I consider myself well read of history. I love to read about the period which this game takes place and have always done the 'what if' senarios in my head. What if the CSA won the Civil War? What if Germany never unified? In this game I set out to play those what ifs. I played as the House of Lippe (a german province) never unifying with the rest of germany. Instead I conquered it. conquered parts of poland and later became a great power. I ended the game colonizing africa and being a super power. This game is full of those what ifs.… Expand

Victoria 2 was a game that I bought on a steam sale, booted up, and than after about 30 minutes of tutorials, shut down and didn't revisit for six months. That short experience left me baffled. That said, I saw that there was something to the game, and promised to devote a Saturday afternoon to it one day. About a month ago, I did just that. I spent a full day doing the tutorials and trying out a game of it in earnest. I was left baffled. Confused. Humbled like no other strategy game ever has. Strategy is my genre, and this was the most monstrous game I have ever seen. But it left me utterly compelled. Fast forward a month, and I am STILL learning how to play this game. But it is worth it. I would give this game a 10, but it is simply not accessible to the average STRATEGY gamer. If I was to rate is as a game for whoever, it would be lower, simply because of the ludicrous learning curve. That being said, for those that take the time to learn the game, kudos. You have discovered a classic. It is stable, the ai is a reasonable challenge, and there is only victory in your own eyes. For those who claim there is a problem with the underlying game mechanics, they have not scoured the forums and found out why the game works like it does. For the vast majority of things, this game was designed to work like it does, and after understanding why it was designed the way it is, you will say to yourself "Oh, now I see why they did that." I give it an 8.5 out of 10, siding on a 9. If you buy the DLC, A House Divided, it improves the game to an even further extent.… Expand

Victoria II was a mess when it was originally released, but the latest patches have fixed most issues. The game is focused on the social and economic changes that occured in the 19th and 20th century, and you job is to guide your nation through them. Victoria II does not focus so much on combat as other Paradox titles, but there is enough depth in the rest of the game for it to still be really entertaining. If you are a fan of other Paradox Interactive Titles, Victoria 2 is a must have!… Expand

Victoria II is a game that makes you able to change history, the easy (and boring way), or the hard (and interesting way). The possibilities are all up to you and the decissions you make. One thing Paradox excels in, is their long support for their released games and their commitment to create easily modable games. They have recieved a lot of acclaim because of this from all over the world and Victoria II is a prima example of this. The most apparent difference of Victoria II over its predecessor Victoria I, is that it's graphically improved a lot, this in my opinion is a good thing. I really appreciate the fact that you can now actually see crisp borders, instead of random blobs all over the map which should portrait your country. Another part is gameplay, with which combat and diplomacy have been improved considerably, but also some differences have been made in the overall economy and pops. These changes cannot cater to everybody, but to an extend I appreciate most options. However, I really miss the possibility to buy and sell provinces. The AI is also a bit stale, but every game I play, I notice all the other countries are building their armies to prepare for the Great War, which is quite interesting. Colonizing is very dependant upon what and how you research, making it more of a rat race around 1870, rather than colonizing Africa/Asia at a steady pace. England is also massively overpowered for a long stretch in the game, but it's your call if you'd like to keep it that way, or bring them down by force.. The combat makes it possible to keep better track of your armies and also (very important) keeping them supplied and reinforced. In total, Victoria II is a great update on the original. It doesn't give my the ultimate observer feel I've had in part one though, so it's not perfect, rather pretty close..… Expand

This is definitely one of my favourite games!! It is rather detailed, visually beautiful and it is a historic strategy - what more can a history geek want??
It does have some problems, like the insistence of Russia to conquer Oman in EVERY game, but that is (hopefully) something that will soon be addressed with the patches.
I haven't played it since before the patch 1.2 so we'll see - hopefully it'll be even better. Even without the patch, I loved it! Excellent game!!… Expand

great game i loved it even though it had some bugs it was able to keep me happy due to the large about of countries and 100 years of game play long live the Punjabi empire

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game has lots of depth and really impressed me! But I think it was kind of falsely advertised, as from first glance I thought is was part of the total war series, or at least something similar. When I got it home I had a shock but in many ways a good one! This Game was memorable, but not as good as the total war series. Close though… Expand

I consider myself well read of history. I love to read about the period which this game takes place and have always done the 'what if' senarios in my head. What if the CSA won the Civil War? What if Germany never unified? In this game I set out to play those what ifs. A veryy good game! A very good Stratgie Game!

Originally pretty buggy, but patched well and a great game with continual updates. Somewhat intimidating. Focuses more on economic and cultural development than simple combat which gives it still quite a bit of depth. Substantially better graphics than the original.