CK III music sounds more inspired by Stellaris music than CK2

The map modes were a major deal breaker for me. In CK2 and EU 4 I have the map mode set to political 90 percent of the time, even when I'm zoomed in. To me the dynamic map should be one of the map mode options, not the only map mode available.

Ck3 will be amazing in 4-5 years time. Remember ck2 release? was so simple but then it became so good with all the dlc and options you had as a ruler. The problem is, it will cost so much to add all the dlc to make it an interesting game. First major expansion it's on the way looking forward to it.

a really minor thing i noticed watching this video, is that the way cities/holdings are shown on them map. they are actual cities with ports etc not just a bunch of houses and a circular castle

CK3 feels like a weird mix of Imperator Rome and The Sims 3.

When you play that war-time CK2 track, man the blood gets going.

I really miss minor tittles in CKIII, with new councillors mechanic it could be so innovative. But we will probably need to wait what the DLC's have to offer to us.

Let's be honest: we all love CK2 after all these years, and many of us feel some kind of treachery when choosing ck3...

ck2 had 8 years of updates. I saw the ck3 developer diary releases and every mechanic they talked about disapointed me. I dont intend to get CK3 at all at this point. CK2 for the win.

No one seems to realise in the CK2 vs CK3 argument about usability, you're trying to play CK2 on modern resolutions. It just wasn't designed for these screen sizes. That's why it looks cramped and small. Play it at the target resolutions at release and you'll find it's suddenly way more usable. People give in to the shallow visual features and dismiss the brilliance of the older games. I mean it still pisses me off there's no naval. And no i don't care what your argument is for keeping naval out. It's a key part of strategy games, without it; you're making half of the map pointless.

A lot of CK3’s issues in the video can be minimized by mods. For instance there are several mods that replace the music, including stuff from CK2. There’s also a couple that add extra map modes. That said, it would be nice to have more of these things on the base game.

Last time i've played Ck3 was in July 2021, experienced pretty much almost everything in the game at this point and stopped playing Ck3 for a while and deinstalled it. Recently i decided to play Ck3, i was ready to reinstall but then i saw Ck2 icon on my desktop and started a small campaign as horutanian culture count in 867, formed the duchy, then the kingdom, but first time ever focused on economics, not the war and diplomacy. And it was an exciting expirience to say the least. I have almost 20k hours in Ck2 (with all DLC), and i was really surprised to know that this game can be interesting even if you played it that much, even though approximately 5k hours there was spent in Elder Kings. Ck3 have less content, yes, but even now it have like a 60% of content of ck2, and Obviously much more than ck2 had to offer back in 2012.

I 100% agree, you did a great job summarising everything I felt when I played CK3

Based. I do agree the sound design is a lot better.

Dude that part about the seasons sounds incredible. Imagine having a dynamic weather system that impacted battles and events. It would add tons more depth to the game EDIT: What do you know...now they´re introducing winter seasons with storms! I got my wish

I like the ck2 flags for realm capitals, you can easily tell apart who is what religion and needs converting and it is a ncie extra detail

From a noob that has played more 3 than 2, I feel like 3 is way more accessible and helped me get into more as it was simpler. Obviously to die hard fans thats a huge negative because that usually means things were taken out

Ck2 be like: my first character, a Slavic religion tribal lord becomes immortal through the event, lives over 275 years, loses all his limbs and other features he can through constant battles, become mad, put a horse in every advisor role, makes one of the horses immortal for permanent... companionship. End up dying highlander style, decapitated on the battlefield. Best emergent gameplay out there.

Well the biggest difference is CK2 is actually about crusading and CK3 is just king realm management. In CK3 the AI is soo bad that they will end up from attrition in the Persian Gulf instead of sieging the Holy Land. No Point going to Crusades

In my opinion, the UI in CK3 feels too big and foreign to me compared to CK2. The sound design isn't too much of a concern since I rarely played with the in-game music in either of the two games, preferring to play something else in the background on KZfaq and the sound effects were just a nice touch to me in CK2. I do feel the pain of all the missing map modes, like income and plagues (I loved being able to know when the bubonic plague was going to descend on my poor fishing village in Crimea). As for all the missing features, they better make it free or I will march down to Paradox HQ myself, I already paid for all that in CK2, I better not have to pay for it again in CK3.

I really want them to add back in map modes since i find the terrain map mode which you see when zoomed in is really ugly and i wish i could just use the political map mode

CK3 is just easier to newcomers to get into, CK2 is so confusing, theres the ui is crammed with stuff, making finding things a pain (if youre new) and CK3s tutorial is a godsend, allowing players to get the basic grasp of the game in just 20-30 mins. On CK2 i spent forever trying to figure out how to raise my army, just as an example. CK3 has way more visual clarity, while the menus might not look as detailed. So i feel like the only people that will find CK2 better than CK3 is by having started on CK2 prior to CK3s release, which is confirmed by most the comments here. I would love to see a new players perspective on CK2, coming from CK3 as their starting point. because for me, it was more just frustrating to learn than fun.

CK2 was much better for the RP and in making you feel imersed in the world, things make much more sense also. In CK3 the world always become a mess after some years and things don't feel natural, for example: In CK2 i made a campaign as a count in Hungary and after i became Duke, the king of Hungary died and not much time after that his son also died from cancer, then a weak guy enherited the throne and after some time he was usurped by a deceitful and "bad" guy. As my character was almost a saint, the Pope itself sent me a message giving me the divine right to rule the throne of Hungary, then after a civil war my dinasty started a prosperous rule over Hungary. My character fought two crusades, dying in a duel in the second one. In CK3, as the same guy in the same place, i just married my daughters with the son of the king and after he died, his son (currently king) cheated my daughter (his wife) and i exposed this and just asked the Pope the right to rule Hungary. Boring and comic.

I personally felt like the troop balancing and economy was unbalanced compared to ck2. In ck2 it felt like demesne holdings took longer to develop (and so were a more serious decision), and the type of troop you used mattered more (levies and vassal levies vs retinue or event) in so far as levies felt like something I'd only use if the war was serious enough of a threat, or was something I really wanted to gain, which to me made the game feel more immersive, because levied troops felt like real people that take time to grow and it forced a more realistic professional private army model of combat and made me consider my wars more carefully.

I find the ck2 character progression more dynamic than the ck3 skill tree progression.

Heavy agree with the music part. Really miss the great and atmospheric music of 2 and hope that they will change it in the future. Great job on the video!

I was expecting more of the qbstracted systems to be brought to the realm of simulation by leveraging the decade of improvements in hardware.

The Catholic Church is totally borked in CK3. There are no independent bishops, (and thus) no investiture controversy or laws, no anti-popes, no college of cardinals, no creating prince bishops, no giving third sons a bishopric, etc.

I needed this cuz my pc can't run 3 lol

My major problem with CK3 is that its AI is just non-existent

The forced dynamic map mode is probably due to it looking cooler on Twitch.

Awesome vid! imo I prefer the more ambient, background music in CK3. I don't get tired of it as the themes are more subtle. Also clicking through menus and hearing sound bytes for every tab just irritates me over time, I had to turn them off. It's the same for rts games like AofE or Cossacks every time you click on a building lol.

I have a mod that added all ck2 music to ck3. I found it on steam. I just wish there was a skip song button or even a command to use.

3 years later, still waiting for features still playing ck2.

Music in ck3 I prefer but it really does have that “grand strategy” to it

4:20 sound too moderns for it's era

They need a "COntrol" mode for ther map. I'm tired of selecting my marshal to icnrease control just to see what counties are low in control, or having to individually click through each county to see which have low control (if I'm missing something obvious please tell me!).

Agree with most of these points. Also, claims are too easily fabricated in CK3.

Nice comparison. My laptop resources are low and ck3 map looks jaggy and unplayable. So I have to play CK2, I'm a begginer player In cK2. How do you compare CK2 AI with Ck3? Is CK2 still enjoyable in 2020?

Big floating boxes aren’t what I would call immersive. I think there’s probably a better word for the point you were making, but Hell if I can think of one off the top of my head. Best I can think of is “little touches”.

The ck3 song you used as an example for the event song is also the main tune from Stellaris

Ck3 has a better AI. You feel safe from that neighbor cause he has got half your levies? Well tough luck, he’ll go in debt to hire mercs and come for your ass.

Religion reformation costs in ck3 pretty much ruin the game for me. I don't want to spend 2 stressful hours ongoing through the life of an entire charterers to maybe be able to get enough piety to reform it. Some things are def good, like more customization and being able to start new religions, but that doesn't matter if you cant afford to do any if those things in the first place. Edit: I originally typed it on my phone and the spelling was abhorrent

I played ck3 on the free weekend and I don't know how to describe it but it's just missing a certain spark that CK2 has. Saying it's soulless is too far but I can't remember and of the characters I played durring the free weekend but I remember many of the kings and queens I played durring ck2 in the first few runs. Still good tho

CK2 has one of the best game soundtracks ever created. While working, I always listen to CK2 soundtracks but I will never even imagine listening to CK3 soundtracks outside the game. In fact, I keep the music in CK3 on mute nowadays.

you can choose more map mode with the little + sign

All the stuff will come or get better with updates and dlc s

Myself having played both, I'd say I'm having more fun in ck3, but there's lots of problems I find I didn't use to have back in ck2. Among them, a huge inconvenience I find really frustrating is the mechanics of raising armies. Rally points are great, I like them, but I really wish there were more options available for when I want to e.g. use only a small portion of my force, or split it in a way that each army gets a regiment of siege engines. As it is now, I find myself just using a single rally point, ctrl-clicking raise all, and dividing from there, the alternative is much too finnicky. The AI needs quite a bit of work regarding not losing all supply very quickly when dealing with big armies too, but I don't think that's a new problem at all. Also, as a bit of a counterpoint to the common argument: not all complexity is good complexity and graphics do matter in visual media, which video games are.

I mean id hope something thats been out way longer would be better lol

Where is Deus Vult sound??? Thats my main issue.

Personally the UI in ck3 is way better in my opinion as it looks way nicer and the UI is not something I'd get much immersion from. Although I have to agree with your point. But to me it has no difference. Nice video by the way. Appreciated it.

Music at 2:58?

The Only thing CK3 got above CK2 is graphics

Yeah, I’m sure this will change as time goes on, but rn ck3 just feels like im playing a stripped down version of ck2. One which, admittedly, is still fun and has a few of its own good unique concepts/tweaks to offer instead… but the lack is noticeable. I wouldn’t really care if it wasn’t for the fact that my computer Oofed itself and now ck3 and city skylines is the only thing I can play via Xbox. As said it’s still pretty good though, and while it can be mildly irritating sometimes that I can’t do things the way they were before, or that something is less immersive, it still definitely scratches that itch. It’s kinda fun to take advantage of the learning skill try, dynasty perks and etc. even if they’re not things that would keep me from going back to ck2 later on

Ck3 music is like starwars music wtf

I agree with all what you said, this game has got me detached from the immersion, and I blame the new characters and portraits. But hey! The door are always open to CK2 (:

Bro Cumania in the thumbnail is wild

I prefeer ck2 because: Boats, retinues and horse chancellor

Great points in this video but gotta say I massively disagree with UI being better in CK2. The UI in that game seriously killed my enjoyment of it at points. I mean that Crusade screen you showed is seriously some of the ugliest UI I've ever seen. The portraits on the bordered shields look so bad. CK3's might not be so immersive to the period but the fact you can easily read it at a glance is testament to how far the UI design has come. I mean the participants screen in 2 is so ridiculously overcluttered for a piece of information that is not actually hugely important yet it takes up about 25% of the screen whereas 3 simply puts it on another screen for if you want that more detailed info allowing it to have more room to breathe. Maybe it's just a matter of taste but I just hate CK2's UI design so much and love CK3's a lot.

CK2 is just so good If you don't mind the visuals. I'll certainly consider ck3 If it can ever get there but I'd be willing to bet it takes many years

ck2 is the superior game, no contest about this

Watching this as northern lords comes out

The old features better be free updates to the base game And the new stuff as dlc I might as well buy the last few dlcs for ck2 if they don’t

4:05 what song is that?

I play CK2, I've never played 3, but I prefer how the CK3 map and characters look. I don't fancy buying a game just because it has marginally better visuals than it's predecessor however

Yes But hopefully not forever to be honest i wish they just ported ck2 to a new engine then built off of it now i gotta buy 150 dollars worth of dlc again this will also help promote that subscription deal as well as the new engine can rework stuff wich is deeply needed

I have still only recently downloaded a crusader kings. I choose CK2 because it was free at the time. Im still new tho i only have 26 Hours

Short Answer: Everything.

ck2 is still def the better game but ck3 has potential to surpass it eventually

great video

The best thing CK2 is professional is tortuibg your sanity and cauding you to sell your organs for DLCs And I love it

2:33 that one requires DLC.

The battles in CK3 have some problems too. Nothing is as decisive as having an army with more numbers than your enemy. And it shouldn't be like this, as in real life you have battles in this period where armies with less men won important battles. Another thing is that is too expensive to build buildings in CK3 making it not worth.

Did you forget about council mechnic

A sad thing my ck2 game doesn’t load anymore, tried reinstalling everything but still doesn’t load anything and just is not responding, I really just want to play ck 2 now because ck3 seems so fixed in its mechanics, claims go too quick, conversion of culture and religion looses its random way which is unrealistic, if I don’t participate in crusades the ai will just lose the crusade, you can easily take on hre or any empire with just having a kingdom title, counties can easily be sieged and there is way more focus on conquest than development on providences Edit: now I got it to load, I just gave it more time and it did the work... kinda weird because now I have an ssd so before it charged faster or I am just don’t have enough patience

How is possible to form sultanate of rum when you are not even king and you have to take byzantine's duchs?

Is this only me or i missed an option but my character don't fight ! Even if he leads the army he is never used. Immersion breaking at his most. Anyone has the same problem ?

I would like to see a HIP mod but for Crusader Kings 3. That mod was wonderful in two now with this game it would come great, but unfortunately we are going at a snail's pace, the optimization of this game is great as it works better for me than two but the content is poor and boring while in two it was not so much. In two the AI was more competitive and more aggressive and when you had large armies at least in my case appeared as mythological heroes with crazy skills like the Chinese on the art of the tiger, or the dog. And they would destroy you but the best thing was that the battles were more epic because it was more tactical. Although it is not like a Total War or like a chess game but I wish there was more immersion, these days I have had doubts about what to play as I love two but I play three because it is more optimal but it bores me. In two a girl appeared, or a random character who said he was a shaman, I almost always tried to turn my character back to immortal but I never succeeded. But I did manage to get my 175-8 year old character to reincarnate in another body and I loved it because that trait appeared. Now it doesn't and God, I'm so sorry.

Excellent video, although everything you said is true, I can’t go back to my beloved ck 2... Also I can’t wait for the first expansion, I hope it’s released this year or early 2021. You got a new sub, keep it up! I foresee a great future.

True dat, until now: Crusader Blade !

Can't play ck2 anymore, just enjoying too much ck3. Way way more fun, beautiful and intuitive tha ck2.

What I really can't stand in CK3 is the emptiness of the map.

I hated the different UI in CK2. It actually made me only ever play as nations that were similar to England. I ended up playing as an English character in the middle of nowhere because of how gross the UI got sometimes

Ck3 is a massive disappointment , not gonna lie , i am even kinda annoyed at the devs for trying to cater to the casual players since they have removed the one major attraction ck2 has and that is messing up your plans out of nowhere. In Ck3 they made everything predictable , most of the events don't have any major negative effect really , there are like 3 of them on constant repeat. The tech system is flawed to it's core, by restricting the player with years there is no major reason for building tech buildings. CK3 is just so damn easy and simplistic, i can't help but hate it. Sorry but you have to be a complete idiot for the AI to usurp you or beat you in any way. Basically this game holds your hand so much it even tells you when you are about to die lol. Also i don't know on what drugs youtubers are to claim it's a great roleplaying game , when there is nothing to do with your character, they are so bland and boring you can hardly remember you guys name after a couple generations.

Ck2's UI fucks me up so don't care

You didn't mention any of the really important differences between CK3 and CK2. CK3's features are greatly dumbed down in comparison to CK2. The combat system in CK3 is just rock-paper-scissors with the different men at arms you can have, but in CK2 combat is significantly more complicated (and much more realistic). CK3's combat system is still so broken years after release that you can have insane armies composed literally just of knights fighting armies composed of thousands of levies and men at arms. The economy system is also much stupider in CK3; sure, you can increase development, but there's very little to actually do as a vassal to improve your demesne in peace time, short of conquering stuff (unless you're playing in Flanders or something). CK3 is pretty much all just war and buying imaginary character perks to claim kingdoms you never set foot in at the cost of "piety".

Great video. In my opinion, it's a tough comparison to make. Comparing CK2 to CK3 is rather like a comparison between a young Michaelangelo working on the Sistine Chapel to the Alhambra and the artwork of al-Andalus. Young Michaelangelo is a once in a lifetime genius, and his art is Brilliant. But it isn't completed. Whereas the great artworks of al-Andalus have stood for centuries, and come from a time when Michaelangelo's people were living in mud huts. CK3 is incomplete and awaiting development, whereas CK2 has had a decade of expansions and tweaking and has been finished by its creators. I believe that the best way for CK3 to be appreciated is to allow Paradox to flesh out their work. I would love to see more immersive changes made for different cultural environments, and more epic music. But that can only come with time. I'm sure Paradox will come through with awesome material.

You forgot about one of the most important things: combat and army composition! Ck2 is so much better than Ck3, more detailed and no stupid dice roll number (but using tactics instead as does hoi4, which is much better), something that has no place in a game, but a boring game such as risk. Strong leaders can actually beat an equal army twice its size based on its stats and tactics, like flanking. No such thing in Ck3. Ck2 feels more immersive and requires one to think. Ck3 feels dumbed down and not deep, something for the tik tok generation. Combat is not something that a dlc or mod can fix, it's a core mechanic and needs to be rewritten. If redone in the same way as ck2/imperator rome/hoi4, I will reconsider. They can do it, as they redone hoi4 logistics, which most likely was harder and took more time to do than this.

When I realised all the cool new dynastie features, key of which was cadet branches, were gonna remain lockbehind ck3 and never be intergated into ck2. I sort of lost all respect for paradox Yeah eu4 scared me off with all the dlc, and ck2 it self has a paywall. Is just having these cool things I wanted for so long in ck2, stuck in a bare bones sequel with the same scummy dlc tactic as all the previous paradox games. Yeah, I think I can live for a few more years without giving paradox another dime. Dosen't help that the paradox launcher fucks with my steam, so I can't even play their games offline.

The background music in ck2 is no match to ck3

Ck2 rn in my opinion is wayyy better than ck3 I have all the dlcs and I have a feeling that paradox is going to make tons of dlcs such as merchant republics for ck3 and it just seems like a waste of money tbh

Dude, get some points! the game was released in 2020, hope u remember when CK2 released, everything was so simple

why so surprise?? it's made by Paradox,, so wait untill 30+ DLCs

I've played both games, probably CK3 a bit more than CK2, and I'm not a master at both, but some things I prefer CK3 over CK2 is A) How the map looks B) How vassals and emblems look on the map C) The large amount of provinces/baronies D) How you have to plan out and select what to build in a single holding instead of upgrading them all like in CK2 (Also how you can select a specific holding just from the map itself

It`s a bit unfair comparison altho I could agree to some degree, you compared CK3 as a "new" game (£41.99) with a fully loaded DLC massed CK2 (£232.50).

I vastly prefer CK3 music, much more subtle and sophisticated as opposed to the often cheesy music of CK2

Hey andy im ganna buy ck2 or 3

eres el unico que coincide conmigo sobre ck2

I think with CKIII they took one step forward and two steps back. This game is as casual as it gets in terms of grand strategy, anyone can pick up ck3 and win easily even on the hardest setting. It's a game designed for the casual gamer of 2021 who don't want to think too much and enjoy the pretty animations. CK2 is an actual grand strategy in every sense of the word. Even vanilla CK2 was miles ahead of CK3 in these basic aspects.

I'm playing ck2 vanilla right now I just got to say man ck3 looks boring