Recent reviews by Deng Xiaoping | 鄧小平

Furry Game

1.4.2f1 made the Game completely unplayable. Extremely Frequent Crashes sometimes only minutes after starting the Game, Game does not even Generate a Crash Dump and Log Files look the same whether the game crashes or is closed manually.

0/10

Did they seriously remove Linux Support 7 Years after adding it?
What an absolute joke.

They removed the Peer 2 Peer Multiplayer from the Windows Version. Multiplayer is still playable on Linux but only with other Linux clients. Did they just forget removing it from the Linux Version? What a joke.

This game has nothing going for it. It's as if they made it bad on purpose.

The economy is probably this games best part but it's not very good or interesting either.
All you do is build buildings and watch you GDP go up, occasionally glancing at the Market Prices to see which buildings would Impact the Economy the most.
Common Markets are an Improvement upon Vic 2 though only barely since Spheres of Influence performed basically the same purpose. The World Market is represented by Manual Trades which get tedious fast if you play a smaller Nation that doesn't have access to some rarer Resources you need later into the Game, which ironically makes blobbing an easy and fast way to improve your Economy, if only War wasn't as Terrible.

War is just broken, there is no other way to put it. Only one Battle per Front at a Time makes Troop count meaningless and only Quality matter. Micro is annoying since generals randomly give up fronts returning to HQ or abandon it in Favor of going somewhere else entirely. You cannot easily defend against naval invasions and AI just doesn't bother allowing you to win any war you want as long as you have a passable Fleet. Not that it matters since the AI goes out of it's way to make stupid decisions in Peace Deals like Austria giving Bohemia to Prussia in exchange for Prussia to release a German Minor (which Prussians annexed shortly after either way) in a War Austria was clearly winning with Prussia at -90 War Support.

There's basically no Diplomacy. Diplomatic plays are by far the least fleshed out part of the Game and your other Diplomatic options are inviting someone to your common Market, Making trade deals and improving/damaging relations which allows you to do the former two.

Can't wait for the War and Diplomacy DLC (multiple)

Hopper round up

The most realistic and brutal simulation of economics ever portrayed in a video Game.
It's an immensely dynamic System with an abundance of unexpected outcomes.
For Instance you may Outlaw Slavery as the Netherlands which results in the British losing their War against the French as you are the only Country in their political sphere supplying them Sulfur, needed to produce ammunition, which was incidentally extracted by said slaves in your Indonesian colonies.

The Population System to this date remains unrivaled by any other Game.
When a Soldier dies in Battle there's one less resident in your country.
When your Soldier Pops grow too affluent too many of them will upgrade to Officers bloating your Countries Command Structure beyond any benefit, Officers of course do not fight.

You could talk Hours about how Systems and Mechanics interact in Victoria II, Economics and Pops go hand in hand and most mechanics build around them, making a complex but elegant Masterpiece of a Strategy Game. (judging by newer Paradox games maybe by accident)

You sit around doing nothing so you get to click flavor text decision once in a while.
The worst paradox Game purely because it's the only one that will make you fall asleep before it let's you do anything.

it pains me that the guy who made this is now in charge of Victoria....

If you like increasing numbers to be bigger numbers then optimize the increase of numbers to grow more efficiently to facilitate the increase increase of new numbers to then be optimized for maximum increase of possible numbers to then find out your whole factory was just bottlenecked by one misplaced belt in a sea of literal millions of belts and none of what have you've been doing for the past 6 hours was necessary, then this game was made for you.