Fantasy games are easy enough to find, but sometimes famines, plagues, and power are all you need. For that, here's our lineup for the top 10 medieval video game titles for the PC.
This ranking showcases the best strategy, adventure, and more. To see the all-time ranking, visit our list of the best PC games.
10. Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
We're starting off with something straightforward with this game from Torn Banner Studios. Just from the title itself, it's already oozing with medieval-ness. But despite the name, Chivalry, the religious, moral, and social code that knights abide by, doesn't seem all too present here.
As a multiplayer hack and slash game, your only goal is to fight for glory. What makes Chivalry special, is its melee combat which, like the landlords of its time, is well-executed. With its first-person perspective, you'll get to step into suits of armor to fight against opponents with swords, maces, long-bows and more from their medieval armory.
Though it's set in a fictionalized world, it does present pretty believable middle ages. complete with the appropriate artillery for dueling, pillaging, and storming the gates. Released in 2012, Chivalry, the franchise, certainly isn't dead, with a sequel coming sometime in 2020.
But for now, it's a great Medieval jump-off point with a playscore of 8
9. Banished
Offering us a little break from the fighting is Shining Rock Software's city-building strategy. In Banished, you're tasked to be the sole authority of a community's resources and the citizens that fall under you.
It's a beautiful simulation, with minimalist visuals and stunning architecture that make you feel immersed in their isolated wilderness. But, it's not the visuals that gave Banished its name, it's the fact that this game is more of a survival than your run of the mill city builder.
In a world of slow growth, breakable tools, and the ravages of the seasons, the game has a way of delivering challenges at every turn. It’s that refreshing difficulty that makes it actually fun.
While it means, livelihoods, and difficulties might seem pretty medieval to most of us, historians might beg to disagree. But, if you are hankering for more of castles, shiny armors, and feudal systems, Banished actually has mods that will gladly give you that experience.
It has a playscore of 8.09
8. Mordhau
No, you’re not seeing double. Released just in 2019, Mordhau basically improves on what Chivalry offered. It's still pretty much a multiplayer-only hack and slash game, emphasizing hand to hand combat using the weapons of the medieval age.
But, with the benefit of today's tech, we get a more modern, less clunky experience. Though it may not be the best-looking game, it nails most of what it aimed to do, especially in their frontlines mode where you get to play in a large scale battlefield with up to 60 other people.
On top of the refined combat experience, there's also the customization which allows you to create and edit their own mercenaries, from body type, face, and voice, to armor types and weapons that affect the way you fight in the battlefield.
It's a realistic take on the middle age combat, and paired with its vibrant visuals, Mordhau is a great hub for fans of the period.
It has a playscore of 8.1
7. Kingdom
Though it abandons all notions of realism, this game's spin on the medieval monarchy is hard to miss. Playing as a king or queen on horseback, it challenges you to create your own kingdom amidst its procedurally generated 2D lands.
With just a few gold coins at your disposal, you'll turn peasants into loyal subjects in no time, building castles out of wood and stone. But the twist comes at nighttime, with hordes of creatures bent on raiding your vaults and challenging your claim.
It's ultimately a strategy and resource management hybrid, with a simplicity that makes it easy to get players hooked. However, with not enough variety despite its expansive randomly generated world, that simplicity does come at a cost. But if it's an experience you want, Kingdom's gorgeous pixel art style and beautiful soundtrack gladly deliver.
It has a playscore of 8.14
6. Assassin's Creed II
What is arguably the height of the Assassin's Creed series, this second installment took us into the shoes of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, from his birth in Florence to the subsequent events of his life in different parts of Italy.
Ezio's adventures have always been a highlight of the series, as it took us into the lives of 15th-century icons through his perspective of important events. Featuring renaissance icons, and, most especially, Desmond's time outside of the Animus, it's not strictly a Middle Age drama.
But, with the use of its open-world format and its engaging assassin combat, it offers an up-close, albeit heavily fictionalized, look at the period that you won't get anywhere else. Explore the 15th and 16th centuries as Ezio takes on a quest of vengeance against his family’s traitors and the infamous Knights Templar. Live amongst the assassins, fight with their weapons, and admire the architecture.
All that, for a playscore of 8.28
5. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed II was so good, we all wanted more. That's exactly the story of Brotherhood, and the rest, as they say, fictionalized history. It follows directly from the plot of the second installment, with Ezio back into the fore, but this time out for Borgia blood.
This particular entry expands on what the previous game offered, especially in terms of its open-world variety. With Ezio's new position as Master Assassin, you get territory takeovers, assassin recruitment, and property investment that all keep you rooted in its environment of 16th century Italy.
With Brotherhood, they really upped the immersion. As GameSpot says "few games make it such a pleasure to simply move from place to place." And they're right about that, with the choice of galloping horseback or parkouring up towers.
For fans of the period, Brotherhood is a definite breath of fresh air and it gets a playscore of 8.59
4. A Plague Tale: Innocence
Sure, Assassin's Creed may not all be sunshine and rainbows but with our fourth entry, things are about to get dark. A game from independent developer Asobo Studio, it earned top ranks in our list of the top games of 2019. Despite some lukewarm reviews from critics disappointed by its sometimes clunky writing and just-decent stealth gameplay, it still garnered rave reviews from gamers who loved its gruesome and painfully real story.
Telling the tale of two siblings, Amicia and Hugo, Innocence ironically paints a harrowing picture of the plague-ridden 14th century that invites all kinds of disillusionment. It's not a happy story by any means, but it's visually stunning and it's packed with puzzles that make it worth every minute.
There's less of the tropes and combat we might expect from a medieval game, but as we face rats, zealots, and human nature itself, it tells its own humble yet grand approximation of how life felt like then.
It has a playscore of 8.64
3. Mount & Blade: Warband
Yes, we're all hyped for the coming of its most-awaited sequel, but before its decade-in-the-making second installment hits the market, we can take a moment to appreciate where it all began.
Well, as the stand-alone expansion to the original Mount & Blade game, it's not exactly where it all started, but it was with this title that the series delivered on the potential of their premise. Unlike the RPGs of its time, TaleWorlds' Warband did away with all the fantasy elements and instead stayed true to medieval realism.
But, as fun as it is to create your own zero to hero story from scratch, what really made the game was its multiplayer modes. With 8 different types, you get to experience the fullest of their combat, commanding warbands, dueling 1v1, and sieging castles. As a game in the 2010s, Warband had a lot to offer. But if you don't mind its obvious age, there's still a lot of fun to be had while waiting for the upcoming sequel.
It has a playscore of 8.64
2. Crusader Kings II
After all the up-close looks, this next game provides us with a new perspective on the age. It's one of Paradox's most popular grand strategies, anchoring on the power struggles inherent in medieval systems. Where most games focus on certain periods, our 2nd spot takes us on a ride through the centuries. It's a dynasty simulator that lets you control a whole lineage, following them through the start of the 11th century, all through the 14th.
As such, it's a historical field trip. We don't just get to meet various historical figures, its grand strategy scheme also lets us experience the various cultural and religious quirks that kept the era’s feudalist system moving.
Offering so much in terms of content and insight, the game is a bit of information overload. But, if you can get past that, you'll discover one of the best medieval strategies out there.
It has a playscore of 8.65
1. Total War: Shogun 2
We end this list far away from the Western medieval notions we're used to. Set during the Ashikaga shogunate, Total War's return to the region is right smack in Japan's medieval period. Instead of kings and knights, we get shoguns and samurai, but all of them still fighting to gain more power and control.
Unlike the previous game which had a global scope, this entry from Creative Assembly shines a spotlight on the Japanese islands and provinces. You get to choose between nine major clans, each with their own advantages that will change the way you play.
This allows you to see firsthand the unique interactions between the Japanese territories. Not entirely guided by religion, but by different methods of diplomacy and militaristic action.
In a series that usually focused on Western and Middle Eastern battlefields, this installment’s unique and effective gameplay still managed to make it Total War's highest-rated title yet.
It has a playscore of 8.84