Currently it's one of the most detailed Paradox games, and what it does it does so well. I'm very surprised to see the "Mixed" reviews. The more I play the game, the less I understand why so many people didn't like it.
I try not to compare it to other modern Paradox games (EU IV, CK3, Imperator, HoI4) because Victoria is more focused on things those other games don't do at all. So of course character interaction or warfrare wouldn't be as detailed. However, the political and economical simulation is so detailed it's incredible, and it's a delight to see your country develop and grow in the direction of your choosing.

There are of course some areas where I'd like to see improvements. First off, having any map objects heavily tanks my GPU performance, to the point where I had to turn them off. I had zero issues with any other games which are, to put it mildly, significantly more GPU-intensive than Victoria 3. Other Paradox games run silky smooth 60 FPS with the highest graphics settings, yet it's the trees in Victoria 3 that bring my GPU to its knees. No idea what's going on there but it's very annoying, and turning map objects off makes any forest look terrible, just some ground with a forest-like texture. Paradox, please fix this.
Currently the diplomacy feels very limited. Perhaps it's because I mostly play smaller nations, but most of the time I have nothing to do except improve relations with everyone. The region interest system is not something I enjoy. Having a hard limit on region interests, which is based on your country rank, is just crap. I think it should resemble the trade route system more, where I get "free" interest slots based on my rank, and declaring additional ones costs Bueraucracy/Authority/Influence. Or make it so it's still possible to conduct diplomacy with countries outside your interests, but at an increased cost.

There are a few other minor complaints I have. Still, it's a very enjoyable game and I definitely recommend it to anyone who's into the grand strategy genre. There's just nothing else quite like it. Also, everything said above was said when playing the base version of the game with no DLCs. Looking forward to see what the expansions add.

The game feels very incomplete. The basics of tinkering with your production and economy, and industrializing is fun for one or two playthroughs. I also enjoy the focus on internal politics and social progress vs Victoria 2. The game has a positive and hopeful view of the progress being made during the time period. However there just doesn't feel like there's much here - you can do an entire playthrough without touching diplomacy at all. Everything besides the economy gameplay feels underdeveloped, possibly on purpose for the sake of filling in the empty space with DLC in the future. The world feels static and unimportant, as if no other country is really progressing the same way you are. To make things worse, the game runs poorly and is crash-prone. Sometimes your economy will crash and it's very difficult to figure out why, as there's so many things that affect it but no easily accessible information as everything is hidden behind layers of UI. The Victoria series has always been an acquired taste, and I understand as a fan of V1 and V2 that they were going for a different focus this time around (and I support it!) However I feel like they went with a very ambitious and diffcult vision for the series that couldn't be backed up by the development schedule and Paradox's requirements as a publicly traded company.

This is such a hard review to write. I wish there was a neutral option.
Victoria 3 could be the best game I've ever played, I am so addicted to the economic side of it, expanding and trading, but the political side is so awful. Revolutions over the dumbest things imaginable, the AI joining in wars for absolutely no reason other than to screw over the player, and the laws themselves being heavily influenced by RNG is a nightmare. Nothing will make you want to die like seeing a law with a 95% chance to pass, failing, and then causing a revolution due to radicalization. I still play this game, but I cannot say it's worth it unless you are willing to put up with an insane amount of bullsthi

Extremely boring game. It has some very promising features that almost make the game fun but they are not polished enough and everything else feels terribly boring rn.

This game remains in a perpetual state of incomplete. It is honestly astounding the game is this horrendous this long after release. I adore paradox as a studio, and they have given me thousands of hours of entertainment. This game will remain on the uninstalled list for the next 3 years while they sort their ♥♥♥♥ out. It sits there, taunting you with nostalgia and member berries. It is a lie. This isn't what you want to play. There are games that do everything this one does, but better. Spend your time and money on those instead of this.

Governmental mechanics are poorly conceived, shown, and executed. The % chances are basically witchcraft, and can WILDLY swing based on decisions not seemingly at all related to them.
Army movement/combat et all makes me want to jump out a window, be saved by modern medical science, push through the pain of physical therapy to struggle to walk. From there, its a short trip to jogging, then running, then going up the stairs and jumping out that damn window again.
A lack of tool tips leave one constantly switching between windows attempting to find the number set they need to look at.

Just say no

Give it another year to bake. Extremely bare bones right now, definitely don't buy at full price.

Wait for paradox to release 50 dlcs to make this game decent
Economy system is alright but whats the point if the war system sucks

Yes, this is a paradox game, and yes they will leach every cent from you they possibly can and probably dilute the base game to force you to buy the DLC.

However, above all else, the detail, and elements put into the world design, the culture maps, the cities, the rivers, the maps of their basins. Everything about the game has been finished to the utmost perfection, and it's a pleasure in and of itself just to enjoy the detail put into it. The nested tooltips are a game changer and would be welcome in every game. They are exceptional and help even the newest players to learn the game with ease.

I may not recommend buying this game, not at full price at least. (RN its 76% off, and you should only ever buy a paradox game on a 70% sale) If you do just be aware that this is a Paradox game, and be prepared for the exorbitant DLC. But otherwise it is highly enjoyable.

Oh my, where do I start?

I've played Paradox games since Europa Universalis I (back around 2000) and enjoyed most of them, be it EU 1-4, HoI 1-4. CK1 or 2, and finally Victoria 1 and 2. I especially liked the Victoria series, since it's covering an incredibly interesting time period, and the complexity of the games made it so much deeper than HoI ("Create armies and stomp'em!"), enjoyable as that is from time to time.

One of the most beautiful and complete games I've ever played was Vic2 (after it's unforgiving bugs were removed, more or less). It allows to really forge your nation the way you want it to be, but all the while still keeping you busy through the odd random factor. And you still needed to concentrate and not miss out on anything important, like e.g. forgetting to research that miserable economic technology that let's you create colonies ahead of others; or that navy tech in order to build high level ports for high level ships. It gave you full control over your armies. While tedious sometimes, you still had the possibility of achieving your wargoal early in a war by bypassing your enemy's armies and conquering the capital. Though it was a complex game, it was easy to master after one or two playthroughs, with still enough to learn to make a 20th playthrough still interesting, even with playing the same country all the time (Germany, anyone?).

And so I was thrilled as rarely before regarding an game as I read about Victoria 3 being announced. When it was finally released, I had really a hard time to control myself and not directly get it, remembering the usual stuff with Paradox games: bugridden betas at release, high priced "DLC's" that add functions which should have been implemented in the first place, or which even make the game playable (looking at you, Vic2!). So now when Vic3 was on high discount, I finally grabbed it over 1 year post release. I normally enjoy tutorials, getting the gist of the basic functions and the feel of the game and making the first steps into it the way the developers intended.

But alas, it is too much for me. As I said, I'm a Paradox Vet, with ups and downs along the way. But I have never, ever "enjoyed" a tutorial so annoying as this one. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm too dumb for this. But so often getting at a point in a tutorial (!) where I have no idea how to accomplish what the tutorial (!) wants me to to is simply too much. A game is there to be played and enjoyed. Complexity by itself and getting past it and mastering it is great fun, which made me love the above mentioned Paradox titles. But this is just ridiculous. It is not enjoyment if you have to watch let's plays for hours or read through guides in order to simply getting into a game. Starting the game and making your country flourish, just to be eaten up by your neighbor because you concentrated too much on pops and forgot your military is quite a lesson by itself (remember that lesson, NATO?).

But this is not just about complexity. Vic3 is simply not well constructed. It seems somebody tried to make a complex game even more complex, but forgetting the audience. It's complexity for complexity's sake, leaving the enjoyment at the front door and going all the way though to the backyard. As I said, I enjoyed CK1+2 and Vic1+2 very much, and these are no titles for the average arcade gamer. You have to grind into them and still have the feeling to miss out on certain aspects of the games. But this is just not for me at the moment. I didn't even get to the part most people find annoying: the part about waging wars or diplomacy.

TL;DR:

Get it when it's on sale, take a week off, lock the door and grind. Maybe you come out having mastered Vic3. Or you come out bald (like me) having pulled out your hair in the first two hours into the game. Want to win the Nobel Prize? Then skip this one, as it is either one or the other, you won't have time for both. Care for your family? Skip Vic3. Want to look at something beautiful you don't quite get? Get a ticket to the Louvre. At least then it's something worthy of telling your relatives.

I'll put it way back in my library and maybe get back to it one day. When I hate myself enough to enjoy some torturing. Maybe when other overpriced DLC's came out and are on sale to get what this game could (and should) be. But right now I highly recommend on looking elsewhere, e.g it's beautiful older sisters (especially the middle one).

Fun game, my only issue as of right now is the fact that warfare is so bad. If you push through a territory that is too large that it opens up a secondary front your army will spend weeks trying to go through it to reach the front, giving the enemy time to recapture it. Armies should automatically be adjusted towards newly opened fronts because that is realistic. Suddenly capturing swaths of land only to not have your troops there to defend that new land is not. I've had wars where victory is in sight switch up on me due to this stupid mechanic and it is so annoying. This is not the only issue with warfare in the game but it is a major problem that needs to be remedied.