Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2024
Crown Wars: The Black Prince
Developer Artefacts Studio
Crown Wars: The Black Prince is a 2024 turn-based tactics video game developed by Artefacts Studio and published by Nacon. Players battle a cult that is attempting to use the Hundred Years' War for its own purposes. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
192 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 8, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
59
Mixed
110 positive · 77 negative
95% range 52–66%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 110 | 77 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
5 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
436 of 730 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 192 · most liked firstAs the developer of a very similar game, Zodiac Legion, you should take my opinion with a grain of salt: Crown Wars follows the XCOM 2 formula to the letter: You have a castle to manage, where you upgrade buildings, recruit soldiers, and research "blueprints" to make your weapons and potions better. Your characters have a simple progression system (1 skill to pick among 2 at each level, for each of the 6 classes). You send your soldiers on missions on the campaign map. There are several…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Way too buggy. You spend an hour trying to get to the bottom of a dungeon and they game freezes and you have to start all over. It happened 3X. I give up.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looked interesting. Not very popular. Mixed reviews. Read negative reviews. Too difficult. Too boring. Too slow. Repetitive. Too many enemies spawning . Mission timers. Not as good as the almighty X-Com (All must praise and adore it!) But X-com had mission timers and spawning enemies...and repetitive missions...and it was difficult! So I bought it, played it, and it was good. It is a bit like X-Com, but slower and more relaxing. A good buy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tl;dr: A surprisingly and pleasantly strong entry in the tactical turn-based genre with very solid combat and eco management fundamentals and a host of rare (but very welcome) extras -- like full customization of colors, heraldry, voiceset, and appearance of the companions and unique family lineages to shape the main story. Interesting, challenging, and above-all fun -- Who wouldn't want to shoot a medieval peasant in the knee with a crossbow before mauling him to death with a bear? Long…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am surprised about both the incompetency and the boasting people have in the reviews. Half say the game is hard, the other half that is it easy. People compain about the game mechanics, enemy spawns, number of enemies and then there are people complaining about how they can exploit the game and make it easy.(?!)? Are you even for real? there are even people saying the game is just not for them, and that is why the game deserves a 5/10?! You are all crazy! You can't even write a proper review…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely loved the setting (medieval warfare in France with a pinch of supernatural / occult stuff), but other than that, everything else was half-assed by the devs. In the end they just surrenderred (ha-ha) and abandoned the game in a very unfinished and unpolished state. There are still some game-breaking bugs, freezes and crashes, enemies spawning in enclosed spaces, making them unreachable.. Basic QOL fearutes are missing - you can save at any time but you can't name your saves, you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's rare I review games as early as 25 hours in, but after reading the negative reviews before I bought this game, I decided to try it anyway. From the makers of xcom is what swung me. Well, I LOVE it. I currently have 3 squads and am increasing my castle nicely. TBF I'm playing it on as easy as you can get. If you like anything like Xcom I'd recommend it. 62 hours in, great game. I've come across a bug where I can't continue. ATM I havent got it in me restart previous, but I'll see.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Did you play and love King Arthur: Knights Tale? Are you an XCOM 2 fanatic, but also love the medieval setting? Then this game was made for you!! ##### :REVIEW: ###### 1) The interface is fantastic. The game play is fluid and solid! 2) Setting and plot is great, the writing is decent, nothing cheesy, and a believable story. 3) Sounds and Voice acting aren't anything to write home about; I could have honestly voiced over many of the characters much better. lol ;-) 4) Combat is fun and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It has potential but one thing that really grinds my gears with this game are badly designed missions. they are always the same, any mission you need extract from enemies will be spawning right next to extraction zone. It is annoying. I came back to this game after over a year to see if there has been updates and there were, but none of them address the things that make this game frustrating. I really dont feel like doing any missions apart from skirmish -bad mission design -repetative…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Update 30 May 2025. None of the issues I had with the game have been addressed thus far and at this point it seems very unlikely that any of these will happen. I'm puzzled why the Devs would communicate that the game is where they want it to be with so many QoL issues still unresolved. This isn't a "just one more turn" game for me, it's quite tedious and repetitive to go through a campaign. ---- Initial Review: Overall I like the game, but it has some really weird and annoying aspects. -…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is abandoned, but still, in the state it is, it's a decent tactics game. If it's on sale, recommended. ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It would be great for an Alpha. It feels great, from a gameplay perspective. They converted XCOM beautifully to medieval times. If I were to make the same type of game, I might have ended up deciding on this exact design. Unfortunately, this is where it ends. Not everything is bad. Rather, most of it is not. The issue is it is all rather mediocre. They seemed to have released this game well before it should have been released. Not because it is buggy (it is better than most of the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Buy Wartales instead. There is no reason to buy this unpolished game when Wartales exists.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I might come back and edit this to be a more detailed review later, but the amount of people whining and downvoting this game because of mission-timers and the difficulty curve is CRAZY - and actually really unfair to the game! If you're a mature, adult gamer who loved the fact that XCOM was BRUTAL until you understood the mechanics and how to manage the early-game, then honestly I think you'll enjoy this. Sure, it will certainly improve with some added love and patches but really, as someone…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've bought the game at a deep discount, played through most of it but couldn't bother finishing. It's not a bad game, just meh. There is one main design choice that makes the gameplay actively more repetetive and less diverse: In theory there's a variety of classes and a diverse set of weapons/armors for you characters, including multiple unique ones with individual mechanics - that are indeed interesting. This is negated by the fact over the course of the game, as you pay resources to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Having to constantly move your units around out-of-combat in turn-based mode while making no tactical decisions is the death of this and any other game that decides to structure itself this way (or at least it should be). It's the anti-"just one more turn" of ta turn based game. I don't want to do one more turn, because the next turn is just going to be watching animations of my units moving all-too-slowly around the inactive battlefield. These interludes where all you do is groan in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crown Wars: The Black Prince is a straight-forward turn-based tactics game: you hire individual mercenaries, send them in small groups to enact in various missions, all the while using the mission rewards to build up your base. The heart of the game are of course the missions themselves which are tactical challenges on the squad level. The setting is western Europe in the 1360's. The missions are split between hand-crafted story missions and procedural generated "free" missions - the later…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was excited for this game when I first saw it. I love medieval, I love turn-based strategy, seemed like it had a good chance to be a win. However, it is a huge let down. I expected a low fantasy setting with the trailers showing occult activity, but I expected some level of historical accuracy and realism with it blatantly saying that its rooted in a spot in history that is well setup for interwar story telling. The fantastical aspects are mostly just silly and the history is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game was made for me. Turn based combat, light fantasy historical setting, and, most importantly, getting to dress up your little dudes (though I wish appearance customization was unlocked from the start instead of pretty far into the game). Seems like the bugs are gone (at least for me), and a big complaint from a lot of people, the mission timers, can now be changed or turned off which is awesome. I hope this team makes more games
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So to start with I'm very used to turn based games. I wonder if some of the other reviewers are because I was put off getting this by a number of negative comments about mission variety and spawning enemies. But having played this for many hours now I can tell you not to worry! Yes there is some similarity to missions. Rescue, assassination, skirmish, escort, capture. But then what turn based game has more than that? Even XCOM has a very similar line up of, rescue, escort, destroy the device…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The mechanics of this game are wildly out of balance. I am playing on medium. All missions have a 'Time till defeat' timer which forces you to push hard and take chances on movement when you should not have to. Enemies ALWAYS get attacks of opportunity even if they use all their action points, while your troops only get them if you have left over AP which you never do. This forces you to engage troops in melee range to deal with them or risk taking an insane amount of damage trying to move…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well, I've beaten it on Baron... TLDR: this review is a *very* reserved recommend... Even its target audience might not want to buy Crown Wars due to lack of animation speedup, but someone with time to burn might enjoy pouring hours into this game customizing their troop models and watching the execution animations. Good: -Excellent visual customization, 'Pimp My Ride" but for your troops. Extremely detailed once you get a few armor upgrades and missions under your belt. Like painting…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Edited review... I am on the finale mission.. and omg the power scale, the broken mechanics... i try to give this game a good review, but the bugs, the boss mechanics, the poor balancing.. its like they went how can we make this the worst ending possible? to be fair the 2nd to last boss fight was nice. it was in line with the game and how its played to this point... but the finale is so unbalanced, so out of no where, and the abilities and extra turns, so many broken mechanics, and we cant…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Medieval turn based combat is my favourite genre, so I decided to go for it dismissing the bad reviews. My mistake. Everything feels low quality: blurry graphics (why?), frustrating controls, repetitive missions.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love TBS games. I love medieval or antic themed games. I love games where you have a home base where you can upgrade and build up. So I really hoped this game will be something just right! Alas.. It falls just short in almost every aspect of what it tries to do. Because potential is definitely there! 1. Fighting. First of all it's slow. I feel weird saying it about TBS game but I don't know how else to put it. For example: if I move a unit - I must wait until it finishes to move before I can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just a big helping of meh. I hate timers, I'm going to be biased in that regard. That aside, it feels so poorly optimized and the graphics have this weird blur to it. My rig is good enough to play on the highest settings but the graphical display just felt gross. I enjoyed the customization, though, and I don't think the actual gameplay is too bad just too slow for me. Half the classes felt too weak and the enemy was getting critical hits with every attack for several missions straight. I play…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game seems as unhurtful at first, but have no doubt - it is total crap. It is blend to the point that it becomes unbearable. There is zero plot, zero creativity, zero atmosphere. But there is a lot of woke agenda. The grind is absolutely dreadful. You've got to do over and over the same random missions against the same enemies and on the same map. Character skills are very limited and boring, mechanics starts as simple in the beginning and at the end of the game they still stay simple.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't often write reviews but I felt compelled here. I wanted to love this game so badly, it even has great ideas and interactions with hero management and the world building, however this game appears to have been made by people who don't even play this genre or at the very least their own creation. there are major issues with the game that are apparent in the first 5 min of play its ridiculous. Major issues: 1)Turn timer is absurd like even on the easiest difficulty its wildly absurd.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried different video settings, including full screen and windowed, still same outcome: after exiting main menu and cut scene finishing, instead of starting the game I get crash popup: > LowLevelFatalError [File:Unknown] [Line: 198] Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost. (Error: 0x887A0020 - 'INTERNAL_ERROR')
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There are competent things about the game, but ultimately I can't say it's a very fun experience. Everything in the game just moves too slowly. Sure, it belongs to the turn-based strategy genre which is supposed to be slow-paced -- I get that -- but this doesn't mean that animations, load screens, and enemy walk sequences need to take forever. In any given battle, more than half of my time is spent waiting for animations to play or waiting for the enemy to make their move. The story is yet…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Most braindead game on the planet. The game dumps you in the middle of some war between what I guess is a Special Ops branch of the Church, I was only able to figure that, because is some missions you will be fighting demons. You get a band of warriors, but they might as well be manequins because they have no story, dialogue or point of existing in the world. You go on missions that are just copy and pasted versions of earlier missions. It is just an endless, mindless loop of terrible…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Missing so much potential. Feels 1/2 done, you cant even loot after a battle.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The premise of the game is very promising, medieval squad based XCOM like game. We have some faction based mechanics (I've yet to experience) and a base building aspect. As I haven't fully progressed full the story I will not comment on that piece so far. My main problem is combat and level generation. As other commentators have said, you face a lot of enemies in certain zones on a map and you have to find and clear them out in most battles (despite the mission objectives being different). My…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Headline: 230 hours later, the tactical depth is an illusion. I have spent 230 hours in this game, and I am finally walking away because, despite its initial promise, it is fundamentally boring and flawed. Absurdly Repetitive: The gameplay loop becomes a chore. Once you understand the basic mechanics, there is no real evolution. Every mission feels like the last one, and the sense of progression is completely lost in the monotony. Broken Difficulty & Exploits: Even on the highest difficulty…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly, this would be such a good game if you and enemies couldn't blatantly attack through walls and other weird angles like through windows and over/around objects that are clearly in the way. Can't believe this is a thing.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What's with the horrible blurry graphics even on the highest settings? And why the characters can't auto-face their enemies even when 1-1?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is a mix of good and bad here, play at your own risk. I would have given it a positive review but a bug has killed my save file (no mods) and I'm simply not going to restart at 60 hours in. [the Good] -The game plays like new era x-com with medieval combat with custom difficulty options. -There is a good selection of interesting low fantasy appearances, armors, and weapons to customize your troops as armor tiers level up. -A wound system is in place to prevent characters from being…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When you make a good game but are very bad at programming so that a tiny game like this is more demanding than Cyberpunk 2077. Both CPU and GPU temps goes very high, I've never seen something like this, and I have a RTX4090. It forces me to play at 30fps cap with medium settings while the graphic is not complex, as it seems more a mobile game. and there is now way it's so demanding. It's clearily a very bad optimization issue and, as usual, devs never fix such problems as they point the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →really its ok game , but has too many bugs for a game that is not EA , some very good features to enjoy , do like the different type of missions you have to go from defend the point to escort a person , to kill a person , or capture a person , also like the details for the troops graphics an the kill annimations are really done well ..the upgrade of your castle are a nice feature .. now the bad parts i do not like , music is very poor dont go well with the game play , combat is very easy an…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is enjoyable at the beginning but becoms dull rather quickly. Lacks the depth needed to keep me engaged. Every unit has the same stats which are bound to the weapons equiped and their respective class. This makes each unit 100% expandable so you don`t really care if one of them dies. Makes me want to go back to Xcom. The hit probability feels better than in Xcom 2. Which to be fair is not great either. I bought the game 90% off. At that price i`d recommend checking it out. Fully…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →if you like Xcom but want it medieval. it's not as story rich or tactically indepth but it's a good game to relax to, i'm glad they didn't tie the customization to the gear so you can customize your knight squad to your hearts content
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is an okay turn-based tacticals game I guess. Not worth $40, but it might be worth it getting it on a sale, which currently is on till 23rd October 2025. The Good: - The 6 Classes feel distinct and serve different roles. Two skill paths that you can mix and match for the ideal build for that character. - Character appearance customization options are pretty cool, like letting you make your alchemists look like Plague Doctors. You have to slowly unlock them through missions against…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As of writing this 'Mixed' reviews feels crazy to me. For my taste this is exactly the kind of tactics game I wanted (graphics style, medieval/fantasy, customisation) and so I want to support it by leaving my review to try and encourage others. Personally speaking I've had no crashes or issues and have been playing this 60fps on my laptop plugged into my ulta wide (yes it supports 5120x1440!) and about 30fps on the Steam Deck (though it does draw a lot of power). Play overview: Maintain a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game so far is quite interesting Medieval XCOM Only things i dont like so far are i cant move Multiple troops in same order Like in XCOM as an example, i can send unit 1 to postiion B press tab to select next unit and while Unit 1 is still on the move i can already send out Unit 2 and maybe even 3 on so forth. Currently you have to sit here and wait until they reach there position which isnt horrible but its unnecessary loss of time. The other thing is personal atmospheric Game plays in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →enjoyed it for a good while but it started to become impossible to win. i was playing on easy difficulty and my men were falling like flies i tried normal difficulty on some missions once i got higher weapons and armour but still to hard. quite sad but had to give up as i couldn't progress anymore
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wrote a review/recommendation for the game as I was playing. I've been interested in the game for a while now. At first, the price seemed steep, and numerous negative reviews were disconcerting. However, I was intrigued, and after waiting for a discount, I bought it. Plus, the initially inflated price dropped over the course of a year. So, in the end, the price seemed more than fair. The game reminds me of an indie X-Com about knights. Overall, the game is interesting, the story is cool,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Conclusio: XCOM-Schlachten im Mittelalter mit massig Einstellungsmöglichkeiten und Abwechslungen von einem erfahrenen Team, das spricht eigentlich alles für ein Erfolgskonzept. Leider schmälern diverse Käfer, sowie nicht ausgereifte Konzepte und eine eher durchschnittliche Story mitsamt deren hölzerne Präsentation das Gesamtbild dann doch etwas. Trotzdem ist Crown Wars: The Black Prince für Strategiefreunde eine angenehme Abwechslung. Point Score: 7/10 Read the full test at Gamers.at:…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not at this time, like many other I so want to like this game and feel the potential just below the surface ..... but the timers are just too much and too many. I want a more tactical game and the constant push to run and even find the opponents is just unnecessary. I also am having a hard time with a few on the Town features, for example the exclamation point indicates there is something to do in the forge, but I can for the life on me figure out what. If you know enough to tell me there is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →XCOM meets medieval France sounds like an absolute dream on paper, but gameplay-wise it's just aggressively okay. Positioning your squads, managing class abilities, and executing tactical combat have their moments, but repetitive mission objectives and stiff animations make the combat loop get old pretty fast. Wait for a heavy discount if you need a turn-based strategy fix.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like it so far and I didn't encounter bugs. It's very similar to XCOM with a medieval theme. Progression comes through upgrades in your castle, but you don't build rooms, they are instead unlocked quickly by playing story missions. The combat is fast and fun, there are lots of option to individualise your fighters, both in progression, outfit and weapons. Each weapon has a different set of skills to use. There are story missions and random ones. The random missions will repeat themselves…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's okay but it's just not worth the money at this point. Requested a refund. As others have mentioned - graphics are poor, voice acting is wooden. I might give it another go when it's a lot cheaper.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This would have been great if it was released in 2011. Maybe if it was a mobile game some of its faults could be forgiven, but for a PC release in a crowded genre you're better off playing a better game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I finished the game in Iron Man mode and i enjoyed it so far. Its a mix of X-COM with Low Fantasy in medieval setting. Each class has their own levels and skills, with their armors and weapons, customization is great too. The devs are responsible and their previous game, is a good turn based RPG game. I would recommend the game if you are a turn based tactics lover, and you like medieval setting. You will get dozens of hours of content. For the Order!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks good but boring as heck. Not fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall Impressions "Crown Wars: The Black Prince" stands out as a solid tactical RPG with many strong points, particularly in terms of its graphic design and animation. The fluid combat system and reasonable RNG (Random Number Generation) make the gameplay enjoyable, and the tactical depth is comparable to well-regarded titles like "King Arthur" and "Final Fantasy Tactics." The voice-acted story and enticing cinematics add to the immersive experience. For the XCOM Veterans Game Pace: The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is weird. Too many missions are similar to each other, but I still kept playing. Almost every aspect of the game could be deeper, but I still kept playing. What is wrong with me?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game had to be returned. In general, visually and in terms of gameplay, I liked the game, although it has some inconveniences and crooked animation. But overall, this is an interesting game, very similar to "Wartales", although I must say that it feels a little unfinished in places. Why did the game have to be returned? Around mission 4, the game began to crash steadily in one place, not giving any opportunity to go further. As I mentioned above, the game needs improvement.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice game. I wish you had more options to develop and improve each unit differently.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this game on a week it came out tried to play a few times did not work out then a few negative reviews,,, Couple months later at the end of August I decided to give this game another chance, It is really perfect game lots of cool mechanics time fly's by really fast. This is not an easy game to make it work as you want, you will have to make your brain work,
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am a person of simple words. 1. XCOM - check 2. Medieval Units - check APPROVED
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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