No, Heavy Is The Crown does not have official, built-in online multiplayer. The game was designed from the ground up as a local multiplayer experience, supporting 1-4 players on a single machine in a shared-screen or “couch co-op” environment. However, that is not the end of the story. You can still play with friends over the internet using PC streaming services, with Steam’s Remote Play Together being the most common and effective method.
This guide will clarify what “local only” means for this game, provide a step-by-step walkthrough for setting up online sessions using Remote Play Together, compare the experience to traditional local play, and explore the design philosophy behind this decision.
What “Local Multiplayer Only” Actually Means
When a game is labeled “local multiplayer,” it means all players must be physically present and connected to the same device. For Heavy Is The Crown, this is the intended and officially supported way to play with others. The entire gameplay loop—a fast-paced blend of city-builder, resource management, and backstabbing diplomacy—is tuned for the unique energy of having your rivals in the same room.
The game pits up to four aspiring monarchs against each other in a race to accumulate the most gold before the kingdom collapses. You’ll claim land, manage resources like food and gems, and make and break alliances on the fly. The design thrives on the immediate, personal nature of couch competition. Hearing an opponent curse as you snatch a critical territory or seeing the look on their face as you renege on a deal is part of the core experience. This is a level of interaction that anonymous online matchmaking simply can't replicate.
The core of the game is about managing these tensions. Do you cooperate to fend off a mutual threat, or do you exploit the situation for personal gain? Because rounds are relatively short (typically 30-60 minutes), the consequences of your betrayals are felt instantly, leading to hilarious and heated rivalries that carry over from one match to the next. This is the magic the developers focused on capturing, and it's most potent when you're all sharing a screen.
How to Play With Friends Online Using Remote Play Together
While the game lacks a dedicated online server browser or matchmaking system, Steam's Remote Play Together feature acts as a powerful and user-friendly workaround. In essence, this service streams the host's game to other players' computers, capturing their controller or keyboard inputs and sending them back to the host machine. It tricks the game into thinking all players are sitting in the same room using different controllers.
Best of all, only the host needs to own a copy of Heavy Is The Crown. Your friends can join for free, making it an incredibly accessible way to play online.
Step-by-Step Setup Guide
Setting up a session is remarkably simple. Just follow these four steps:
- Launch the Game: The person who owns the game (the host) must launch Heavy Is The Crown through their Steam client.
- Open the Steam Overlay: Once the game is running, the host should press Shift + Tab to open the Steam Overlay. This will display their friends list.
- Invite Your Friends: From the friends list, the host can right-click on a friend's name and select “Invite to Remote Play” from the context menu. They can repeat this for up to three other players (for a total of four).
- Friends Accept and Join: The invited players will receive a pop-up invitation in Steam. Once they accept, they will automatically connect to the host's game stream. Their controllers or keyboards will be detected by the host's game as if they were plugged in locally. You can then start a multiplayer match from the game's main menu.
What to Expect: Pros and Cons
Remote Play Together is a fantastic piece of tech, but it's not without its trade-offs. The quality of the experience is almost entirely dependent on the host's internet connection, specifically their upload speed. A stable, high-speed connection is crucial for a smooth session.
- Pros: It’s free for guests, incredibly easy to initiate, and allows you to play a local-only gem with friends anywhere in the world.
- Cons: It can introduce input lag, especially if players are geographically distant from the host. The video quality is also compressed, so it won't look as crisp as it does on the host's native display. Finally, you'll need a separate application like Discord for voice chat.
Local Play vs. Remote Play: A Head-to-Head Comparison
So, should you gather your friends for a game night or set up a session over Remote Play? Both are viable, but they offer distinct experiences. The ideal choice depends on your priorities: pristine performance or long-distance convenience.
Here’s a direct comparison of the key factors:
| Feature | 👑 Local Multiplayer (Intended Experience) | ☁️ Remote Play Together (Workaround) |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | Flawless. Zero input lag or network latency. | Variable. Dependent on host's upload speed. |
| Visuals | Native resolution and maximum graphical fidelity. | Video is compressed, may have artifacts. |
| Communication | In-person. Instant reactions and table talk. | Requires external voice chat (e.g., Discord). |
| Setup Complexity | Plug in controllers and play. Dead simple. | Requires a few clicks in the Steam Overlay. |
| Game Ownership | One copy of the game on one PC. | Only the host needs to own the game. |
The verdict is clear: local play is the superior, definitive way to experience Heavy Is The Crown. The absence of lag and the energy of in-person interaction can't be beaten. However, Remote Play Together is an excellent and fully functional alternative that makes the game accessible to friends who can't be in the same room. The fact that only one person needs to buy the game is a massive advantage that makes it easy to recommend trying.
Why Did the Developers Choose Local-Only?
In modern gaming, omitting online multiplayer can seem like a strange choice. However, for an independent studio, the decision is often a pragmatic one rooted in both technical constraints and a specific design vision. Building, testing, and maintaining stable netcode for an online game is a monumental task that requires significant resources and specialized expertise.
For a small team, focusing on perfecting a single, polished experience—in this case, couch multiplayer—is often a smarter use of development time and budget than splitting focus to create a potentially buggy or lag-filled online mode. This laser focus allows them to create a tightly balanced game where the mechanics are built around a specific type of player interaction.
Furthermore, Heavy Is The Crown is philosophically a local game. Its soul is in the shared shouts, the sudden alliances, and the dramatic betrayals that happen between people sharing a space. It aims to revive the classic feeling of game nights from the console era of the 90s and 2000s. By designing exclusively for this environment, the developers ensure that the core emotional experience remains intact and undiluted by the anonymity and distance of online matchmaking.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Does Heavy Is The Crown have crossplay? No. Because the game does not have native online multiplayer infrastructure, it does not support cross-platform play between different systems or storefronts.
Do all players need to own the game to play online? No. When using Steam's Remote Play Together feature, only the host who is streaming the game needs to own a copy. All other players can join for free.
Can you play Heavy Is The Crown solo? Yes, the game is fully playable in single-player mode. You can compete against up to three AI-controlled opponents with adjustable difficulty levels, making it a great way to practice your strategies.
Are there alternatives to Steam Remote Play? Yes, other third-party streaming applications like Parsec offer similar functionality. They can sometimes provide better performance depending on your hardware and network conditions, but they may require a more involved setup process.
The Final Word
While the lack of a dedicated “Online Multiplayer” button on the main menu may be disappointing for some, Heavy Is The Crown is far from a lonely experience. It stands as a brilliantly crafted local multiplayer game that champions the joy of same-room competition. And thanks to the accessibility of tools like Steam Remote Play Together, the definition of “local” has become wonderfully flexible. The throne is yours for the taking—you just need to decide whether your rivals will be on the same couch or on the other end of an internet connection.