Feel the magnificent world-VICTORIA 3

At the risk of sounding like an uneducated pleb, Victoria 3 is a seriously complex game. Existing fans of the series will be nodding right now like a parent whose child has just told them the sky is blue and stinging nettles hurt, but as a newcomer to this particular franchise I was genuinely surprised by just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Not to mention how many rabbit holes there are.

Paradox are counted among the very best creators and publishers of civilisation sims. If it carries their name, either for development or distribution, you can almost guarantee a degree of quality and attention to detail rarely matched by any but the genre-leaders. I’ve always entered their universes with a certain amount of trepidation and come out feeling oddly smarter than when I went in, whether a new universe like Stellaris or an established franchise like Crusader Kings.

Hype is a very dangerous thing, but Victoria 3 has lived up to everything I wanted it to be and even surpassed expectations in areas I didn’t think would work.

Victoria 3 faces the challenge of living up to a decade of anticipation, and it’s made some bold changes to address the shortcomings of its predecessor. It’s without a doubt the most beautiful game Paradox has ever made, and arguably the most welcoming for newcomers. It makes fundamental changes to the way the series considers the ethics of slavery, labour, colonisation, and the agency of indigenous people. However, at launch, Victoria 3 is a wobbly prospect: bugs, crashes, and a few frustrating design idiosyncrasies leave the whole thing feeling somewhat underdone.

In the newly industrialised world of the 19th century, the answer to almost every question is expansion and growth. Each industry is dependent on others, both for production of its input goods and for creating the demand necessary to make it profitable. If I want to make high-quality clothes, I’ll need a source for dyes and silk; to expand my rail network, I need coal, steel, and engines. I could retool my furniture manufacturing to make luxury sofas, but I’ll need expert workers and specialty hardwood – can I dedicate some of my lumber mills to producing that material? Is my literacy rate high enough to support the additional demand for educated employees?

Make no mistake, this is rarely a thrilling game. You might choose to create a new steel mill and have to wait 76 in-game weeks for it to be complete. Sometimes you’ll be losing money or standing and won’t have a clue why. There are three currencies by which you measure success. Bureaucracy, Authority, and Influence. Managing these is crucial to success; keeping each one in the green will be your primary focus. Bureaucracy is maintained and spent by installing systems of government and decrees; Authority is the currency that affects the passing and execution of law; and Influence is the measure of your overall effect on your pops.

Throughout the game, elements will pop up that force you to change your thinking and adapt. A well-liked politician could die, and their replacement upset the status quo. Global demand for a given item could skyrocket or plummet; war could break out between two of your allies, forcing you to pick a side that will have multiple unseen ramifications. It means every single playthrough, no matter you’re starting nation, is dynamic and surprising if not exactly nail-biting.

Where I really struggled was in understanding the myriad processes required to keep a nation ticking. The three primary resources are far more complex than simply mining for gold or iron in other 4X games, while keeping people employed and happy en masse is much harder than simply pumping out more units to chop trees or till the fields.

Victoria 3 is very clearly not for everyone. It’s a lot of all menu navigation and long-term planning that sometimes amounts to watching bars progress on-screen. But for those that respond to that type of gameplay loop, Victoria 3 will provide countless hours of megalomaniac entertainment. Even for those that are new to the genre, I’ve yet to see a launch that is as inviting and welcoming to new players, while still maintaining the mechanics of previous games for returning veterans. Yes, the war mechanic might be considered “missing” by some, but in the interest of making a politician simulator, I do not think it is needed.What is here though is a deep simulation where every aspect of your nation interweaves with itself telling a story that you built. I’ve never been this in love with a strategy game before. I finally found the one for me, and I won’t need another one for quite a long while.