The quantity of different game systems is daunting and discovering how they interact is not always intuitive. Sometimes the game gives you missions to raise an army, unite Spain, or kick England off the continent, and these provide fun short term goals, but there’s no way the game ever says you’ve beaten it. Unlike 4X games such as Civilization or Master of Orion, there are no win conditions in Europa Universalis IV. You take over the military, trade and diplomacy of your nation, sending merchants to divert gold to your capitol or annexing territory from your rivals through a royal marriage or conquest. There are a few fun choices outside Europe – most notably feudal Japan – but the game is certainly skewed as Euro-centric as the era was. The AI in singleplayer games is formidable, requiring you to react and grow to keep pace with the larger, stronger nations.
For a great challenge, nothing beats taking a small kingdom like Naples or Scotland and turning it into a superpower, but that will take some serious skill. Most of the larger nations have unique properties which aid in replay value. You can choose from hundreds of nations to play as – from European powers like England and France to tiny one-province baronies like Orleans. Watching and shaping the alternate history of your nation is exactly the experience the designers want you to have, and EU4 delivers it better than any other game in the series.ĮU4 is a real time strategy game in which you control a country from the Middle Ages up until the end of the Napoleonic Wars. That’s ok, calm down, don’t panic – the joy of EU4 is in the journey. It won’t be long before you lose a war, or suffer some other major setback. The user interface is full of useful features, but there are hundreds of rules and bits of information to digest and you’ll be hard-pressed to know if the decisions you make will have a positive impact or not. If you’ve never played EU before, though, it is easy to get discouraged when you start ruling your nation in 1444 A.D. Fans of Paradox Interactive’s flagship franchise will be pleased with Europa Universalis IV, and the few improvements to the nation simulator set in the colonial era are welcome.
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