Europa Universalis IV

this is quite a complicated game, for older people, but it is very interesting to play, and see how i can change history.

Europa Universalis IV is a wonderful game!! There is a learning curve, for sure, but it is very much worth it. In playing the game, you are tasked with leading a nation from the Renaissance through the Industrial Revolution. At the core of the game is administering your realm with monarchy points, a scarce and vital resource to the progression of your country. Additionally, you must gauge threats foreign and domestic.

For new players, I highly recommend the subscription service which provides ALL of the downloadable/purchasable content which expands the game. The value is good, especially if you are unsure which content you want to buy.

All around solid game play if if this is your style. Minimal glitches, tons of playing options. If you like it easy go with Spain or the Ottomans. If you prefer more of a challenge, but still want to be in a position to found colonialism, try Korea, Japan, or Mali. If you're a sadist but you still want a slim chance, go with the Aztecs or the Incas. If you're purely about the underdog, take one of the small Indigenous nations of North America or Australia and pretty much just try to hold on as long as you can lol.

Recent patches have rendered the game unplayable ON MAC due to frequent crashes.
Many have pointed out similar problem from last year (2023) in online forums and even in paradox's own site and yet the problem remains.

I would not recommend this game to mac users, despite having played almost 4000 hours.
I have even recently bought the latest DLCs, now the entirety of which and the game itself becomes nothing but trash.
Very disappointed.

Do hope they can fix this ASAP.

TL;DR - This game only pretends to be a serious sim, but adds unecessary compexity in wrong areas... and is way way overpriced. I got it 90% off and barely can say this is OK.

From one end I love the idea in general. The replayability and flexibility, Graphics, UI, music and models are all good for me.

But what ruins the game for me are the mechanics and DLCs that do not solve many core issues I see. DLCs add new superficial/goofy new mechanics but do not improve the game or make it more realistic. Quite opposite really. Many of nuances added are not even important.
Game offers some really silly moves like changing regions culture in a few years for some mana points... I mean seriously?!
Or not being able to enter a province neighbouring another province that has garrisoned fort. How on earth the 1k garrison may prevent the 30k army enter another province that is hundered km away from the fort? This is just epic stupidity and kills the immersion.
Also every war is either a short one-battle encounter or you run like stupid chasing other armies randomly around the continent for 3 years or so... logistic does not exist, frontline does not exist, but forts with magical barriers do exist.
This is really upsetting frankly speaking. So much work put in DLCs but it is just purely wasted potential.

probably my last purchase from Paradox.

play 80 hours to understand whats going on, and then you can start to play the game.

actually amazing game singleplayer, full conversion mod anbennar is imo better then the base game

EU4 players can form Russia, but can't form a basic conversation with a woman.

A great overall game for strategy nerds. Just be wary that there is a significant learning curve with this game, and it'll take you a serious amount of time before you have a good understanding of the game. There are various opaque game mechanics like Fort mechanics which don't really behave the way you think they do.

There's a large amount of replayability throughout the various nations you can play... and that's not even touching the huge world overhaul mods.

Great game, is able to run on a 14 year old laptop well, just slow though. Great over all.

I really like this game! i love the way trade works. that's probably one of my fave parts is the way that trade works.

Good game. pls dont ruin eu5 and make it into another victoria 3 paradox

Amazingly complex and challenging strategy game. Easy to spend hours trying to figure out and there is always more to learn!

Ever since I had bought the full game (all DLCs) the game can no longer run for more then 80 years. It is not a failure on my end, my macbook air M1 is up to date with it's system updates. Every time it is EU4 which crashes.

Not fun game for me, feels like its hard to get in or learn even I still play 1H in already. I prefer Crusader Kingdom 3, easier to get in and better graphic!

Nothing against it, a lot of cool and super complex mechanics in the game but it just not for me.

I'm still on the fence but I think the game is good enough now that I've finally completed the tutorial

I have several games from paradox and I usually like them very much. I was happily being this game which has quite a positive review but...

The text is very pixelated. For a game where there is a lot to read, this really a pain for the eyes. I have tried many settings (resolution, ui scale, etc) but the text remains very pixelated.

If the support cannot solve this problem, I will be taking care of my eyes by asking for a refund.

One of the most amazing games I have ever played. I have over 500 hours on this game and I still see new things happen with each play through. The depth this game has is unreal and truly mind blowing. I am by no means amazing at this game and have a lot to learn but I love that I can just jump into a game as a small nation in the indian region and have a dynamic experience watching as each nation takes over its own section. The different regions, cultures, religions, and temperaments of the rulers and nations add for a dynamic experience. I can’t wait to see what the next installment of this series brings, but Its gonna be hard to top what they have here. I also love that you can choose to focus on diplomacy or trade or just pure war, but you will need all of them to succeed. You can choose to start as a tribe in north america and prevent the european nations from coming over, or start as a small dynamo in japan and try to form up and stabilize the region, or form up the HRE (holy roman empire) from its fractured state of city states. While doing any of these, the nations around you will slowly take a unique shape and you can watch as the polish nation forms the commonwealth and takes over all of russia and the middle east.


TLDR- This game is amazing and dynamic, an in depth experience for history buffs and 4x4 players. 10/10 would recommend. Just be ready to SINK a lot of time and energy

The game does not explain anything. You have to do several hours of your own research.

My 20k army gets crushed by a 10k army, and the game explains nothing.

Edit - Even though it's apparently the biggest factor in winning battles, Morale bonuses aren't shown post-battle! It has to be found elsewhere. Glad I spent half an hour figuring that out.

Poor DLC policy.
Buy the game for $50 just so you can spend $300 to not be locked out of basic features.

Yet another paradox map game to the pile and i absolutely love it

some features that really SHOULD be in the base game (such as getting support for independence) are locked behing dlc which kinda sucks but pdx locking a bunch of stuff behind dlc isn't exactly new (they'd probably sell bug fixes as dlc if they could)

but yeah other than that it's a great game, especially for people who like history

Game does not run on Mac. Have been unable to progress past 1547 due to the game freezing. Requires a hard reset every time. From a bit of googling i see that this problem has existed for about a year. Absolute scam to take people's money when the product does not work.

My savegames keep experiencing technical issues, one got corrupted and my latest can't get achievements anymore, because "DLCS were enabled/disabled that weren't before" despite me never tampering with them.

This is one of those games that looks indescifrable at first glance, but if you try to understand its inner workings, it will repay you a thousand times over in sheer replayability. After you're done with the base game (btw good job by this point you're going to know medieval european geopolitics suspiciously well) you can explore the vast selection of mods available, including alternate history mods, regular history mods, swap korea with denmark, swap japan with great britain, play in the modern day like it's 1444 and so much more.
BUY IT, YOU SERIOUSLY WILL NOT REGRET IT (if you give it a fair shot)

This is the gold standard for grand strategy games. I have been here for Europa Universalis 1-4, Victoria 1-3, Crusader Kings, and Stellaris - and EU4 simply shines, especially with some of the DLC having been incorporated into the base game in 2024. Despite having played these special games for the past 25 years or more, it has taken me years to refine my gameplay in EU4. The addition of new missions allows you to replay the game time and time again. World conquest? Economic powerhouse? Unify Germany in the late 1500s? Become the African overlords of North America? You can find it all right here and do it your way. No two play-throughs are the same. I cannot recommend this game highly enough.

I will preface this by saying that EU4 is a game that I credit with sparking my interest in early modern history and especially early modern Europe. It is genuinely a major reason I did well on the AP European History exam. I have many fond memories of it.

Despite all of that, I cannot recommend EU4 as a game. The problem is that EU4 is more fun to imagine playing than it is to actually play. Moments of accomplishment/achievement are few and far between, lost in an ocean of "waiting for enough points/ducats to get the next level, or build the next building, etc." The fun-to-time-spent-playing ratio is very low. You'll see gamers with thousands upon thousands of hours in EU4, and I think that to truly get a lot of fun out of this game you need to spend that much time playing. Frankly, that time is better spent on other ways of having fun, including playing other, less time-consuming games.

Just got some of the discounted DLC. Great game and honestly not as hard as it seems. After about 2 times playing you understand most of the game. Trade took me a little bit but was surprised how simple it is once I learned. I recommend all singleplayer players to give it a try.

Is this game even worth buying?

Are the dlcs even worth buying? Why are there so many and why is the ultimate bundle like 125€-250€?!

Will it teach me anything... and maybe help me at school with my grades?

Conclusion

I realized this was an awesome game after some 10 hours gameplay; but played it for 1734 hours more just to make sure.

While the game can have some fun points, Eu4 just sucks in its execution of the Early Modern Era. It's a soulless map-painter based entirely around snowballing where most every playthrough feels the same, a cycle of conquering and conquering until you can conquer without consequences. Crusader Kings offers a rich and immersive world in which you can rise up as an underdog and topple empires; Victoria offers a deep economic simulation for the Second Imperial Wave in which careful cultivation can bring your state of peasants and farmers into the modern world; Hearts of Iron has a fun and deep war system that also allows for any manner of national and ideological LARPing. Eu4 offers a world in which the big guys stay big, the small guys get eaten, the economic simulation is lackluster, and the War System is all about doomstacks. You're better off buying any other Paradox game; at least those can be fun.

Hate this game, but broke up with my gf to unite Japan, control Phillipines, and proceeded to monoploize East Indies trade. Women are temporary, but the glory of tall nations are eternal.

Buen juego, adictivo movido y los mods lo hacen una cosa distinta cada vez

This game is really fun and I really recommend it, my friends always told me that the game was to hard or that I was to hard but in the I stuck by my guns and I did what I had to do. Always believe in yourself, that is the number one thing I can tell you, stick by you and don't listen to the haters. This game really teaches you that when you full annex a guy and everyone around you hates you but you still keep going, they form a coalition against you because they are jealous. This game really teaches you that you, yourself must have your back when no one else does.

Kind regards, guy.

This game doesn't have a learning curve, its a straight jump to the moon. Played my first game as the Ottomans and looked through menus for like 2 hours. I then looked up tutorials and spent a bunch of time there. I felt prepared and attacked the Byzantines who had allied Serbia I think. I barely won that war then lost all my manpower to attrition. I then ran out of money by reinforcing my troops and being dumb in other ways. I spent all of my mana on deving random provinces and lost a war to Poland over Moldavia. After a few more catastrophes that resembled games I had a half decent game as Poland and got sucked in. I don't play many games for a long time, but if you enjoy learning about history and are willing to put in some hours of pure failure I would recommend this to you.

THIS GAME IS NOT FOR EVERYONE.

I would not recommend that people buy any dlc for this game until after a few games. Each game take a significant amount of time and if you don't enjoy those initial games at all then buying the dlc is unlikely to fix that.

Nonetheless this game is a veritable masterpiece in player led storytelling and is my favorite video game, hands down.

The game is great, but every time it updates, you lose everything that you've saved. And it updates frequently. So playing extended games is nearly impossible unless you play 1,000 hours a week.

This game has defined my personality. I cannot stress this enough - this game keeps giving, One may play thousands of hours, the universe laughs as well as this game. You are nothing; you do not know what you do not know. We do not know what we do. Prepare yourself if you are so interested, prepare yourself.

This is the finest game I have ever bought, for real. Easy buy, can it and learn something. Stop being a *****, buy the ******* game.

1800 hours and still enjoying the game. There are many things that make this game great and fun. It takes a very long time to figure out everything and learn who to use it to benefit you in your campaign. The modding scene is surprisingly dedicated so you get to enjoy things there and enjoy. Your campaign can include cleansing heresy recreating the British Empire a few centuries earlier. The campaign is your story to tell and no two campaigns are the same so go ahead and have fun.

I have been into computer games since late 80s, and into strategy games since mid 90s. EU4 is the best game I have ever played so far. (Close contenders for the first place are Civ I and II, taking their release dates into account.) Many people might criticize the DLC system, but in my opinion, it is a must for such a deep and detailed game. You are not exposed to dozens of mechanics all at once, but instead gradually build up those one by one during many years, which also keeps you play thousands of hours. If you are bored of silly AI in strategy games, and look for a deep diplomacy game, you should definitely play this game.

super dated, UI is horrible, war is horrible if you arent playing a modern power, your "research" is tied directly to expendable points where random events can put you behind literal decades behind other powers without any input from the player, just wait until EU5

Excellent Game. I have temporarily quit playing every other game to just play Eu4. I have made several friends over Eu4. It has changed my life for the better. I have ascended to a higher plane of History Buff. Unfortunately is has also drained my bank account due to dlcs. But it was worth it.

i've always been fascinated with history and this game satiated me when i thought about alternate history. there are tons of dlcs and mods that improve the game drastically

The game is completely broken. Do not buy. The natives will swarm your American colonies, and there is nothing you can do to defend them.

Do not buy.

i mean you need to spend like a grand on the dlc but its alot of good fun if you like games like this

It’s such a great game, you can do so much. My only problem is:

WHYYYY PARADOX, WHY SO MANY DLCS AND A LOT OF THEM BEING IMPORTANT AND OVERPRICED.

Please just get this if you can afford the dlcs, you will need those dlcs.

While too overpriced, I recommend it because the dlcs are worth it (should be around 5 dollars each at least) and you don’t really need so many mods to get any flavor like that. I recommend Europa Expanded.

If you get essential dlcs, it’s such a good game. Too good, which I recommend. I’m so sorry if you can’t afford everything. :(

Also, the music is PHENOMENAL. Easily my favorite game of the paradox games.

Love this game, even though its old it still has so much replay value and is overall just an amazing game if you enjoy grand strategy games.

in my opinion this game is VERY good with the right dlcs as the dlc policy is absolutely dogshit but if you like history you'll like this game and or if you like strategy games i recommend this game to but just have a deep wallet because this game will syphon that wallet dry if want all the good dlcs

this game is BEEFY dude, the beef level is insane. I honestly love the gameplay loop, and even though im still kind of terrible at the game, i can already sense the hundreds of hours im going to waste on it. The army system, navies, government, technology, trade, claims, all of it. Its so captivating and addictive; might be the best strategy game ive ever played honestly. just awe inspiring. Unlike HOI4, the campaigns are super extensive and in depth. You truly feel like you have the freedom to carve your own path in this game, instead of having to adhere to focus trees. Dont get me wrong, i love HOI to death, but im going to take a very long break from it to truly experience EU4.

Something about this genre just speaks to me. I really really really enjoy playing alternate history scenarios in Paradox games, but I especially love EU because it seems to have more of a historic and narrative feel. Almost as if the history repeats itself and the story is just slightly different based mostly on what you do. Other Paradox games are good, but they feel way more sandboxy to me. EU hits differently.

EU IV is the pinnacle of replayability. Especially with mods, there are some awesome mods for this, you gotta try at least some of them (I loved Anbennar and Post Finem, looking forward to Beyond Typus). Always makes me wanna go and create a mod of my own RPG setting. Maybe some day.

That being said, I am not a fan of the marketing model. Who is? Expensive DLCs that make the whole package worth hundreds of dollars are not cool. Luckily I was able to snatch it on Humble Bundle. Took me a while to finally invest in it and while I don't regret it, I hope EU V will be slightly less greedy in this regard and more of a complete experience on release.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

I hate this game. No matter who you play the game never gives you a break. The tutorials are useless. Its NEVER with full price much less on discount. The game has too steep a learning curve. NOT FUN for casual play.

I do recomend the game as it is quite engaging and nice, however I place a warning, like all Paradox games the addons are 50% of the game mechanics which whether you like it or not become part of the base game, you just can't partake in some things.