Victoria 3 Review

The third instalment in Paradox Development Studio’s saga, Victoria 3 is a highly complex political simulator. Upon starting it up, I decided taking the tutorial route was best. I have played numerous real-time strategy (RTS) games before, as well as Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. I thought I was prepared for whatever Victoria 3 could throw at me — I was wrong.

Even with the tips and tutorials, I immediately found myself overwhelmed with the amount I needed to manage. In Victoria 3 you take on the role of a national leader. You win by making your nation successful (this can look different depending on what your goals are). Running a nation requires you to not only maintain a viable trade market, but maintain control of your population via political machinations. On its face those two things don’t sound too hard. But Victoria 3 really takes this to the next level.

While playing, I received notices about news articles being printed within my borders, articles that spread negative views about another culture. I was given the choice to either ignore the matter, letting the publications spread throughout my population, or to suppress it. My first instinct was to suppress it, as it seemed wrong to let such things create or stoke a sense of xenophobia. However, this was the wrong choice. Turns out that I should have gotten to know my people a bit better before making such a decision. Sadly, the majority in my country were already xenophobic and not on good terms with the culture being depicted in the article. By suppressing it, I lost popularity and political clout. My population hated me already due to the traits of my randomly generated character, but the action I took on the article did not help matters. Making note of which ideologies, institutions, and religions hold sway over your population is important.

There are several goals you can work towards in Victoria 3 in order to achieve victory: Economic Dominance, this requires you to expand your nation's production, its market reach, and trade influence. Hegemony, very basically this is the path of the conqueror, you will try and subjugate the world’s population through military force. The Egalitarian Society, you could consider this the super moral of the choices as it involves raising standards of living, personal liberty, and equality. Finally, there is the Sandbox mode, this is the do whatever you want option. After several long minutes screwing up my first nation, and tanking the economy, I decided to start over using this feature. To my delight I was able to choose the exact location I live as the land to govern over. Watch out New Brunswick, I am going to tank your fishing economy next.

Colony of New Brunswick

Little side missions like the news article I mentioned earlier really get you immersed in the society you command. About ten minutes after starting over I was faced with the icon of a skull on my map. It turns out two high profile individuals (politicians) were getting ready for a gentlemen's duel. The men involved had the backing of different interest groups, and each had a different religious background. I could let the duel go ahead, intervene, or ban duels altogether. I looked up their character traits and found that the first man was a bigot, while the second man was arrogant. I had no way of knowing who would come out on top and decided heck I'm not losing much, so I let the duel proceed. Sadly the bigot won. Next time I will most likely ban future duels. I should also mention that Victoria 3 allows you to pause, slow down or increase the speed in which time is passing. If you are letting days disappear in a few seconds then events like these can sneak up on you, and be gone before you can really make a decision. Be careful when playing the game at light-speed.

I was greatly impressed with the challenge and complexity Victoria 3 presented me, and was grateful that Paradox Development Studio did not sugar-coat the more uncomfortable parts of history relating to how a nation is built. In today's society we reap the benefits of many terrible acts and decisions. Playing Victoria 3 really sat me in the chair and made me ask myself what would be acceptable for progress and what would not. As an idealist I spent perhaps more time thinking about this then most would have, especially considering it's just a game.

On the graphics side of things, Victoria 3 brings pleasant textures and effects to the table. I really enjoyed zooming in on my nation, seeing the trees sway in the wind, waves moving across the water, towns being built, and trade roads being travelled by wagons. Victoria 3 has been developed using Paradox Development Studio’s in-house Clausewitz Engine. The engine allows for the modification of game files which has led to a strong modding community for the titles that use it.

Zoomed in Graphics

Overall, I would say Victoria 3 successfully creates an in depth political and nation building simulator. However, some of the complexity that comes with this kind of game may scare people off. There is a big learning curve to overcome here. You have so many things you have to keep an eye on, and so many ways to deal with problems. That also means you have numerous ways to fail. I can see why people would enjoy this level of freedom, but for me I found myself lost during the first few hours and desperately trying to keep my head above water financially. You are taking on not only the role of a politician, but that of an economist, and military general as well. That is one heck of a resume.