VICTORIA 3 Review - A High Standard Of Living

PC Review Code Provided by Paradox Interactive

The lords and ladies over at Paradox Interactive have done it again, folks! The creators of award-winning titles such as Hearts of Iron, Crusader Kings, and Stellaris have released their newest addition to the Paradox lineup. Victoria 3 is a beautiful foray into economics and politics during the rise of industrialism and is also one of the most user-friendly games they have put out.

For games that typically take tens of hours to understand, Victoria 3 only had me scratching my head for 5 hours before everything suddenly clicked on my second playthrough. For someone who entered this game with zero understanding of global economics or even what a GDP really is, I am confident in saying this newest chapter of the Victoria franchise is one I will be playing for a long time to come.

Gameplay

Victoria 3 puts players into the admittedly large shoes of having to control a country at the rise of the industrial revolution. Starting in the 1830s, you will control what laws are passed and how the improvements in your country are built to create the ultimate industrial paradise in whatever manner you choose. Previous games from Paradox typically have the player focused on “painting the map,” mainly conquering land and spreading your influence through warfare or aggressive diplomacy. However, Victoria 3 is more inwardly focused on the country under control, how it can be managed, and potentially how it can exploit other regions of the world. Yes, imperialism is all the rage in the industrial era. With many of the European countries working on their imperialist tendencies, it is up to the player how their country will engage with the decentralized nations throughout the world. As a historical game, slavery is involved as something to be voted for or banned, but Paradox approaches it in a sensitive way.

Choosing to utilize slavery and racial discrimination gives some negatives that do not exist with the opposing options but means you have a much higher level of control over the population at large. However, these choices will affect you later on as a society and the world at large begins to feel the moral degeneracies of utilizing other humans for profit. This is a part of the laws that will need to be passed and can improve the well-being of your citizens or take away from it for financial gain.

The strength of Victoria 3 lies in its accessibility. Yes, I’m saying this grand-strategy game is accessible to newer fans of the genre, as long as they are prepared to read. Tooltips are available for most in-game concepts, and a series of objectives and tutorial missions make learning the gameplay flow much easier. My first game in Sweden saw me tanking my income, failing my citizens in many ways, and inevitably falling into a death spiral. In the second game, I took control of Chile, a much smaller economy, and grew it to the 7th largest in the world and the leading exporter of grain and meat. All it took was a little patience, a lot of reading, and plenty of pausing.

The real-time nature of Paradox games can make the level of depth daunting, but being able to pause or run the game more slowly gives players the time to understand how their actions impact their country and what options are available to them. Part of the enjoyment in Victoria 3 comes from the dynamic stories that come as your country develops and the freeform or semi-freeform objectives players can pursue. Making your own goals is part of the fun. Taking Chile (a recently independent country under a military junta) to the first universal voting democracy with public schools and women’s suffrage felt really good, and having to convince the population of that was so interesting.

The final gameplay point I’ll touch upon is interest groups. Basically, every single person in your country is simulated and connects to a specific group that speaks for them. For example, your farmers and woodcutters are part of the rural population, while the soldiers in your military are part of the military faction. Every building you create has jobs, and each job connects to an interest group that has its own needs and standard of living. Making sure you keep each group happy, or at least the influential ones will affect your ability to pass policy and move your country the way you choose.

Audio and Visuals

Victoria 3 is pretty. Really pretty. The world map is colorful and pops, and zooming in shows off the landscapes and structures throughout your country in vibrant detail. Seeing the different regions of your country expand with new buildings and additions is honestly awe-inspiring, and upgrading your infrastructure from horse-carts to trains includes the addition of railways and little steam-puffing metal machines. Strategy games tend to have a different focus on graphical details, but Victoria 3’s sweeping landscapes and intriguing city growth definitely add to the experience.

Part of that experience is also elevated by the phenomenal original soundtrack (OST) and sound effects for the game. Zoom into your territory and hear seagulls squawk and trains blow their horns, as well as the bustle of city life when near a town. The music also adds to the immersion. Tracks vary from calm and classical to epic and exciting. The buildup to war is accentuated by the drums and high-powered singing that comes in, and it is equally grand just casually upgrading buildings to an orchestral piece. Even if you don’t end up purchasing Victoria 3, go ahead and do yourself a favor and listen to their amazing soundtrack. Here are some tracks to “chill or industrialize to,” posted by the official Paradox YouTube channel. To put it quite plainly, the vibes are immaculate and industrialization awaits!

Replayability

I have reviewed Crusader Kings 3 since Royal Court, and I will put here what I always put there. The replayability of Victoria 3 is up to you and your imagination. Some players will play part of a campaign or two and not play another. For others, Victoria 3 will be a game to sink thousands of hours into, and the sure-to-be-released DLC will only add to that replayability. As such, that is for the player to decide, and not me. However, to speak for myself, I will definitely be tooling around in the industrial era for a while yet to come, even beyond the 30 hours I have put into it for this review. As yet I feel like I have merely scratched the surface, and look forward to diving even deeper into the almost overwhelming level of mechanics and concepts I haven’t had to work with so far.

Victoria 3 is an incredibly deep game. Your first playthrough will have you confused and maybe frustrated with not understanding the mechanics of this game. Part of the learning experience is failing, and the absolute joy of seeing things work out as you want makes it all worth it. The openness of this sandbox really gives players a toolbox for their own fun, and being able to explore it and find the wonder inside is part of what makes these games a joy to play.

What It Could Have Done Better

Happily enough, my only complaints are small. In my mind, Victoria 3 succeeded in being the game it advertised, something that we don’t see too often these days. For the price, it is an absolute joy that I expect to spend much more time in. Some things I might change (and might change in the future) are the depth of the combat and adding unique animated characters to the map for flavor. While the character icons are great, currently combat is a line that moves back and forth as territory is gained or lost. Sometimes two small redoubts will fire at each other while there are background battle noises, but that’s the extent. I like watching little lines of soldiers shoot at each other like in Europa Universalis or Hearts of Iron, but it’s not something that is necessary to the experience. In addition, there is no naval layer of combat, and they are instead primarily escorts or transports. Adding something there could definitely create some extra tension in an area of Victoria 3 that doesn’t really have much.

Adding another level of strategy to the combat would definitely make it more in-depth, although the focus of the game is and should be economy and politics. These complaints are truly minor and are me looking for something that could have been done better, but overall Victoria 3 is already in a solid place and I’m looking forward to the inevitable DLC that will add more depth.

Verdict

Victoria 3 is the newest in a library of fantastic grand-strategy games from Paradox Interactive. For those who are interested in managing a country’s decisions and creating a powerhouse economy, this is the game for you. If you are new to the grand strategy genre, this is a great stepping stone to the library of Paradox and has taken the accessibility of Crusader Kings 3 to a whole new level. For me, this is one of the best strategy games I’ve played in 2022 and I am looking forward to the future. To all my fellow guides of nations and industrial creators, Gloria Victoria!

Victoria 3 is available now on PC via Steam. Check it out and let us know your thoughts in the comments!