Europa Universalis IV

Been playing almost 10 Years, just got all the DLC during the winter sales event. My favorite game of all time to be sure. Ill come back to it again and again even after EU5 is released, probably till I'm dead. The achievements are so difficult and they feel really satisfying to receive.

I like how it has accurate boarders and wit the time expansion (or whatever it is called) mod I learned about significant countries tat I never knew existed. The latter made me look at some history text about those nation, so thank you Paradox,

Best game ever!!! Lots of strategy but easy enough to understand after putting a few hours into it!~ <3

Played Total War games for two decades before giving this a chance. It is miles better. TW will always be special for the battles, but for every other aspect of strategy game. Paradox reigns supreme.

I'm a big fan of Crusader Kings III so I went back to play this game and was not pleased. It desperately needs to be updated. The tutorial lacks any guidance, and the graphics are horrible in comparison to the expectations I had after playing Crusader Kings III. I'm a big fan of Paradox and think that my review on this would definitely be different if the game was updated. I will try again in the future, but for now, this game was not for me.

very fun just dont play it on mac unless u like rolling the dice to see if you crash

ive played 33 hours and i dont understand anything, believe me ive tried to learn the basics but wtf

would smash skanderberg tho

If you like strategy games and history, this is great. It takes a while to fully understand its mechanics, but once you know how to play it decently, you will have a fun time playing it. 100% Recommended!

i really apprecciate the strategy in this game. One of the achievements is for the USA. All you have to do to unlock it is surrender to Britain and revoke your cores. Basically, the worst surrender possible but then you get to see what it is like to be a new US.

fun and lots of replayability.

My GF told me it was her or EU4. This game really gave me a better life.
Now I spend my days uniting the the pope, killing natives, and leading great wars of conquest. Instead of arguing about which restaurant to eat at, I negotiate royal marriages and alliances. Instead of long nights scrolling through Netflix, I strategize for hours, planning my next golden age.

Do I miss her? Sure, but she could never give me the satisfaction which EU4 does.

10/10, would play again ❤️.

Come, let's take a journey through the dusty pages of history, and this time, we won't be the ones reading these pages—we'll be the ones writing them, my friends.

Tortuga is bugged out. Tutorial does not work, I spent over an hour with 15 different retries . I wasted over an hour with this game's crappy tutorial.

Staring at a screen for 10 hours very calm until every single country near you declares war for no reason at all

9.5/10

This game truly has no equal. The amount of depth and repeatability makes the game well worth the price "when on sale" with that being said the learning curve is more like climbing Everest, but once you get the basics down that is when your new obsession will be revealed. 10/10 would trade my life and social connections again to experience for the first time a successful Byzantium run.

Probably the best grand strategy game there is right now. Just be prepared to learn a few things before you can truly appreciate the complexity of the game.

Not like the other Paradox games.

I accidentally show this game, and despite a supposedly primitive graphics (vs Civilization, for example), I decided to watch it played on YouTube. What can I say... I got so addicted I immediately bought the complete DLC bundle and 120 hours later managed to make a break to write this review :) As of now, this game and Stalker series are my absolutely most favorite names ever!

9/10. Would be a 10/10 if you didn't kinda need at least the DLCs: Emperor, Leviathan, and Mandate of Heaven. The DLCs go 50% off often tho, but mostly on 3rd party sites.

p.s. fck the Ottomans

A very in depth game, very enjoyable, but hard to understand all the mechanics. A micro strategists dream, pushing the pause button every 15 seconds to take action and not accidentally click a pop-up window. The results of diplomatic actions can be very dramatic and hard to predict because of the interface. Makes the Civ series (one of my all time favorites) look simple and cartoonish. If you were ever curious why the European's focused on conquering the rest of the world you'll love this game (spoiler - Europe is a mess). But don;t expect to know what's going on untill a couple hundred hours into the game.

Do yourself a favour, after playing Vanilla for abit, play the full fantasy conversion mod. Anbennar. I too wish to play as the goblin nation Snotfinger and kill dwarves,

somalia and portugal fought a war over australia and the habsburgs went calvinist and were banished to luxembourg. 10/10 please play this game

Most perfect game ever, this got me through the entire pandemic, the only complaint is that it kind of sucked away too many hours of my life since I was so interested in playing in it.

As a Hearts of Iron and Stellaris veteran, EU IV is exactly what you expect. If you like those two, you'll probably enjoy EU IV. You're taking charge of a country during the age of exploration. The base game is very heavily focused on Europe (with largely generic content for Asian, African, and Native American countries) but the DLCs make non-European countries a lot more playable.
I'd get the game on-sale with the starter bundle. The current base game already contains merged DLCs (same practice they did with HOI IV) but the the starter bundle gives non-European countries (particularly American natives) more content.
Admittedly though, the sheer number of DLCs are intimidating, but most of them are just cosmetic packs that goes along with actual "content" DLCs. Play the game first before deciding which DLCs to buy.

I bought the ultimate bundle for myself for Christmas and I am disappointed to find that this game has frequent crashes on Mac since the 1.36 update which was released in 2023!
These crashes have been documented on various forums including the official paradox forums. They occur in specific scenarios when making a peace deal (Byzantium seems to be the main cause but other peace deals can cause this crash).
I have tested this by converting an Ironman save where the crash was occurring to non-ironman and tag switching to Byzantium then once I complete the peace deal then instant crash - seems like a memory leak (SIGSEGV) from the crash logs.

I am a veteran paradox games player (HOI4, CK2, IR, Stellaris) and have never had any issues with those games. So I am hugely disappointed to discover in the lack of attention to a well documented game breaking bug .
( as well as the paradox dlc policy lol).

The game itself, once you learn the systems, is fun however I cannot recommend it in this state to Mac OS users.
I am a developer myself and spend 3-4 hours debugging this when I should've been on holiday.
Once this is fixed I will remove this review and post a positive one.

i bounced off HoI4 but i didnt bounce off this game, its cool i guess very complex but i mean you dont have to know EVERYTHING to be winning, just go to easy difficulty and watch like 3 tutorials and ig youll learn

With EU5 likely coming around in the next year or two, it's the perfect time to buy EU4 and it's plethora of DLC on sale. This way you'll have a great, feature packed game to play while waiting for the required DLC's to make EU5 worth playing.

Grab the Starter Edition when it's on sale, and prepare to sink hours upon hours in to the game just to learn it. Try to learn one system at a time; there are a lot.

If you're having fun a hundred hours in, despite feeling like you still haven't fully learned the game, another thousand hours of discovery awaits.

Don't worry about Europa Universalis V. It probably won't be as good until a year after release.

A masterwork of a game. The depths of strategy that it allows and the satisfying progression of gameplay make it the best game of it's kind I have ever played.

Pleasantly complex, but the menu's were made by a 3 year old on bath salts. 3 hours in and I cant figure out how to build a single naval unit or attack a territory i'm at war with. The options and complexity look fun, but there is no way I'm going to rely on outside sources to figure it out. Tooltips and menus need to be improved and streamlined via patch before this game is worth spending even a dollar on.

Despite all its issues and the vast DLCs, its still a game I have invested too many hours into

Steep learning curve but really fun once you learn the mechanics. Definitely recommend getting a standard version before diving into all of the dlc.

This game is dear to me because it is the first Steam game I ever bought. I have played this game many times throughout my near-decade long stay here on Steam, and I can confidently say this game is great. Where it leaves off, its countless mods of varying sizes pick up. I really enjoy exploring the seas as Portugal, conquering the New World as Spain, and dominating the globe as the Ottomans. The list goes on.

If there is one complaint that I would have, it would be the daunting DLC section. Even if you were to own them all, you can't help but look at this egregiously long list of DLCs and be understandably put off by it. It is not friendly for new players of the game who are looking to experience the game at its best, and it is something I genuinely hope PDX fixes when they release the long-awaited successor for this game.

I really like this game, Personally, some of the nations to play can be a bit tedious, especially if you don't really know what you're doing like me, but other than that, very fun game!

I've only just started playing this game in December 2024, so take that into account when reading this.

I don't normally buy Paradox games since I find their business practices to be little better than EA Sports (the gold standard of corporate scumbaggery). But this game is really good, engaging and fun. I'm very likely to spend too much time on this game, and my real life will likely suffer as a result.

However, this game is not worth 20% of the full asking price for it's content. Not even close. If you're interested in getting this game, for the love of God, get it at an 85-95% discount, either at Steam, or some other provider.

Paradox quality: predatory DLC politics and game which will never made properly.

Thousands of hours played and still learning more stuff, never gets boring, the most complete and complex grand strat game you're gonna find

Honestly this game is one of my favorites ever but it is so buggy on Mac that it's unplayable. I've tried to play through it but it's basically impossible. I reached out for help and nothing seemed to work. If you have a PC, then absolutely go enjoy it but if you have a Mac forget about it.

One of the best games . It takes time to understand and learn the game , but once you do its fantastic . The only downside of this game is the DLC policy of Paradox which at times releases subpar DLC at almost 20 dollars which is not worth it . I would recommend people to get the entire DLC for a much better immersion , because the base game alone would feel insufficient . Also I would recommend getting atleast the music by Guns ,Drums & steel vol 2. which is a fantastic music to play in background while you are tearing Europe playing as Prussia

It's good but not for everyone. First off, this game is complicated; I mean REALLY complicated. If you've played any of paradox's games like Stellaris or HOI IV, you'll get the hang of it in no time. That being said, you'll often find yourself restarting since you crashed your economy and there's no real way for you to recover at that point. RNG is not kind for you in EUIV. Random events almost always give you some kind of debuff or a disaster (god speed to the guy who loses 5 stab and has revolts everywhere).

Now for the good. This game feels really good to play. you feel as if you're the spirit of a new country encountering the world around you. Hell the map is basically a fog of war that unravels as you explore and meet new nations. There's also never a dull moment. You'll constantly be about thinking about everything from army comp, economic development, your place on the geo-political stage, government reforms and most importantly, TRADE. Trade is perhaps the most fun (AND COMPLICATED) aspect of the game. There's nothing like getting a monopoly on Cloves and Spices and becoming the richest nation in the world from it.

The moral of the story, this isn't for everyone. you'll probably only get your kicks from this if you're really big into the 4X genre of gaming, a big fan of detail, or a big fan of PARADOX (and if you fit into one of these, you'll probably fit into at least one of the other categories). On the other hand, I highly recommend that you should pass on this game if you are impatient or impulsive because this game is unforgiving and has a high skill cap that will require a bit of dedication when it comes to learning the minute details that help you build a major empire.

Pretty Fun game overall, but its getting a negative review because these scumbag developers raised the price of the game by 10 bucks for no reason other than to satisify their greed. Also, their DLC policy is still predatory and Paradox is a terrible company. Buy this game on sale, give these scumbags as little money as possible.

you really dont care what i put in here do you all you want to know is tat the game is good and you should buy and play it.
P.S use the europa expanded mod if you want mission trees without the dlc

If you are a fan of political maps or any kind of maps, definetly this is a must have in your collection, the complete edition I mean !

Game is an excellent concept executed horribly. Before you tell me to get good I have played and mastered almost all of Paradox's other games including HOI4, Stellaris, Vic 2 etc etc and had none of the issues this game has.

For starters the tutorial is dog water and it seems by design. The developers clearly want you to jump in and "learn as you play" but give you none of the tools needed to start the learning process. Combat width? Morale? Generals stats? Diets? Crown Land? Cultures? You need to figure out how they all work and how they influence every other part of the game but all the information is poorly arrayed in a confusing UI that is bad even for its time. How they haven't overhauled it in the HUNDREDS of dollars of DLC to make it better is beyond me. Other paradox games have poor tutorials with steep learning curves but this one blows them all out of the water.

I would go on but then I would be writing an entire essay on how poorly implemented this good idea is. I understand that this game has a dedicated fan base who love it very much, but you either have to have extreme patience and tolerance for BS or have fallen victim to sunk cost fallacy to say this game is great. i have no doubt that once you spend 100+ hours mastering the basics this game is probably really really good but that's not for me.

Not Recommended After 100+ Hours of Play

After spending over 100 hours in EU4, I feel compelled to leave a negative review. I started on the EASIEST DIFFICULTY LEVEL, thinking: “Alright, I don’t know much yet, but surely the easiest mode will allow me to learn and forgive my mistakes.” But no—absolutely not.

Everything I’m about to say applies specifically to this difficulty level, and honestly, I dread to imagine what “Easy” or “Normal” must be like.

For context, I have substantial experience with 4X strategy games—over 1,000 hours in Civilization V and 200 hours in Stellaris—and thoroughly enjoyed both. But with EU4, I was blindsided by the sheer frustration. The difficulty isn’t just in its complex mechanics—that’s only part of the problem. The game is utterly unforgiving of mistakes.

You can sink 100+ hours into a campaign only to realize that your game is fundamentally unwinnable because you misallocated resources early on while experimenting. And what’s the solution? Start over from scratch.

Now, this kind of challenge is fine—on “Normal” or higher difficulties. But on the EASIEST DIFFICULTY? Really? Developers, let me ask you: Why do players choose the easiest mode? To learn the mechanics, obviously—especially since the tutorial missions do an abysmal job of teaching them.

Yes, I completed the tutorial missions beforehand, and no, they didn’t prepare me for what was to come. It takes dozens of hours to grasp the mechanics, only to then realize you can’t win a single war against any major power.

Let’s break this down further:

1. Combat Mechanics and AI
Defeating secondary factions is manageable, but taking on a “Great Power”? Forget it. The AI is relentless and borderline omniscient. It always knows where your armies are, even through the fog of war. It recalculates troop movements every tick, making it nearly impossible to outmaneuver without playing on the slowest speed and constantly pausing.

Even if you somehow catch the enemy, having three times their numbers and equal military tech, you’ll still lose. Why? Because morale trumps all. If your army’s morale is even slightly lower than the AI’s, you’ll lose every time, regardless of numerical or technological advantages.

Improving morale requires investing in “Ideas,” which are locked behind an entirely separate tech tree. Developing them is painstakingly slow and leaves no room for error. If you make a mistake, the game punishes you so harshly that starting over feels like the only option.

Why is this the case on the EASIEST DIFFICULTY?

2. Generals and Leaders
Why are the AI’s generals consistently 3-star while mine rarely surpass 2-star before dying of old age? Even tiny vassals seem to conjure elite generals out of thin air. To defeat an enemy with a 3-star general, you’d need an army twice the size, even with equal tech levels.

3. Diplomacy
Don’t count on diplomacy to bail you out. The AI is far better at optimizing modifiers and forming alliances, always assembling coalitions vastly superior to yours. As a new player, you stand no chance against this in your first 100 hours.

4. Learning Curve
Victory demands total mastery of the mechanics—knowing exactly how technologies, ideas, and other systems interconnect. This level of expertise takes at least 100 hours to achieve, even on the EASIEST DIFFICULTY. And that’s deeply frustrating.

Final Thoughts
Do not start this game unless you’re prepared to spend 100 hours just learning the basics. I’ve put in the time, and I’m still unsure if I want to continue.

Thank you for reading.

Brain-numbing, pricey and not complex enough also the mana system is just lame

DLC's paid for only to be overhauled and reworked in a NEW DLC! absolute trash and disgusting business practice. game's aight tho

This is an amazing game with long term replay options. It has many nations to play from that leads to so many different outcomes. The DLC is pretty steep tho so buying a subscription to all DLC for few months will probably save you money in the long term, unless you plan to play it for years to come. Decide which cost ratio fits you best & pick that. :)

I have been playing this game for over 10 years now and still greatly enjoy it.

It is a great historical simulator and, while it seems complex at first, you'll figure it out as you go with no issue. Losing or winning isn't really the point, but rather experiencing the societal and military changes of the time.

Also, consider the mods the game has. Right now there is a very deep and well made fantasy mod called Anbennar which is just as good, if not better, than the base game. If you don't like pure history, then fantasy will certainly captivate you.

One thing to consider is that the DLCs add a lot of content, some arguably must haves. They offer a subscription plan that is significantly cheaper than buying the dlcs, but still, keep it in mind that the dlcs greatly increase the cost of the game, but you don't need all of them to enjoy the experience.

Another point related to dlcs, if you want to play with a friend and they have the dlcs, you'll also have full access to them when they host a game. So at least there is that, you won't be separated by dlcs.

Tl;dr, great game, but with a dlc cost creep. Give it a shot and, if you like it, consider getting the dlcs.

Approaching 6000 hours and i have to say this is my favorite game in the paradox interactive catalog.
-EU4 covers the early modern period bridging the gap between the late medieval age to the Napoleonic era stretching from 1444 to 1821 allowing you to play as any nation.-

learning curve- (harder than Hearts of iron, easier than Victoria and Crusader kings) I have found myself learning new advanced features thousands of hours into the game that while not essential added to the experience and kept the game feeling fresh, these features while not hidden are not covered by the basic turorials but i think the game benifits from holding back on a exaustive turorial in its current state in order to keep it from being overwelming (EU4 is a titan of a game).

replay-ability- The most re-playable of modern paradox games as its the last game in the paradox library to include truly free date selection and not just bookmarks (on the start menu you can change the date manually in the bottom left below the bookmarks to allow for any day, month, or year) even without this i would say the base 1444 start date holds a greater level of replay-ability due to the amount of free updates to the map and nations that have been added over the years.

DLC Value- Paradox interactive does not pump out games year after year like most other developers and instead supports thier games long after thier launch through free updates and DLC (which is why there is so much) which I recommend if on sale as full price can be steep even in a bundal, alternatively since launch they have made DLC more accessible through monthly subscription. (if you are on the roap about DLC paradox interactive is one of the few developers that allows you to play with friends even if you dont all have the same DLC, the game works off of the hosts DLC so if your friend has the DLC and is hosting a multiplayer game you can effectivly use that as a free trial to try the DLC for yourself before you buy.) While the quantity of DLC is intimidating the quality of the products that paradox interactive puts out has gotten me to pick up all of them (even the cosmetic ones) as a kind of tip jar to support the developers as the kind of love seen in this game has become a rarity in the industry.

Rating summary- 9.5/10 I highly recommend EU4, The only point i can really knock it on is the learning curve but this is almost universal with games of this scope as a result EU4 is as close as possible to a realistically attainable perfect score.