Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 119 Ratings

  • Summary: Players can enjoy over 300 years of gameplay by starting at ANY date between 1453 and 1789. Nation building is flexible: decide your own form of government, the structure of your society, trade politics and much more. The great people and personalities of the past are on hand to support you. Take history in your hands and call personalities like Sir Isaac Newton, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or René Descartes to your court. A lush topographic map in full 3D allows for a rich and complete world view, and contains more than 1700 provinces and sea zones. Lead any one of more than 250 countries that originally existed during the game’s extensive time span. Have more than a thousand historical leaders and over 4000 historical Monarchs at your disposal. Manage more than 100 individual unit troops to secure as much power as possible. Co-operative multiplayer mode allows several players to work together to control a single nation. Customize your game: Europa Universalis III gives you the chance to customize and mod practically anything your heart may desire. [Paradox] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 25
  2. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. You can do anything you want with this game, the limits being only your time and imagination. If any of you budding warmongers, strategy fiends or history buffs out there are looking for complete control, world domination and a great wargaming experience, look no further.
  2. If you’re looking for a deep strategy title, then Europa Universalis III is likely for you. With its improved interface and tutorials, it’s possible to lose at least a few hours in the game even if you’re not an enthusiast of the genre.
  3. 85
    The new interface is definitely welcome and it gives the player access to a bit more information while also reducing the clutter of popups and notifications that seemed to accumulate in the other games. The new gameplay ideas aren't revolutionary but they manage to add more realism and a wider range of options to the basic historically-themed gameplay.
  4. Plenty of depth and enough diplomacy to hold the attention, but it'll be too ponderous for some and too ugly for others. [Mar 2007, p.76]

See all 25 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 42
  2. Negative: 11 out of 42
  1. JohnA.
    10
    I think it is a shame to see low votes from people who either lack the system specifications to play the game or don't understand that "history simulation" means that it will be different from history (often excessively so) based on how one plays the game. The game play is rich and addictive, with fantastic depth. The graphics are well above par for a game like this, and the replay-ability, especially in light of the game's open ended modification system and active player community. Multiplayer support is not really up to snuff right now for their metaserver, but LAN etc multiplayer seems to work fine. Seeing as that will undoubtedly be fixed in upcoming patches, I could hardly let it overpower an otherwise pristine review of probably the only game I will play until the release of Spore. Expand
  2. ChrisV.
    8
    I'm sure that over time the user community will chime in and provide the historicity that the base game lacks in this iteration of Europa Universalis. The base game, however, is not meant to be historical past the first few years of the campaign the player has chosen. If one wishes to play with a world as it was in, say, 1550, one had better start not much earlier than 1545. If one starts in 1453, by 1550, the world will be completely ahistorical, and ahistorical in a sometimes illogical fashion. The Papal States colonizing Alaska by 1500? All German mini-states eaten up by Munster? England ruled by Novgorod because of a royal marriage and death of a sovereign? Yep. It all can happen in a game. In short, the base game isn't for fans for historical "what-if?" gameplay. It will be, eventually, thanks to user mods. The base game, instead, is designed for fantasy worldbuilding and world conquest. Expand
  3. DominickMastri
    7
    I'm a big Hearts of Iron fan, but never tried this series out before. I can say I am very much enjoying it not only for its depth, but for its freedom.

    No problems running on my system - AMD Athlon x2 4200, 2 x Geforce 7800, etc...

    Not sure its fair to give this game a 0 review when you are using a Geforce4 video card that is seven years old.
    Expand
  4. andreai
    2
    This game is easy to understand and to menage, imo too much to be called a real strategic, but the heavy issue is about bugs. As many ppl told before, it does not match the historical simulation that is supposed to be as all the "factions" seem to operate quite random during time. Personally i could pass by that historical fake giving a sufficient rate or better if the game was a good one, but bugs and frustrating situations happens too often. Trying to be sintetic when you start to be used to the game you also start to understand that all the messages shown in boxes as results of various actions are completely random, sometimes very funny as you are supposed to ally with yourself or discover a new area that you never tried to reach. But that random mood happens for discovers, economic or war matters. In example a box shows that your merchant beaten one another in a specific trade area and took his place, than you see.. first your merchant is not listed there, second that the merchant of the other country who was suppoesed to be beaten is not there too. So basically that game is random for everything that count in a strategic game. Also you can add the nearly zero possibility you have to negotiate with other countries, expecially asking or recieving an offer of peace during war. Every single battle AI usually ask you to surrender paying a tribute even if you did not start the war and even if you are defo winning. Other things made me wander if they have beta testers that played in their life something on a PC.. like you cant know in game how many regiments could be stored in a fleet of transport boats before trying it one by one, or worse then this, you cant load troops on boats when the boat is docked, but ony if you move it on the sea, really WTF situations. I really cant understand some scores and reviews about that game. Expand

See all 42 User Reviews