to test this kind of game. We will therefore quickly focus on this hands on on 3 points only: the game mechanics, the ergonomics and the grip and try to see if the desired objectives and discussed during the presentation are indeed on the good way or not.
Let's start at the beginning: you play as a lord in the XNUMXth century (I found myself in Ireland with very heavy names if only to read, but in the final version, you should be able to choose your starting point) whose goal is to expand and perpetuate your dynasty by all possible means, whether military, diplomatic, financial, relational or even manipulative and you will have various means to achieve your goal and make your dynasty the most influential in the world .
Crusader Kings III is a menu-based game. You give the instructions and the game does the rest based on your stats, but more importantly those of the many characters involved and your relationships with each of them and those of them. Not to mention events that have nothing to do with you. Because Crusader Kings III makes fun of the little country lord that you are and it's the whole world (well except the American continent, since it has not yet been discovered) which moves at the same time. Wars can start thousands of miles away without you even having to see anything, just as you can be asked to participate in men or others because of a direct or indirect game of alliance.
Of course, you have the full choice to accept or refuse, like each request and each element. And like every event, even the smallest will have multiple consequences generally manifesting in the form of appreciation of a character towards you, but can also have more concrete consequences such as the gain of resources (money, man, faith, prestige, etc.) for example. Just as there can be negative consequences, like for example the stress that can cause many worries if you make too many heavy choices, or even, as happened to me, my first lord starting to lose his mind and that he quickly found himself weakened. Fortunately, I had ensured a few heirs with a wife who could not be more fertile because if my character had died of his condition, the game would have continued with the official heir (it is therefore important to have an heir). But since he survived thanks in part to my choices about how to deal with my condition, I continued with my original lord.
You manage your whole life, that of your kingdom, your lands, your conflicts and your House via menus. Lots of menus. Too many menus for my taste. Afterwards, these are relatively clear (even if it remains perfectible) but will require a lot of practice to be mastered and this will be even more the case for those who are not used to this kind of title. And that's without counting on the plethora of character names to assimilate, nor on the maneuverability which, if it is rather good with a controller, has some navigation problems in this preview, especially when we find ourselves with the screen filled with menus: closing some particular ones without having to close everything can be laborious. But overall, the controller is smartly adapted, at least for a short time because we would have to see if all this holds up and does not become too tedious over a real part of hundreds and hundreds of hours with possibilities that s expand as you progress.
In any case, even if once again I am absolutely not the public of this game, the strategic bases seem solidly present and Crusader Kings III, apart from its status as a quasi-pioneer on consoles, could well be talked about in its release because if it manages to keep its promises, it could revolutionize and open the door to a new genre on consoles as the care taken in button mapping seems to be bearing fruit.
Wait and see on Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X | S until March 29, 2022, therefore.
