Crusader Kings 2 is not accessible or simple to everyone, but it is amazing on everyone's standards after the tutorial.
The reason is the gameplay in crusader kings 2, it is extremely well grounded. You don't feel like you are looking at a spreadsheet of numbers like Victoria, or a geography/history lesson you'd expect from an educational course. Crusader Kings takes the rpg, character building, and intrigue aspects of the first crusader kings, that was then expanded upon by the recent entry "Sengoku", and now perfected and refined. I can't say gamers who are new to paradox games will have an easier time getting into Paradox Grand Strategy, because they won't, is is still as complex and difficult as ever, but I can finally say that those who do get through the difficult learning curve, will enjoy it universally.
Your first experience with Crusader Kings 2, no mater how many other Paradox games you've played (I have played , and enjoyed, many myself) will need to go through the tutorials. The tutorials are well ordered, and though they don't cover every detail, cleverly cover what you need to learn to play, without trying to teach you everything which can be only learned by starting a game.
In crusader kings you play as a dynasty of christian kings in the late middle ages. Your goal is to bring the most prestige you possibly can with each ruler, to give your dynasty the biggest notoriety in history. There isn't a true set win condition, you are in a sandbox of history, but the prospects of getting a high prestige will provide you with plenty of motivation. The only true way to lose is if you bloodline ends. You gain prestige by forming ties with other families of kings and lords, ties that may result in land gains for you if your cards are played right. Glory can come in the forms of crusades, or bringing divine judgment down on an excommunicated faction.
From than on, these tasks get more complicated. Arranged marriages twist family trees in the favor of some and not others. Families may go to war with each other over succession disputes, ticked off vassals and neglected family members may plot against you, or maybe scrape some money off the taxes you are trying to collect. You must pay constant attention to the motivations and desires of everyone around them, using them to your advantage when you can, and redirecting them at others when you can't. You can change laws of secession, and rules regarding the autonomy of your vassals, which change the effects of just about every decision you make entirely.
Keeping up with all this means you'll constantly keep tabs on the various characters in the game. The result is a much more grounded experience. No matter of diplomacy feels like you are interacting with a faceless mob of statistics that made up the country populations on other paradox games. You will legitimately grow in ire for your enemies, and trust for good allies; all the more better due to the games uncannily good AI in terms of diplomacy. The code is disturbingly polished and bug free, not only for a paradox game, but for any game that is this extremely complex.
Crusader Kings uses a visual style unique to other paradox grand strategies, in terms of the map detail. The colors are more vibrant, the land looks less like paper and more like actual terrain. If you've played Sengoku, you will recognize the new focus on style, but for me -who has played every paradox game BUT Sengoku- the game looks unexpectedly gorgeous. The music is also very appropriate to the time, though in my own opinion it can get a bit over-powering, and I had to turn the music volume down to half. Another complaint regarding the sound is the battle sounds, they are overly repetitive and have little variation.
I greatly recommend Crusader Kings 2 if you are interested in this type of gameplay. It's important to distinguish it as being more enjoyable to a broad audience -based on the character-drive role playing aspect of diplomacy- but I can't stress enough that this enjoyment is going to cost you a lot of time spent on the tutorial and learning to get comfortable with the deep game mechanics.
Overall Score 8.5
This was a pretty early review, and Paradox is known for early updates. I'll be doing more playthroughs, and be sure to update this review if any bugs show up- though so far, with my playthrough as Denmark, I encountered none worth mentioning, apart from one during the tutorial, but none in my campaign.