You could never accuse Paradox Interactive of not putting the work in. It’s an outfit famous for creating dense, complex strategy games, and whether you’re establishing a rich, thriving kingdom in Crusader Kings III or a sprawling empire in the stars in Stellaris, you always know you’re going to be challenged and tested. But Europa Universalis V takes this concept to the next level. And then the next – and then, well, you get where this is going.
It’s actually difficult to know if this is the game that’s going to convince me to dive in deeper than ever before. And that’s not because it’s not spectacularly deep and meticulously well-crafted, it’s because unless you’re really into this genre, you’re probably going to struggle. If these statements aren’t absolutely selling it to you, you’re probably not the target audience. Because in a time when so many developers of long-time franchises are thinking about how best to dumb their games down and appeal to the broadest possible spectrum of gamer, Paradox is doing the opposite. Europa Universalis V is for the strategy super-fans out there, the gamers who have put thousands of hours into their previous titles and who want nothing more than to be utterly absorbed by this genre.
Spanning five whole centuries of human development across dozens and dozens of different nations, Europa V is a game that wastes absolutely no time with refresher courses or long-winded tutorials. In the preview build I played, I was dropped head-first into an intricately detailed map and told to basically get on with it. It’s obtuse to the point of being obnoxious at times, as events and issues just began to steamroll me in seconds.
“This army has no general!” it shouted. “Appoint one!” But when I could only sit, slack-jawed awaiting further instructions the game gave me a dismissive sneer and moved on, leaving me to figure it out for myself. But this won’t be an experience exclusive to newcomers. Paradox has created a game that feels utterly different to the previous entry in the series, positioned as something of a Greatest Hits release.
Its deeper complexity becomes evident early on when you realise that it has taken cues from its cousin, Victoria 3, with a huge variety of different “pops” (populations) that all require different resources, rules, and attention. This isn’t a standard 4x game where you just win by inventing nuclear missiles first; this is a brutally dense world management sim that will require hundreds of hours to fully understand and internalise.
Which is not to say it’s not a war-centric game, because it is. I’m not entirely sure how I ended up in most of the conflicts I did, but suffice to say my poor decision making was probably a factor. But war in Europa Universalis V isn’t just about building armies and promoting smarmy portraits to positions of military leadership; it’s about governing supply lines, calming the populace, establishing trade alliances, united fronts, and thinking with actual tactics to destabilise enemy logistics and strengthen your nation. You can’t just stack fighting units and hope to tank civil unrest.
The warfare here is so deep I struggled to even parse all the factors involved, and when it came to actually mobilising armed forces and, y’know, fighting, I proved a fairly ineffectual wartime leader. But wars don’t end with a few lost battles, and if you can play the strategy game the way it’s intended you don’t necessarily need the strongest force. It’s not really anything like Crusader Kings III but the DNA is there, as you manoeuvre politically not just for personal gain but for the good of nations.
Graphically it’s as dense as you’d expect. The maps are ridiculously well-detailed and accurate, but the screen is immensely busy with tabs and menus and sub-menus, so many that you could easily get lost in them, and yet there’s a certain intuitiveness that begins to form after a while. It’s helped by the fact that so much of the game can be automated. If you’re really struggling to understand everything from taxation to trade, you can automate almost everything to alleviate your burden, and resume control as your understanding deepens.
Europa universalis V is a more character-focussed game than previous entries, and you may choose to spend more time scheming and conniving than adjusting inflation rates. Again though, the skullduggery is not as prominent as in titles like Crusader Kings III, which was like a Game of Thrones simulator. This is a little more nuanced and focuses less on the rise and fall of noble families and more on how to use alliances and rivalries to increase your own lot.
One thing it’s easy to get lost in is the intricacies of wartime politics. Once you begin to understand what you can and can’t get away with on the world stage it becomes a little easier to navigate, but I have a tendency of playing too cagey right up until I don’t, and then taking big risks that I can’t afford to lose. Europa Universalis V punishes you harshly for this, pitting you against vast alliances that have little to do with real world history and everything to do with taking you down a peg. It’s easy to get buried under the mechanics of warfare and forget the rest of your duties, or go off exploring the vast world while your country flounders without strong leadership. The assistant helps with a lot of this, of course, but the point is very much to engage with all of it where possible.
Europa Universalis V is not entirely unknowable, which is my big takeaway after spending time with the game. For newcomers to the franchise or genre, it may be almost completely impenetrable, but the point is to engage with it on its terms, use the AI where possible to lighten your load, and learn slowly. It’s also acceptable to lose sometimes, and grow from your failures. You’ll learn more by taking risks and absorbing as much information as you can, even if the game slaps you around a little at first. But know this going in: Paradox has intentionally created a demanding, confounding, and largely unique experience in Europa Universalis V, and if you take it on, be prepared to rise to the challenge.
Europa Universalis is set to release on PC via Steam in 2025.
