Europa Universalis

"Europa Universalis- The Alexandre Daige of Strategy Games"

Europa Universalis was a strategy game designed to follow the game mechanics of similar strategy games but to delve deeper into the process of world conquering. It also tried to become the only game on the market to delve with a specific historical setting and time. While this idea was novel and exciting, the actual game failed to live u to its own hype.

Concept (10): The concept of Europa Universalis is a pretty novel idea in itself. It takes the existing marketing of strategy games from that time and puts a twist on it. It also includes a greater amount of detail than previous games, with a much more involved system of game play.

Game play (8): Europa Universalis manages to play very similar to games like Imperialism 1 & 2, and The Civilization series. This makes for just turning on the game, and jumping right in. It also allows for the game to get quite mundane in a very short time. The game mechanics also begin to become rather sparse in times of peace, where the player can literally sit and watch the game. This makes the game get extremely boring at times.

Music (2): The music is the first true shortcoming of Europa Universalis. There a very little sound effects, and the existing ones are not impressive. The music is boring, repetitive, and often very fake sounding. Even for its time, Europa Universalis' music does not stack up to other strategy games.

Graphics (3) The graphics, like the music, are extremely lacking. The entire game map looks like a children's drawn version of the board game risk. The graphics are not crisp or colorfully accurate. They use basic colors and basic techniques to draw a childish and annoying game screen.

Replayability (9): The game created world combined with the scenarios allow for a lot of replayability. The ability to choose from a myriad of nations and choosing any random historical path allow you to find many different roads to victory.

Overall (6): This game is not worthy of any serious gamer's library. Only the most hardcore of strategy fans should own this game. The graphics and music, along with the simple and boring game play make this novel idea turn into a hit that never was.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/26/04