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Europa Universalis III

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7.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 25 critic reviews
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Based on 35 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Paradox Interactive

Developer: Paradox Interactive

Genre(s): Real-Time Strategy

Players: 8

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Release Date: January 23, 2007

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]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Europa Universalis Europa Universalis II Europa Universalis III: Napoleon's Ambition Europa Universalis: Crown of the North

Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Hints & Cheats

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Strategy Informer

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.

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Pelit (Finland)

An excellent, addictive historical strategy game. The awful graphics and the wandering enemy units are minor flaws. [Feb 2007]

1UP

Remarkably well-honed-arguably Paradox's finest achievement in the form to date.

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GamePro

While it covers the same ground, there has been enough of a shift from the old roots to ensure the experience stays fresh while maintaining the features that have made the series the premier example of grand strategy on the PC today.

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Armchair Empire

A quality title by a quality developer who has shown that you can actually fix a game that ain’t broken, and introduce fresh possibilities into an already intriguing genre.

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GameSpot

It's as deep and broad as you would expect from such a big strategy game, but Europa Universalis III's most notable achievement is how easy it is to get into--and how difficult it is to tear yourself away.

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GamingExcellence

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.

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Hardcore Gamer Magazine

It's not a game to be entered into lightly: once you start, it may not be possible to stop. [Mar 2007, p.60]

IGN

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.

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GameZone

I was drawn to play Europa Universalis III because of the sheer amount of options that it offers. Not many games allow you to control an empire for more than 300 years and allow you to do it any way you see fit.

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Gamers Europe

It hasn’t moved from its niche within the RTS genre, but without compromising a single pixel of depth Paradox has managed to simplify and streamline the experience. Possibly Paradox’s finest title yet, certainly the most pleasing.

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Play.tm

The sheer amount of options and decision-making direction available to the player can be quite overwhelming. There are, however, a selection of well paced tutorials at hand in order to draw you into some of the game's elements at a gentle pace.

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GameShark

But as a single player game, there’s nothing quite like Europa Universalis III. Not even Europa Universalis II offers this much replayable wide-open history.

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PC Gamer

There's not another game quite like EU III out there. If it hooks you, it may be the only game you need this year. [Mar 2007, p.62]

Computer Games Magazine

Europa Universalis III is still one of the best grand strategy games you can find. [Apr 2007, p.64]

G4 TV

Go ahead and rewrite history if you can. It’s fascinating stuff that’s reason enough to play this game. Good thing, too. Because there’s little else in this package that will probably entice you to play.

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Boomtown

With the new tutorials and the improved interface, the game is very inviting for new people to the genre, but the complexity, possibilities and atmosphere is preserved and expanded.

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PC Zone UK

The beauty of it is that the game doesn't place any restrictions upon your ambitions (or lack thereof). [Mar 2007, p.77]

Cheat Code Central

Paradox has made huge leaps in the series with its latest edition. With its simple controls and easy to understand directives, Europa Universalis III is both for newcomers and old veterans of the series alike.

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Jolt Online Gaming UK

Civ has the glitz and the glamour, while EUIII has huge depth and enough gameplay options to ensure that the game is never going to play the same way twice.

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PC Gamer UK

Given the incredible scope and the devs' track record for turning out hard-to-get games, EU3's riches are surprisingly accessible. [Mar 2007, p.92]

PC Format

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]

AceGamez

Europa Universalis III is a game for those of you who love complicated micromanagement, for those who feel that the likes of Civilization lack depth and realism, and who want to be in complete control of their nation.

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Eurogamer

It's deep and complete in a great many of the right ways. It's just that it'd benefit enormously from having options to be friendlier. But once you're in you're in, and beneath that fusty layer of endless menus and cold numbers there's a strategy game of near-unparalleled flexibility.

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VideoGamer

The incredible scope, combined with the awkward menu system and lack of tutorials just serves to make this game completely inaccessible to the grand strategy novice. [Score originally posted as (50)]

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

John B gave it a0:
Just don't buy this game. It's buggy as hell. Not the "Well, some users experience issues" buggy. The "I run into bugs every play session, the game crashes for multiple reasons, the patch introduces new issues, your save can get borked, the tutorials don't even work and aren't likely to get fixed ever" sort of buggy. And in a game where your average game session can easily last dozens of hours, running into a bug every hour or two really adds up. While it's true that the game is built for a very small fan base, and some of that fan base really loves it, I wish they'd vote with their pocketbooks and go buy something from Strategy First instead.

Paul gave it a0:
This vote isn't about the game play - though, the game play is not so hot, it really didn't change all that much from EU2, it feels more like they slapped on some bad 3D graphics and shoveled it out the door with minor updates. What this vote is about is about how buggy the game is and the terrible tech support. The tech support forum -which you can only access with a registered copy - Hmmm does someone not want the general public to be able to see how many bug reports there are? I think so! - is full of reports about issues that generally point to data corruption and save file issues - yet the typical response by the unpaid, non-technical 'support' staff is "What are your graphics settings" "Update your drivers" "Check to make sure your system is over heating (WTF??? This game is not FarCry2)" Needless to say, it's completely unhelpful and useless tech support that, if you try to go along with it, has you running around spinning your wheels - most people seem to just give up. One thread I saw had a guy who took their machine to a computer lab to test the chip heat (guess what, it was fine, yup, definitely a wild goose chase). One issue that actually HAD gotten resolved had you manually editing your save file, looking for a broken entry among 1700 province records. And given the small user base + the number of bug postings, you WILL run into bugs if you play this game. End result : Get EU2 from the bargain bin if you want to play this sort of game. Don't support a company that's shoveling out bad merchandise.

andrea i gave it a2:
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.

Ben C gave it a9:
To comment on Shaun G's review, the two expansion packs mean you can now have the historical accuarcy, from the monarchs down to the events that shook the world. The game is certainly ugly, but like its predecessor, it is a game that you will always come back to. Well worth your money if you have the hours and hours to spare.

Shaun G gave it a3:
John A's review hits the mark (albeit unintentionally)...a historical simulation that deviates from history, often excessively so. I can't think of any greater condemnation of a historical strategy game, and IMO the ones who "don't understand" are Paradox themselves. Simply unfathomable. In any case, to each his own...for those who don't care for actual historical accuracy in their historical strategy games, this won't be a bad game to play. For the rest of us, this is astonishingly overrated garbage.

Barry H. gave it a10:
Like most Paradox titles, this makes all other strategy games look sort of silly. The feeling you get when you accomplish a significant, but historically plausible goal -- like unifying Italy under your flag when you started out as a mere Savoy -- is much more satisfying than the ridiculous "conquer the entire world" goal that is the beginning and end of every other strategy game.

Charles H. gave it a3:
Outdated, nerfed, less years then EU2(1419).

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