One of the best paradox games with great focus on economy. Complicated and frustrating at times but a good game overall.
Victoria 2 takes place where EU3 Napoleon leaves off. It goes from 1832 (around the start of industrial revolution) till 1932 (Rise of the Nazi's.) The main event during this period is the industrial revolution, and fittingly, Victoria 2 mainly focuses on industry and economy.
You have control of your countries diplomacy, military, government, technology, taxes, trade and production. Production is by far the most important part of Victoria. The time you spend managing production really matters on your government policy (state economy, interventionism etc.) but the key to becoming a great power by the end of the game is to form a strong industry. You do this by managing imports exports, deciding which factories to focus on and which will be profitable, annexing land with important raw materials and managing populations into right jobs. Its all quite complicated, but the game actually becomes quite easy once you get the hang of it. You actually don't have to micromanage too much, but you won't do that well in the game if you don't.
Colonization and wars are also important to expand and increase the prestige of your empire. The wars don't require too much strategy, and basically the person with better technology, more allies and more soldiers will usually win the war. Wars are thus decided on diplomacy and tech rather than tactics like they are in Total War.
The map is great, but this being a paradox game don't expect any great graphics. There is only one music track playing on a loop and I generally mute it and play custom soundtracks at the back.
Nations in Victoria 2 will sometimes do strange things which don't agree with what they should be doing. You can also get extremely high militancy and struggle to enact reforms which increases the difficulty rather unfairly. All this gets frustrating but luckily Victoria 2 has a whole bunch of mods to fix all these problems. Don't even bother playing without the rebalancing mod as that mod is what makes Victoria a good game.
All in all, Victoria 2 is one of my most favorite paradox games. I like the time period and focus on economy and colonization. However, if you are not a fan of paradox games, Victoria 2 will not win you over. The wars and micromanaging won't excite non-paradox fans so they should stay away from this.