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Europa Universalis IV

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Europa Universalis IV
Europa Universalis IV
Cover art of Europa Universalis IV
Developer(s)Paradox Development Studio
Publisher(s)Paradox Interactive
Director(s)Johan Andersson
EngineClausewitz 2.5 Engine
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux[1]
Release13 August 2013
Genre(s)Grand strategy

Europa Universalis IV[2] is a grand strategy video game in the Europa Universalis series, developed by Paradox Development Studio[3][4] and published by Paradox Interactive.[5] The game was released on 13 August 2013.[6]

The player controls a country during the Early Modern Period (specifically, 1444 to 1821),[7] conducting trade, diplomacy, colonization, and warfare.

Gameplay

The game itself is an interactive map of the world divided into the provinces that compose nations. Each of these provinces contributes to their country either positively or negatively, as provinces can both provide resources to a nation and serve as a point of unrest and rebellion. The gameplay requires the player to lead a nation by finding a balance of military, diplomacy, and economy. The player does so through their choices as sovereign of their nation, and through the spending of resources available to them: Prestige, Stability, Gold, Manpower, and Monarch Points (Administrative, Diplomatic, Military).

Players can choose to conquer the world by military might, become a colonial superpower, establish trade dominance, etc. The game is a sandbox environment, and while there is no strict rule on winning the game, a loss occurs when the player's nation is removed from the map. Diplomacy is a large aspect of the game, as creating alliances and vassal states, improving opinions and monitoring expansion and coalitions is vital to a player’s survival. Espionage can also be employed against enemy states in order to claim their territory, or incite rebellion in their provinces, as well as other dubious methods. Combat can be done on both land and sea, and it attempts to simulate real world factors such as morale, discipline, competency of leaders, terrain, and supply lines.

Many major religions are present in and influence the game and provide distinct bonuses to their practitioners. Players can employ missionaries to convert their provinces or can engage in policies of universal religious freedom. The Catholic faith makes use of the Papacy, which can allow a nation to have control over the Pope or to use their influence for other rewards. Technological advancements are invested in over time, and will require the expense of monarch points.

  • Administrative technologies unlocks advancements such as increased productivity, new forms of government, new buildings, and the national idea system.
  • Diplomatic technology unlocks advancements such as naval units, improvements in trade, new buildings, and improved colonial expansion.
  • Military technology unlocks advancements such as land units, improved morale, combat tactics, and new buildings.

Gameplay is largely influenced by random events that arise each year for the player. These events can be either helpful or a hindrance. Some of these random events are driven by factual history pertaining to an individual country, while some are there to force a player to make tough decisions, and otherwise to enhance the flavor of the game. Players can choose to play single player mode versus the AI, or multiplayer over a LAN or the Internet against a mix of human and AI opponents. Single player also has the option of “Ironman” mode, which locks several settings such as difficulty, and removes the control of saving the game from the player. This means that any mistakes are irreversible. It is, however, the only way to receive any of the achievements that can be won.

Expansions and mods

All DLC are optional in Europa Universalis IV, and may be applied to the base game in any combination. The largest DLC come in the form of expansions, which significantly alter the mechanics and features of the game. There are also flavour packs (which add new events and minor mechanics, usually specific to one nation), music packs (which add more backing music) and cosmetic packs (which affect unit models, portraits and the map). There are also three e-books which have no impact on the game itself, but coincided with the release of expansions.

Expansions are often accompanied by a coinciding free patch to the game, which as well as adding fixes to the mechanics, also adds some content in the theme of the expansion.

Conquest of Paradise

Conquest of Paradise focuses on the New World. It adds an expansion to the mechanics of tribal nations, most prominently Native American ones. It also adds a random new world generator which randomizes the landscape of North and South America. The accompanying patch also added colonial regions, protectorates and new starting nations as well as many other small additions and fixes. Released 11 January 2014.[8]

Wealth of Nations

Wealth of Nations includes new mechanics for trade and merchant republics. The most prominent additions also include trade companies, privateering, and construction of the Suez, Panama, and Kiel canals. The accompanying patch included a new rival system, policies, and extra ship designs. Released 29 May 2014.[9][10]

Res Publica

Res Publica focused on governance and trade. New mechanics pertaining to elections are introduced, along with election events for the Dutch republics and a national focus. The Republican Dictatorship form of government is also included. The accompanying patch included extra idea groups and Merchant Republic factions. Released on 16 July 2014.[11]

Art of War

Named after the ancient text by Sun Tzu, this expansion focuses on military mechanics. It expands on the Thirty Years' War and the Napoleonic Era, improves diplomacy (especially surrounding conflict and peace treaties), expands vassal mechanics and adds new options for waging war. The accompanying patch amongst other things overhauled rebel mechanics, improved the map and added large interface, AI and gameplay improvements. The map improvements increased the number of provinces on the game map, in regions which previously lacked detail, such as Asia and Africa. It was released on 30 October 2014.[12]

El Dorado

El Dorado improves largely on the nations of Central and South America. This includes Nahuatl, Inti and Mayan religions, a "doom counter" for the Central American tribes, improved mechanics and added events. Exploration and colonisation of these areas is also expanded upon - for example, the Treaty of Tordesillas is added and conquistadors can explore into terra incognita to search for the Seven Cities of Gold. A custom nation designer is included. The accompanying patch included new events for South and Central America, improved terrain and general improvements to gameplay. It was released on 26 February 2015.[13]

Common Sense

Common Sense focuses on diplomacy, religion and internal development. New religious gameplay is added, focusing on Protestants and Buddhists. Parliaments are added, and a special parliamentary government is granted to England. The coinciding patch included new religions, improvements to the peace system and a reworking of the fort system. The number of building slots were also decreased, but the existing ones made more powerful. It was released on 9 June 2015.[14]

Other DLC

Flavour Packs

  • American Dream - adds events and improvements for the USA.
  • Purple Phoenix - focuses on Byzantium, adding events, pictures and unit models. At the date when the game starts, the Byzantine Empire is in disintegration.
  • Star and Crescent - focusing on Muslims, this adds events and pictures, as well as the decision to unify Islam.
  • Women in History - released to coincide with International Women's Day, this free DLC adds one hundred new events pertaining to women, female advisor and female portraits.

Music Packs

  • Conquest of Constantinople - adds three tracks for Byzantium and the Ottomans. Composed by Andreas Waldetoft.
  • Guns, Drums and Steel and Guns, Drums and Steel Volume 2 - these remix the main theme and replace Waldetoft's original war tracks with metal remixes. Composed by Tobias Gustafsson.
  • Republican - includes a mixture of EUII and new tracks, totalling 26 minutes.
  • Songs from the Community - adds five songs produced by the community, inspired by Asian melodies. Composed by Kairi Sawler.
  • Songs of the New World - adds ten minutes of songs for Native American tribes. Composed by Andreas Waldetoft.
  • Songs of Yuletide - released free, adding a Christmas carol which is played when playing the game in the "real month" December. This is also available for Crusader Kings II. Composed by Andreas Waldetoft.
  • Songs of War - adds five orchestral tracks to the game that play during wartime. Composed by Andreas Waldetoft.

Cosmetic Packs

In total there are 15 cosmetic packs.

  • Unit Packs - 100 Years War, Catholic League, Colonial British and French, Common Sense, Conquistadors, El Dorado, Evangelical Union, Horsemen of the Crescent, Indian Ships, Indian Subcontinent, Muslim Ships, Native Americans (I and II), Trade Nations and Winged Hussars.
  • Portrait Packs - which currently only includes Muslim Advisor Portraits.
  • National Monument Packs - currently including National Monument Pack I and II, these add features such as the Tower of London and Hagia Sophia to the map.

Mods

Aside from the official expansion packs, third-party mods are freely available. Among these, MEIOU and Taxes received a favourable review on The Wargamer; its name references the MEIOU and Death and Taxes mods for EU3, by the same makers.[15][16]

Most mods are available from the Steam Workshop. Some of the most popular of these are Extended Timeline, Veritas et Fortitudo, and Graphical Map Improvements.[17]

Reception

Critical reception

Europa Universalis IV was met with generally favourable reviews, receiving a score of 87/100 on aggregate website Metacritic. No negative reviews by critics were found. Critics praised the improvements from Europa Universalis III, especially the new mechanics and graphics.[23][24] T.J. Hafer of PC Gamer described the game as an "engrossing simulation that conquers the common ground between your average Civilization V player and the long-time devotees of grand strategy".[25] Negative feedback focused on the tutorials, combat mechanics and bugs. Nicholas Pellegatta acknowledged these bugs and other issues were likely to be addressed in later patches and expansions.[26]

In 2013 Europa Universalis IV won the "Golden Horseshoe" award in the category of "Game of the Year" on the Polish website gikz.pl.[27] It also won "Best Strategy" and "Best Historical" in Game Debate's 2013 awards.[28]

Sales

As of February 2014, Europa Universalis IV has sold over 300,000 copies.[29] By June 2014, over 700,000 games were registered on Steam.[30]

References

  1. ^ "Europa Universalis IV - Steam Store". 5 July 2013.
  2. ^ "Game Page". Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  3. ^ "Paradox Development Studio". Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  4. ^ "Official Press Release". Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  5. ^ Haas, Pete (10 August 2012). "Grand Strategy Game Europa Universalis 4 Coming In 2013". Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  6. ^ "Europa Universalis IV - Paradox Store".
  7. ^ "How Paradox's Crusader Kings II to Europa Universalis IV save converter will work". Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  8. ^ "Paradise Pre-gained: Pre-orders Available for New World Expansion for Europa Universalis IV". Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  9. ^ "Europa Universalis 4's Wealth of Nations expansion detailed by Paradox". Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  10. ^ "Paradox announces Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations". Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  11. ^ "Europa Universalis 4 targets trade and governance in Res Publica mini-expansion". Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  12. ^ "Art of War Expansion for Europa Univeralis IV Arrives October 30". Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  13. ^ Savage, Phil (20 January 2015). "Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado expansion announced". Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  14. ^ Savage, Phil (8 May 2015). "Europa Universalis IV: Common Sense expansion announced". PC Gamer. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  15. ^ James Tanaleon (14 November 2013). "PC Game Review: MEIOU and Taxes - The Europa Universalis IV Mod We Were Waiting For". The Wargamer.
  16. ^ James Tanaleon (18 September 2014). "Interview: MEIOU and Taxes Exclusive Sneak Peek Interview". The Wargamer.
  17. ^ Steam http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=236850&actualsort=toprated&browsesort=toprated&p=1. Retrieved 29 June 2015. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. ^ "Europa Universalis IV review". Metacritic. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  19. ^ "Europa Universalis IV review". Destructoid.
  20. ^ "Europa Universalis IV review". GameSpot.
  21. ^ "Europa Universalis IV review". IGN.
  22. ^ "Europa Universalis IV review". PC Gamer.
  23. ^ Bitterman, Tom. "Europa Universalis IV". Gaming Nexus. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  24. ^ Brown, Fraser. "Review: Europa Universalis IV". Destructoid. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  25. ^ "PC Gamer EU4 Review". PC Gamer. PC Gamer. 13 August 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  26. ^ Pellegatta, Nicholas. "Recensione Europa Universalis IV". Everyeye.it (in Italian). Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  27. ^ "Wielkie Derby - Gra Roku". gikz.pl.
  28. ^ "Europa Universalis IV". Game Debate. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  29. ^ http://www.destructoid.com/how-paradox-interactive-found-success-in-a-niche-market-269887.phtml. Retrieved 9 October 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  30. ^ SteamSpy http://steamspy.com/app/236850. Retrieved 28 June 2015. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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