Europa Universalis IV

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.

Strategic, methodical, differentiated from other 4x games in that... it's realistic. Not every nation can conquer the world. Not all have access to the right resources to flourish. In that way it becomes a matter of doing the best with what you have, and that's great.

This game has absorbed way too much of my free time and way too much money. Its fun though. Give it a try. If you want. I am not your mother I can not tell you what to do. Now go eat your vegetables.

One of the best games I have ever played with thousands of hours of replayable content.

I've honestly had some of the best gaming experiences and memories from this game! It is truly one of the best games on the market.

With the combining of the needed to be included DLC and the price cuts, now is an excellent time to buy a complete game at it's best price.

I haven't played much of the game but I would definitely recommend. Playing without any DLCs is kinda boring but if you are learning the game then I would recommend it. But if you want more playability then getting most of the DLCs (not all) it a must in my opinion.

---{ 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

Somewhat overwhelming to start but a few hours of figuring out the basics rewards with endless hours of absorbing nation building. Honestly staggering replayability, not only are there 100s of nations to play as giving a unique experience, but play the same nation 5 times and you'll have 5 unique experiences due to different circumstances unfolding in the world around you. Spread your colour on map = brain happy.

Very amazing game, a bit hard to get it at first because the tutorial leaves a lot of things out you need to know. The lerning curve was a fun experience (for me). You can play every country and do what you want with it, there are a lot of setbacks if you go straight to small countries like me. You need a lit of time to understand the game in a foundamental level to ''win''.

If you want to be good follow a guide or a youtuber.

This is probably the game that has the most content to encourage one to replay ever made. A more accurate representation of my total hours is about 6,000 on multiple platforms and Steam. I don't really know how to feel about that number ;)

What I can say is that over those thousands of hours, I still learn new ways to min/max my playthroughs by using different mechanics in more effective ways each time. You can be an able conqueror, diplomat or merchant without mastering the game. But... you can always do it differently or just objectively better.

What is likely to draw you back again and again over the years is the knowledge that you can choose the same path you've once tread but go down it more effectively and securely, or go down a completely insane or ridiculous road that noone has thought of before. There really are few limits in this game.

TIM most fun faction imo.

EDIT: PSA - imo it's best to start with the base game and buy the DLC ***SLOWLY*** over time as you learn new game mechanics. I don't advise buying the whole collection at once and I'm kinda iffy on the whole every-game-requires-a-subscription-thesedays gimmick. Give it a test run, the odds are pretty good that if you're even viewing EU4's store page you're going to enjoy the game due to it being niche in the first place. Great devs, great content!

Learn history or craft your own alt history, this game has some years on it but it is still a good game and a wonderful game to play through for a mega-campaign across Paradox games.

Had some great multiplayer games. It's exciting that one doesn't have to scroll all over to track one's empire.

EUIV is a great strategy game. It's come a long way and in its current updates it is genuinely at its peak. The hoard of DLCs are downside though and having to pay for every new DLC with every major patch isn't that good of a practice. The DLCs do come with a lot of care and thought put into them and they all really add to the experience in some way.

Over 1000 hours and still not that good at the game but love it so much. Play as any nation from 1444 to 1800's and with mods so much more

Great game, am not very skilled at the game but is doesn't stop me from enjoying it. If you like creating an empire and you don't mind staring at a map most of the the time as your waiting for buildings to finish construction and troops to complete a siege this is that kind of game. I recommend always buying the base game and dlcs only when they are discounted otherwise the base prices can get pretty absurd when you tally up the money.

Everyone seems to put in 100s of hours playing. Lol some people play 800hrs and leave a negative review. Who plays something that long and doesn't feel like you got your money's worth. Super hard to learn and it's going to take a ton of restarts to get a satisfying beginning to your campaign but it's worth taking your time to figure everything out and to play this game.

I want to like this game but from what I can tell reading online it crashes regularly enough for me not to want to invest my time into learning the game. Got my first good game going and it crashed on the first peace deal I tried to make. Went online for a workaround and all I found was unsolved crashing and people saying to post the bug report. This game is like 10 years old if you have the resources to make millions of dlc for the game you should have the resources to fix bugs.

I paid for the complete DLC package for the usual price for the base game. I definitely wouldn't recommend you buy this game otherwise; the full game + DLC's is only worth €39.99 at most.

Honestly the most fun way to learn geography and practice celibacy. 10/10!

This game is the Creme de la creme of grand strategy games. It is very unforgiving and tough for the new player, but if you can stick with it and learn the game it is phenomenal. (Paradox has a lot of games but this game is the most stable by far for multiplayer)

I didn't play for a couple of years, and then a month ago I got the latest expansions I was missing on a sale. Guess what? I loved what Paradox Tinto did with the game. This includes fun new options, abilities, missions, and also fixing bugs that were there for years, for example the coalitions falling apart when you reload a saved game.
Keep up the great work, guys.

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.

Really difficult mechanics and even the long tutorial is not enough to understand everything. After viewing multiple YouTube tutorials and playing for 10 hours and losing 3 times for 3 different reasons, I finally gave up. Civilization 6 was much better.

Short: If you cannot make love ( or do not want to learn ), play Europa Universalis 4 instead!

Longer: Its difficult to describe how amazing this game is. Huge amount historical detail, strategical options, freedom of playing styles... complete earth to explore, zoom in and our like google maps... anybody interested of history would like it. And you can theoretically conquer the world as native American or as a native African tribe. Great depth. Great game.

Crusader Kings was amazing

This is complete garbage. I can't siege an enemy with a massive army, but they can siege me with just a few thousand. And there is no explanation as to why. This is all at the start of the game in Ireland. Complete garbage game.

I'm going back to Crusader Kings, it is actually fun to play.

Greatest Paradox game, not hard to get to if you played any of their games. Great mechanics and amazing to commit some war crimes and crimes against human rights. Would also reccomend if you are a masochist or if you love watching hours of a campaign go downhill because you suck at managing your economy. 10/10 warcrime simulator, wouldn't recommend to Byzantine civilians in 1453.

>Spend hours setting up colony in America
>Random small american tribe declares war on colony
>I have troops in colony but cannot attack or get involved as tribal guys have not declared war on me (just my colony which is different for some reason)
>I cant declare war on this tribe whilst they are massacring my colony because game doesn't allow it/ no 'casus belli'
>Lose most of my colony
>Quit game

If you want to have fun in this game you have to preempt all the bad design decisions and cheese it.

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

Has a launcher.

Loads slowly, even when quitting back to menu.

Seems to mainly be a vector to sell you DLC.