In Nomine, hum…?
But In Nomine of what?
The Europa Universalis product line has been touted among the best strategy games on the market. In my humble opinion the main secret of it lies not in the armies that march, the diplomacy that talk or the markets that trade. No, the cornerstone of it all is the huge number of nations all playing at the same time. Only this can convey to the player the sense of immersion, of not being THE nation, but simply ONE MORE nation. Often intangibles like these make all difference between a good work and something to behold.
This feeling was fortunately never lost through the series, in fact being expanded with each iteration. Of course, the magical combination of several mini games, at their core simple challenges to be integrated with complex possibilities and used to advance a nation’s goals plus the open endedness of the experience, decisively contributed for the title to achieve some sort of cult status among the stategy fans and grudgingly aknowledgement at more mainstream latitudes.
Europa Universalis III, released more than a year ago, scrapped the concept of deterministic events that made it relatively easy to keep the game within some rails of plausibility, at least on a very basic level, instead offering the capability to turn events contextual, meaning, what was being described was not what happened in History anymore, but what could happen given the right conditions were set. So far, so good. In fact, so far… Excelent!
The problem was the original game had the unwelcome tendency to generate random conquering sprees where some nations started gobbling up the others, forcing the player “to blob or die”. This lead to completely unplausible results that caused a large number of Europa Universalis cultists to watch in dismay.
Then, in August of last year the first expansion, called Napoleon’s Ambition, was released. While being a step in the right direction with some elements that were clearly geared towards the barrage of critics received, it mainly added functionality to the game, turning it far faster, adding some nice interface touches and an extended timeline to cover Napoleon’s Age...
...And here we are. Looking at In Nomine and trying to be as detached as possible to provide the reader with an honest review of it. I can only tell you the following lines are not from a fanboy. In fact, if any of you have read someplace in these forums my previous opinion about Europa Universalis III, I suppose nobody can call me a fanboy.
At a glance, the game you will soon see has not much to do with the flawed gem released more than a year ago. Only the graphics and the ever present elements described in the first paragraphs remain. The rest of the game was totally revamped with new design features, useful information and an incredible depth from a game mechanic perspective.
The experience is now much more structured without being intrusive in the freedom one has to set his own path. There are now missions that will be offered to each country and in this way countries can be partly steered through their own historical objectives based on contextual elements that can be present. This feature also gives lots of character to each nation as missions will obviously be different depending on who you play or where you play. Finally, these missions add some narrative back into the game taking out the “mechanic grind” of the past and turning the whole experience into a dynamic adventure, different every time you start. This is story telling at its peak.
In a game with a scope as large as Europa Universalis, it always stroke me as wrong some micromanagement the engines forced sometimes. Fortunately, Napoleon’s Ambition finally added a sorely needed auto send system for merchants which was a step in the right direction.
In Nomine welcomes us to a new colonization model. Micromanaging colonies will be a thing of the past. Your decision as the guiding hand of the country is not about who will you send where in an almost infinite cycle of waiting for the next colonist to appear, checking the bank balance and send it.
No, now you will be confronted with the overall strategy of your colonial empire. How strong is your economy to support its growth? Will you claim more provinces at the same time but spread thin due to the huge costs involved or would you tread a more secure route but cripple you expansion? How will you balance it all with your domestic and international policies? This is streamlining at its greatest.
Decisions, decisions… The new concept of “Decisions” introduced by In Nomine will empower the player and the AI with the capability to apply a myriad of decisions based on country, province or religion that furthers the depth and the possibilities of any nation. In short, the player has the capability to call certain events, or event pools, once certain conditions are met. Again, the capability is at the player’s fingertips. The decision, that is in his head. This is game design at its highest.
The previously three chapters present the biggest highlights of the expansion for me. However, allow me say here the huge amount of new stuff not covered by them could very well be included in TWO expansions and still turn them into two unavoidable additions.
Stuff like far improved AI, the impact of the naval resources on the country performance (now, for the first time, having a navy in some strategic instances is a must), new ideas, the new rebel types and their associated mechanic, battle mechanics, all the new religious approach (yes, the annoying tolerance bars are a thing of the past!), the huge increase of advisors, elections and so much more turn this expansion into an experience that must be played to be fully understood in its scope. This is game depth at its deepest.
In Nomine, hum?
But In Nomine of what…?
- Story telling at its peak
- Streamlining at its greatest
- Game design at is highest
- Game depth at its deepest
Enjoy a Masterpiece.