Europa Universalis 5 Ate My Weekend and I Have Zero Complaints
EU5 came out on November 4th and I have played an embarrassing amount of hours since then. Like genuinely concerning amounts. I told myself id take it slow. Learn the new systems. Maybe watch some tutorials first. That lasted about twenty minutes before I was conquering France as Burgundy at 3am on a Tuesday.
Twelve years since EU4. Twelve years of expansions and DLC and patches that turned the base game into something almost unrecognizable. And now we start fresh with EU5 and everything is different and overwhelming and I love it.
The big change is the population system. Every person on earth is represented now. Not abstracted into development points or whatever, actual pops like Victoria 3. You have to manage cultural tensions and religious conflicts and estates with different demands. Its way more complex than EU4 which was already complex. My PC is working hard.
The game starts in 1337 now instead of 1444. Right before the Hundred Years War and the Black Death. Five hundred years of history to play through. The map is bigger and more detailed than any previous Paradox game. Every province looks different and meaningful instead of just colored blobs.
New automation features let you hand off parts of the game to AI if you want. Your economy or military or diplomacy can run on autopilot while you focus on whatever youre actually interested in. Paradox finally acknowledging that not everyone wants to micromanage every aspect of a global empire. Revolutionary honestly.
Reviews have been positive. IGN praised the depth while noting some balance issues at launch which. Yeah. Its a Paradox game. Theyll be patching and rebalancing for the next decade. Thats just how it works.
If youve never played a Paradox grand strategy game this is probably not the place to start. Try Crusader Kings 3 first. But if youre already in the cult and youve been waiting since EU4 for something new? This is it. This is the one. Clear your schedule.
I need to get back to my Byzantium restoration campaign. The Ottomans arent going to defeat themselves. Well actually they might. AI is pretty good now. But still.
