
Nothing is stopping the Aztecs from taking over the world, but before the Spanish show up with guns, their progress through the tech tree is extremely sluggish. While you can play as civilizations such as the Aztec Empire, the game is clearly designed to focus on the European powers (which is probably why they didn't call it Every Country is Equally Viable Universalis). Things work similarly if your base of operations isn't in Europe, but not identically. Like much of EU IV, it is easy to dabble in, but complicated to master. It all comes together into an elegant dynamic that offers a play style all its own. Once the New World is colonized, this system allows you to chain-dump money back to your European base of operations for huge profits, intuitively modeling how trade would have actually worked in this era. Important information is shown in large, color-coded boxes and pop-ups that can easily be interpreted at a glance: Green is fine, yellow means you might want to take a look at it, and red means you failed your people, and should feel bad. Every action you need to take has a big, clearly-labeled button. The star of the show is a new, context-sensitive hint system which can explain to you in plain, "I don't play these games very often" English why your army upkeep is currently costing 10 bajillion gold more than it should, and why something called “Bogomilist Heretics” are a few battles away from taking over your government.Īll of the menus you need to get to are easy to find-and easy to decode. All of the information you need is presented cleanly, elegantly, and with (mostly) idiot-proof tooltips. This confidant is the game's interface, which is representative of how far the studio has come from even newer titles like Crusader Kings II.


Your command center for the Enlightenment But just as your nation's ruler can employ advisers to make up for deficiencies, EU IV has provided a peerless ally to aid your transition to world conqueror. Values like Naval Tradition and Trade Steering will continue to cause head-scratching among the uninitiated. Par for the course with a Paradox Development Studio game, there is a lot going on. Starting in 1444, EU IV gives the player the opportunity to select any significant nation on Earth, shepherding it through to 1821 amid war, dynastic politics, scientific advances, and the discovery of the New World.
