Recent reviews by Indigo

Definitely not tested. Focus trees do not mesh well together and you can end up unable to send expeditionary forces anywhere because you are at war with the landless Ethiopians all game unless you take them quickly.

Also the Italian civil war mechanic is not well designed and results in the ascendant Roman Empire completely collapsing when a country occupies 2 tiles of its territory. w/r/t the civil war, the other faction is literally always called the Regno Del Sud no matter where it is, and there is no process for it to become Italy again after the end of the war.

Peace conferences are also somehow worse than they were before which is quite a feat.

good game

I'm someone who's not easily entertained and doesn't have fun doing much of anything. I still had fun with this game though. It simplifies doing what would be a horrifying atrocity in any other context down to a math problem of navigating game mechanics. In the tutorial, I completely ignored what I was instructed to do, killed my brothers to become the king of Leon, Castille, and Galicia, and then killed my sister's husband before seducing and marrying her. I immediately died and the realm passed to my now one year old incest baby who was able to achieve the reconquista 400 years early as well as conquering half of north Africa before he died at the age of 80. The realm was split into three following his death, but it was cool because one of the sons worshipped satan so everyone was just kind of okay with him being executed.

TL;DR : Good role-play elements coupled with interesting character interactions amount to a great game where you play as a medieval dynasty. However, the DLC policy can make the pricing a bit prohibitive, definitely wait for a sale if you're wanting to buy in.

Best game