It offers enough new content to make one play through enjoyable, and it has enough depth to make you want to come back for more. If you own Victoria II, you would have to be crazy to not want to pick up this expansion. If you don't have Victoria II, now would be a good time to start playing it.
If you plan on playing Victoria II. This expansion pack is necessary to really enjoy the game. Although many issues in the original were fixed by patches, House Divided really adds a lot to the game that should've been in the original in the first place. That said, the game is fantastic but also frustrating. Empire building is a lot easier and much more interesting in this expansion, although annexing nations through war can be frustrating with a need to occupy every single province before they surrender. International diplomacy is more fluid but still a bit lack luster, with the AI not really responding much at all to the player posturing themselves, but a definite improvement.
This is more of a refinement for the game (albeint a major one) than an actual expansion. It would have been nice to see it expand the tech tree, and perhaps take a few of the unneeded pop up dialogues out, but on the whole this is how they should have released Victoria 2 in the first place. That being said, there was no real way for them to know that they should have released Vic2 like this, and they have clearly listened to the fans of the game and basically given them what they wanted. In conclusion, this was way more than a patch, but somewhat less than a full expansion. I still give it high marks for it's improvements to the UI, and to the game mechanics.
This expansion adds a lot of content to the game. The original game is good, I have spent countless hours playing it. Also, orctowngrot has no idea what he is talking about. If the games didnt sell well, and people didnt like them, the company would have gone out of business a long time ago. The game is user friendly if you have a brain and an interest in history. Not if you like graphics and try to take in every single piece of data and try to "win". There is no winning, you set whatever goal for you if you want. Do whatever you want. Try to make Zulu a great power. There are things you should look at, and things you shouldnt. You dont need to take in every piece of information. You cant look at every single input and output, you look at the general scope of things. Also he calls Total War games great. Which they are not. They have no historical accuracy at all, battles that are way too easy to win, and pretty much no campaign. The campaign map consists of moving oversize people around, hoping for a battle. No diplomacy barely, no industry, no trade, no economy, no politics. He is not the person who they are designing games for, so I don't know why he still wastes his money on them.
Westernizing is a whole lot easier now, making it not just fun but viable as well to play an uncivilized nation like Japan, although if you're looking to dominate the world as President Madagascar you'll still be disappointed. The UI looks good and clean, dismissing mass messages is easy and mobilizing an army is two clicks away.
Tons of stuff to build and research outside of war, so there is plenty to do here if you're a more passive type. Game takes a bit to get into, but once you do like other Paradox titles there is a lot to do in here if you give it a chance.
A House divided adds alot of features. -New Casus Beli System which is a major improvement over the easy to abuse system of before.
-New Mapmodes (VERY USEFUL)
-More politics (National focuses to effect politics)
-Balanced world powers
-Industry doesn't depend on the first few moments of opening a factory.
-World Wars
Of course Paradox has failed to address many serious problems, such as over-immigration and the 1860 start date is broken(Romania has no technology, Prussia's army **** and US has too much people).
Westernization is also CRAP, unless you're playing as Japan. Foreign powers have no options to actually influence backwards lands and help them develop.
Five reasons this game is absolute **** e !
1. I needed community support to even start the game.
2. Game-mechanics are somewhat booring. Rather limited options for doing anything.
3. Once you become a Great Power you must spend the rest of the game watching the influence interface, trying to jocky your sphere of influence into the AIs. About as fun as watching an intrument-panel on a random factory-machine.
4. Every 5-20 seconds the game throws a splash-screen in your face, demanding you press "confirm" or make a choice that have a miniscule impact on your game. Until you do, it will either lock the game in pause or block your view while the game is still running.
5. You have to go online to learn how to play the game.