Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado Review

Europa Universalis IV is starting to get a bit crowded. In all fairness, any other game would have been swamped by the amount of DLC that the game currently offers, yet the pure breadth and depth of the game means that all of the previous DLC has snuck tidily into the wider game. With mixed results, of course, but nonetheless Paradox has done a great job of making every DLC feel like a natural extension to the game’s brilliant mechanics. El Dorado, the latest premium expansion, is the first to feel like a struggle, as though it was tricky to actually think of new systems to add to the game. That’s not to say Paradox hasn’t succeeded in creating an enjoyable expansion, but even the most dedicated of EUIV fans may find themselves tiring of the lack of real evolution that these DLC packs bring.

El Dorado is essentially hinged on one key addition: the ability to create your own nations. There’s no doubt it’s a revelation for a game that’s previously focused on historical accuracy over frills and fireworks. In hindsight, it’s such an obvious addition it seems bizarre that Paradox hasn’t added this feature already, but it’s more than welcome in El Dorado. Creating a nation is relatively painless, by using a restricted number of points on features like starting territory, leader abilities and national ideas, not to mention the nation’s flag and colour scheme. The visual options aren’t especially expansive, particularly considering the game’s affinity with variety and choice, but there’s enough to give you a sense of ownership over your newly formed country. Being able to choose a collection of territories is a neat feature too, so creating a brand new nation slap bang in the middle of France is more than possible (if a little difficult to maintain).

Indeed, it may be easy enough to customise and form your new nation, but keeping it running can be a little tricky if you pick a rather contentious location. Possibly the easiest option is to just replace a smaller nation from the outset - although obviously that lacks the unique nature of placing your nation somewhere unusual. If you simply plonk your country within the lands of a larger nation, then you’ll need to be prepared to repel that nation’s attempts to reclaim its ground. Which, unless you’ve got some mean diplomatic skills, can be rather tricky. That’s not really a bad point to be honest, it’s just something worth remembering on your first playthrough. On the whole, the nation designer is simply one of the best features to come out of an EUIV expansion for a long while. The ability to create your own wacky scenarios, like a nation of westernised people in the middle of the Americas in the early 15th century, or a unified Ireland called Potatomania, is a fantastic move from Paradox, and reason enough to pick up this DLC.

Which is lucky really, because the rest isn’t especially exciting. The majority of the content in El Dorado, giving the DLC its name, is focused on The Americas and Central America in particular. The pre-colonial nations of the region have been pimped up with new religions, new events and new visual elements (so long as you buy the other minor DLC - why do Paradox still do this?). So now playing as the Aztecs or any nearby nation is a much deeper, more enjoyable experience, as you have to keep track of various global effects that could lead your state into a doom-related panic. Keeping track of ‘things’, after all, is one of the best bits of EUIV. On the whole, the changes aren’t anything staggering or game-changing, but there’s enough here to make a previously rather boring collection of nations interesting. The classic non-European issue persists though, so no matter how well you develop your Central American nation, the invading Europeans will almost always be able to outmatch you. It makes sense, but it’s a consistent nag at the back of the brain whenever you play with one of these nations.

The other major addition to the game is an improved exploration mechanic that essentially makes it a lot easier to chart hidden territory when playing as a colonial nation. Explorers aboard ships can be sent to explore specific sea regions, while Conquistadors at the head of an army can now ‘hunt for the seven cities’. This option forces the army to explore land automatically, a welcomed addition by itself, but it’s furthered by cool little events that essentially map the journey of the Conquistador and his fellow explorers. There’s an end goal that can be discovered, thereby giving your nation permanent advantages, but this can be very difficult to attain as Conquistadors have a tendency to drop dead when exploring. Again, it’s not exactly a big gameplay change, but it’s yet another layer to the already mile-high icing on the cake.

As ever, El Dorado brings a bunch of smaller changes too, including a new treasure fleet system that works in tandem with colonial nations - the cool part is that you can set your privateers to raid said treasure ships and reap the rewards. Liberty desire is now a more fundamental part of the game, which means even vassals now support the feature, something that should make playing as a puppeteer state much more interesting. Plus, if a nation does revolt, they get their own dynamic tricolour flag - a neat little touch. In some ways, El Dorado features less of these little touch-ups than previous expansions, but when you’re getting the whole nation designer with the package it’s hard to disagree with. So yes, El Dorado is a bit of a one trick pony, but that one trick is rather fantastic. Being able to customise your starting position, and the very nation you're playing with, is a huge boon for the game and well worth taking advantage of. The rest of the DLC is unexceptional, but as mentioned it’s just more good stuff to add to the pile.