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The Greatest Game ever put to the screen

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 38 / 40
Date: December 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I suppose my title says it all. The first Europa was a magnificent game, and anyone who has a brain would agree. EU2 only expands on the original, and only in good ways. The levels of war, diplomacy, trade, colonization, and religious tolerance are amazing to work out. The game moves fluidly through 400 years of history, while you lead a nation, any of about 100, through the trials and tribulations of war and peace.
Do not be mistaken, however, this is not a game of world conquest. Unless you have the cheats (not that YOU would need them, right?), I find it is impossible to conquer the world. Naked agression will be met by alliances of other nations that will knock your country back into the Middle Ages.
The time period is excellent. It starts with the Hundred Year's War raging in France, the Ottoman Turks rising rapidly, the Byzantine Empire crumbling before them, the Spainish wars between Christians and Muslims, wild Indian Wars, and massive conflicts in Asia. In scenarios you will be met with the violent religious wars in France and Germany, the American and French Revolutions, and the Age of Napolean.
There are a couple problems, however. There can be some problems during peace treaties, like allies of yours taking provinces from the enemy that YOU actually conquered, the AI still does really stupid things, like declaring war on you without preparing in the least (then again, that's not really YOUR problem, it's their's); but the game is excellent despite these minor problems. If you ever wanted to play a truly strategic level game, this is IT.

A huge game and strangely addictive.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 32 / 33
Date: July 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

In 1691, after seventy years, five wars, countless spent ducats, three failed alliances, and the loss of tens of thousands of men, I finally managed to force Poland, the power of eastern Europe, to cede to me Danzig- its port city, its center of trade, and its most valuable province. After decades of frustration, I finally had land access between Brandenburg, my captital, and Prussia, my heartland. There is much rejoicing throughout the realm of Brandenburg.

EU2 is a unique game in that there are so many different ways to play it. Play a major power like Spain and you'll gobble up the Incas and Aztecs in nothing flat- although expect to suffer from revolts. Play a small to mid sized power like Brandenburg and you'll have to pick your wars with care and learn that trying to take a heavily fortified and valuable province from a major power is not an easy thing. Every country has its own unique situation and thus its own playing style. And there are literally over a hundred different playable nations.

EU II is also a complex game. In fact, it's one of the few PC games that actually requires a careful reading of the manual, as well as playing the tutorial scenarios, just to understand the basics of the game. There is alot going on "underneath the hood" in this game. EU II features some of the most complex economic and diplomatic models ever seen in a PC game. The complexity of EU II is both a strength and a weakness in that gameplay rewards careful thought, but also frustrates and intimidates newcomers.

The AI does fairly well considering the open ended nature and sheer size of the game. The AI does get several advantages over human players, such as not suffering from naval attrition, which means it can keep its fleets and explorers at sea indefinetly. Some may object to allowing such an AI "cheat," but concessions must be allowed in order to have the AI to have a chance in such a massive game. Besides the AI still makes all sorts of dumb mistakes, and its lack of aggressiveness against even weak human nations means that a competent player will rarely be eliminated from the game.

This is a strangely addictive game game in that occassionally the player will literally just sit watching the game clock's days and months go by, doing nothing, and yet not get bored. This is especially true of the small and mid-sized powers who have limited income and thus must wait around alot for Jan. 1st on which the player gets his revenues. Wars are fun, but a smart player will try to make them brief because if a country is at war too long his citizens will rebel due to war exhaustion. Also, you have to be careful about what provinces you conquer because if your religion and culture are at odds with those of that province then expect to be annoyed by constant revolts.

EU II is highly impressive. It's sheer size and variety are pretty hard to beat for a strategy game. I cannot say it will appeal to everyone- its complexity, size, abstract handling of combat (the player has no tactical control of his troops), and slow pace of play can be offputting to many people. However, for fans of grand historical strategy games EU2 should be of some interest.

Europa Universalis 2: The culmination of brilliance in games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 29 / 29
Date: January 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

As a big fan of the original "EU" (which broke my Civ2 addiction), I was not sure they could improve an already superb game using the same engine and a somewhat modified map.... I was mistaken..big time!

EU2 massively surpasses EU and any other 'civ/strategy' game to date. It is possibly one of the most complex and vast games, in which you may be facing over a 100 AI competitors, as well as up to 7 other human competetors.... in a struggle for economic, exploratory, military and political dominance! Perhaps..dominace is not the right word.... "survival" is more appropriate. No one playing will find this to be a 'world-conquering' game... you are the "grey eminance" guiding the leaders of a nation over 400 years... it is hard to survive and the odds are aainst most nations.

Perhaps the most valuble feature about this game is that the event-engine is still being added too, and will be added to for some time to come... interested in the history of any nation btwn 1419 to 1820? This is the game... soon a full timeline of events will be done for every nation you can imagine, as they are already for the major nations of the world. Bengal, Assam, Ashanti, Dai Viet, Holstein, the Dutchy of Athens....

Also... the online community at ..... is the best on the net! it is clean, resource laden, and full of friendly enthusiasts who can help you learn to navigate this complex game.

You control domestic policy, worry about national stability & the budget, decide what centers of trade your nation wants to compete..what kind of armies or navies you will raise, offer royal marriages and guarentee the independence of your friends... it will take a long time to explore the uniqueness of every nation in EU2 throughout the different scnarios.... simply said, "More fun than one can handle!"

Not for the casual gamer

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 47 / 59
Date: November 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I can apreciate the work that went into creating a game with this degree of complexity, and I really wanted very much to love this game. However, I have to give it 2 stars for an overall rating of how fun it is to play. I get the impression from the on-line discussion boards that in order to do well at this game, you need to devote yourself to it on a more-or-less full-time basis for months, if not years. If you don't have the time to make that kind of committment to make to a computer game, you might find this rough going.

I found the overall design to be satisfactory, and I like the way you can easily group, ungroup, regroup, and maneuver your armies. It would be nice to be able to exert more control over what your armies are doing once they engage in combat (the only combat control you can exercise is to choose to flee; the resolution of battles occurs automatically, without your control), but that is minor point for me. You can also exercise considerable control over many aspects of your society, such as your tolerance for other religions, the degree to which you want to specialize in land or naval power, whether you want to be innovative or closed-minded, and so on. There is a lot here to like.

However, there are two big issues that reduce the fun (and the replayability) for me. The first is the constant problem of revolutions. As another reviewer pointed out, you should plan to spend hours of real time endlessly shuttling your armies around trying to stamp out one revolution after the next. This is astoundingly tedious after awhile. The second is the fact that you are completely locked in to the real history of your country. If you are playing China, and China historically suffered a huge government scandal in 1699, when 1699 rolls around you are screwed no matter how you've played so far. It occured to me that the point of the game is not really to expand your empire, but to try your hand at re-playing actual historyy. This does have its interesting moments, but it zaps the replayability to 0. Do I really want to play Spain again and go through all the exact same historically driven events over agin? Not really.

This locked-in history also really limits the number of countries that you can expect to play enjoyably. Yes, it's often said that there are 200 countries, and you can play any of them. However, the historical inevitability built into the game limits the fun factor for most. Few countries are even able to explore the world beyond their known lands, because you need special exploring units to all you to venture into new map zones, and the historically colonial countries just have a built-in edge in the number of explorers they receive. You can play the Inca empire if you'd like to spend several hours staring at the same 20 provinces, with no way to explore beyond them.

Overall, I have to say that I don't really consider this to be a "game." It is more like a very detailed history sim. Judging from the positive reviews here and the on-line message boards, there are plenty of people out there who love this, and I can see how that might be possible for someone who has lots and lots and lots of time to spend learning it, and who does not mind the built-in history. I would have preferred something a little less pre-ordained and labor intensive.

Great concept with some problems

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 51 / 67
Date: May 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Europa Universalis II is one of the most compelling strategy games for the PC to be released in the last decade. Its combination of economics, politics, and warfare provides a much richer experience than the typical build and conquer style strategy games.
Here are the high points:
* Large scale conquest is impractical and difficult. You won't find it easy to win the game by wiping out the competition. This means you actually have to think!
* The political system is rich and diverse, allowing you to actively make efforts to improve relations.
* The large number of nations makes realistic alliances possible.
* The economic system is simple enough to be playable, but diverse enough to be interesting.

Here are some problems:
* The game is supposed to be historically accurate, but it defies this in two serious ways:
1.) The nature of exploration is unrealistic. Because all military units have an attrition rate that increases with time, you cannot send out long expeditions (making circumnavigation impossible). Also, you can't bring ships into a safe harbor in unknown lands to refresh the crew.
2.) When you discover the new world empires (Aztecs, etc.), they are treated exactly the same as the old world countries politically. This means you have to have a valid cause to attack them. In history, the cultures of the new world were exempted from the rules of war.
* The focus on history also limits your choices. As far as I can tell, you only get explorers (which allow you to move into uncharted map spaces) that correspond with actual famous explorers from the country you are playing. Some countries will therefore get a big advantage that others don't have.

In conclusion, EU II is a good game with a lot of fresh ideas, but it has some limiting factors that can easily turn you off. It is worth a look if you are a thinking strategy fan, but is probably not a good choice if your interest in strategy is limited to traditional (War Craft style) real-time games.

I found that, after playing this game for a while, I went back to Imperialism II, which is a much superior game.

A thinking man's game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 21 / 21
Date: December 31, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I got this game for Christmas and really did not know what to expect when I opened the box...but I have to say this is one of the best strategy games I have ever played! For starters:

The game is historically rich..I am learning so much about 14-18 century Europe! To begin I jumped in to the Grand Campaign on a Normal difficulty level, choosing Austria as my country (I love a challenge!)I have played more than 100 years of a 400 year campaign and have learned the following:

By far the most important thing is to manage your empire and keep your people happy. I cannot over-emphasize this...go for the maximum stability level whenever you can and this will translate into higher revenues and even better morale for your troops.

Secondly, PLAN YOUR WARS! Want to boot Sweden off the Continent? Better check who her allies are...you will probably be fighting them as well. Make sure you also have allies..In 100 years I as Austria have only fought 4 wars (winning 3) and even when you win there are things to consider...what kind of peace should I offer? Tribute? Annexation? Annexation can and does anger the other nations...they dont want their rivals getting too powerful.

Thirdly, Manage your Government. Do you want to favor the Aristocrats? Do you want a centralized power base or let your provinces pretty much rule themselves? Focus on the Army (great for Austia) or Navy (great for England)? Each decision has its good and bad points, and this takes a lot of thought. Also, send your Merchants to the more lucrative Trade Centers; competition is fierce, but the rewards are good!

Do not expect a graphics intensive game (though what is there is OK). The focus is on you running your empire.

I hope this helps. Definate 4 - 41/2 star rating!!

Civilization and then some...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 20
Date: June 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Let me begin by saying that I have enjoyed a great many strategy games, ranging from the original Civilization, Master of Orion, Warcraft, etc., and this game is by far the best I have ever played. This is the kind of game that can find you losing touch with your friends and relatives - it is incredibly addictive.

A few high notes:

1) The gameplay offers extraordinary depth, with many different approaches that can all be successful. You can conquer Europe as France, diplomatically dominate as Austria, conquer the Americas as Spain, or colonize your way to the top as England.

2) Replayability is amazing. If you get tired of playing the large countries in Europe, try to dominate the globe as Zimbabwe or the Inca Empire. All countries on earth during the time period covered by the game are available, and it is possible to do well playing any of them (much harder with countries like the Inca, but still possible).

3) This game really requires you to THINK! There are consequences for each of your actions in the game that may not surface for another 100 years, and you have to bear these things in mind constantly.

4) There is a marvelous balance between being boring and having too much detail.

A few gripes:

1) Even after all the recent patches, the game still crashes too frequently. Technical support is very responsive, but there's not a whole lot they seem to be able to do about it, so save often.

2) The copy protection on the disk sometimes prevents it from running at all on some computers (no error message here either).

That said, I believe this is the best computer game I have ever played. Even better than Civilization.

Addictive and educational

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 19
Date: October 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you like strategy and history, this game is completely enjoyable. It presents constant challenges, sometimes irritating (just like real life) and you can overcome them as you learn about the game, but also about history and geography.

I thought I was knowledgeable about history and geography, but have learned much from this game. The maps, provinces, cities and ethnicities are detailed and accurate. The authors have made a worthy effort to include summaries of historical events, political crises, etc. albeit in broken English. Best of all, playing EU2 makes you want to read and learn more about some of the people and events in the scenarios.

Also, the musical soundtrack adds to the sense of time travel that is so hypnotic in this game. I hope future editions will add even more musical choices and depth.

A few suggestions for improvement (hope the manufacturers also read these reviews):

1. The smaller nations don't get exceptional leaders (explorers, conquistadores, military).
2. The technology disadvantage of the non-European nations is perhaps historically accurate, but limits the "what-if" opportunities the game could offer.
3. A future EU3 could extend the time line more (ancient world, modern era).

Greatest Strategy Game Known To Man

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: October 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is undoubtably the greatest strategy game known to man. Its greatness is derived from four essential components to any strategy game. First off, it has an outstanding AI, that doesn't sacrifice manpower and resources for no apparent reason. The Game also has great options available to the player, and allows for control over many aspects of your chosen county (of which there are many to choose from). You can control technology finances, military strength, and the focus of your government. The game also has outstanding game play. Being based in real-time, allows for attacks and counter attacks in a timely and efficient manner. A component lacking in Civilization. Finally, the game follows history brilliantly. Being a European History buff, I found not only the game play aspect of the game enjoyable, but the deep history added to the game. From the 95 Thesis and the Edict of Nantes, to the regicide of King Charles I of England, this game has every important historical event throughout history. Not only do the historical events occur, but you can decide the outcome, or change your policies so they never happened. The Revolution in England never happened in one of my games, but occurred in another. The Protestant movement came to a sudden halt in one game, and yet in another flourished. It is a great game where the history is accurate, yet shapable. This is the single greatest aspect of this game that separates it from the rest. No game can even hold a light to Europa Universalis.

Holds great promise to ruin your social life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 23
Date: November 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

EU1 is a classic. EU2 is EU1 with many more features. Do not buy this game if you like eye candy (though the graphics are decent, they are not eye-popping) but if you like a hard and rewarding slog through war, peace, diplomacy, economic development, colonisation, conversion to the True Faith (whatever that might be) while 180-odd other countries around the world try to beat you, go for it.

The game starts in 1419 and end in 1820 (though you can play other scenarios) and you become the eminence grise of one of the c180 countries. You then guide various monarchs (some already brilliant, others hopeless) through history, beset not only by the conflicting aims of other countries, but by events good and bad.

This is a subtler and more difficult game than most strategy offerings. Conquest of the world is possible, but difficult, and you may find that holding onto a global empire is pretty hard.

And a bonus is a very helpful game developer and a very supportive online forum.

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