Too esoteric and complicated (for me).

User Rating: 6.6 | Europa Universalis II PC
My reviewer's tilt score is 10 because I really love the world-wide grand-strategic scope of EU2, but it is an abstract (platonic) kind of love because I have never had the patience to play more than thirty minutes, since I have never figured out how to play intelligently. I also awarded a 10 for its value because I intuitively suspect that this is a very brilliant and deep piece of software : the fact that I have not succeeded in figuring out how to command-and-control its complex logic does not imply that its value should be downgraded. I'm the one who has a neuroprocessing problem: not the game's coders and my computer's Pentium brain. I had to put in a mere 4 for gameplay since GameSpot's scoring-grid does not allow to express an abstention. I should abstain from rating EU2's gameplay, since I have never really figured out how to intelligently play : a 3 symbolizes that a game should not be so frustrating to learn. Spring 2007 : I'm ready to install it again, and to patch it to version 1.09. I will attempt to build a totalitarian, Tantric Tibetan empire, one more time! In what concerns buying EU3 : I tried the demo, and I experienced the very same problems I have described here. I was clueless, and the demo was too short, with no save-game feature! I have to figure out EU2 before I even consider purchasing its successor.