{"id":12498,"date":"2019-04-18T21:46:11","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T04:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/europa-universalis-iv-review-the-definitive-grand-strategy-masterpiece\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T17:31:23","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T01:31:23","slug":"europa-universalis-iv-review-the-definitive-grand-strategy-masterpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/europa-universalis-iv-review-the-definitive-grand-strategy-masterpiece\/","title":{"rendered":"Europa Universalis IV Review \u2013 The Definitive Grand Strategy Masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Europa Universalis IV<\/strong>
\nParadox Interactive<\/strong><\/p>\n

Years ago, a gaming friend of mine who knew I loved strategy games suggested that I give Paradox Interactive\u2019s Crusader Kings II<\/em> a try. Since Crusader Kings II <\/em>is the game that coined the nomenclature \u201cgrand strategy\u201d back in 2012, I was intrigued as to what all that entailed.<\/p>\n

I dove into Crusader Kings II<\/em> with the mindset that it would be similar to other strategy games that I\u2019d played in the past, both turn-based and real-time strategy, as well as plenty of 4X fare. Everything from the Civilization and Total War franchises to what I consider the timeless works of art in Master of Orion II<\/em> and Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Crusader Kings II<\/em> threw that all out of the window. With a mix of political intrigue, soft power approaches to conflicts, highly advanced diplomacy mechanics, and overall unrelenting complexity, I can now admit that it all scared me away. It was just too much all at once and I also didn\u2019t want to come off as some sort of witless oaf in front of my friend.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2017, and along came an intriguing little strategy gem called Stellaris<\/em>. Being an unabashed science fiction geek and lover of space strategy games, Stellaris<\/em> promised to be an open-ended star empire-simulator of sorts.<\/p>\n

Stellaris<\/em> allowed you to be able to design your own races and go on to determine their futures in massive, procedurally generated universes. Then I saw that it was developed by Paradox Interactive and immediately became a bit more hesitant to engage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Long story short, after changing my frame of mind (and being a bit more mature to boot) I took the plunge into Stellaris<\/em> anyway and it\u2019s turned out to be the most enjoyable space strategy game I\u2019ve ever experienced. It was not only more accessible, but the built-in emergent storytelling elements contained within its granular systems was highly addictive. It also got me interested in what grand strategy was.<\/p>\n

So, I looked around and found out that another one of Paradox Interactive\u2019s titles, was by all accounts, the pinnacle of grand strategy games. That game was known as Europa Universalis IV,<\/em> which came out back in 2013.<\/p>\n

Grand strategy is a subgenre of strategy whereas you lead a faction over different eras, and the systems at play are usually more in-depth than the latter. In Europa Universalis IV,<\/em> that means that you take command of virtually any country in the world from the fifteenth century all the way to the Age of Reason (nineteenth century).<\/p>\n

This time around I would not be deterred. After getting my hands on all of the wide-ranging DLC that have been come out for Europa Universalis IV,<\/em> post-release, I steeled my resolve, pushed the experience with Crusader Kings II<\/em> out of my mind, and once again took the plunge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you took the time to read any of the reviews on Europa Universalis IV\u2019s<\/em> Steam page, you\u2019ll see that many of the folks posting them have hours of playtime listed in the thousands…not hundreds\u2026thousands.<\/em> That\u2019s because the game has so much nuance and complexity that it\u2019s said you have to invest at least a few hundred hours of play time into it before you can even grasp the basics.<\/p>\n

Having now dumped an embarrassingly large amount of hours into Europa Universalis IV<\/em> myself, I can agree with that notion, completely. It\u2019s the perfect sort of sandbox, \u201cwhat if\u201d -type of game. You are solely responsible for determining what sort of alt-history you will create for your chosen nation.<\/p>\n

Care to form a powerful Confederation of Native American tribes and invade Europe? How about developing a Berber trade empire that spans from China to Northern Europe? You can do it all and much, much more.<\/p>\n

Here is a brief list of what I consider the most crucial DLC for Europa Universalis IV<\/em> so far (not in order of importance:<\/p>\n