Video games give us the unique opportunity to enter into a world that would otherwise be impossible. For lovers of history, Europa Universalis IV gives the player the unique opportunity to take control of a country in 15th century Europe, and guide that country to glory or failure. In the end Europa Universalis IV is an incredibly deep game with many features, but only the initiated will get any pleasure out of the game.
As this is my first Europa Universalis game, I jumped into my first game without looking at any tutorials. I knew the basic premise of the game, and that is it. What followed was about an hour of me trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I went into the game thinking that it was similar to the Civilization games. After a short time with the game I realized how ridiculous of an idea that is. The amount of information at your disposal in EUIV is insane. While it can be a bit overwhelming, one of the nice things about EUIV is that you adapt very quickly, or else your country will come crumbling down.
The game begins in 1444. European countries are starting to explore, the Ottoman Empire is starting to expand, and the Hundred Years’ War is winding down. The game presents you with this giant map and says “pick a country.” Each country has unique ideas and missions to play with. You could take control of Castile, the country that will become known as Spain, and use their ideas like exploration and colonization. The national ideas are how you advance your country, and you’ll need to unlock certain ideas to take your country to glory.
The game plays with the clock constantly running. Each month you’ll gain ducats (if your country is profitable), administrative, diplomatic, and military points. The amount of points you receive is based on the skills of the leader, plus it can be modified by any advisers you have. These points can be spent on things, like increasing the technology in your country, changing the culture of one of your provinces to your culture, or buying military leaders. You use points and ducats as the main way to acquire what your country needs.
One of the great things about EUIV is the way you can interact with countries. In the diplomatic screen there are many options for you to choose. You can improve relations with another nation (important if you want to create a vassal), send them a warning, set up royal marriages to improve relations, and many other ways. Through creating a vassal, you can annex a country peacefully, expanding the reach of your empire.
But unless you are in the Holy Roman Empire, countries are not usually open to the idea of annexation. That is where your military comes in. Combat in EUIV really comes down to who has the bigger army. You can spend military points to increase your chances in battle, and assign leaders to each regiment to make them more powerful. But from my time with the game I found the easiest way to defeat an enemy was a larger army. Warring armies will face off if they are in the same province, and if a foreign army defeats the defending army in the province, the foreign army will begin a siege to take control of that province. Combat can be a bit frustrating, but the main focus in this game is not on combat.
You may be wondering what the ‘end game’ of EUIV is, and to be honest there really isn’t one. You can take on missions throughout the game, but it ends on January 1, 1821, and the fun is seeing how the world has evolved over that time period. Just about every part of the world is conquerable, except the polar caps and some desert regions deemed uninhabitable. This is a sandbox game through and through. While Paradox Interactive has set up a point system, and will rank you against the other nations, the fun in the game is seeing what would happen if Austria invaded England, or other crazy scenarios.
The sheer size of the game may turn away newcomers of the series, and the lack of direction at times may be off putting to some, which is understandable. It is not a game for the faint of heart. But for those looking for a unique game, and for those gamers that absolutely love history, Europa Universalis IV is the game for you. My only gripes with it is being confused a lot, but the in-game tutorial, plus videos on the Internet helped with my problems. This is a game that you can lose hours with while playing, which is always a good sign.
Score: 9/10
Europa Universalis IV was developed Paradox Development Studios and published by Paradox Interactive on August 13 for PC, Mac, and Linux. A copy of the game was provided to us by Paradox Interactive for reviewing purposes.
