On paper, it sounded great: Crusader Kings 3 (Steam) gets landless adventurers in the new DLC ‘Road to Power’. MeinMMO strategy expert Schuhmann was thrilled, especially when he saw new heroes from the TV series Vikings like Rollo or Ubbe. If only the gameplay were as exciting as the power fantasy behind the idea. Even the mighty Rollo from the series ‘Vikings’ turns into a weakling in Crusader Kings 3.
Here were my expectations: I am a big fan of Crusader Kings 3 and have spent 1,380 hours playing the game on Steam: My expectations for the new DLC ‘Road to Power’ were huge. The DLC releases today and costs €30. In a bundle with Chapter 3, it is available for €44. I was able to play the DLC about 2 weeks in advance.
The new DLC introduces the possibility to play as landless adventurers. Imagine something like Robin Hood or William Wallace from Braveheart: You recruit a group of specialists to take on tasks in your camp, assemble an army, complete quests, experience adventures, and travel around. You can become a great explorer, a scholar, or a conqueror.
The system was introduced in long blog posts and it looked fantastic.
Finally, you can play the forgotten heroes of Vikings
This is how it was in practice: At the start, there are only a handful of pre-made adventures to choose from at the 3 different starting points:
In the ‘old start’, the most exciting one is probably ‘Rollo’, the brother of Ragnar Lothbrok from the series Vikings, but also Ragnar’s son, Ubbe. They had already been in the game, but only as non-playable side characters.
The ‘most important characters’ with their own storyline are available in the middle game start: Here you can play as the Spanish folk hero El Cid or the mystical founder of the Assassin Order, Hasan Sabbah.
In the late game start, there are no heroes that caught my eye. The selection is focused on Byzantium, the thematic focus of the DLC.
There is also the option to create your own hero and start with that.
A whole new game in Crusader Kings 3
These are the good sides of the DLC: The landless adventurers bring a lot of content, and you can tell that Paradox put a lot of work into this part of the game:
- There are unique skill trees designed for adventurers.
- There are many new roles in the camps and also special interactions for the camp participants.
- There is an extremely expandable construction system for the camp – you have to decide which paths you take and which bonuses you opt for.
- There are new activities in cities and castles to recruit people there and interact with the inhabitants.
- There are numerous new playstyles in the camp and goals to achieve.
Paradox has developed a whole new game within this game system since you have little access to what otherwise characterizes the game: the development of the land and contact with other princes.
The gameplay as an adventurer quickly becomes boring and not adventurous at all
These are the disadvantages of the system: Compared to the normal game, life as an adventurer is simply much more boring. You are largely cut off from the main content of Crusader Kings 3, which has been developed for 4 years.
While there are many new quests and tasks, everything quickly repeats itself. The missions follow the same pattern: you travel somewhere, automatically assign your followers to tasks, and then wait motionless for several cycles until the action progresses enough for you to execute it:
- If it succeeds, there is something like 80 to 300 gold, and you can build the next level in your camp with that.
- Then you go back to the city and see if you can get new useful followers.
- Then you take the next mission, see the same 2 to 4 random events on your journey to the mission objective, and then the waiting starts again on site.
Even traveling in Crusader Kings 3 is a similar situation: It’s exciting for the first few hours, then you get to know the events and things that happen on the journey from A to B, and it starts to become tedious.
Even the “exciting events” like the Caspar Hauser boy, who was raised by wolves or lynxes, loses its charm when you find him for the 18th time. Even the super hot wild woman you meet while hunting eventually becomes boring.
Playing with normal adventures without a special campaign is then very similar, even if there are different paths.
Rollo is a beast in Vikings – In Crusader Kings 3, he is a weakling
The hope lies in the pre-made stories of the great heroes. Unfortunately, it plays in a time period and area that are not among my preferred scenarios in the game.
I would have preferred to wander around with Rollo and swing an axe, but in the game, he has no special story and with “14 combat power” and no genetic “strength” advantages, he also seems quite toothless.
Fairly: This portrayal of Rollo likely comes closer to the “real” Rollo, a Danish Viking, than the fantasy in Vikings. But in the series, he was a brawler and womanizer who married a hot French woman, became the Duke of Normandy, and was somewhat civilized. In Crusader Kings 3, he is a talented commander who doesn’t do much else, and with “14 in combat power” is downright laughably average.
Crusader Kings 3 even manages to make a legendary assassin somewhat boring
I tried to play El Cid, the folk hero of the Spaniards, but it was incredibly boring because it was somehow only about pleasing his king.
So I ventured into Arabia with the mystic who is said to have later founded the Assassins, and spent 20 years with Hasan-i Sabbāh wandering the landscape, the “Old Man of the Mountain”, but his story never really picked up speed. “You feel drawn to Alexandria,” it says, but not much happens there either.
Important feature for the future of Crusader Kings 3, but currently it is not fun
I don’t want to do the DLC an injustice: A lot of work and love has gone into the feature. And with the Byzantine Empire and the estates you can build there, fans of this play style in Crusader Kings 3 have received even more content.
But the ‘landless adventurers’ do not currently suit my taste. It is an important feature for the future of the game, and if more substance is added, this feature could become significant in the future. Currently, however, the gameplay feels repetitive and boring to me. It was significantly more exciting in the presentation than it turned out to be while playing. Instead of 100 hours like with the last DLC, the new one has only engaged me for 14 hours. Too bad: I have already spent 100 hours with the new DLC for Crusader Kings 3 on Steam in 2 weeks
