Europa Universalis V

They converted the franchise in a building construction simulator, not a great move.

I will never buy or support any paradox game again

The first emotion I had on playing Europa Universalis V was awe. Not really elation, or revulsion, just general speechlessness. This is probably a well-worn point by now, but Europa Universalis V is an incredibly complex game. Multiple systems, economic, political, and personal in nature are all expressed in parallel and work to influence the way we experience this game-- Regardless of which country we're playing as. In theory, this is an excellent idea. Grand Strategy Games will inevitably bump up against much simpler abstractions when digging down to their core mechanics. EU4 had "mana," representing your nation's ability to accomplish certain tasks at any given time. CK3 has five primary attributes for each character representing their relative strengths in certain areas. Hearts of Iron IV has probably the most extreme example of flattening complex real-life dynamics to a single number in "Political Power." Europa Universalis V attempts to pull away from this pattern of simplification and abstraction by trying to simulate nearly every facet of the Early Modern period that a modern gaming PC would be capable of. I will now explain why it doesn't work. Having an impressive volum…

This game has the potential to become the best grand strategy game ever made. The sheer number of mechanics, the world it creates, and the amount of cultures, religions, and content put it far ahead of every other title in the genre. The game also offers virtually unlimited possibilities when it comes to modding. With every new patch, the developers seem to focus heavily on optimization, which is a great signal for modding communities looking to create large-scale overhaul mods. Of course, the game isn't going to run on a proverbial toaster. It's simply not designed for weak PCs. There are a huge number of mechanics, interactions, and dependencies that need to be calculated constantly. Despite all of that, the game still manages to run more smoothly than Victoria 3. This isn't a game you play for just a few dozen hours. I'd compare it to RimWorld in that regard — you either love it or hate it. This isn't Europa Universalis IV, which, compared to EU5, almost feels like a board game. EU5 is much more of a simulation, and it's obvious that the developers focused heavily on that aspect. I'd actually say they focused on it a little too much. What's missing from all of this is simply fun…

It was cool and intriguing at first, then all the issues start to become apparent the longer you play. Since then, it's slowly getting better, but the dev team makes a lot of "sideways steps" by implementing convoluted features trying to fix easy problems. There's still a lot of times I sit there scratching my head wondering "why the hell didn't that work?" and not in a fun or interesting way.

cool