Great Houses of Calderia

Great Houses of Calderia is a feudal grand strategy game set in a Mediterranean Renaissance-inspired world where players lead a noble family vying for power in the province of Calderia. Players must navigate intricate diplomacy, manage family dynamics with unique character traits and personalities, build thriving economies, and engage in real-time tactical battles to overthrow the power-hungry Viceroy and claim the throne. The game emphasizes balancing strategic decision-making with personal family management to build a lasting legacy of power.

Great Houses of Calderia: Review

In the pantheon of grand strategy, where titans like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis reign supreme, a new contender emerges not with the ambition to dethrone, but to carve its own distinct niche. Great Houses of Calderia, from Finnish developer Resistance Games, is a bold, deeply thematic foray into feudal politics, family drama, and Mediterranean-inspired intrigue. It is a game that wears its influences on its embroidered, Renaissance-era sleeve while striving to offer a more intimate, character-driven experience. This is not merely a game of maps and armies; it is a generational saga of ambition, legacy, and the delicate art of power.

Introduction

The grand strategy genre is often synonymous with vast, impersonal maps and centuries-spanning campaigns. Great Houses of Calderia dares to ask: what if the heart of the genre wasn’t the empire, but the family that built it? Released from a lengthy Early Access period into its full 1.0 version in May 2024, the game presents a thesis that the most compelling conflicts are those fought across dinner tables and in royal courts, as much as on battlefields. It is a game that seeks to capture the spirit of a Mediterranean Renaissance, blending historical inspiration with low-fantasy myth to create a world that feels both familiar and fresh. While its ambitions sometimes outstrip its execution, Great Houses of Calderia stands as a fascinating and worthy experiment in focusing a grand strategy lens on the human cost of power.

Development History & Context

Great Houses of Calderia is the product of Resistance Games, a Helsinki-based studio with a portfolio that includes titles like Company of Crime and Blade Prince Academy. Under the leadership of CEO Anna Salomaa and Creative Director Jussi Autio, the team embarked on a project that few indie studios dare to attempt: a full-fledged grand strategy game. Developed on Unreal Engine 4, the game entered Steam Early Access on August 30, 2023, beginning a nine-month period of intensive community-driven development.

The gaming landscape at its release was dominated by Paradox Interactive’s hegemony over the grand strategy genre. Resistance Games’ vision was not to replicate the scale of a Crusader Kings III, but to distill its core concepts—dinastic intrigue, character management, and feudal politics—into a more focused, accessible, and aesthetically unique package. As noted by PC Gamer, “Nobody outside of Paradox has attempted to take the fundamentals of Crusader Kings’ design and push in a different direction.”

The development process was transparent and iterative. The team published monthly development updates, detailing how player feedback was shaping major features like the military overhaul, the siege mechanics, the addition of bandits, character skill training, and the pivotal late-game Civil War system. This commitment to community dialogue, while working within the constraints of a smaller team and budget, defines the game’s development story. It is a testament to a studio learning to walk the tightrope of ambitious design and practical implementation.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Set in the mythical province of Calderia, a land under the distant thumb of a larger Empire, the game’s narrative is not a linear story but an emergent tapestry woven from the actions, traits, and relationships of your family members. You are not a singular immortal ruler; you are the enduring spirit of a noble house, guiding it through generations.

• Thematic Core: The central theme is the insatiable thirst for power and its corrupting influence, not just on individuals, but on entire bloodlines. The goal is to seize the throne from the power-hungry Viceroy, but the journey is one of moral compromise, shifting alliances, and personal sacrifice. The game explores whether power is best gained through honor (Diplomacy), wealth (Economy), deceit (Intrigue), or brute force (Military).

• Characters and Dialogue: The soul of the game resides in its characters. Each family member is defined by a set of Traits (e.g., Ambitious, Cruel, Gullible, Genius) that provide stat bonuses and, crucially, unlock unique active and passive Skills used in the social “battles” of the court. An Altruist might heal allies by sacrificing their own health, while a Vengeful character grows stronger with every fallen comrade. Dialogue in events is not just flavor text; it is the primary engine of narrative. Choices during weddings, peace negotiations, or random encounters (like a failed attempt to gift fabrics to a rival) have tangible consequences, altering relationships, changing character traits, and triggering new story branches. The writing, led by Antti Seppanen, effectively sells the fantasy of being a scheming noble, though it can occasionally feel repetitive.

• Lore and World-Building: Calderia itself is a character. Drawing heavily from the Italian and Spanish Renaissance rather than the more common Germanic or British medieval settings, the world feels distinct. The lore, hinted at through events and the art design, speaks of ancient myths and a unique pantheon of gods, blending history with a subtle, low-fantasy element. This uchronia allows for creative freedom while maintaining a grounded, believable atmosphere.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Great Houses of Calderia is a complex interplay of several interconnected systems.

• The Core Loop: The gameplay is a cycle of managing your fiefdom, appointing family members to tasks, engaging in diplomacy and intrigue with rival houses, and occasionally resolving conflicts through war. Time is managed in a pausable real-time format, similar to its genre cousins.

• Character & Family Management: This is the game’s most innovative and central system. Every character has skills in four areas: Diplomacy (D), Economy (E), Intrigue (I), and Military (M). You must manually assign them to roles—overseeing crop production, leading armies, managing diplomacy—based on their competencies and personalities. A lazy character will be inefficient, while a diligent one will excel. This creates compelling emergent drama, as you’re forced to make do with the flawed family you have, not ideal subordinates.

• Economic & Resource Management: Your fiefdom produces basic resources (Grapes, Materials, Livestock, Metal Ore, Horses) which are processed into advanced goods (Wine, Steel, Luxuries, Parchment). A key strategic element is the vulnerability of these production buildings to wartime blockades and sabotage, directly linking economic health to military defense. Managing population happiness through wages and events is crucial for maintaining productivity.

• Diplomacy and Intrigue: Interaction with other houses is deep. Relationships are affected by events, trade agreements, and slights. The game features a detailed casus belli system for declaring different types of war (Humiliation, Vassalization, Title, Tax), each with specific relation thresholds. All wars end with a peace negotiation where warscore, achieved through battles and sieges, determines the terms you can impose.

• Military & Tactical Battles: Warfare is a means to a political end. Raising armies requires resources and gold for upkeep. Battles are not automated; they take place in a real-time tactical view where you directly command units. Each unit type has stats (Attack, Defense, Health) and can be affected by the skills of the character leading them. The system encourages tactical positioning and careful use of commander abilities. Notably, units can retreat to a reserve to heal, but those lost are gone for the duration of the war, adding a layer of consequence.

• UI and Tutorialization: This is one of the game’s weaker points. The UI, while stylistically fitting, can feel cluttered and unintuitive, presenting a significant barrier to entry. The in-game tutorial is often cited as inadequate for explaining the dense interlocking systems, leaving players to rely on community guides and external wikis.

World-Building, Art & Sound

• Art Direction: This is where Great Houses of Calderia truly shines. The art team, led by Tero Takalo, undertook extensive historical research, deliberately choosing the fashions of the Italian and Spanish Renaissance to create a unique visual identity. As detailed in their art blogs, they blended historical accuracy with fantasy elements—integrating armour pieces into court dresses, using elaborate hairstyles and extravagant pearls—to create a world that feels opulent, dangerous, and distinct. The character portraits are particularly evocative, conveying personality and status through clothing and expression. The isometric map view is clean and functional, if not graphically groundbreaking.

• Sound Design: The soundscape is a mixed bag. The soundtrack, composed by Janne Kariniemi, features appropriate period-style music with flutes and cellos that effectively set a medieval tone. However, some ambient tracks can feel out of place, breaking immersion. Sound effects are serviceable but not exceptional.

• Atmosphere: The combination of its unique art style, the focus on intimate family drama, and the Mediterranean setting creates a strong and cohesive atmosphere. It feels less like a epic of continental conquest and more like a Shakespearean play set in a dusty, sun-drenched Italian city-state, where the most brutal betrayals happen in whispered conversations in shaded courtyards.

Reception & Legacy

Upon its full release, Great Houses of Calderia garnered a mixed reception, reflected in its “Mixed” rating on Steam (62% positive from 350 reviews at the time of writing).

• Critical Reception: Critics and players alike praised its ambitious scope, compelling character-driven gameplay, and fresh setting. The depth of the family management systems and the economic-strategy hybrid loop were frequently highlighted as strengths. PC Gamer found it a “fascinating” experiment.

• Criticisms: The most common complaints centered on a lack of polish, unintuitive UI, a steep learning curve due to poor tutorialization, and some janky AI behavior. Many reviews noted that while the core ideas were brilliant, the execution needed more refinement to realize its full potential. Analysis from review aggregators like VaporLens cited critiques such as “lacks depth, unintuitive mechanics” and “unfinished, unstable, and needs significant polish” as primary negatives.

• Legacy and Influence: It is too early to determine Great Houses of Calderia‘s long-term legacy. However, its mere existence is significant. It proves that there is an appetite for grand strategy experiences that diverge from the Paradox formula, focusing on a narrower scope and stronger narrative elements. It stands as a beacon for other mid-sized studios, demonstrating that with a clear vision and community engagement, they can compete in a genre dominated by giants. Its legacy may ultimately be that of a cult classic—a flawed but deeply admired gem that dared to be different.

Conclusion

Great Houses of Calderia is a game of profound ambition and notable achievement, albeit one that stumbles under the weight of its own complexity. It is a title that will be adored by a specific subset of strategy fans: those who cherish the personal stories of Crusader Kings over the map-painting of Total War, and who appreciate a developer’s clear passion for a unique historical aesthetic.

Its greatest strength is its successful fusion of grand strategy with intimate family management, creating emergent narratives that feel personal and consequential. Its greatest weakness is the lack of accessibility and polish that prevents its brilliant systems from shining for a wider audience.

Final Verdict: Great Houses of Calderia is not the finished, polished article that will dethrone the kings of the genre. It is, however, a fascinating, richly detailed, and often captivating experiment that deserves attention and respect. For the patient strategy enthusiast willing to overlook its rough edges, it offers a deeply rewarding and unique experience—a compelling saga of power, family, and legacy set against a beautifully realized Renaissance-inspired backdrop. It is a flawed gem, but a gem nonetheless, and a vital proof-of-concept for the future of narrative-driven grand strategy.