More accessible than past installments, EU3 is a fantastic strategy gaming experience.
The first installment of this series had a narrow focus and fairly clunky mechanics (to the point that I divested myself of it), and EU2, while much broader in scope, suffered from the same clunky mechanics and presented players with so much to do and learn that it was difficult to know where to begin. This latest installment, while very broad in its scope, has some very key changes from its predecessors which makes it both more accessible to newcomers and more enjoyable for novices and veterans alike.
Taking on the responsibilities of a national leader is never easy. There’s a lot to keep track of: your finances, your military strength, your citizenry’s happiness, your diplomatic standings with neighbors, and your competitors’ standings. This is difficult enough to do in peace, and the challenges increase exponentially in war. The EU series has done a fantastic job of portraying the complex character of leadership, but where EU3 shines is how accessible it has made the task.
Whereas in the past installments the first part of the learning curve was finding where all your key data was located, the interface in EU3 is simple to understand, and simply rolling the cursor over any object or icon reveals all the key stats a player could possibly want. The menus within the interface have also been designed to give players quick and easy to read access to all vital statistics.
The map, too, is a great improvement over past installments. While not coming close to the polish of the recent Total War maps, the visuals in EU3 are enough to show you where units are, what provinces are building what, and your obstacles in terms of terrain and weather with nothing more than a glance.
Maintaining your government in times of peace and warfare is surprisingly simple, but not so much that you feel as though something has been left out. Financial sliders are easy to adjust in order to build your surplus, advisors – of which there is no shortage – are simple to hire and replace depending on your circumstances, and your standing among nations is plain to see.
Regarding the sliders, EU3 does a fine job of recreating how a nation evolves – slowly – in its national and domestic outlooks. Government ideology sliders can only move once every few years, and the consequences are very long lasting; at the same time, national ideas can either enhance or detract from your slider choices. And when one monarch dies and another one takes charge, you might find yourself in a very different situation – for better or for worse. A poor administrator could be replaced by a keen one, or a great military leader could be replaced by a tactical fool.
The way the government runs has direct, lasting results on the direction the nation takes, and it’s here that you really have to be thinking in the long term before you make a decision, because even your military can be adversely affected by bad ideological choices.
On the military, which will clearly be the biggest attractor for many players, combat is not as simple as rock-paper-scissors or a contest of sheer numbers. Leadership and troop morale are the key elements of winning battles, and without those elements you might see large forces cut down by smaller, more diverse ones or better led ones. Terrain also factors into battle outcomes, and no board-game derivative computer game would be complete if battles were not in some way decided by a bit of random dice throwing.
Furthermore, deciding to go to war can and will have immediate consequences that, if the nation is not ready to absorb, can be more devastating than the war itself. If a war is waged without good cause or stability at home, provinces may revolt, income may dry up, and the result will be that your troops will be left on the battlefield poorly funded and not at full strength.
In short, EU3 is not a game which is merely an overcomplicated way to conquer the world. It might well be your long-term plan to conquer as much territory as humanly possible within the 300-odd years the game provides, but don’t expect it to be as simple as recruiting en masse and launching far-flung and ill-conceived campaigns.
None of these elements are new to the grand strategy genre, and nor are they particularly new in the Europa Universalis franchise. What makes EU3 stand out is the execution of these gameplay ideas and elements: they are easy to understand, intuitive to use, and not overwhelming. The steep learning curve of EU3 is in deciding on how to use these elements to build your grand strategy and what effects certain decisions have on nations.
But it’s not all glowing reviews for EU3. One of the killers is the sound quality: repetitive and simple ambient (i.e., battle) noises and a looping soundtrack (although to be fair, it is a decent soundtrack) can wear thin, especially as you find yourself playing into your sixth straight hour.
And while I praise the government model, I’m not too quick to praise the diplomatic options. To be fair, I think it is and always will be impossible for any game to accurately mimic the complex nature that is international diplomacy; however, where I fault EU3 is in just how simple the diplomatic model is.
It’s too one-sided: You send out an option and get an acceptance or a rejection of your offer. There’s no sense of negotiation or really any interaction. It’s also obscenely easy to manipulate. Want to go to war with someone with whom you have an otherwise perfect relationship, perhaps spanning decades? Just spend a few months throwing insults at them, come down with a trade embargo, and guarantee independence to their deepest enemy, and you’ve got yourself a war that will only minimally affect your stability back home.
The trading system also comes off as one of the more obscure concepts of the game. You send your merchants out to trading centers and essentially have to cross your fingers that they’ll get their foot in the market for you. Even when you’ve boosted your trading efficiency, likely too have your economic competitors, so it’s difficult to feel like you’re ever really gaining in the international market unless all your competition happens to be woefully underdeveloped.
And as much as I would like to shrug off the diplomatic and trade deficiencies to give EU3 a superb rating – because it certainly has the potential – given that you’re leading a nation in direct competition with other nations, shortcomings in these areas do have an irking impact on how the game plays out.
However, I strongly recommend EU3 for anybody looking for a good game of grand strategy, veteran and novice alike. It may be difficult to learn, and even more difficult to master, but you will not be disappointed once you crest the learning curve’s summit. The gameplay experience is fantastic, and this is certainly the best installment of the Europa Universalis series.
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Reviewer’s system specs:
Toshiba Satellite P105-S921: 1.83 GHz processor speed (Centrino Duo), 1 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS.