Even though it's more about family and dynasty than amassing troops and tech to blow the other guy off the map, make no mistake about it: This is a strategy game. In fact, it's one of the best strategy games to emerge in a long, long time and is unquestionably Paradox's best to date.

Most of the time diving into a Paradox game is like taking on a second career, but CK 2 strikes a perfect balance of absorbing depth without mind numbing complexity and micromanagement. Indeed the game has a learning curve and it's definitely not for a casual gamer, but unlike some of Paradox's other offerings, it is accessible without six months of scouring their forum, watching videos and reviewing wikis.

During game play you're constantly making decisions that have both immediate and far-reaching consequences, but it never feels (at least to me) like slider-tweaking tedium. Furthermore, when those consequences do begin to unfold, it's usually possible to figure out *why* things are happening the way they are. As in life, though, some things make sense only in hindsight, which is part of what makes this game so fun.

If you have any reservations about buying a Paradox title fresh out of the gate or playing a game that sounds like "Sims for Boys," cast your fears aside and take the plunge. If you're a fan of the grand strategy genre, you will not be disappointed.

As a dude who's never been a big wargame fan, I've been looking forward to this game for quite a while due to its promise of in-depth diplomacy in single player. I've been looking for years for a game that let me enact elaborate political schemes - backstabbing, broken promises, the kind of stuff you see in actual politics and almost never see in games.

Unfortunately, this isn't that game. It's closer than anything else I'ver ever played, but the focus is still very much on sending tiny men around a map to stab each other. It's very good tiny-men-stabbing; of the handful of Paradox wargames I've played it's certainly the best, but if you're more interested in running your dynasty than forging an empire, after a while you're going to be pretty bored.

All of that said, it's an excellent game. It's fun, the micromanagement is satisfyingly detailed but not overwhelming, and if you're at all interested in this kinda thing you're love it.

The other problem I have, beyond my wargame-apathy, is that despite loads of improvements since EUIII, the interface still has tons of glaring problems. You can sort your vassals, but you can't search for them by name. You can move the game's windows around, but you can't resize them. The worst is being unable to sort character lists by certain traits - if you want to find a seriously fertile wife for your chaste, sickly son, you're gonna have to go through the massive list of potential mates by hand. The game will immediately tell you if someone will accept an invitation to join your court, but you have to navigate to their character page first, and if you've got a couple dozen potential courtiers to go through it can be extremely tedious.

Still, the problems don't effect the actual Game part of the game, and for those used to the old-school impenetrable UIs of yesteryear the interface will be extremely simple to use and relatively pleasant. The problems are far outweighed by the fun of glorifying your dynasty, assassinating your family, pissing off the Pope, and even conquering Europe if you're into that.

Last, if anyone's still reading, I wanna mention a couple points I've seen in earlier reviews: first, the music certainly has good production values, but it won't be to everyone's taste (I thought it was pretty bland and occasionally annoying). Easy enough to listen to something else, so that's not a big issue, especially since it's down to taste. Second, the English translation has a lot of errors too, including occasional nonsensical phrases and text being cut off. Given that, if you're not playing in Swedish I'd expect an awkward translation. It hasn't hurt the game for me playing in English, but it may be worse in other languages.

A Highly anticipated title which is probably Paradox's largest release to date, and it definitely shows! I think this is the first Paradox game I have ever bought (and i've bought a lot of them) that has been almost flawless from day one. A strong dynasty Based medieval strategy game that gives the likes of Total War a run for it's money, if you're the kind of person that autoresolves battles in the latter, mind...

Awesome game, looks great, and the game is very, very deep. Have only scratched the surface and havn't a clue what im doing proprerly yet but each time I dip in more and more pieces come together. A game I plan on playing...a lot.

This game is what I waited for six or more years now.

You get basically a mixture between Victoria 2 and Crusader Kings 1. The nasty badboy

system is replaced by a personal opinion relationship to every character in the game!

Even smart and gamey marriages like matralinear ones or with the beloved daugther of the Mongol Khan. Don't forget about the various knight orders whom you can grant land to support them or even try to vassalize them. Or just put the Hochmeister as your personal jester in a honorary position.

All together this game is the masterpiece I waited for so long. Runs smoothly on my four years old Mac under Windows and does not slow down even after a lot of generations.

Be your own master and bring your dynasty to glory!

I've been playing several Paradox titles: Europa Universalis 3 (with all expansions), Victoria 2, EU: Rome and the original Crusader Kings. The combination of RP and strategy that the original had to offer was never seen again, so even in 2012, 8 years after release, I played that game. So when CK 2 appeared I was overjoyed.

It's like playing Fifa 2012 when the last Fifa you played was 2002. Bigger, better, and it kept me going for entire nights. I absolutely recommend this game for those who like history. If you like strategy and if you, once in your life, dreamed about holding a sword, you can buy this game and have an awesome time.

Crusader Kings 2 is a game that is not solely about "painting the map your color". Certainly like most Paradox games that could be your primary objective however, to ignore the amazing mechanics presented in this game would not do the game justice. The premise of the game is that you guide your family to become a powerhouse in Europe. Manage your family relationships and watch the fun unfold. Manage relationships to keep your vassals happy and prevent them from rebelling.

This game can be picked up by anyone and played effectively. The game has a somewhat complex interface however, once you put in a good amount of time playing you will have mastered the interface. After that, it is all fun and very intriguing playing a different game each time. I recommend this game for any strategy lover like myself, this game is for you.

Ah Crusader Kings II, I was eagerly waiting for this game and it has not dissapointed. Players familiar with CK I will feel at home and although the game can appear quite daunting at first (as Paradox games so often are) the interface is clearly laid out and information readily accessable.

The game itself consists of you playing a character of noble rank in europe from 1066 until 1453. You can plot, conquer and bribe your way to gain territory, titles and as the name suggests Crusade. The depth of the game is really quite impressive with family trees for historical characters going back many hundreds of years and as with Paradox games usually it will never play out exactly the same twice. There is no fixed goal apart from increading you power and prestige so what you do is very much up to you; stay as a loyal Doux of the Byzantine Emperor and fight to defend the Empire or plot to stab hime in the back and take the throne, you decide.

The release state of the game is very good, no serious bugs and nicely polished. In the past Paradox have released a few games that were a little but rough around the edges but CK II no such complaints.

Overall the game is Grand Strategy gem which should give many many hours of enjoyment to players, the only sad thing is the comparatively niche market games of this nature are in.

The game has so far been awesome. A lot of the bugs that were present in Crusader Kings I have been addressed and so far no main problems. The military part has been made much easier and I like the way the mercenaries can be raised. I highly recommend the game.

It's a nice grand strategy game and I don't want to repeat what is already said. I only want to explain why I only give 4 and not 5 stars. The fifth Star I'm not giving, because I'm german and the german translation is terrible like in other Paradox Games before. Some names of countries and other textes are not tranlated correctly. They are like they translated them with a translator. Some textes are too long, so that they don't fit in the text windows or overlap each other so that they are not readable. The german wikipedia links to the descriptions of the important persons are also completely missing. I don't understand how you can bring a game out with such a bad localisation. Now there are some German people in the forums, who correct the textes. But when I buy a game I want to play it and don't want to programm it by myself. I don't understand why it's so difficult to charge a competent translator. Nevertheless the game is a lot of fun, so I don't want to rate the game that bad because I don't know how it is in the other languages.

Great graphics and good music!

Game is big improveement over original CK & Deus Vult. There is now lot more things to take account, but game is still not oerwhelmingly difficult. User interface is quite intuitive and easy to use. And since game has quite decent tutoarial, game mechanics are easy to grasp.

For those that are into this sort of games, this is one of "must buys".

From the first moment you load the game you will realise how well made it is. The map looks fantastic, the music incredible.

One nice touch is the in-depth tutorials, covering all the major aspects of the game; tutorials which don't simply present you with walls of text, but make you think about the way the game works.

I have only played around 30-40 years of game-time so far, so am by no means an expert, but it feels very intuitive once you have played the tutorials. This does not mean that you will win, however!

Having little knowledge of the history or social make-up of this time period I am finding it very rewarding as a learning experience, and the built-in Wikipedia links for a number of characters is quite simply amazing.

My biggest criticism would be the inability to play as Muslims, pagans or republics; however, these are relatively minor complaints, and hopefully something which could be addressed in some form of expansion.

If you have experience of Paradox strategy games, and an interest in this time period, I doubt you will be disappointed in this game as it feels like their best game yet, and if you are new to Paradox strategy games this is probably their most accessible to date.

I hope this short review is helpful.

A vast improvement over the original. Much more user freindly although still very complex. The addition of a tutorial makes it much more accessible to a first time player. Many more options and an expanded range of choices and character control. looks like a game I will loose hunderds of hours playing. In short it can be seen that the lessons learnt with Europa Universalis 3 had been applied thouroughly to Crusader Kings 2 making a vast improvenment over the original expanding almost everything and making it much more accessible

I've been a fan of the EU series of paradox games for a while so I thought I'd check out Crusader Kings II. Like many paradox games, CK2 basically drops you in the deep end of an incredibly complex game and leaves you to work it out; the limited tutorial teaches you about the UI but that's it. Therefore when you first start playing you might have some frustrating experiences as the brutal AI kills you again and again.

However once you get the hang of it, Crusader Kings II is a deep and satisfying game to play. You control a noble family in medieval Europe and have to ensure the success of your character and his descendants whilst dealing with the many other characters in the game who all have their own ambitions.

Although the graphics aren't anything special compared to most modern games, they serve their purpose and there are many different map modes to display all kinds of information.

Overall, this is a decent game which offers many hours of entertainment and a lot of replay value, as every time you play through the game you can choose a different character, leading to a completely different experience.

I rated Crusader Kings II 4 stars. I would gladly have rated it 5 stars had the tutorial gone into more depth to help newb players to Paradox's grand strategy games actually help them to get into a game. It does a fine job of giving them the basics of the interface but not nearly enough (any?) towards helping them to dive into the actual game.

The music as others have mentioned is really nice, I still have mine turned on and not likely to turn it off, just maybe turn down the volume a little bit when it does become overwhelming, which it hasn't done yet.

The graphics are extremely nice for a Paradox GS game that's for certain. I love the overall look of the game board (landscape) with the hills represented nicely and the icons displaying beautifully on said game board. I'm not really sure if it's a bug, or just lazy design or intentional, but I do find it a bit annoying to see the enemy troops walking towards the south on the landscape, but then appear in my territory on the east. It's almost like they are either doing it to intentionally trick me into thinking the enemy is headed to a southern territory when they should be facing and marching to the east since that's where they end up at.

It's not an easy game to get into by any means, but if you do manage to figure it out, then you'll find another fine Paradox GS game full of depth and intrigue. If you're into the whole AAR (After action reporting on forums), then you'll find a huge wealth of material in your game play through to make beautiful and detailed AAR's to report to other players.

Overall, I'd really have liked to see Paradox put out a tutorial that really helped new players get into their Grand Strategy games and help to increase their own bottom line, not to mention help the new players figure out how to actually play the game. That's the one major thing missing from the tutorials (basic, intermediate and advanced), otherwise the tutorials are helpful to learn the basic mechanics.

Well Paradox has finally done it and put out a pretty good game out of the box. I have encountered no crashes in my first game and can only complain about the fog of war feature removal not working. I won't kid you the game can be overwhelming to the new at this sort of game. There are a lot of buttons and features to get used to and learn where they are and what they do. But, once you get by that by mere repetition this game is awesome. The intrigue and the imaginative stories you can come up with are limitless. This one truly is The Sims Medieval.

It's also like a marriage of Diplomacy goes Medieval as well since there is a lot of that going on as well as marriages and assassinations when diplomacy doesn't work and sometimes inplace of diplomacy.

If you loved Crusader Kings I then you're going to love this one even more. Don't hold back because of Paradox's past performance in releases I think they finally LISTENED to us and got their act together for this one.

Now one last thing if you're into it has to be historically accurate or an historical simulation then stay away from this one because that's not what it is about. If you can't stand that France will invade Spain in the early game, don't buy it. If you can't stand Harold losing in the early years don't buy it. If you can't stand a game in history that isn't exactly like it happened in history then don't buy it please because I don't want to listen to your whining over at the Paradox forums because of it. >:)

I have been a die-hard paradox games fan since Europa universalis II and I have to admit that I don't usually enjoy their games when they are released. Paradox have a tendency to release quite buggy, un-polished games but boy is this title different.

First we have the map which is just gorgeous, even though I look forward to a mod including more provinces, but that I always do, and in this title it actually doesn't matter as much since the provinces in existance have much more depth than in the first game. This leads us to the new vassalage-system which introduces baronies, bishoprics and towns within the provinces which in turn have their own rulers who scheme for power in the realm together with the higher lords. The old loyalty-system have also been revamped into a relations based system between lieges and vassals which makes much more sense.

Further on many of the problems of Crusader Kings have been adressed. Vassals now fight personal wars within the realm without breaking from it completely, which means that AI kingdoms actually survive. Lords in Russia won't swear allegiance to the Irish High King just because of his high prestige, Kings don't generally wed commoners without backlash anymore.

Personally, the feature I like best probably is the ability (and obvious cause since the relation system) to include the high lords of the realm in your council, creating a solid foundation for a character-rich story in a character-driven game.

Quite simply the best game from Paradox (at release at least) in years.

This game is truly a masterpiece! Never have I played a P'dox game with so much content, so much complexity yet so approachable! Its mechanisms are intuitive, the learning curve is not steep at all, the UI is great and the reward - in the form of fun factor - is UNPARALLELED!

You need not search any longer, this is Paradox's finest. Grab it. Now.

So far I must say this is one of the best Paradox games I've ever played.

The map is beautifully made in my opinion, and unlike some other games it runs smoothly even when the speed is higher and you're scrolling around.

The interface is wellmade, there is a lot of information only a mouseclick away without obscuring your view. I particularly like how every character now can easily be found through the character tab. This is something higly requested by many players of the first game and I'm sure it gets the dev team a lot of kuddo's. I certainly appreciate it.

The music is great, I suggest the music in the downloadeable content to you all, it will be blue coins well spent.

The only thing that comes to mind as a downside is that, I would like to see some more plots & especially ambitions. But that is all easily added in patches and knowing how paradox works is probably forthcoming. :)

Unlike some previous titles, certainly playable from day one! Give it a go, I'm now certainly going to go back and play some before I have to go to work!

This one is what alot of fans of the original Crusader Kings have been waiting for.

A high quality feature rich release! It has a high replayability and a very deep system of character interaction. You have enemies out there not because they wear the label "enemy" but because they have very concrete reasons to hate your characters guts. Like you owning land they want, a title they crave.

In case you are interested, try the demo!

I preordered with Gamersgate and I dont regret it for a second. People are having a lot of issues with steam but will still call it convinient. I am glad that Gamersgate offered the only version free of steam and thus alot of hassle out there. Way to go.

I've been a fan of Paradox's grand strategy games for a very long time and ever since playing the original Crusader Kings I've been eagerly awaiting its sequel. While I've only played for the past 10 hours or so I'd say the wait was worth it. While it takes a little bit of getting used to the new way of doing certain things, the game FEELS very nice. The new UI aesthetic is very attractive (I really like the stained glass look) My ambitions of creating a united Ireland to join the grand stage may yet be realized!

Exploring the interface paused on day 1 would've already gotten me to review CK II at a 5. I have not seen a more polished, detailed, interesting, and awe-inspiring game. There are so many interesting things to explore and so much information to internalize, I find myself doing very little for hours. I am an avid strategy gamer and fan of Paradox Games, and dare I say it, this is the best product I've played from Paradox yet.

Pros:

-Wealth of information on the screen that is incredibly easy to access and use

-Message system is very well executed: Minor news in your realm is organized in a way that you can easily skip through unimportant things to potentially fun side operations through the use of a message client

-Immersion factor

-Councilor missions

-Flank system in combat

-Appropriation of casus belli system

-Ambition/Plot system

Cons

-Not having enough time to play

The polish of this game is impeccable. It is a game that knows what it wants to be, and does it very well. Cheers!

Not since the original Crusader Kings has there been a game that embroils you in the medieval world of dynasties. For the second installment in the series, Paradox has taken all of its lessons learned developing on the Clausewitz engine and delivered an extraordinary product. It's fun and engaging to plot and marry your way to supremacy, expanding your family's holdings and immortalizing their name. It's a satisfying web of intercharacter relationships that makes this feudal simulator so addictive.

The game mechanics accommodate various styles of play and offers great replay value. This, in tandem with a polished interface and great atmosphere building, makes it a difficult game to simply put down. The few blemishes here and there are thankfully minor, with most of the outstanding issue being small balance issues that are guaranteed to be tweaked in future patching. This does not detract at the least from the experience.

Anyone with a passing interest in one of the most interesting parts of human history will enjoy this game as will fans of strategy games. The learning curve may be a bit steep at first for absolute beginners but tooltips and tutorials do a great job at explaining how game mechanics work. It's possible to be challenged even at the late-game stages as kingdoms suffer civil wars and mongol invaders sweep westward (and semi-random events like plague begins to take its toll). In short, CKII promises to be a game that will continue to be appealing for years to come.

For people who like Paradox games, I would recommend this game which is a big improvement on the old, slightly wooden Crusader Kings. New features such as the new traits, advanced warfare, realistic battles and more historic characters are welcome and accurate.

Overall if you like Paradox, you'll love Crusader Kings II!

This game... it's beautiful. I was a big fan of the original Crusader Kings (though not so much of it crashing all the time), so i had high hopes and I haven't been disappointed. It's easy enough to get into, you can do more with your characters than before, and the whole demesne system has been completely revamped.

Absolutely hooked, and I only got it today!

Very interesting game and a wrothy heir to the previous title Crusader Kinds + DV. It offers a great history-feeling, while being simply to get a hang on. Thankfully you can get the game at Gamersgate WITHOUT Steam buying-prevention. I'm a modder myself, so i kind of like the new features about the modular mod-system.

The one thing i really dislike is the implementation of an ingame store... for "just 2€" you can get 10 minutes of music... great... Imho such things should be in the core game off the start with a 40€ game! I would not be complaining about the principle that's applied here, i would be OK with this if the game cost like 20€, and you would need to get the "rest of the game" via DLCs. But if I buy a full-price game, I EXPECT to receive a whole game.

Regardless of the monetary rip-off, I do like the game, the plotting and dynasty building is a lot of fun. And if you are REALLY interested in history, follow the Wikipedia links in the game.

This is one of Paradox's finest works. Not only is it stable on release, but it is a unique blend of both the epic historical feel felt in the great EUIII, as well as the intense character dramas found in the original Crusader Kings, with additions from the more detailed EU: Rome system. All put together, Crusader Kings 2 is a game of supreme excellence, and almost plays like an RPG skillfully merged with a Grand Strategy. There is something for everyone in this game, and its purchase is highly recommended.

After playing 4h non stop i can say this is the best release from paradox to date. dint see any bug in the game and it feels good.

They have managed to convert the old crusader kings to new era of game play you can manage almoust anything in our family domains.

expanding your realm is fun and you have to think what you do make alliances near and far to secure your back from your "friends"

the new character relations system helps to keep you well informed about your moust inportant characters and it really helps you to keep them happy

Only bug i have yet to encounter is that tutorial time freezes sometimes and you haveto start it again but that is hardly a problem.

Having played the demo for about a week I must say - this is a very stable, fully developed and extremely enjoyable game which I'm probably going to spend a lot of time playing. It's a very big step compared with CK1 since mechanics, graphics, map and pretty much almost everything has been changed. And in a good way too no less: the map is larger, there are more characters, more stuff to tinker with. Surely, there are some minuses but they're so minor it's even worth mentioning them.

I have to point out once again - this game is stable. And not just the full game - the demo has not CTD'd even once. And Paradox is known to often issue games that need a lot of polishing after their publication... Of course, there will be patches correcting stuff but this game by all means is not a post-issue beta version.

It should also be pointed out that this game like all EU-style titles is easily moddable, therefore a lot of mods will come pretty soon. Some already have.

Overall "judgment" - get it, play it, love it. And probably have no life too in the process. :)

I've played the demo and must say that it is absolutely great. The features that made CK I great are still there in a new layout. They've added things to make the game more complex, but hey.. that's why I love the paradox games so much!

Great job

In Crusader Kings II, you will get to control one of the great Christian dynasties of the West. Honestly, this game show me spectacular and sophisticated medieval world, with kingdoms, dynasties and church influency. The game explores one of the defining periods in world history in an experience crafted by the masters of Grand Strategy. Through CK II have started reading lots of historical books. Paradox created my new hobby - history.

Although my disappointment at the delayed release date still persists, I'm very much enjoying the demo that's been made available on File Planet.

For those who've played Europa Universalis III, the layout and game mechanics will be very familiar. There's LOTS of new content, and honestly, I don't miss the lack of a colonial empire section. I always felt that was a distraction anyway.

The tutorial really gives a great overview of the interface, game mechanics, and outlines the various causal relationships between all the different parts. There are a few spelling and grammatical errors in the text, but not enough to significantly detract from the experience.

The graphics are superb! The music is truly awe inspiring, but after a while, a bit overwhelming so I disabled it. It's definitely worth downloading the demo and playing a bit, if for no other reason than to get a jump on the interface and basic game play mechanics.