Recent reviews by Alex

after recently hitting 1000 hours on this game, I can say I have an interesting relationship with the game.

On one hand, there are some periods of time where I would play this game non-stop for a solid week or so, cursing out the Holy Roman Empire for somehow managing to keep Italy in their empire despite kicking them out (I'm still not sure how the Emperor DLC handles the incidents), but on other hands, I would go on several month hiatuses from the game, finding myself completely lost everytime I come back to a handful of new expansions which changed the game.

If you find yourself as someone who likes maps a little too much and even drew your own before discovering the wonders of the internet, you will probably really enjoy this game.

People will tell you that some expansions aren't worth it, you can easily avoid them by finding the ones with REALLY negative reviews.

That said, as someone who spent close to 1000 hours on this game, I think I've played enough to consider saying that they were all worth it. (I got less than a dollar per hour return on the game plus expansions so I consider that a good purchase)

If you can't bring yourself to buying the DLC, that's okay. If you find yourself playing a specific group of nations only, do a bit of research and find the expansions that affect them and don't bother with the rest.

Outside of the real game, these are near essentials in making the game more interesting and fun:
- Common Sense
- Rights of Man
- Art of War

Situational fun ones:
- Wealth of Nations (trading and making money)
- El Dorado (Colonising improvements and also the ability to make your own nation)
- Mandate of Heaven (Ages mechanic, big overhaul to East Asia)
- The Cossacks (Lots of diplomatic improvements, Steppe Hordes)
- Dharma (India focused along with some quality of life changes)

Only get if you're gonna play this region alot:
- Conquest of Paradise (Native American nations, also allows for generating random new world)
- Res Publica (Mainly Merchant Republics like Venice and Genoa, some stuff for Poland and Netherlands)
- Third Rome (Eastern Orthodoxy overhaul, Russian and other Slavic countries changes)
- Cradle of Civilization (Middle eastern and other Muslim country changes)
- Rule Britannia (New Anglican religion, changes to the British Isles)
- Golden Century (Spain mainly, pirate republics)

And finally Emperor which I cannot quite say how I feel about it. However taking from this list, I would still recommend people to give this game a shot, the base game is still very much enjoyable and might intice you to invest furhter into it.