Crusader Kings II – Rajas of India Review (PC)

very good
key review info
  • Game: Crusader Kings II - Rajas of India
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: No
  • Reviewed on:
Indian possibilities

India might be seen as a source of spirituality by most Westerners, as one of the most populous nations on Earth or as a fascinating experiment in democracy, but the subcontinent was also at one point separated into petty kingdoms, with families that squabbled for power, driven by religion and ethnicity.

In Crusader Kings II – Rajas of India, a player can choose from a variety of families, with three new religions and plenty of new ethnic groups, and then try, just as he did before in Europe, to become as powerful as possible using warfare, diplomacy, intrigue and events.

During the time I spent with the expansion, I imprisoned family members, sought to get enough Karma to hire some fearsome holy warriors, put down rebellious Jains (which seems like a contradiction in terms), gained territory from Muslims, discovered new tech and hunted tigers as I was trying to decide whether a religious conversion made sense.

Crusader Kings II specializes in showing how feudal politics and family relations took place, starting with 867 and until the Middle Ages, and the core mechanics of the game remain largely unchanged for Rajas of India, even as everything around them shifts in subtle and interesting ways.

India is an unexpected choice for the Crusader Kings II experience, which previously moved backwards in time in order to allow players to experience the game from the perspective of the earlier peoples of the game space with The Old Gods.

A wide variety of kingdoms and families are battling for supremacy and there’s no clear major force that can quickly dominate the entire area, creating interesting situations and challenges even for the most dedicated of players.

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Indian war
Subcontinent possibilities
The interactions with the nearby Muslim rulers tend to be conflict driven and I suspect that plenty of players will create After Action Reports about the way Hindu or Buddhist rulers can carve a path towards Europe in the coming weeks (someone has already landed the Vikings in India).

The expansion of Crusader Kings II has forced Paradox to impose some limitations to diplomatic interactions and that means that Indian rulers can sometimes feel a little bit isolated, caught in their own power game, which makes sense historically but might seem limited from a gameplay perspective.

I still had plenty of fun as a duke in the corner of the new map, trying to overthrow my kind and to then expand my territory and align myself to as many other rulers as possible.

I also love the way Crusader Kings II now handles rebellions, even if it means that they are harder to put down than before and can be entirely fatal for smaller kingdoms where relations with vassals are hard to mend quickly.

The North Korea mode that caused problems and was open to exploitation is also gone and makes the entire grand strategy experience much more enjoyable.

I am also noticing a smaller number of eligible for marriage and rank appropriate females in the East of the game map, while Western rulers have plenty of options to choose from, which is a problem given the importance that a good spouse has in Crusader Kings II.

Rajas of India does not add any impressive graphical details to Crusader Kings II but the title does make it even easier than before to find information about the various characters, with the team implementing some of the suggestions coming from the community.

There’s also a new UI theme for the entire game that meshes well with the unique nature of the Indian-focused gameplay, which can feel a little foreign for those who have so far only played core European powers.

The soundtrack of the game is equally well adapted at times, but as always, I tend to abandon it after about 10 or so hours in order to bring in my own music collection or listen to gaming-focused podcasts.

Rajas of India is a good, solid expansion that comes accompanied by a huge list of patch notes for the entirely free update that is also now available for Crusader Kings II, but the fact that an expansion of the map is required might be an early sign that there’s nothing more that the development team can add to the title on a mechanical level.

The complexity of the grand strategy experience is already staggering and there is enough content here to cover not hundreds but thousands of hours of gaming for those who love the concept and the execution.

The biggest problem with Rajas of India lies not with the new mechanics or the overall learning curve of Crusader Kings II, but with the need to actually find the time to thoroughly enjoy it.

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story 8
gameplay 9
concept 10
graphics 8
audio 8
multiplayer 7
final rating 8.5
Editor's review
very good