Is EU3 any good compared to EU4?

[Zoltrak]

I've never played EU3 but realized the older paradox titles from previous games have a good amount of quality to them so I was wondering how does EU3 compare to EU4? Is there any difference?

 

[Kovax]

I'd hesitate to call one "better" than the other. HOI4 is more polished, and with the expansions has a lot more content, but HOI3 is a less railroaded game which feels more "organic" to me. HOI3 uses varying degrees of randomization (depending on which country you play) in selecting a new mission upon completion of the previous, while HOI4 has fixed mission trees; each method has its good and bad points. The games are similar in some ways, and very different in others.

Personally, I prefer the older game, but not by a huge margin, but you may want to save before completing a mission in HOI3 and reload if it hands you an impossible or stupid one (such as "Make Bohemia vote for us" for HRE Emperor, but Bohemia will ALWAYS vote for itself unless vassalized). HOI3 does need at least the first couple of expansions to fix some early wonkiness and fill out the voids in content, but the full game (including the Divine Wind expansion) isn't that expensive if you catch it on sale, usually sold in two parts: one with the base game and early expansions, and the last few expansions bundled as the second. HOI4 and even a moderate selection of DLCs will run you some serious cash.

 

[Wenceslaus II]

I'd hesitate to call one "better" than the other. HOI4 is more polished, and with the expansions has a lot more content, but HOI3 is a less railroaded game which feels more "organic" to me. HOI3 uses varying degrees of randomization (depending on which country you play) in selecting a new mission upon completion of the previous, while HOI4 has fixed mission trees; each method has its good and bad points. The games are similar in some ways, and very different in others.

Personally, I prefer the older game, but not by a huge margin, but you may want to save before completing a mission in HOI3 and reload if it hands you an impossible or stupid one (such as "Make Bohemia vote for us" for HRE Emperor, but Bohemia will ALWAYS vote for itself unless vassalized). HOI3 does need at least the first couple of expansions to fix some early wonkiness and fill out the voids in content, but the full game (including the Divine Wind expansion) isn't that expensive if you catch it on sale, usually sold in two parts: one with the base game and early expansions, and the last few expansions bundled as the second. HOI4 and even a moderate selection of DLCs will run you some serious cash.

Are you talking EU3 vs EU4 or HOI3 vs HOI4? OPer, I think graphics and demention wise EU4 is better, but understanding the game and mastering it is definately alot easier with EU3. EU3 is its own game, but we better catch up and enjoy EU4, because you never know when EU5 might drop

 

[Kovax]

Oops, talking EU3 but just played some HOI3 and inadvertently put down what was on my mind. I find EU3 to have a more natural feel; EU4 seems to have too many absurd moments, and I'm not at all fond of the static mission trees, which tend to make every play-through feel the same. As you say, EU4 graphics are "better", but I don't play for the graphics, and EU3 conveys the necessary info just as well or better.

 

[Wenceslaus II]

I agree. Someone said EU4 had too much detail and options cramped into one game. Eu3 leaves you with nothing more than a good, colonial era sim.

 

[Puzur-Ilu]

The only thing about EU4 that I would say is clearly better than EU3 is the diplomacy system and additional peace options, like forcing the enemy to return core provinces to a third nation (in EU3, you need to conquer those provinces normally and manually sell them to the third nation). Almost every thing else about EU3 is better. The trade system is better, the agent system is better, the research system is better, etc. Having more features doesn't automatically mean a better game.