Does it excel EU2? well it is highly controversial ...
My first impressions about the game: (PROS)
+ Court members is a new and good feature. They give bonuses to various fields. They help improvements on technology, stability, reputation etc.
+ Hits in combat is shown on map. This is a nice feature as you see the how well (or bad) you perform during battles.
+ You see tax collected on map every month as numbers float on top of provinces.
+ Diplomacy options are expanded and rounded up and made easy to reach. Diplomacy engine is somehow better when compared to Eu2. At least you can see the probability before using your diplomat.
+ Troop organizations are handled better with the new interface. + Interface is completely overhauled and Every menu is placed well in screen. Especially top right corner menu offers quick access to important stations.
+ Army & Navy traditions, Prestige points and national ideas are nice add-ons. Prestige directly affects diplomatic success as well as yearly increase in national relations. + Regime has been made changeable. This is a big improvement. + Man power and army reinforcement is very well implemented (just like HOI). + Capturing ships is now possible after naval battles. Which is yay! (just like the imperialism)
+ Battles performed on the map. Yet side panel is highly explanatory (again this is from HOI)
The bads are:
- Poor graphics. They have failed to make EU3 a competitor with todays games and eventually made players to ask themselves "So why the hell they made it 3D?" I personally prefer beautiful hand drawn 2D graphics instead of these bad 3D ones. These new graphics are not an eye candy for sure. Especially in comparison with the beautiful campaign map of RTW, was it so hard to make as beautiful as Rome?
- Sounds are below mediocre. Doesn't give you the real feeling which is very important.
- Monarchs are not following historical chronology, nor the game follows historical events as EU2 did. Neither monarch names nor the events are historical. This is a major flaw in my opinion. It was the main thing made EU "the" EU.
- Time acceleration is still slow in max. setting.
- auto-assign merchants feature is not available in EU3.
- Province info is non-accessible during sieges.
- 3D town view is non-functional nor is necessary. its a total waste of resources and obstructing view and nothing more.
- Spy actions is a well add-on however you can do nothing for an effective spy defense. (and your inflation sky rockets via attacks)
- Diplomacy system still sucks, AI is unrealistically stubborn in peace deals even it has a horrendous negative warscore. Very unrealistic. Peace offers from Nations you are at war with always ask for your all money to conclude the deal, again and again without reasonable demands nor checking the warscore despite you refuse them all the time.
In overall, it is not a bad game, Tons of things are improved and it is obvious they worked hard for these changes. I support paradox for their innovative and different kinds of games. But is it too much to ask better graphics and better diplomacy engine in return for the cash i give up from my budget?
The most frustrating thing is perhaps the stubborn and cheating AI. I see Mamluks (as i am Ottoman Empire with stability +3 and Land:9) while their stability is -3 and Land:3, fighting like crazy, there must be swarms of revolts in their provinces (I check most of them have a 17% revolt chance) yet there is no uprising, and despite i held 3 provinces and with a warscore 17% they still refuse even a whitepeace??? what did i do ? I accepted their peace deal and paid 3 ducats after years of wearisome wars. AI seems never effected with a -3 stability, except minor nations, not willing for a deal. Paradox should find a solution for this, first thing in line. Force accept peace deals must be implemented if the stability is -3 and the offer is below the warscore. This way, Stability -3 will mean something.
As a conclusion, For such a long wait, i expected a much better work and more eye candy. Somehow i didn't find it immersive enough and cant say it "grows on you" as EU2 successfully did.