Risk on a Grand Scale
Pros:
Historical, political, economic, and social detail. Easy to start playing.
Cons:
Poor manual. Quirky.
The Bottom Line:
Although this game could use some patches its a great game. It will keep you playing till the sun rises and then some.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Europa Universalis is a realtime strategy game that challenges you to lead your European nation through various historical scenarios or over a 300 year period from 1492 to 1792. The overall concept if you are playing the Grand Campaign is similar to Age of Empires. This game is the most detailed strategy game I have ever played. It requires you to manage not only your armies, but the economy, politics, science, colonization etc.
Playing the Game: There are many factors to consider, but the designers simplified it by providing a fairly easy to use interface that employs sliding bars and menus. Like I said its easy to play (there's a pretty good tutorial scenario), but it will cause you nightmares trying to master. No two games are the same even if you play the same scenario with the same country as the computer will toss in some non-historical events to make things interesting.
The Visuals: The graphics aren't the most spectacular, but that was never the focus of the game. You spend most of your time overlooking a map of the World and you can easily click on an area for more detail. I would say they are adequate and thankfully simple. With a game that has this much detail to consider in playing I think the graphics need to be simple, you know it gives you what you need to see without having to slow the game play down.
What I liked: The detail. I love the random and historical aspects of this game. Its really like you are a king trying to deal with stuff that was happening during the time (religious and social unrest, explorations, alliances, inflation etc.) Its more simulation than game. Like the other review said you could use it to teach European history. But while this game is based on actual historical conditions, you have the freedom to do what you want, you aren't constrained by history but you will reap the rewards or penalties for your actions.
What I disliked: This game takes a while to load even on my P3 933 machine. It freezes at times and what I absolutely hate is that the only way to exit a game is to surrender. The manual doesn't do much either, its not really a manual its more like a history text. The designers claim understanding the history of a particular country is the key to success in the game, but hey I have a degree in History and it isn't helping me that much.
