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I Love this game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: March 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Despite a few of the bad comments on here, I went ahead and bought the game anyway since I'm a big fan of these historically accurate wide scale games. It took about a week to get used to the game but after that the game became easy. But its weird, even though I did conquer Europe with several different countries, I always lost the game because this game is all about prestige, in that regard this game is hard. But just dont get into many wars and choose your politics carefully and you should win this game.
On the bad side I don't know if its the game or my new computer, but the game kept kicking me off

More of the Same from Paradox just not more game.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 20
Date: December 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Once again another copy and repeat of the now infamous Europa Unversalis II. Yet, this one is even more complicated, comes with the same initial "crash to desktop" bugs, lack of a tutorial, and a user interface that only Albert Enstien could enjoy.

This is yet another one of those "buy it now, we'll fix it later games" from Paradox. You'll be pulling your hair out, from the moment you run the game for the first time with all the spreadsheet popups you'll have to deal with. It's more of a financial game instead of a strategy game. If you can win the world economy, which once you spend a week figuring out how to play it, becomes quite easy to do, then you can win every game with any province. Tahiti rules the world anyone? It's nowhere realistic by any means. It's just another toddlers toy that wanted to be great, but, instead is just mediocre. This time period is rather boring as a strategy game. If you don't have Europa Universalis II then I suggest getting it instead, it's been patched to 1.07 and for $7.99 it's a better buy overall.

I'd recommend a wait on this title, in 6 months to a year it will be "patched" finished and you can probably get it for $15 or less, why pay for an unfinished game?

Fun, but difficult to master

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the best strategy games that I have ever played. It combines political, economic, diplomatic and of course military affairs in a fantastic manner. I love the fact that the player can choose just about any nation to play, just don't expect to win with Haiti. Things that prevent this game from achieving a full five stars: an incomprehensible manual, go to the forums for answers; no tutorial scenarios, how hard would it be to create a simple five year scenario; the economic and diplomatic models need to be tweaked, there are too many non-historic ways to work the system. This game is not for the faint of heart, but it is fun.

incomprehensible

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 28
Date: September 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Do not by this game unless you are a genius! As a veteran of 3 generations of Civilisation and Railroad Tycoon and many other strategy games I found this game completely incomprehensible.

For such a complex game to have no tutorial is unforgiveable. The manual is useless: inaccurate, incomplete and states the obvious at length without telling you the real things you need to know to actually do things. Most of the time things that the manual says you can do you cannot do for a reason that is kept secret.

Example 1: The manual tells you to move a division onto a transport in an adjacent sea zone but when you do this nothing happens. The game does not tell you why it is ignoring you. Eventually, by trial and error, you discover that it takes 2 transports to ship one division. There is no excuse for basic information like this not to be in the manual and in the on screen help.

Example 2. At the start of the Civil War the USA has high unemployment and NO manpower available. This is very odd in itself but as there is no way to increase manpower the Confederacy - whose army outnumbers the USA by 2.5:1 - wins every time.

My advice to Paradox: take one programmer off of making the game more and more complicated and put him/her on making the game playable.

Amazing Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 41
Date: November 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to rule a nation during the cultured Victorian era? I know I have, and now thanks to Paradox entertainment we all have our chance.

Running a nation is no easy business, but with many options available to you, why not give it a go? Ruling from the mid 19th century to early 20th century, it is possible to establish a colonial empire, gain land in the civilized continent of Europe, mayhap to save the decaying Ottoman empire?

This has to be one of the most fun games out there, and I think it will exceed even the acclaimed Europa Universalis series. It is INDEED a good purchase if you are a fan of strategy games or history.

It is also an excellent learning tool as if teaches 19th century history in an amusing game setting.

J.

History Buff's Dream

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: July 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Like its predecessor, Hearts of Iron, this game doesn't disappoint. Play any country of the 19th century as see if you can bring it to glory. While complex, Paradox runs the best forum around to provide answers and updates to this game. I highly recommend it for those who enjoy not only reading history but also, may want to change it.

Fit for both Mensa-play and layman-play

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First of all, do NOT be discouraged by those pessimistic naysayers! I am definitely not a number-cruncher, yet I enjoyed this game thoroughly!

An extremely complicated game in terms of diplomacy, warfare and economy. The lack of a tutorial hurts, but there is a excellent community with lots of user-contributed tutorials and strategies such as "A Modest Guide For Brand Spanking New Players". Though it can be simple, if you want it to be. You can choose to whip out your scientific calculator and find the optimal ratio of craftsmen to clerks down to the last man, but you can also simply follow the rule, "3:2".

There are also options for you to let the AI mind the nitty-gritty details (like trading resources, assigning leaders) while you plan the grand strategy, if you like to get straight into the exciting parts.

Being an alt-hist game, you can choose to go along fairly historical paths - like the Unification of Germany - or go something totally whacko - like World Conquest with China. No two games are exactly alike, and will provide hours of fun.

Excellent Historical Simulation and Strategy Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is an extraordinary historical simulation, you can pick any nation and guide it from the beggining of the 19th century to 1920 managing trade, taxes, production, diplomacy and last but not least the army. The manual contains the basic information necessary to play, but it takes a first game, I suggest with a small nation, to practice and get a hold on the rules to fully enjoy the simulation. Reading the reviews I was afraid of bugs but although sometimes the game crashed it was tolerable, I suggest to set the autosave feature every few turns. Finally, for those who played Europa Universalis, I think Victoria, being more realistic especially because of the trade feature, is a consistent improvment.

Incredible, Deep Strategy Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Ignore some of the bad reviews you see here. It's obvious from reading them that out of all the bad reviews, only one of the people who wrote them (so far) has actually played the game.

However, if you're looking for a simple strategy game, Victoria might not be for you. It doesn't seem so at first glance, but it's a very deep and complex game. For those who enjoy deeper games, this just makes it more rewarding to play. I bought this game when it first came out and now, months later, I still play it daily.

One of the complaints I've come across a few times is the number of patches that Paradox usually makes to their games. Why is such continued support a bad thing? Years after the games come out, Paradox still updates the games for free. In the past, this has not only included bug fixes, but new music, new scenarios, and other new content to the game. It's just one more reason that Paradox games are worth their cost.

The economic simulation Victoria provides is much deeper than the simple one given in EU2, and much better because of it. With supply and demand economics built in, you can manage a large number of different types of factories to build products to sell, and develop the infrastructure to boost production and your economy.

This game is far superior to Hearts of Iron, and I believe it to be better even than the original Europa Universalis II.

Like Work, Not Play

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: April 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love Paradox' Europa Universalis series, but Victoria requires far too much micromanagement to be fun. The lack of any tutorial or halfway decent manual makes the learning curve far too steep for such a small payoff.

Great concept, poor execution. Try Europa Universalis II instead!

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