Europa Universalis IV Review: Captivating Alternate Histories

After separate stints as the leader of the Aztecs, England, Portugal, Brittany, the Timurids, and Austria, I've learned I'd make a horrible ruler of nations. Strategy games like Civilization have conditioned me towards an unsatisfiable desire to conquer all the land around me. A push to annex the four independent provinces of Ireland caused the Scottish to blockade my ports and assault my home provinces, leading to Brittany's early exit from the world stage. An aggressive push back to colonial expansion in the new world quickly led to the revised end of the Aztec nation. Pure aggression just doesn't fly in the complicated alternate histories of Europa Universalis IV, even if you begin a campaign as the war mongering Timurid horde. You're going to need a lot of patience to enjoy Paradox Interactive's latest addition to its grand strategy series, and not just because you can't conquer the world with an iron fist. 

For the uninitiated, Europa Universalis IV allows you to take control of hundreds of nations during the age of enlightenment  for a grand strategic romp through an alternate history. Sure, depending on where you chose to begin (anywhere between 1578 to 1701), history will be accurate to the real world. England will be a major naval and colonial power in 1444 and in 1579 Spain will have conquered much of Central and South America. But as soon as you get your time altering fingers involved, Russia might conquer central America instead, and England's naval prowess might fall before your even mightier fleet.

Each game ends in the year 1820, and here Europa Universalis IV awards you with arbitrary points based off how you preformed compared to other nations. No victory conditions here. If you want to rake in these points and win, beginning as a major power like England or the Ottomans presents a much better chance. However, these points mean little and less. It's the self defined goals you set for yourself—like attempting to unify Japan and take over China before China takes form—which gives meaning to each Europa IV campaign. That's really where Europa's beauty lies. Whether or not the game awards you more points than every other nation by 1820, you'll want to blab to your friends about how you conquered half of Europe or drove off the first European colonizers as the Cherokee.

Of course, you'll have force through Europa Universalis IV's staggering lack of accessibility first. If you've never played a Europa Unversalis game before, it will feel like there's an impassible wall of information keeping you from the meat of the game, even after clicking through the brief and inadequate tutorials. For example, early on I couldn't order my troops onto transport ships. I finally figured out the ship has to be ordered out of the port first, but I still couldn't order my army aboard for some reason. After a brief Google search, I learned only one regimen could board a ship at any given time. If the inadequate tutorials told me that, I forgot it amongst the sheer amount of information the game threw at me in the first five minutes of play. Repeat ad nauseam for recalling diplomats, upgrading troops, affecting trade, government systems, and so on. I spent more time on Google during the first few hours of Europa Universalis IV than I have any other game. If I wasn't reviewing the game, this would have been enough for me to give up long before I got through the frustrating wall of inaccessibility.

Which would have been a shame, because this is my only significant complaint. Sure, the dense interface causes confusion and by no means does Europa Universalis IV impress aesthetically in any way, but these are both minor issues in light of how the game captivates with its complex alternate histories. I implore you to give Europa Universalis IV a chance. Just keep in mind a hefty amount of patience and a little bit of determination will be necessary to break through the interface and ambiguous systems. But once you're past the initial learning curve and figure out how most mechanics work, you'll have a hard time not regaling your alternate histories to everyone and anyone who will listen. 

Final Verdict

8 out of 10

Europa Universalis IV was developed by Paradox Interactive . It was released on August 13, at the MSRP of $39.99. A copy was provided by the publisher for the purposes of review.