Comments on: Europa Universalis series (2000-2008)

By: Troy

Troy — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:53:53 +0000

Though the Revolutions expansion helped a lot, it still didn’t do enough to make a cumbersome brute of a game much more than an interesting experiment. Victoria has many great parts, but as a whole it never really comes together for me. And it is still the game that requires the most buy-in from newcomers; unless you are really invested in learning it, Victoria never gets rewarding. The other major titles from P’dox – even Rome, which is a slightly lesser game – have something for dabblers. Victoria doesn’t.

By: Nodrownboy

Nodrownboy — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:48:52 +0000

Just a couple of comments on some other posts. Regarding exploration, some of the mods for EU3(Magna Mundi for example) have randomized resources for provinces that aren’t revealed until you colonize. While not a perfect system, it definitely changes that portion of the game.

Second, I thought Vicky was unplayable too, but the Revolutions expansion turned a bad Vicky into a Ricky that has become easily my favorite Paradox game.

By: Icegrin

Icegrin — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:51:42 +0000

Interesting series. I remember seeing screenshots of the EU1 map in a magazine and I instantly knew – this is my game! Even though the reviewer didn’t seem to quite like it.

On the subject of EU3: Yes, Dave, I’d say it is. It’s finished now, at least. There’s an EU3: Complete box in stores with the two expansions, and a very good mod, Magna Mundi (the counterpart of EU2′s AGCEEP, basically) to expand on the game content.

As for the set map and sense of discovery, I believe there is actually a mod/program project in the works that can generate random maps to play on for EU3.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:47:22 +0000

I’ll echo the “bigger empires become unmanageable” meme.

But given the timeframe, wasn’t that true in reality? It *was* hard to maintain a global empire– which is why so few nations successfully did it.

Anyway, I’ve only played EU2, but I played it into the ground. LOVED the game. EU3 always intimidated me, and knowing Paradox– any release takes, what, three years of patching/improvements to become fully playable?– I figured I could wait.

So, is EU3 worth picking up now?

BTW, I still nominate Victoria as the most essential game executed in the worst way possible. A great time period nearly completely neglected finally gets a game that was, IMHO, utterly unplayable. I know Vicky has its fans, but the complexity of it turned me off (EU2 and HOI2 are really my upper scale of preference).

Anyway, I like Paradox, I admire their creativity, but they don’t at all understand the concept of “less is more.” Why must every sequel feature-bloat?

By: skshrews

skshrews — Sun, 17 May 2009 02:57:16 +0000

EU is always at its best within the limited borders of “Europe”. The historical events, the intricasies of trade, diplomacy, and economics, are best played out on the map of the classic kingdoms of Europe.

Just having to move back and forth across the epic world map of EU makes one dread the exploration process. While it’s relatively easy to manage an army of 30,000 in central Europe. Having to control a detachment of 2,000 stumbling through Africa or Siberia means constant “map hopping”, far away from the heart of the action in Europe. Indeed, the computer may have the advantage in patience for this process over the human player.

By: Neil

Neil — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:58:28 +0000

You’ve hit on the biggest flaw of the series. Games that focus on exploring and expanding your empire to the unknown reaches of the world need to have that incomplete information. If the designer wants to focus on those game elements, then maps, resources, etc. definitely need to change from one game to the next. It is certainly possible to make a game focusing on other gameplay elements (politics, diplomacy, trade, etc.) that does not suffer from the information problem, but the EU series isn’t it.

It is also odd for a game of empire creation to have have management tools that scale so poorly to large empires.