Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 61 | 21 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 60% | 60 | 324 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | – | 0 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 66% | 64 | 220 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: since the last significant patch (Dec 19, 2024) · 220 reviews sampled · 184 total reviews in window · weighted 110.8 up / 56.1 down · computed 1h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (14)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 50
“Crown Wars: The Black Prince is a very tedious tactic that can only be recommended as an effective sleeping pill.”
read full review ↗ - 55
“Crown Wars: The Black Prince, a turn-based RPG set during the Hundred Years' War, offers a fairly satisfying dose of fun for players who enjoy this genre. The core of the game, including its mechanics, combat, and castle management, works well. Unfortunately, the title is let down by technical shortcomings that disrupt the smooth gameplay and can sometimes be truly frustrating.”
read full review ↗ - 65
“Crown Wars has a good core concept that combines castle management with combat missions from historical France. However, the gameplay itself is quite incomplete, it seems primitive, and instead of fine-tuning it, the developers unnecessarily focused on violent scenes.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Crown Wars: The Black Prince is not just a medieval XCOM, it is very much its own thing. A turn-based game offering fast and frenetic strategising, it's hamstrung by weak AI, an inconsistent camera, and too many bugs.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“With a ton of player customization options, some nice base management, and fun turn-based combat mechanics, Crown Wars: The Black Prince is a no-brainer buy for fans of the genre looking for their next favorite game.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Crown Wars: The Black Prince is a decent game that is let down by a variety of reasons. While the story, visuals and audio are all, at best, mediocre, the strong gameplay loop where combat directly feeds into the management mechanics is an excellent way to flex your tactical prowess.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“Crown Wars: The Black Prince features an intriguing medieval setting and turn-based tactical gameplay with significant potential. The various classes and unique abilities add depth, and the concept of a castle as a central hub is a logical choice with plenty of possibilities. Unfortunately, the experience is hindered by clunky graphics and animations, mediocre voice-overs, and an artificially high difficulty level. Balance issues and excessive use of timers make the game more tiring and frustrating than challenging and enjoyable. Overall, the game currently feels more like a mobile game port than a fully-fledged tactical RPG.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Ultimately, the battles in Crown Wars: The Black Prince end up being extremely long, somewhat dull, and worrisome due to some of the issues described above. It’s not necessarily a bad game and the gameplay loop can be interesting if you stick to it, but it lacks polish and fine-tuning, resulting in a flawed offering that will quickly make fans of the genre start looking elsewhere for better alternatives.”
read full review ↗ - 67
“Bears can do a lot of cool things, but they can't carry a story without a cohesive narrative or make bland management more interesting.”
read full review ↗ - 68
“At its core, Crown Wars: The Black Prince is an exciting strategy game, especially after you've invested a few hours of gameplay in expanding your domain and upgrading your troops. The more tactical options we got, the more fun we had, also thanks to the fast pace of the battles. However, the game still gets in its own way too often in the current version. Especially the camera is suboptimal in the fights and the fun of the skirmishes sometimes fluctuates due to the sometimes too stupid AI. The biggest fun killer, however, turned out to be the technical quirks that really wore on our nerves.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Crown Wars: The Black Prince is a competent tactical RPG that fits squarely within the confines of its chosen genre, so if you want more X-COM-likes in your life, and don’t mind feeling like you’d get the same experience playing any number of other, similar games, you could do worse than checking it out.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“Crown Wars: The Black Prince is a fun Strategy RPG with good base-building elements and an interesting combat system that, along with the creative use of its setting, does more than enough to hook the player.”
read full review ↗
GameMAG
Gaming Professors
SECTOR.sk
TheSixthAxis
Try Hard Guides
GamingBolt
Gameliner
Multiplayer First
RPG Fan
GAMES.CH
Gaming Age
PSX Brasil…and 2 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- Crown Wars | Patch Note 13Dec 19, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- The Evolution of Crown Wars: A Game Transformed by Your FeedbackSep 16, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Crown Wars | Patch Note 12Aug 8, 2024
- Crown Wars | Patch Note 11Aug 1, 2024
- Crown Wars | Patch Note 9Jul 4, 2024
- Crown Wars | Patch Note 8Jun 20, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Crown Wars | Patch Note 7Jun 13, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Note 6 | PCJun 6, 2024
- Crown Wars: The Black Prince | Patch Note 31/05/2024May 31, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Crown Wars: The Black Prince | PatchnoteMay 29, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Crown Wars | A word from the TeamMay 27, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- [Applied] Keybinding issue HotfixMay 24, 2024
- Crown Wars | Demo Hotfix #1Feb 9, 2024