Europa: Universalis III – PC – Review

Many people may or may not be
too familiar with the developers over at Paradox, but if you haven’t heard of them
before
you soon will. Why? Open-ended gameplay and an overwhelming options package
leads to games that are more popular among real-time strategy gamers. In fact,
the dev team gives you so many
options that you feel that you are actually the ruler of a particular
kingdom, whether with Paradox’s Hearts of Iron series or with what seems to be their flagship series, “Europa Universalis.”

Europa Universalis III is a strategy
game that spans the 300 years between May
1453 and December 1789. You will be able to choose from more than 200 different
countries that existed during that time period and try to guide your nation by
managing national issues such as religious turmoil and the economy while
colonizing, trading or even going to war.

Just like in the real world, one
thing that helps you maintain control of your country is diplomacy. Throughout
the course of this game you will be making trade agreements with various nations
and even participating in alliances through marriage. These alliances can prove
useful
especially when you are in war. EU III does provide a kind of in-game help in
the form of advisors. Your advisors will always tell you the
benefits and shortcomings of pending actions. It is best to pay attention to
your advisors since their analysis is often on target.

The military units that are
available are really diversified. You will be able to select from
various infantry, cavalry, artillery and even naval units. One thing I noticed that is true in real life is the more that you
are in war the more powerful your military will become; the game calls this
military tradition. So before
attacking a country that has been engaged in war for a long time you might want to
think twice since their military has a lot more experience than you do. Unless
spread too thin, the odds will weigh in favor of the war-driven country.

The Holy Roman Empire has a huge
influence over everything in this game, but you can work that to your advantage
by bribing cardinals and the option is there to gain control of the church
if the cardinal under your influence becomes the pope. There are other religions
besides Catholicism and they can all have different effects on your nations. If you
take over a colony predominantly comprised of Hindus or Muslims, you might have a
rebellious colony.

Since this game is so large and
encompasses so much it is understandable that there would be an in-depth
tutorial mode. The tutorial will give you the basic idea of what is
involved and help you need to start into your first
game. The tutorials will not show off every aspect of this game, though, because
there would not be enough time to do that.

The developers have employed
an updated graphics engine to give EU III a better look, visually, than
previous games. Since the game world is set in 3D
you have the ability to zoom in and out of your map to survey the world and its various
features. The armies are animated and will now walk from one
zone to another, and you can even view the battle animations. If
you are still a fan of the old game you can zoom all the way out and get a very
strategic feel of the game. When you are not engaged in
battle you will see the flags waving above each town, wooden cranes that
indicate the town is growing, and many other little things that make bring the
game alive.

The musical score is also
really good. While
playing the game it provides an appropriate underscore to the situation. As an
example, if you are at war the
music will change and give you a heightened sense of urgency. And the music is not too
intrusive and does not take away from the action, but compliments it. Unfortunately the
thing that makes the sound category falter slightly is the overly generic sound effects that
play over and
over again.

If you love this game’s
single-player mode, then you will be very happy to know that this game also
features the same in-depth gameplay online. Multiplayer options will allow up to
32 players to compete to take over the world. The computer AI in this game
might be difficult, but nothing can present the same amount of challenge as when
you are fighting against another human.

The system requirements are as
follows:
1.9 GHz or better, 512 MB of RAM, Windows 2000 or XP, DirectX 9.0c, 128 MB of
VRAM, 1 GB of Hard Drive Space, Keyboard and Mouse.

Gameplay: 8.6
If you are a veteran of this series then you will
know what is in store for you and how in-depth the game settings are. Even
though the learning curve is pretty steep, if you love this kind of game you
will enjoy it thoroughly.

Graphics: 7.5
Unlike many of Paradox’s other strategy games, Europa Universalis III takes a
step forward and has a really decent 3D graphics engine. While it still can’t compete
with other 3D strategy games on the market, this is a huge step forward and
really appreciated.

Sound: 8.5
I really enjoyed the music that was selected for this title. It really moves you whether you are in
battle or just fiddling around with the commerce to make sure that you get every
possible cent. One thing that does need improvement is the very generic and static
sound effects.

Difficulty: Hard
Just like all of Paradox’s strategy games, Europa Universalis III has
an extremely steep learning curve. Even though the tutorials are really
comprehensive, it will take a while for players to get adjusted to the amount of
options available.

Concept: 8.5
Having the ability to control every aspect of a world nation for 300
years is the daydream of many megalomaniacs. Now you will have the opportunity
to do it without leaving your living room. I also really like the ability
to start at any date within the time frame that you want.

Multiplayer: 8.5
The game offers some multiplayer via LAN or IP, or you can connect to the game’s
matchmaking service.

Overall: 8.5
Personally I am not drawn to this form of strategy game as I tend to
enjoy the games that give you more instant satisfaction. With that being said, I
was drawn to play Europa Universalis III because of the sheer amount of options
that it offers. Not many games allow you to control an empire for more than 300
years and allow you to do it any way you see fit. You will find that this game
will offer many months of gameplay and that is without really digging deep
into all it has to offer.