I bring ill tidings from the land of folks who’re usually busy stressing about their heirs, sire. Crusader Kings 3’s paid Coronations DLC has arrived alongside the Ascendant update, and I regret to inform you that the little expansion’s immediately been put in the stocks. The rotten tomatoes doth fly towards its bonce, and the resulting juice has turned its Steam reviews a mostly negative shade of crimson.
Coronations was always set to be a relatively minor stop in the Chapter 4 pipeline of DLC Paradox have been gradually rolling out to their regal strategy thing since March this year, especially compared to larger expansions like the beefier Khans of the Steppe and All Under Heaven add-ons, which bookend it on the release timeline. Basically, it makes ascending to the throne more of a big deal than it has been in the past, with a proper party and an oath you take to set a goal to accomplish during your rule. You can leaf through the full notes here.
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Given that Paradox were set to charge for those pretty minimal, if important, additions, at least one Reddit seer was predicting a week ago that Coronations might well end up struggling to impress the virtual regents of Steam. It’s currently sitting at a mostly negative verdict from 188 reviews on there, with complaints also having leaked into the top posts of the Redditosphere, so that random citizen’s crystal ball wasn’t playing up. To be fair, predicting a Paradox DLC might be controversial doesn’t exactly make you Nostradamus at this point.
A lot of the objections in these reviews are simply folks arguing that Paradox should have made this update a free one, either because they view it as not offering enough depth to justify the £4.29/$4.99/€4.99 price tag, or because coronation mechanics like these are significant enough they should be rolled into the base game. Much like with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2’s paid DLC clans, the publishers are being accused of nickel and diming players with their add-ons. On one hand, Paradox have clearly stated what you’ll be getting if you opt to buy the Coronations pack, so you can’t really accuse them of being deceptive. The argument’s whether this is greedy monetisation, and I’d say it certainly lands on the grubby or unneccesary end of the scale.
The less subjective aspect of the negative reception comes in the form of widespread complaints about those new oaths breaking in scenarios when they shouldn’t. I’ve not managed to ensure peace even though I’m not at war. I completed my oath years ago, but have subsequently been told I’ve broken it, and been served the substantial penalties to match. A number of players also reckon the timeframes given are too short, with 20 years to complete three legendary hunts being the main culprit.
That said, some of the examples I’ve read through feel like they can probably be attributed to the normal bad luck or quirkiness you might get when Crusader Kinging. Oh no, I’ve broken my oath of preparing a good heir because my son died and my grandson’s a bit crap. That’s a bit more c’est la medieval monarch vie to me.
This being Crusader Kings, there’s already a mod to disable the broken oath event if you wish. Coronations has also left a plenty of folks concerned about the game’s future. Specifically Paradox’s ability to deliver something good with the much-anticipated All Under Heaven DLC, which is set to expand the map into Asia, letting you lord over the likes of China and Japan. We’ll have to see if the publisher can wrest back the non-reviled DLC crown.