Recent reviews by Matticus [NUU]

First I would like to say Paradox has created a fun grand strategy game with potential. Unfortunately it is a fictional world not based on actual history, and dramatically falls short from what they advertised. The UI and how the information presented to the player is poor at best. Performance is poor at endgame. Military conflicts are simply not fun. Why give us complete dictatorial control over everything and you can't even command your troops on the battlefield. You just assign them to a front line with basic orders. Outside of visuals and some basic understanding of historical events, nothing in the game is close to historically accurate or reflects the social reality of those times. Paradox even goes out of its way to misrepresent historical events and figures. Western ideology; the hole reason this time was so influential in history is not even represented in the game. A western country is the same as non western country. You as the player have complete control over your populace. You can rapidly change societal world view in a way that is fanciful. The economic system is nothing like those at the time. There is only one economic system represented total authoritarian. All markets play like a communist or fascist system. There is only one thing the player has to worry about supply and demand. And if your people need something you have to do it. Your population have no will of there own and would starve without you giving them food. You cant say you are simulating a society from history if you have no idea what the reality of those societies were. They show some of the events that happened to those people without ever actually simulating those events on the people. You cant say you have a deep economic system and have no clue how an economy actually works. Unfortunately Paradox most likely wont make the changes necessary to fix there product. But credit where credit is due, they support a wonderful modding community who may. Here's hoping. If all you want is a strategy game it may be worth your purchase. However if you are looking for a society simulator with a deep economic system set in the Victorian age. Don't waste your money.