Crusader Kings III: By God Alone Review Summary

Deep religious mechanics and a substantial, transformative DLC with playable church roles are undermined by severe base-game bugs, inaccurate terminology, and heavily restricted theocracy gameplay.

Religious mechanics depth appreciated: The expansion introduces deep and varied religious mechanics, such as different rites and personal tenets, which players find engaging and a significant improvement over the base game. It allows for more freedom in shaping religions.

DLC considered transformative and substantial: Reviewers describe the DLC as one of the biggest additions to the game, transformative for CK3, and packed with content. It is seen as a major step forward for the game.

UX and presentation improvements noted: The church menu's book-like design with page-turning animations is clever and well-executed, showing significant progress in UX design. This enhances the overall experience without being overwhelming.

New religious features add depth: Features like personal tenets, sinful perks, and the ability to create holy sites are favorites among players, adding significant depth and customization to religious gameplay. Monastic Orders also provide additional boosts.

Theocracy and papal play praised: Players are excited about the ability to play as a theocracy, including the Pope, which adds a new dimension to the game. This feature is seen as a major addition that enhances roleplay and political dynamics.

Severe bugs in base game: Numerous bugs, including unplayable states, broken buttons, and graphics glitches, are reported across the game. These range from minor issues like purple grids around provinces to critical problems like non-functional council assignment and crashes.

Religious terminology and organization inaccurate: The game misrepresents Christian religious structures, such as lumping autonomous churches with heresies under the term 'rite' and inventing a 'Carolingian Rite'. This creates an incomprehensible depiction of Christianity.

Theocracy gameplay heavily restricted: Playing as a theocracy is inconsistent, with limited ability to declare wars or expand, and bishops lack personal knights. This restricts gameplay for those wanting to conquer as religious leaders.

DLC breaks saves and adds bugs: The DLC is reported to break existing save games and introduces numerous graphics bugs. This makes the expansion unplayable for affected players.

Economy severely imbalanced: Gold income is extremely low even for major rulers, while there are many ways to spend gold, making wealth useless. This breaks the game's economy and progression.

Playable theocracy and church roles: The expansion allows players to take on theocratic roles, including the Pope and bishops, and engage in ecclesiastical gameplay. It focuses on wielding the power and influence of Christianity in the Middle Ages.

Church politics and councils: The game includes church politics, ecumenical councils, and a College of Cardinals mechanic. Players can influence councils and church doctrine, and the Cardinalate system is playable.

Diverse religions and heresies: The game includes Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic religions, niche religions, and heresies such as Adamitism. It models historical sects like the Bosnian Church and features the Roman Rite and Miaphysites.

Rites and religious organizations: Rites, autonomous churches, and heresies are treated as a new middle tier of religious organization below the head of faith. Rites can be created and diverge, potentially becoming new faiths, and the head of faith can modify a rite.

Bishop limitations and workarounds: Bishops cannot expand against secular leaders and lack personal knights. The ministeriales feature provides personal unfree knights for bishops, and a puppet system allows players to expand indirectly.

Texture and graphical bugs: Graphics bugs appear on DLC release, character textures load slowly in the character selection screen, textures in the royal court are slightly broken, and textures on county and sea borders become wonky when zoomed out. These visual issues are widespread.

Performance and optimization issues: Multiple clusters report that the game needs optimization, does not work, and that the PC overheats in a way it did not before. These suggest persistent performance problems affecting playability.

Improved performance and loading: Some players note the game appears better optimized than before and loading times are reduced to about one fifth. These positive reports contrast with the negative performance feedback.

Crashes after update and DLC: The game crashes during launch following today's update and new DLC release. This is a critical stability issue tied to the latest content.

Strong positive recommendations: Multiple clusters express strong positive recommendations, urging players to buy the DLC and calling it the best DLC ever made. These views highlight overall satisfaction and high praise.

Good value for money: Players find the DLC worth its price, not excessive, and appreciate the amount of new content it adds. It appeals especially to those who enjoy a religious or theocratic playstyle.

Limited appeal for warfare playstyles: Some players note that the DLC may not fit playstyles focused on warfare and expansion. It caters more to religious or theocratic gameplay.

Not recommended by some: A reviewer advises against buying the DLC, describing it as an easy pass. This indicates mixed opinions among players.

Session length: 2.0h.

Multiplayer Co-op Player: Organizes multiplayer sessions, shares DLC access with friends, and takes on distinct roles such as secular kings while coordinating with other players. Motivation: Playing shared campaigns with friends and experiencing asymmetric roles together. Stance: buy.

Achievement Hunter: Pursues achievements systematically, sometimes performing roleplay-breaking actions like arranging for a spouse to seduce the Pope, and critiques achievement design. Motivation: Completing all achievements, even those requiring bizarre or uncomfortable actions. Stance: sale.

Roleplay-Focused Schemer: Uses indirect influence to affect other characters without direct control, and engages deeply with religious or faith-themed gameplay. Motivation: Shaping narratives and influencing other characters indirectly through roleplay and faith-based mechanics. Stance: sale.

Expansion praised as transformative: Reviewers consider this expansion more transformative than All Under Heaven and the best ever released for any Crusader Kings game. It is described as a large addition that offers a new way to experience Crusader Kings III.

Positive expansion features and sharing: Reviewers highlight that expansions come with free core updates, are optional to buy, and can be shared with friends in multiplayer without them needing to purchase. A future merchant DLC is also anticipated.

Sold as standalone DLC: The content is sold as a standalone DLC or chapter purchase for the base game. It is described as a DLC addition to the base game.

Fantasy elements in historical game: Some reviewers mark CK3 as a fantasy game where history is concerned. They compare the game's religious politics and holy war mechanics to other franchises like the Holy Grail War.

Theocracy and prior limitations: Theocracy was not a thing in Crusader Kings II. Previous DLCs made only minimal changes to Europe, making this expansion long-overdue.