Europa Universalis V

The game feels...wrong. Please listen in that I don't mean it's bad, I just struggle to enjoy it. As a longtime fan of PDX and specifically the Europa Universalis series I don't enjoy giving a negative review. If my opinion changes I will change this to a recommendation in future. Below is a slightly longer breakdown of my current viewpoint. The most pressing issue for me right now is the pacing and core gameplay loop. It is oftentimes focused on exponential economic growth instead of taking a country through the changes of the Early Modern Period as its predecessor did. I find myself more often micromanaging some local industry in the 14th century than developing the state apparatus in the 15th and later centuries. By the 100 year mark I've often spent numerous real life hours building up my country only for the tedium to make the experience no longer enjoyable; not to mention outright hostile mechanics like complacency. I act more like a middle manager always taking the 'most efficient option' than some King/Assembly making both good and poor choices. When each playthrough is said and done I feel more like the victim of the systems in the game than the one shaping and playing with them. These feelings are compounded by the flagship idea of the age: Colonization, being an even more tedious and nonsensical mess. In most games you will have European run colonies with millions of people conquering the heart of Africa in the 16th century, the exploration system is needlessly draining, and above all - it's just not fun. You will commit vast resources and population to foreign lands, get endless spam events, and fight grueling invasions of Spain for artic wasteland in northern Alaska and nothing else. Then, hoping to see some semblance of a unique world, you will look at generic colonies wiping out all diversity, no dynamic placenames, and little to no actual benefit with the systems you worked so hard to overcome. At the end of the day the saving graces for this title, and most other Paradox titles, is multiplayer, modding, and the development cycle. The former two can help distract and smooth over the worst issues for now while the latter promises to eventually give something better...at regular financial cost of course. If you can manage to create an environment of friendly modded multiplayer this ambitious game can still be a genuinely enjoyable experience in limited doses. These are just my own views as someone who has deeply enjoyed the expansive world that Europa Universalis creates. Hell, if you are invested in economic affairs you may even find many of my personal complaints to be something you enjoy. For now though I must leave a negative review given the state of the game and how it's progressed since release. I hope to eventually change this review for the better.

Currently unplayable. Country starts in massive deficits and subjects revolt immediately. I started with France and less than a year all subjects revolt for 100k manpower while I have like 17k. I went from 403 hours to 0.8 in the last two weeks.

Here is my new rule: I am not buying another Paradox title unless it is reviewed Overwhelmingly Positive. Make them actually earn their money for once.

After the tenth patch where things are completely different than they were just a patch ago AND it broke things that were previously working, I can't in good faith recommend anyone new buy this. Especially when there's a perfectly fine game that actually works in EU4.

I have 1100+ hours in EU4, and warn all you reading not to buy future products from Paradox. We were all exited at the prospect of EU5 becoming a Voltaires nightmare 2 experience, with almost all previous EU4 DLCs squezed in to the new game. Its horrible execution is therefore all the more dissapointing. Poblems: 1. Playing tall and with a vassal swarm is essentialy the only way to play this game, as you will get punished for playing wide. 2. If you decide to play a small country you will get pummled not by your neighbours, but your own economy which is unable to sustain your self. No matter how much you fiddle with the estates and tax systems, you will cop out and collapse eventually. The province control system hampers any notion of a smooth start for anything bigger than 3 provinces. Pushing you to play bigger countries with all the flavour and gameplay mechanics. 3. There are several countries which dominate the game and will always without fail control a region almost fully without any chance of fighting back. Naples, Hungary and Poland tend to form a superblock via personal union and annex south and eastern Europe. Tough ♥♥♥♥ fighting them even as a great power. 4. Theres too much to micromanage esspecialy in the economy, and it feels more like a economic simulator rather than a nation building one. Even faith or culture conversion are punished sevearly, with recovery being expensive and at times unatainable. 5. The game tried to incorporate too many mechanics from previous paradox fames and is difficult to pick up, even for EU4 veterans. You get the general idea, but for it to be truly fun and immersive you need extensive additional playtime. 6. The game launched broken, gets updated and breaks regularly and already they are pushing for DLCs, which them self launch broken. There is a reason EU4 has more weekly players than its sucessor, and even if i was expecting this i still got dissapointed. Never giving them money again.

This game needs about a years worth of intensive development and patches before I'll consider spending another dime on it. I pre-ordered this game and did so with Victoria 3. The difference between the two is that in Victoria 3 version 1.0 there was a satisfying core game loop that drew me in and a creative vision I could believe in. Here, neither is present. I hate to say this, but this is the roughest paradox launch I've yet seen. Lastly, it was a very bad design decision to make ticks hourly instead of daily. The increase in ticks seems to have a large detrimental impact on performance. Caveat: This review is based on my impressions of the game at launch, so versions 1.0 and 1.1. I will need to hear about major positive changes to the game's core systems to consider returning to it

Patch 1.3 is a giant step in a great direction. The game is stable and the world feels much more active than in previous patches. I think the current state of the game is positive and I encourage former players to return to the game and new players to give it a try.

Paradox has has to stop their unethical practice of selling barely working, unfinished "products" at full price and then charge their customers even more for "patching" them with DLC's. Recently it seems that even their DLC's cant bring their games around. After let-downs of VIC3, CS2 and now EU5, no more Paradox.