Europa Universalis III

"Best strategy game ever? Maybe not, but it's close."

Who says that you need great graphics in order to make what is arguably the best PC strategy game of all time? Not the guys at Paradox Interactive, that's for certain. Instead of trying to immerse you in the game with pretty graphics, EUIII brings you in and keeps you there by making the most realistic strategy game that has ever been conceived.

Want to conquer the world through force? Check. Want to make an economic superpower? Check. Want to control the papacy? Want to create Germany, Ireland, Italy, China, Russia, and other modern countries from one of many smaller countries or city-states? Want to colonize the new world and bring its riches back home? Want to do all of these at once? Check, check, check, and triple-check. These are but a taste of the many options at your disposal and you will spend hours upon hours trying to figure out all of your options in order to make your country the best that the world has ever seen.

After all that build-up, you would expect EUIII to be the epitome of the perfect game. Unfortunately, despite the game being immensely fun to play, it does have several glaring flaws in nearly every aspect of the game. To begin with, the tutorial is incredibly short and basic and does not explain most of what can be or needs to be done in order to take your country of choice to the next level. Most of what needs to be taught can eventually be learned through trial-and-error, but many players may be turned off by the steep learning curve. Also, the game is nearly unplayable if left unpatched; after downloading the latest patches and buying the expansions, the game is far more enjoyable.

Another aspect of the game with which I have a major problem is the combat. I am a huge fan of the Total War series (developed by the UK's own Creative Assembly; I highly recommend all EU players to at least take a look at their offerings), which offers much more immersive combat, and I was disappointed by the lack of any complexity in the battles. Of course, you don't have to try hard to make combat more immersive than EUIII since all it consists of is an avatar for one army shooting/stabbing the avatar of the other and dice rolls. There are other aspects to the fighting (you can add generals to increase morale and certain aspects of the army, terrain and home territory also play a role), but it mostly comes down to which army has more soldiers in it and the luck of the roll. I have had massive armies with high morale, vastly superior weaponry, and a great general get completely decimated by a slightly larger defending force only due to the fact that I kept getting low rolls.

While you are conquering all of your enemy's territories, it is worth noting that even though they fall under your control, they are not your territories to keep; not yet, at least. Each territory that you take accounts for a small percentage of the overall war score. Larger, more productive territories are worth a larger percentage, with centers of trade being worth the most (usually). The more countries that are allied on the opposing front, the more territories you have to take in order to get one in return when you are suing for peace (unless you negotiate with one of the lesser nations separately). This makes for much more strategic negotiations than in other strategy games of this nature.

However, the game isn't all bad; in fact, there are many great aspects. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that the diplomacy is realistic, it's easily the most realistic diplomacy in a game that I've ever played. You can send diplomatic insults, money, loans, war subsidies; you can offer royal marriages, alliances, and declarations of war. You also lose stability within your country should you declare war on one of you vassals, a country with whom you have royal ties, a truce, the same religious group, or if you do not have casus belli (a cause for war). Doing any of those things (along with taking territory from other countries) hurts your reputation, and the worse your reputation, the less likely other countries will accept your diplomatic offers and the more likely other countries will attack you. Your reputation will improve over time if you do not attack other nations or take their territory, but the speed at which your reputation improves depends upon your leader's diplomatic skill.

Also, the sheer size of the map and the amount of nations and territories is staggering. You can play as almost any nation that you can think of that existed during the game's time frame (including several Native American tribes) and do almost anything with those nations. Obviously, you aren't going to be able to conquer the world with an African tribe or become an economic superpower with the Aztecs, but you can certainly try.

This is hardly all there is to mention, but I can't get into any further detail without writing an entire FAQ and that (coupled with my laziness) has led me to believe that the game is best experienced by you, the reader. Clearly, this game is massive in scope and should be in any strategy gamer's collection. In the words of LeVar Burton, “Don't take my word for it.” Go buy it and enjoy it as much as I did, or don't; it's your choice.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/23/08

Game Release: Europa Universalis III (US, 01/23/07)