What are the best medieval games? Rare is a videogame that doesn’t feature at least one sword, suit of armor, or roast chicken. Still, they’re usually mixed in with bearded hermits slinging magic fireballs, which we’re reliably informed your average medieval peasant had very little knowledge of.
To that end, we’ve assembled a list of the best PC games that eschew all the prophecy and pyrotechnics for good old-fashioned steel-on-steel action. Medieval games come in all different shapes and sizes, with some opting for a more fantasy game style. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is, after all, no basis for a system of government. Similarly, a level ten Necromancer against a blacksmith wearing a potato sack is no basis for a fair fight.
Here are the best medieval games on PC:
Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming
Okay, so please don’t get mad, but we’re starting with something that technically isn’t a medieval game. However, when creating the world of Westeros, it’s clear that George R. R. Martin was heavily influenced by medieval history. Sure enough, this game captures that medieval feeling like the books and TV series did before it.
In Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming, you play as a lord or lady trying to build up their power base after the death of Eddard Stark. It uses MMORTS gameplay that sees you both developing your city and building an army. It’s a great way to translate the complex political nuances of this fantasy world into the video game medium.
Play Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming for free.
Manor Lords
Though you’ll only be able to play Manor Lords in early access thus far, it’s still worth taking the time with this medieval city builder as you wait for the full Manor Lords release date. In Manor Lords, you’re tasked with building a settlement from the ground up in this gridless base building system.
Starting out with some loyal villagers and a smattering of tents, you’ll soon expand into a thriving town and city, with an army at your fingertips! Which you’ll need to defend yourself against bandits and enemy armies, carefully managing your resources and expanding at just the right pace. Manor Lords is a challenging, yet satisfying game, and though all the features aren’t yet accessible, we’re looking forward to what’s to come.
The Procession to Calvary
The Procession to Calvary is an adventure game with a medieval comedy twist. Solo developer Joe Richardson adopts the quintessential style of stop-motion animation popularized by Terry Gilliam and channels it into a point-and-click that’s every bit as silly as his muse. The holy war is over, but your journey to track down the wily and elusive Heavenly Peter has just begun, as you embark through a medieval world constructed scrapbook-style from cut-outs of famous Renaissance artwork. The venerable works of Rembrandt and Botticelli are repurposed by Richardson to create a world both lavish and surreal.
The Procession to Calvary’s striking style might have already won you over, but it’s also got the substance to match it. Interact with the kingdom’s courtiers and peasantry alike with the ‘verb coin’ menu, and engage in quick-witted dialogue that’s guaranteed to appeal to any passing Python-head. You can also draw your sword and cut down anyone getting a bit too big for their boots, though be warned – unbridled murder can sometimes cause just as many problems as it solves. With copious gags and a dollop of philosophical musing, The Procession to Calvary will have you sniggering into your cup of mead.
Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord
Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord understands what combat in medieval games is all about, and that is the feeling of being part of an extremely dangerous moshpit, jostling for a few inches of space to swing your mace into someone’s forehead, who then dies instantly because that’s how maces and foreheads work. You’re never further away than an arrow in the eye from death, meaning Bannerlord’s massive battles thrum with vitality, tension, and danger.
If this medieval game were just about creating openings and trading blows, it would still be a damn good time, but Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord’s squelchy skirmishes take place in a substantial medieval sandbox. Warring factions and empires help increase your Bannerlord party size with enough bribery, trading with Bannerlord caravans, hiring the best Bannerlord companions, bandit raids, sidequests, arena duels, and managing Bannerlord workshops all exist side-by-side. On top of this, the battles feature an entire RTS layer, allowing you to order your troops into formations and give orders. It becomes a hybrid between your favorite open-world games, simulation games, and RPG games, resulting in something totally and uniquely Bannerlord.
At the time of writing, Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord has since left early access, but there are a few rough spots to iron, cracks to smooth out, and breastplate stretchers to fetch. Even at this stage, it’s still one of the finest medieval games for fans of huge, exciting battles or just moving from one city to the next to sell large quantities of cheese.
Crusader Kings 3
Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy games have a reputation for impenetrability, but we’d bet our favorite heirs that that’s set to change now Crusader Kings 3 is out. It’s not only the most instantly accessible of Paradox’s oeuvre; it achieves this without sacrificing an inch of depth, making it one of the best medieval games out there, according to our Crusader Kings 3 review.
Crusader Kings 3 stands out from the medieval games crowd for one crucial reason: it’s about people, not empires. As much an RPG as it is a statistic-laden map painter (perhaps more so), an average session of Crusader Kings 3 focuses on the triumphs, failings, victories, and heartbreaks of an individual ruler and the people close to them. It’s a magic box you click on to make extraordinary stories come out of.
On a given day, you might task your spymaster to fabricate evidence that your second cousin has been practicing witchcraft, giving you an excuse to imprison them and strip them of land and titles. Or, you might spend a lifetime devoted to your faith only to create your nature-worshipping splinter branch and spend your twilight years ruling stark-naked but for a glorious imperial crown. It’s got something for everyone, or at least everyone who enjoys a healthy bit of conniving, backstabbing, and betrayal.
Should you decide to take to the throne, we have a Crusader Kings beginners guide, a Crusader Kings faith guide for forming your customized religions, and the best Crusader King 3 mods for those wishing to tweak the game to their heart’s content.
Chivalry 2
While there are a few pretenders to the throne, nothing is quite like the first-person knight combat game that started it all, except for its sequel, Chivalry 2. Clash blades with foes on huge battlefields, fire arrows from the relative safety of the castle walls, or knock down enemy fortifications with catapults and other siege technology. There is a wide range of customizable options for your knight over ten subclasses and 30 unique weapons.
Fancy charging towards a peasant village with nothing more than a lance and a shield, but on horseback? You can do just that. The most recent Winter War update adds a new map, the quarter-staff, and even the opportunity to become a warrior king. So saddle up and read our Chivalry 2 review if you’re still undecided, or make your mark on history, by reading our Chivalry 2 beginners guide and learning which are the best Chivalry 2 classes before jumping into battle.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
We take it for granted today, as the ancient saying goes, but a single Dorito has more extreme nacho flavor than a peasant in the 1400s would get in his lifetime. Life was tough then, making you wonder why more medieval games haven’t taken advantage of the setting. Enter Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a game that knows that you need an escape from reality, allows you to become a precariously employed twenty-something in a world filled with uncertainty, inequality, and rampant disease. If only, eh?
Kingdom Come: Deliverance sets itself apart from other medieval games by playing into disempowerment as a central mechanic while offering the directed, character-and-quest-filled world that many dedicated survival games lack. Set in medieval Bohemia, you slip into the soggy boots of Henry of Skalitz, the son of a blacksmith, and immediately throw yourself into such epic quests as “throw poo at man’s house” and “buy some charcoal.” Things soon liven up, though, as Henry’s life is flipped upside down by the civil war sweeping the country.
Medieval Bohemia is both realistically muddy and a natural beauty to explore, either on foot or horseback. As far as medieval games that let you live out the story of a decidedly non-heroic individual, there’s little else like it. Read our Kingdom Come: Deliverance review if you want to know more about Henry’s adventure.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
As the sequel to the captivating A Plague Tale: Innocence, Requiem continues from where the first game left off. It essentially looks and plays the same as this bleak, mud-packed medieval game packed with darker moments of tension and despair. You’re still weaving in between waves of killer rats while taking cues from stealth games and action-adventure games to get around guards.
However, the changes in Amicia and Hugo truly feel like their past has molded them. Amicia is psychologically traumatized to the point where her hatred and rage build her into a sadistic loathing of soldiers. It’s also one of the best story games, so well worth your time, according to our A Plague Tale: Requiem review.
Total War: Medieval 2
Before there were the zombie pirates and nuke-dropping rat men of Total War: Warhammer 2, there were a bunch of dudes in armor with pointy sticks ready to fight and die for their liege’s right to eat peacock seven times a week instead of only six. Total War: Medieval 2 is not only a classic of the Total War series but one of the finest marriages of medieval games and grand strategy.
Though perhaps offering a unit roster less diverse than the games that follow it, the instantly recognizable strategic application of Medieval 2’s infantry, cavalry, and missile units makes it a great entry point into the series for new players. It’s also full of neat features that haven’t made it into the more recent Total War games, like the rousing (often Python-esque) speeches that your generals rattle out before a battle.
For Honor
Many of the medieval games we’ve covered so far have been focused on strategy or simulation aspects. For Honor, however, is all about the immediate clash of steel-on-steel. Although it does feature a story campaign, For Honor is primarily a dedicated PvP experience. Players choose one of several factions including Vikings, knights, or Samurai – and take part in intense competitive team battles lent cinematic flair by NPC combatants on all sides.
The sword game has been out long enough to find an established competitive community, so new players to the experience may be in for a steep learning curve. Persevere, however, and you’ll be rewarded with graphically impressive, meaty duels, plus an answer to the age-old question, “Could my Samurai dad beat up your Viking dad?” If you’re still unconvinced, check out our For Honor review to learn more about how it works.
Bad North
Strategy titles can bring to mind complex interfaces, endless statistics, and Matryoshka doll-like menus within menus. Bad North is the opposite and makes its case to strategy-inclined fans of medieval games with its minimal, sleek interface.
Constructed atop the stalwart genre pillars of rock-paper-scissors matchups and unit positioning, Bad North sees you defend a series of procedurally generated islands from Viking invaders. Upgrades between missions and steadily increasing challenges and complexity keep things interesting. Plus, it’s lovely to look at, at least until your tiny, adorable soldiers get axed in the face and the crisp, inviting snow gets stained red with their entrails. As I say, adorable stuff.
Northgard
Eagle-eyed enjoyers of Viking games may notice this sounds similar to the last game we listed. Yes, they both contain the word ‘north’. And yes, they both feature Vikings in some capacity. But while Bad North is a minimalist roguelike game, Northgard is a fully hatched RTS seagull swooping down to steal your time and possibly your chips.
This isn’t just one of those RTS games of the buildy-clicky-attacky variety, either. It’s got that, sure, but also a fleshed-out town management system. You can assign recruits to various roles in your settlements, and various victory conditions allow for different play styles. Also, if you get the DLC, it has battle cats. Perfect.
Age of Empires 2
Age of Empires 4 may be the newer game, but we still love the spruced-up definitive edition of Age of Empires 2 for medieval combat. It’s not strictly just a series of medieval games, but it handles each era so well that we’re saying it absolutely counts.
It’s a testament to how well-made those classic titles were that we still talk about the second game with such high praise. It features classic RTS combat with a massive unit variety, trade, and expansive technology trees. It’s still got a pretty healthy competitive scene, too.
Conqueror’s Blade
Conqueror’s Blade is a free-to-play MMO set in the gory Middle Ages, where you play as a warlord in command of an army, leading your chosen units into epic 15v15 PvP battles. You can survey the battlefield from third-person and top-down perspectives to ensure you’re squeezing every advantage from your positioning. You take part in Field Battles and Siege Battles and can wield tremendous control over your combat style thanks to the sheer number of weapons and units you can customize. Sure, you can head into battle with a sword and shield – or your warlord can wield glaives, mauls, or even a substantial Japanese No-Dachi.
To raise the stakes, you can join a House and become part of a more significant combined force. Houses engage in larger-scale battles such as Territory Wars, and if you’re lucky, your bannermates will share rewards and resources to help you grow your army’s strength.
So, there are the best medieval games on PC for all your head-chopping, plate mail-wearing, and mead-chugging needs. If you’re looking for games that are not necessarily medieval era, look to the best strategy games list to find an alternative worth investing your time in. If you love the military aspect of many of these games, our guide on the best war games is also worth reading.
Additional entries by Nic Reuben and Joe Robinson.