Recent reviews by Jorde

The nine classes (and multiple weapons) allow you to divsersify your playstyle. No matter how much time you put into the game, there is always something you can improve on. The dynamic between the different classes make every round different. I have been playing it for years, and I have no intention of stopping. I admit I will get burned out on it, or just ignore it entirely while I play another game. However, in the end, I always end up playing it again.

This game is great, fun to play, and I have gotten more than my money back in playtime and the friends I've met through this game. However, I do not recommend this game to new players purely because of the current state it is in. There are just too many DLCs, with many of them being priced at more than double of what they are really worth. To get the full gaming experience of EU4, you'd have to shell out a few times the base game's price.

Mare Nostrum and most DLCs after Rights of Man are just subpar and not worth the normal price, at all. DLCs like Golden Century or Third Rome are somewhat interesting and fun, but they don't actually have that much content, when you consider the price. And these overpriced DLCs being added to the game show no sign of stopping. Then there is the fact that some of the DLCs are important for fun gameplay (like Rights of Man, El Dorado, or Art of War), and these important DLCs are mixed in with the worthless ones, adding work for new players to figure out which ones are worth buying.

I do not recommend this game for new players purely because of the DLC bloat. There are over a dozen DLCs with many of them significantly overpriced without actually adding much to the game. I highly, highly recommend only buying the game and the DLCs on sale, as then the DLCs enter a more reasonable price range (though many are even then still overpriced).

If you get past the atrocious amount of DLCs, the game is fun with a lot of replayability. Pretty much the entirety of the game is warfare, with almost everything you do in the game focused on giving you a military edge (expanding your economy to afford a bigger army, getting alliances, etc.). Peace is mostly boring in EU4, plain and simple, although the diplomatic game can actually be quite interesting sometimes. Additionally, EU4 is great at getting you interested in history, along with expanding your casual knowledge of geography. Multiplayer is interesting as well.

If you still want the game, even after me having said all that, you will likely find yourself getting addicted to the game. EU4 is indeed great at doing that, as my playtime and lack of a life can attest.

Edit many years later: They just keep on making the DLC problem worse somehow.

Edit (4/10/2024): In retrospect this review is way too long, but it holds up. You'd have to pay several hundred dollars to buy all the DLC at full price.