Grand strategy games from Friv5Online are often half-jokingly referred to as contour maps, painter simulators or coloring pages. The origin of these nicknames is simple: the main occupation in all these projects is to win as much living space as possible for your faction by painting the world map in the colors of your own flag. But the Crusader Kings series, especially its third part, stands alone in this list. Yes, here you can also conquer the whole world, and the player most often looks at the map, but do not be deceived - in fact, we are not facing a global strategy, but one of the best role-playing 2 player games unblocked, as I said in my review almost three years ago.
If you are unfamiliar with The Crusaders, either read the article at the link above and watch the video review from Maxim Milyazev , or just take my word for it: you simply won’t find the best option for playing back a medieval feudal lord.
Tours & Tournaments is the sixth expansion for the Crusaders and, perhaps, the largest of all. Previously, there were both small cosmetic sets as a pre-order bonus, and more serious ones that add a lot of new mechanics, and we wrote about one of these DLCs, Fate of Iberia, last year. But "Tours and Tournaments" seems to give odds to everyone else together - so much content has been prepared by the authors.
Say what you like, but the notorious map plays a prominent role even in Crusader Kings III , where the whole gameplay revolves around individuals: it is on the map that you can watch how the seasons change, empires appear and disappear, troops march, battles thunder and the sounds of construction tools sound marking the construction of new cities and castles. But where in this huge arena, full of various events, is there a place for our hero? As a rule, each character in CKIII either sits in the capital, or just sits (in a dungeon), in extreme cases, he fights as part of an army or makes a pilgrimage to holy places.
Tours & Tournaments changes these established rules - now you can travel by moving around the map and not leaving the process itself out of the brackets, as it was before. There are enough reasons to leave their native lands: from a visit to a personal reception with the overlord to participating in a grandiose booze at the feudal lord in the neighborhood. Before the start of each journey, it is necessary to draw up a route taking into account the characteristics of the terrain and choose accompanying people - this determines the duration of the journey and the events that can happen to the character along the way.
The mechanics of events, key to the series, flourish here with a special variety: there are many new options for small scenes in which the player decides what to do with the character - meetings with strangers, attacks by animals and bandits, conversation at a halt with companions; you can even die altogether, for example, recklessly turning into a province in which robbers are operating with might and main.
The features of the route change depending on the situation on the map - they are affected not only by the natural environment, but also by the political situation, as well as the presence of buildings erected in the province. For example, a war-ravaged county with a low level of control is best avoided, and a path laid through a prosperous and wealthy region in which an allied army is stationed is unlikely to add problems.
This approach makes the map noticeably come to life and look much more authentic, although, if you think about it, the trips themselves are nothing more than a small add-on to justify a new set of diverse events. However, not everything is so simple: in addition to ordinary trips, there are also special ones - the so-called big tours, available to characters with the title of duke and above.
In Grand Tours, you pay a courtesy call to your vassals by first choosing one of three options that affect events and travel income - a majestic tour, a bullying tour, or a tax tour. Again we have a set of quest events, but now they are united by a common goal - an intention that is selected in advance from a small list. You can go on a tax tour, but choose fornication as your main intention, for example, and watch how the game begins to throw up events related to your character's lustful desires more often.
Such tours have a separate interface where you can manage the trip. The influence on the characters is also not forgotten: as a result of the tour, they may develop new personality traits with their own levels of pumping. Such mechanics appear not only in visits to vassals, but also in other large-scale events, which are called classes. In addition to the usual feasting, hunting, and pilgrimage (which now includes the travel mechanic), there are grand activities: the big tour, which we already talked about, the big wedding, and the big tournament.
Of course, you can not only organize such holidays, but also take part in those held by other feudal lords. However, you should be careful: among the intentions there is also a simple murder, the purpose of which can be your character, and one of the options for the marriage ceremony has the telling name “Blood Wedding”, where there is a chance to cut the entire invited family to the root.
Tournaments are not in vain placed in the name of the add-on. This mechanic is significantly different from other activities - we have a whole game within a game, with a separate interface and a whole bunch of new events that affect not only the course of the tournament and your participation in it, but also the ordinary life of the characters. By organizing a tournament at home or going to a similar event in another place, the character can not only take part in competitions (of which there are several types, including board 2 player games unblocked and artistic recitation), but also find new friends or enemies, spend and earn money, prestige and other resources, fall in love or lose health in a street fight. Finally, you can simply relax by reducing your stress levels.
The Grand Tournament is a significant event: it lasts for several months, and while participating in it, it is better to forget about all other matters, be it a war or a struggle for the throne. However, among the other guests there may be those on whom you have been sharpening your teeth for a long time: as you know, nothing masks an insidious murder better than an accidental death in a tournament battle - there is room for intrigue here as well.
Direct participation in competitions requires the character to have specific skills that are calculated based on his characteristics. They also need to be pumped, and to the detriment of other activities, of which there are a great many during the tournament. As for the competitions themselves, everything is simple - the process is reminiscent of a chess duel from the previous version of Crusader Kings III: we choose the most appropriate answer from those offered, and the one who has better characteristics and on whose side there is a little luck wins.
Winning isn't hard at all. Here, it seems to me, the idea of the authors to saturate the supplement with content played a cruel joke on them: they went too far, unable to stop in time. It's not even that events during travel or other activities are pouring like a cornucopia, but that a person delving into the basics of gameplay can too easily "farm" experience, gold and other resources for his character.
Take the same big tour - if you go for taxes, then the average duke can collect from vassals for a thousand coins, which is quite a significant amount for the local economy. And that's not counting the increase in prestige, piety and recognition points received during the tour. In tournaments, it is too easy to win in "non-core" disciplines for the character - the main thing is to go to the training arena more often, albeit to the detriment of visiting other buildings where you can earn gold, prestige or piety.
The sooner Friv5Online starts to deal with balance issues, the better: now, if you do not hesitate to participate in all available activities, it is too easy to ascend to the heights. In addition, due to the excess of new content in the form of events, the pace of passage significantly slows down, which is also not to everyone's liking.
Some movements towards complicating the life of travel lovers are already visible now: the regency mechanic has finally appeared, or, as the developers themselves call it, apparently giving a hint to modders, diarchy. If the ruler for some reason cannot manage his possessions - away, in prison, incompetent or too small - then power passes into the hands of the regent.
The regent, of course, is not averse to taking advantage of the situation to improve his own well-being, and an ambitious deputy may even try to take the place of the overlord by arranging a palace coup.
In fact, however, the presence of a regent does not seriously affect the gameplay: I only once had to calm down a vassal who held this position, who had a lot of self-imagination. But an attempt to come to power with the help of this position looks like an interesting challenge for those who like more difficult tests.
Of course, I will not give a complete list of Tours & Tournaments innovations : the story about them would be very long. Small but sometimes important changes have touched almost every aspect of the game: the authors have reworked the mechanics of knights by introducing chords, spice things up with new animations, divided vassals into key groups, added the ability to quarter an army in a separate province, and implemented hundreds of other changes and edits.
Of the obvious disadvantages, I can only note the price: on Steam, the add-on is sold for 1,100 rubles, and the cost of a complete set with all DLC is approaching 5,000.
If such a price tag does not scare you, then feel free to buy and forget about the Crusaders without this DLC: Tours & Tournaments continues to move the project towards The Sims for Men, allowing you to find new activities for those who are bored for the hundredth time to color the map of the medieval Europe.
Pros: many gameplay innovations - tours, tournaments, weddings, regency and much more; a map brought to life by travel; even more scope for role-playing.
Cons: a small number of bugs; starting to limp due to new features balance; price to match a separate game.