Victoria 3

After patch 1.9, I can finally say it: the game is great now. Trade, diplomacy and companies are amazing. Slow down and see what you can do with those before you rush to paint the map. The game has been improving significantly every patch, so I'm sure it'll only become better. AI mod is a MUST (Kuromi's AI and Smarter AI are both good). It feels like a different game by simply having smarter AI.

They finally did it. It's now a great Paradox experience; painful to learn, requires all/most of the DLCs and ultimately it's just a map and a spreadsheet but it finally feels satisfying.

The core of the game, the economic and political simulation, is extremely good, like, really really well done, but nearly every other system in the game is built in a way that fights against it rather than builds on it. The game suffers HEAVILY from a lack of design direction, the devs can't figure out if it's supposed to be a sandbox or a simulation, they can't figure out if the mechanics should come out of material consequences or incredibly game-y "+20% to this trait" style modifiers, they can't agree on what genre of game this is, and it suffers heavily for it. With every patch, they add systems that push the game out in every possible direction, mechanics which could allow for dynamic and emergent gameplay, and then hamstring them by tying them to things like "you can only accomplish this if your prestige value is above this number" or "you can only attempt this once every 5 years" or "you are only allowed to have 3 of these" to the point that it no longer represents anything close to how these systems work in real life. Like honestly, what is "Prestige Value" in real life? What is "Authority" supposed to represent? Why do I have to spend state resources to unlock the technology that allows me to send children to school, or give women the right to vote? What real world events are described by the difference between a Power Bloc, a Treaty, a Vassal, or just good relations? If I'm not playing as the head of state, or the head of an interest group, what is my influence as a player supposed to reflect? The game is presented and triumphed by the devs as a materialist system, where everything falls out of the capacity and relations of the pops and their jobs, lives, and beliefs, but it fails horribly at using that core of the game because fundamentally the dev team does not understand, or does not care to implement, systems that actually fall out of those material conditions, choosing instead to abstract things through so many layers of game mechanics that it no longer simulates the thing it was intended to represent. The abstraction-into-mechanics of a game like EU4 works because the ENTIRE GAME is abstracted, the whole thing is just numbers and modifiers, it's not trying to be something it isn't; this game struggles at all times to try to be two different things at the same time, both 4X grand strategy and historically accurate simulation, and is lesser for it. It's a hideous simulacra of a fascinating period of history which it completely fails to represent, and it drives me absolutely insane thinking about how good it could be.

This game is both good and bad at the same time. Positives: - The economy system is complicated, but its fun to use. Becoming an economic superpower is great and fun. It is definitely a lot more realistic than other games. - The game has a tonne of information about what you're producing, what you need more of, and how much resources are selling for. - Trade deals actually make sense in that each empire values different resources and rights differently than others. This stops you just saying "You can have investment rights" and getting free extra points. You also need about +30 points instead of the typical +1 in most paradox games. Negatives: - The war system is genuinely awful. It boils down to; raise an army, set a front, tell them whether they are on the offensive or not, and watch them either win or lose. There is no strategy so war boils down to who has the bigger stick. I'm really disappointed in this because Paradox already has different war systems in their other games which have varying levels of complexity and skill. For example, HOI4 and Stellaris. Before anyone says this isn't a war game, it still needs a good war system. Part of any economy is conquering land to reduce competitors or acquire more resources. Another part is how Independence almost always requires war, so you have to become a militaristic state just to escape your overlord. - My next point is also under the war system again. So many powers have the ability to join nearby wars so you can get screwed over completely if, say, the British Empire decides they want to support the other side. A good example is that I was playing as Norway, I got Denmark and Russia to support my independence so I had about 360ish battalions on my side, but the British Empire and some minor powers joined Sweden so it turned into 360 vs 750 battalions. - It isn't possible to reduce another country's relationship with another so if a country you want to invade decides to become friendly with another, you cant do anything except get more allies/battalions. Even if you are friendly with the same power as your enemy, they will automatically side with the defender usually. This obviously ruins some play-throughs because you get stuck. - The economy system can be needlessly complex and can end up making the game a slog as you are constantly trying to figure out what changed and how to fix it. - The political system is extremely RNG based so you can have a relatively good chance of passing a law, but because of random events, the law will end up failing. The laws are also the exact same for every country so you end up almost doing the same thing every time no matter who play as. Overall, the bones are good, but this game is almost 3 years old and it still has these major issues. I very much doubt its going to get better. This game feels like it was made in a bubble as it doesn't seem to have any of the good systems which paradox has made.

Victoria 3 is an entirely new game after the 1.9 update. Before, it was a game that I personally found interesting, but I wouldn't recommend it to other people. I now think that the game is good enough for me to recommend it. The best change that came from the update is the treaty system. It allows for so many unique strategies, and being able to negotiate with countries makes diplomacy feel more real than before. What I've been doing as the USA is signing treaties with every small country, guaranteeing their independence in exchange for a power bloc embassy and trade privileges. All three of those articles increase leverage, so my power bloc is growing rapidly; it overtook the British Commonwealth before 1900. That's just one example. You could also use treaties to gain a lot of income, you could use treaties to purchase land, etc. It's very fun. The changes to trade and companies are also amazing. Building trade centers to trade for you is drastically better than setting up every trade route individually. And prestige goods, company charters, and executives make companies feel important rather than just being a small stat boost like they were before. My only criticism of the update is the military. I think the new front line system is hit or miss. In most cases, it works fine, although it is weird seeing multiple fronts being grouped together as one front; there could be a better approach to front lines. And there are still some edge cases in which the front lines are horrible. Invading Canada as the USA is a good example. Half way through the invasion, the front line splits into two, and my armies almost always leave one of those two fronts wide open, allowing Canada to take back a ton of land for free; it's like invading Mexico before update 1.9 all over again. I would still say the new system is an improvement from the old one, though. It's only bad when you're dealing with extremely large fronts that are prone to being split. I also don't like war in general. Countries should be able to join ongoing wars; if real life followed Victoria 3's war system, World War One wouldn't have included Italy, Bulgaria, or America. And more countries should be allowed to negotiate peace than the two that started the war. A recent example I had that highlights this was when I defended Ethiopia from being annexed by Britain. Ethiopia swayed me by allowing me to add a war goal, so I added the liberation of Canada as a goal. I then sent 600 battalions into Canada and another 100 into Ethiopia, slowly gaining the advantage against Britain until their war support dropped to -100, and they capitulated. I get ready to mend relations with an independent Canada until I realize that Ethiopia, the country that fielded only 20 battalions and convinced me to defend them because they promised me a war goal, didn't press my war goal, and Britain got away with no loss. Millions died for a white peace. I got scammed! My recommendation would be to allow every country to have different goals for the war and to turn peace treaties into a negotiating table where every country pushes what they want until a compromise is eventually found. Countries that contribute more to a war would get more say in the final treaty, and countries that capitulate would get no say. Overall, Victoria 3 still has a lot of work to do, but it is in its best state yet. For the small percentage of people who love history, spreadsheets, and classical music, this is the game for you.

Charters of commerce, and the 1.9 update, have made this game an excellent addition to a grand strategy collection. Trade now functions very well and countries can specialize; no more playing every country's economy the same.

After about 800 hours put into it and with probably the best update this game has gotten with trade having been reworked. There is really nothing that compares to it. The worst part now is probably the military but it still does the job well enough. If you want tips for dlc- charters of commerce and spheres of influence are the important ones.

LATEST UPDATE ALMOST BRICKED MY PC. This new update is absolutely garbage. Do NOT buy it if you use Windows. Somehow they thought it was a good idea to alienate the largest OS with a bug that crashes not the game but your computer.

oh geez oh my. 3 years since release and this game IS STILL lacking in historic depth and flavour. European borders rarely change, it's common to see nations keep the institution of slavery all the way till the end of the game (1936), Germany and Italy still rarely form, USA rarely achieves it's historic borders, the Qing empire almost never falls apart, nationalism has a negligible effect on your nations politics or world politics, and for a game that partly takes place in the "world war" era it is wild to me that there is still no Great War events or cataclysms. I could go on, I think anyone who plays this game eventually finds any historic depth or flavor the game has, tends to run out around 1860 or even earlier. I can only recommend this game if it's economic systems seem so appealing to you that it outweighs the fact Victoria 3 is a lackluster historical simulation. Even then, I would add that there is also not much depth to that economic system. All you have to do is build industries that provide goods that are currently expensive within your market (or just build trade depots), ensure that your provinces have 100% market access (all that takes is building railroads or ports), and occasionally over-build a certain industry because you're about to unlock a certain tech that requires more of a certain good. In fact, most of this game is just your construction queue gradually completing various constructions. Again, if that sounds appealing to you than go ahead, but might I also recommend the ANNO series instead? I regret spending the money I have on this game, between the DLCs and the grand edition I picked up at launch, I am sufficiently underwhelmed with the experience I've purchased. Victoria 3 is the quintessential Paradox game, terrible/broken launch, years of fixing the drab vanilla game play, several $20-$30 DLCs that add events and features that should really be in the base game, until 6-7-8-+ years and $150-$200+ later it finally becomes what it was promised at launch.

For a very very very long time I have said, "I love the 4x genre, but I hate how focused it is on war and expansionism, and how surface level so much of the internal development/economy management is." When Victoria 3 launched, I was beyond excited to see a game that not only addressed the politics nerd side of me, but also addressed what I have been wanting out of 4x games for a decade. I have 2500 hours in Stellaris and counting. Every time I would boot up that game I'd say to myself "Man I wish diplomacy wasn't so simple and boring, I wish I could develop my empires politics more than just adopting ethics, and most of all I wish I could have reasons to interact with other empires that aren't just outright conquest." However, Vicky 3 just wasn't really that interesting of a game. I bounced off it super hard and every free weekend that came along I'd try again only to say "wow I don't want to play a game where I press a button and then have to sit and wait for 10+ minutes to have anything else to do." I don't know *what* has changed from launch until now, but I do know that the last week of playing this game has been the absolute highlight of the past few years in my gaming world. Vicky 3 is a game that is almost entirely about internal development and its a game that rarely trivializes complex internal and international politics. The economy mechanics are deceptively simple (seriously the whole game can be described as inputs and outputs), the war mechanics are simplified in a good way, and yet so much of the game just feels so deep and complex and interesting to engage with. It's not without it's flaws, I think many nations you can play as have really painfully slow early games. I think there is a point where the game just trivializes it's own economy in the late game (outside of micromanaging Transportation and Electricity Generation), but it is a game that in my view has become a successful example of what I have wanted for all these years out of games like Age of Wonders, Stellaris, Dune Spice Wars, and so many more. To conclude I will give you a story of the recent game I had that hooked me on it. I got a mod on the workshop that allowed me to form Cascadia (PNW Bioregion) with the Doug Flag. In doing so these major events happened (and it isn't even 1900 yet): - I became the #1 producer of Ships (both military and Civilian) worldwide - I built the panama canal after winning panama in a subject war - I allied with Mexico to force the USA to revoke all their claims on the western pacific coast - I liberated New Africa and turned it into a thriving independant nation (The civil war ended in a stagnation in my game) - I helped Japan with a communist uprising (on the side of the communists) and lost due to the communists running out of money - I subjugated Bahrain in an attempt to open the Persian & Arabian markets to me in preperation for the discovery and use of Oil - I sold Bahrain to Oman for huge sums of money in exchange for (what has been) permanent trade rights in Oman - I became the first Communal state in the world (would have liked to go vanguardist but didn't want to close my economy) - I joined a war with Mexico again and managed to forcibly regime change the USA to convert them into a communist state - Finally, I joined the Qing Dynasty in a psuedo independance war to get the UK out of their affairs. And I only just invented electricity. The game isn't even over yet!

On release the game just wasn't there, but 2.5 years of support later and with the 1.9 update and Chapters of Commerce it's in a really good state right now! I feel that finally Victoria is fulfilling it's promise of being more diplomatic and economic than war focused. The treaty system makes the game feel much more alive and with the addition of the world market the economy also just makes more sense. There's still some rough edges and I'd like the game to better model historical outcomes, but it's really fun to play right now.

Honestly when I first got this game on release it was kind of a mess, with many broken or very janky systems that didn't seem to work particularly well. However this last update really fixed a lot of the major gripes I had with the game and I would now consider it genuinely enjoyable and good in Singleplayer, whereas I used to only find enjoyment in large multiplayer games where I didn't have to deal with the completely inept (at the time) AI messing up their economies rather than developing themselves. The changes to the trade and economy really made the core aspect of the game, the economy, a fun and enjoyable thing to interact with and I can now fully recommend this game for history nerds with a faible for playing tall and developing their economy and nation.

Victoria 3 has really become an excellent strategy game with the 1.9 update. None of the DLCs are needed to enjoy the game. I would say Victoria 3 is Paradox's best title in terms of leaving all the goods in the updates, leaving the DLCs entirely optional.

The new trade DLC crashes when you open the market / trade tab. I like this game, but it has been almost a full game for years. its not worth your time. Maybe it will be one day.

Played the free version all weekend with no problems, then I buy the game and it crashes every 30 minutes? Like, how does that even work? Big Paradox fan, but hard to be positive when I can barely even get past the country selection screen.

Game froze during initial screens of tutorial. Got fed up with the game a few days later, after it crashed to desktop 5th time in half an hour. I bought V3 on the SummerSale for like a -50%, so I feel only half-ripped of my money by Paradox.

This game was a mediocre at release and had a lot of problems but it became one of the best Paradox games thanks to devs dedication throughout the years. It's so much fun to play now so I think they deserve a positive review.

Honestly a very overhated game. Was it poorly made on release? yes. Is it's military still garbage? yes. Is there plenty more room for improvement? Yes. But is it a fun economics simulator? Yes! Although I will say this. Like with all Paradox games only buy them and it's DLC when it's on sale. Otherwise you're just wasting your money on good yet overpriced games. Vic3 easily gets a 7/10. Still flawed but they are doing good work on making the game much more fun

I can't think of any other modern strategy game that has such interesting modelling of economics and politics and how they interrelate. It doesn't model war with much detail, so if that's a non-starter for you in a strategy game it's not for you, but I think Victoria 3 is a pretty fascinating thing to explore. Victoria 3 was pretty busted on launch, but it's been steadily enhanced since then. I've basically been enjoying it since at least 1.5, but with 1.9's trade rework it's finally in a state where I might generally say "if this sounds cool to you, give it a try" to an audience more broad than the most Paradox-pilled gamers.

i might be stupid, but this is the most unituitvie and unexplained game ever. 240 hours in and i have no idea what im doing...

This is a unique take on the Victorian era and a unique take on GSG games in general. This is NOT a game of conquest and map-painting like EU4 or CK3. It's a game about socioeconomics, and it wouldn't be unfair to call it a spreadsheet simulator. If your goal is to stack cheese and paint the map, this probably isn't for you. Overall, this game is a thoughtful and complex simulation of economy development and its effects on society and politics. Unlike other strategy games, your economy feels like a living part of the game between your production and trade networks. Its unique system of pops and goods is something that I haven't seen in any other strategy game and it scratches an itch I never knew I had. Definitely the best Paradox game out of the lot, and I've played a lot of them.

There's a bit of a learning curve but by god, when you figure it out, it's like you see the matrix and are a friggin 200 iq mastermind. Best economics simulator to date, and definitely cheaper than a college degree in economics.

Victoria 3 is not fun. I'd hesitate to even call it a "game" because it more resembles a pachinko machine. You click, the system lights up and makes some noise and you're supposed to go wide-eyed and say "aaahh" The [b]political gameplay[/b] (passing laws, keeping national politics stable) fundamentally lacks player agency. At most you can give the system a nudge and then you're just buoyed on the tides. You click a button, wait (and you'll be waiting a lot in this game) until the next event pops off and you have a few basic choices which really do not allow you to rule. Going to the dentist is more fun than passing laws in vic3. Also it is really, really slow, it can take years to pass a single law. You cannot porkbarrel laws or negotiate support from otherwise-opposing parties by giving them something in return. At most there is an event that gives you more "chance" at passing the law. Just dumb and bad. There is some minor impact with suppressing/bolstering and decrees but they don't seem to have an impact. I cannot simply say "this party is outlawed, arrest the leaders and keep an eye on everyone who is a member" even though I am an autocratic state with a max level secret police institution. The [b]economy [/b]has some good ideas, but is severly hamstrung by the historical illiteracy of the devs (e.g. flax/linen simply do not exist as a large-scale alternative to cotton/silk. It also requires a lot of micromanagement because each and every new technology needs to be manually added. A single misclick can disjoint your entire system and send you down a never-ending debt spiral. World trade still lacks any connection to the actual physical distance the goods have to travel. Also, infrastructure is only really to be got from railroads when historically those competed with canals and turnpikes (why these are absent but for some godforsaken reason there are five different grain-producing farms has imho a twofold reason: historical illiteracy and incompetence in game design). [b]International politics[/b] lacks sense. American nations intervene in the slesvig-holstein crisis continuously for example. There are too many "interests" and where nations place their interests are Warfare is boring and the fixation on generals is another layer of annoying micromanaging. Want to reassign a large army from defence to offence? I hope you like click eight or more times to set every single commander of that army to offence. Migration is badly programmed as well. Oh yes, so realistic, the Pas-de-Calais state being 5% oromo in 1870. Also there is no attention paid to remigration from the americas back to europe. Another sign of the massive historical illiteracy (I am assuming it's just willful at this point). The exploration minigames are annoying and not fun. Should be removed entirely. And above all, this game is incredibly obtuse and unclear. This counts for all aspects: it is completely unclear what the actual effect will be of the few choices you get. Oh, the pop-ups say "plus that" or "minus that" but the underlying systems are never and nowhere clarified. People shat on victoria 2 but victoria 3 is actually worse. The game forces you to micromanage things that do not matter at all (production methods in buildings) but things like national politics, international politics, cultures, war etc etc are untouchable. [b]I am going to buy a single share in paradox stock and I'll suggest "fire the entire victoria 3 team" on every single shareholder meeting from now until the sun goes out. [/b]

This game was a huge disappointment. It feels unfinished, overly complicated in the wrong ways, and somehow still shallow in areas that mattered most in Victoria II. The economy is frustrating to manage, the war system is barely interactive, and there’s a serious lack of depth and flavor events. It had a lot of potential, but right now it just feels like a boring spreadsheet with no soul. Definitely not worth it in its current state.

Back after the 1.9 update after leaving due to the micromanagement of trade. I'm loving it! Great work dev team. I'm excited for what comes next.

Really a great game now, too bad people keep their first impression.

Unfortunately, I was having the same issues as many, where the thing was crashing my entire PC. Fortunately, I did not waste time messing around trying to see if I can fix it only to have a problematic game just loitering in my library and Steam very kindly refunded it. From the bare minimum of what I played, it didn't really seem as exciting as other Paradox games I have played anyway. All of it is quite unfortunate as there aren't that many games in this era and the "thought" of it was fun.

Another ultra complex paradox game, I really hope they keep developing this for a long time, because this game is something special that paradox hasn't made before

The game keeps constantly crashing during saves (manual and auto-saves). Game basically crashes every 3-5 years. Even though the economy system is complex and interesting the wars and diplomatic plays are dull compared to other Paradox Interactive games.

As other reviews have also stated Victoria 3 is mostly a simplified economics simulation. For folks like me that like that sort of thing it is a fun sandbox to play out your alt-history dreams. (Like all paradox games). Unfortunately I think playing this with a min-max game brain ruins the experience a bit. You can either start with an industrialized or non industrialized nation. If your nation is non industrialized you have two options, start industrializing or shoot yourself in the foot by not industrializing. Once you industrialize its best to raise the standard of living for your citizens because that grows your economy, makes you more competitive with other nations, educates your populace, etc. The most efficient/most reliable way to do this is with socialism. So almost every game for me has been -> start with good intentions to grow the economy with some role-playing goal in mind -> immediately turn to socialism since its just the best option. Its like starting a Skyrim play through only for your character to always turn into some flavor of stealth archer again and again.

Game gets better every DLC and every update. Not as much action or hands-on as other paradox games like hoi4, but the economy is quite fun. I recommend using the BPM mod though.

With Charters of Commerce Victoria 3 is the best it's ever been. The World Market makes trade incredibly dynamic and makes tall builds significantly more viable, no longer always needing to always progress towards autarky while Treaties add much-needed depth to diplomacy even with if may need a few more passes for balancing.

I've wished to have this game since its release, when I saw it on the Youtube channel Flanela, and I finally have it! I bought it the first time in June 2024, but my PC at the time couldn't handle it so I unfortunately had to refund it, but now that I can run the game smoothly, it's certainly one of the most high-quality games I've ever played! It's extremely fun, beautiful and interesting to play! Unfortunately, there are some annoying bugs (for example, black squares appear out of nowhere on the screen over cities where a revolution is happening) and the game can be really overwhelming due to the huge amount of features, and I'm still really bad at it, but I TOTALLY recommend this to those willing to spend a longer time learning the game mechanics, it's really fun.

Great game and is especially improved with the 1.9 patch now the trade system had been overhauled.

Patch 1.9 makes Victoria 3 feel feature complete. What actually makes me want to recommend this now is that you don't even need to buy the paid DLC Charters of Commerce to enjoy it. All the most important changes are included in the free patch and the game is perfectly playable without paying an extra dime. There's a lot to improve on but now I feel confident the base to build upon is very solid. Kudos to Paradox.

This game is not really for everyone. If you have an interest in economics, politics, and especially history, this game will be like crack to you. It is an incredibly deep (but not super-difficult to figure out!) 19th century economic industrial revolution simulator. It is the only game to even attempt to do this on this level, and it does it shockingly well, especially in 1.9. One thing... I highly recommend mods. Specifically cheat/editing mods where you can create alternative starting points. If you wanna start as a huge persian empire with 100 million people and enormous gold reserves, that is fine. If you want to use mods to depopulate Austria completely on start, that is fine. This is not a 'play-to-win' game. It is a sandbox game, a game with a lot of alt-history factors. Playing it with that in mind rather than just a rush to the finish line is really the best way to play it. There are issues with the game, dont get me wrong. It can slow down in later games. Early-game economy can sometimes be wonky. The army and especially navy mechanics aren't the best they can be. But this is by far the best economic simulator game on the market. Nothing even comes close.

Flawed but amazing - like any good foundation should be. The developers are onto something with 1.9. Keep it coming, please!!!!!

Now after years of updates and development I can with peace of mind recommend this game. Great stuff for mapgame enjoyers, please buy it.

Played since release and always felt the game was fine enough, but the patch 1.9 made some really great improvements.

Victora 3 has come a long way since release. The game released in a not so good state, and the gameplay was quite stale and same-y. Now with the latest update the game has evolved significantly. the new world market system is amazing and lets you play a smaller nation and build tall. Aswell as not having to have all the goods in your market to use them. Rather you can just import what you need, if it is available ofc. The war systems are still basic, but they got improved more with this latest patch. The fronts don't split like they used to and it is significantly easier to manage your armies and navies. The new expanded system around companies is very cool and is semi autonomous. You just select the company you want and they expand their influence and return the investment in your countries investment pool. You decide how much power you want to grant these companies though. Overall i would say VIC 3 is in a good state and is a lot of fun currently. I have played a few singleplayer games and a multiplayer game since the update and find myself loosing track of time over making the numbers go up.

After the Charters of Commerce update the game became really fun and addicting.

While the updates had made improvements since the half-baked state at which the game released, the result is still highly unsatisfactory, not to mention the high price from all DLCs. There is very little flavour for all nations, aside from perhaps one or two journal entries. The oversimplified politics and arcadey law system makes reforming all countries a rather linear process. The economic system, on the other hand, is quite good, especially since the 1.9 update on trade, albeit a bit too "communist" as the player has control over everything, even for laissez faire systems. Some parts of building the economy are unfortunately quite tedious, especially electricity, which needs to be manually constructed and for which there is no real indicator on the macrobuilder. The main problem of the game is diplomacy and warfare. The crisis system in Vic 2 is replaced with "diplomatic plays", which works similarly but for all war justifications. Actual crises, however, no longer exists, which means that the game is utterly incapable of the diplomatic incidents surrounding nationalism in the 19th and 20th century that played a prevalent role in geopolitics (e.g. Crimean war). (Not that the game is able simulate history very well within its own framework anyway, for example, Germany or even the NGF rarely forms by itself.) Furthermore, the way diplomatic plays work makes it vastly inferior even to its predecessor: there is no way to escalate the war once it is underway and no way for anyone to join or leave half-way (aside from full capitulations, which generally involves occupying their capitals). Even for Japan fighting Russia, the best (and depending on the war goals, perhaps only) way is to pull a reverse Pacific Squadron and land in Petrograd, which is simply ridiculous.

I mean, it's victoria 2 but updated and improved really, that's about all I can say.

Cool eco sim, you can fill the market with trash and destroy any eco very realistic must play

With 1.9, the game feels more whole with treaties. The feature still needs some minor work (such as the ability to give up claims in a region), but overall has helped make most minor nations feel viable via trade without having to conquer everyone. As a tall player for most Paradox games, I feel like I can recommend this game now without forcing folks to live in a spreadsheet.

I always liked Victoria 3, but it took a long time for this game to feel like it wasn't wasting my time by the end of the campaign. With 1.9 plus Charters of Commerce, this game has become my favorite Paradox grand strategy title. I can't wait to see where this game is a few years from now.

The game is interesting and I enjoyed it when I was able to play it but for a couple updates in a row it constantly randomly crashes to desktop. I don't use any mods so this is completely unacceptable. I've started a new save yesterday and this morning when I load it it automatically crashes at the end of the week. This kind of quality is below the level of a free idle game on kongregate in 2005

It really throws you in at the deep end and for me there were far too many metrics to keep track of from the get-go and it was far too overwhelming and therefore not enjoyable. A shame because I can see that it might be interesting if it wasn't so complicated.

TLDR: Updates breaks the game and there is no sufficient tech support! Game's good, its just the company... Every major update like the last one just breaks the game... freezes... black boxes all over the map etc... and the support isnt from a tech representative from the company, it's by a moderators in their forums.. Horrible support!

I would actually rather gnaw on power lines than play this game I would actually hook my body up to a car battery and swing from a rope in my basement then play this dogshit game. People would rebel if I improved the economy the American Civil War is like herding sheep into a woodchipper this game is so horrifically bad it's like being in a sped classroom