Just played two sessions with the demo this weekend (one a short one with France, one the full period with Denmark) and these are my findings. These are not intended to imbue really new information, but just to add a datapoint to anyone interested.
Background
I've owned EU1 (bargain bin) and EU2 (a surprise birthday gift!) for some years now. I like the way the game truly attempts to base itself in history, making the experience playing a different country truly different. Contrary to most other strategy games, EU doesn't try to make all countries equally fun/balanced to play; history is more of a consideration than balance. While all countries are playable in a technical sense, some are more playable than others.
While I own both previous installments, I'm by no means a good player. I only play single player and don't think I've finished more than two or three grand campaigns; I remember an England IGC in EU1 dominating the world (big holdings on the continent and a colonial empire) while not knowing how the economy really works and a Denmark in EU2/AGCEEP where I managed a large presence in Germany and France, being both strong overseas as well as the major player in Europe together with Poland and Spain (France got kicked by me taking advantage of War of Religion I think, Austria in a prolonged war with me and Poland). I did that with rudimentary knowledge about the economy but without realising the costs of wrong culture/wrong religion. As such, I never to really invested in the manufactories and conversions. BTW, this hurt in the end game
OK, now to the interesting bit: the demo. I fully understand that the demo is branched from a much earlier build than the final release. However, the demo is all I have seen and these are my findings.
Performance
This is a big minus for me. Though my system is not really topnotch, it's worse than I expected. FYI, my system is over 5 years old. I recently updated my gfx card (nVidia 6600 series I think; can't check right now) and of course an older CPU (AMD 1400+ I think) on an older MoBo (Asus A7V266 series) so I wasn't expecting any miracles, but the demo ran really slow. Civ4, which has many more things happening onscreen, runs so very much smoother...
Scrolling is extremely annoying. It's jumpy and unpredictable. I know scrolling using the cursor keys runs better, but that doesn't change the fact that I can easily accidentally jump the screen a lot when I need to access some buttons on the edge of the screen. Also (more of a UI-thing), enable the num-keypad for scrolling (especially diagonal scrolling!)
The UI isn't really responsive to click in the map area. Clicks on windows is fine.
Time goes forward slower than in EU2 I think. I remember running EU2 in full speed and seeing the months zip by. This isn't happening in the demo. This can be somewhat annoying during periods of low activity.
Another performance-related issue I noticed is when I moved a fleet from a blockaded port into the seas. At first it didn't register, suddenly, my fleet was defeated... It looked like a "local lag" or something.
Graphics
The graphics of a strategy game should, first and foremost, be functional. Well, functional they are, mostly: they're kinda clunky. This should satisfy most people, Paradox did not spend loads of time on eye candy in favour of gameplay here folks! Note, I'm not saying the graphics people did a bad job; it's decent.
Some things:
Animations are nice, but they also cost performance. Will there be an option to turn selected things off (waving flags...)
Sometimes, due to so many things in a province, it's difficult to impossible to see what's happening in a province.
All in all, it's decent enough and I'm not bothered. I understand that it might be easier to model a 3D map than a 2D map these days, since graphic support for 3D seems to be so much better that a 3D app might run better and smoother than a 2D app. And this might make hiring competent staff easier as well.
User interface
Mostly I love it! Especially the mini-window with all important stuff summarized. This way, I can easily see where everything is. Naming my own armies is also a nice feature which helps me keep track of things.
Some things that are less good:
Siege progress window is flawed. When a wall has been breached, I can no longer see the expected fall of the city when I hover over it. I know I can see it in the summary, but it's strange that a small summary window contains more information than the big window. I'd like the expected length of the siege to be prominent in the siege popup, showing it even when I don't hover over it. If I open the siege window, apparently I'm interested in it, so show me as much information about it as possible and don't resort to tool tips!
The window where I can hire advisors is flawed. When the text of the effect of the advisor runs off the edge, it goes onto the next line along with the other text. This makes it hard to read.
Sometimes, it's hard to select the right thing, due to the many things that are on screen.
Only now do I realise how much I liked the old Trade map in EU2. Now, when I'm in economy map mode, when I click on a province, I don't get the COT, but I get the standard popup (diplomacy / province).
Game log doesn't scroll correctly. It stays on the top message, so it doesn't show the most recent one (which is at the bottom)
Clicking on the ledger is inconsistent: sometimes it just jumps up and closes again in an instant (you see it flicker up), clicking on the button again makes the ledger stay on screen though. Ledger info is ok, though the COT info should list total amount of free/taken slots.
I don't like the dice. They look gamey and jolt me out of my suspense of disbelief.
I don't think I found a list of what tech levels led to what effects, only what the next tech level will do. This is annoying for any long term planning.
Other issues are mostly a matter of getting used to things I think.
Gameplay
Gameplay is quite nice! I enjoyed mucking about with France and Denmark. I liked the unit choices and it leads to more involvement in the military tech trees. In EU2, it was more like, "Oh look: my troops fight better now!" With unit types, I actually get something really tangible.
Government types look very interesting. The demo is too short a period to really see the difference perhaps, but perhaps in a few days I'll try Denmark and change the government type at the start to something else just to see the effects.
National Ideas are great. This allows you to specialise in a way previously unseen.
Advisors are fun. However, a few years into the game, there are simply no good advisors left. The only advisors left are single star +merchant/+diplomat/+spy advisors in my pool. I'd imagine that my pretty good prestige (always in the top 10, ranging from #1 at the start due to a succesful war to #8 in a time of inactivity/buildup) would allow me to get a better pick of advisors. Or maybe the advisors were scared off due to my slightly tarnished reputation? What factors influence the home country of advisors and their stats anyway?
Naval combat is still annoying. I've played "chase the Russians out of my pond" a few times now, trying to kill that last ship. Insta-flee is annoying to the extreme. At least it flees in a meaningful way (back to Russia) instead of ping-ponging around my private pond (the Sound is mine, do you hear, mine!).
Still can't gain capital provinces. Very annoying!
I like the endgame summary (an immediate resignation after start resulted in King Hans the Idle )
Overall
Based on the demo, I'd rate this game pretty highly. I'm not quite sure it's better enough compared to EU2 to buy it at full price. It's hard to tell from the demo alone. User interface is mostly an improvement. I can't judge how well the event system works yet, for a few decades is too short a time to get a real feel for it. I'd have to trust how the forum reacts.
The 3D is neither a step forwards nor a step backwards. I understand the reasons and since I expect to upgrade my gfx card once every 3-6 years, I'm not bothered. Laptop compatibility is no issue for me, but I can see problems upgrading a laptop though. That said, laptops are a poor excuse for gaming anyway
Performance is slow. If this doesn't get significantly better, it might tip the balance to waiting for the bargain bin. I understand the performance needs of a real time game (or actually, turn based game with many mini-turns). Still, the non-responsiveness of the user interface can be a killer. I hate applications which sacrifice UI responsiveness for running speed. I'd rather have the game run slightly slower (taking more time/day) and have a smooth interface than the other way round.
Overall, I'd say a good game. If you like EU2, you'll probably not be disappointed by the gameplay as such. I can't judge how historical/ahistorical the game will be from the demo. Based on your own preferences, you may or may not like it for that reason alone. I also can't judge yet if EU3 is different enough compared to EU2 in gameplay / feel to warrant buying it. Performance issues are, for me, a signal not to buy it at this state. This may change when the situation changes (better performance, better pricing or a better system).
Background
I've owned EU1 (bargain bin) and EU2 (a surprise birthday gift!) for some years now. I like the way the game truly attempts to base itself in history, making the experience playing a different country truly different. Contrary to most other strategy games, EU doesn't try to make all countries equally fun/balanced to play; history is more of a consideration than balance. While all countries are playable in a technical sense, some are more playable than others.
While I own both previous installments, I'm by no means a good player. I only play single player and don't think I've finished more than two or three grand campaigns; I remember an England IGC in EU1 dominating the world (big holdings on the continent and a colonial empire) while not knowing how the economy really works and a Denmark in EU2/AGCEEP where I managed a large presence in Germany and France, being both strong overseas as well as the major player in Europe together with Poland and Spain (France got kicked by me taking advantage of War of Religion I think, Austria in a prolonged war with me and Poland). I did that with rudimentary knowledge about the economy but without realising the costs of wrong culture/wrong religion. As such, I never to really invested in the manufactories and conversions. BTW, this hurt in the end game
OK, now to the interesting bit: the demo. I fully understand that the demo is branched from a much earlier build than the final release. However, the demo is all I have seen and these are my findings.
Performance
This is a big minus for me. Though my system is not really topnotch, it's worse than I expected. FYI, my system is over 5 years old. I recently updated my gfx card (nVidia 6600 series I think; can't check right now) and of course an older CPU (AMD 1400+ I think) on an older MoBo (Asus A7V266 series) so I wasn't expecting any miracles, but the demo ran really slow. Civ4, which has many more things happening onscreen, runs so very much smoother...
Scrolling is extremely annoying. It's jumpy and unpredictable. I know scrolling using the cursor keys runs better, but that doesn't change the fact that I can easily accidentally jump the screen a lot when I need to access some buttons on the edge of the screen. Also (more of a UI-thing), enable the num-keypad for scrolling (especially diagonal scrolling!)
The UI isn't really responsive to click in the map area. Clicks on windows is fine.
Time goes forward slower than in EU2 I think. I remember running EU2 in full speed and seeing the months zip by. This isn't happening in the demo. This can be somewhat annoying during periods of low activity.
Another performance-related issue I noticed is when I moved a fleet from a blockaded port into the seas. At first it didn't register, suddenly, my fleet was defeated... It looked like a "local lag" or something.
Graphics
The graphics of a strategy game should, first and foremost, be functional. Well, functional they are, mostly: they're kinda clunky. This should satisfy most people, Paradox did not spend loads of time on eye candy in favour of gameplay here folks! Note, I'm not saying the graphics people did a bad job; it's decent.
Some things:
Animations are nice, but they also cost performance. Will there be an option to turn selected things off (waving flags...)
Sometimes, due to so many things in a province, it's difficult to impossible to see what's happening in a province.
All in all, it's decent enough and I'm not bothered. I understand that it might be easier to model a 3D map than a 2D map these days, since graphic support for 3D seems to be so much better that a 3D app might run better and smoother than a 2D app. And this might make hiring competent staff easier as well.
User interface
Mostly I love it! Especially the mini-window with all important stuff summarized. This way, I can easily see where everything is. Naming my own armies is also a nice feature which helps me keep track of things.
Some things that are less good:
Siege progress window is flawed. When a wall has been breached, I can no longer see the expected fall of the city when I hover over it. I know I can see it in the summary, but it's strange that a small summary window contains more information than the big window. I'd like the expected length of the siege to be prominent in the siege popup, showing it even when I don't hover over it. If I open the siege window, apparently I'm interested in it, so show me as much information about it as possible and don't resort to tool tips!
The window where I can hire advisors is flawed. When the text of the effect of the advisor runs off the edge, it goes onto the next line along with the other text. This makes it hard to read.
Sometimes, it's hard to select the right thing, due to the many things that are on screen.
Only now do I realise how much I liked the old Trade map in EU2. Now, when I'm in economy map mode, when I click on a province, I don't get the COT, but I get the standard popup (diplomacy / province).
Game log doesn't scroll correctly. It stays on the top message, so it doesn't show the most recent one (which is at the bottom)
Clicking on the ledger is inconsistent: sometimes it just jumps up and closes again in an instant (you see it flicker up), clicking on the button again makes the ledger stay on screen though. Ledger info is ok, though the COT info should list total amount of free/taken slots.
I don't like the dice. They look gamey and jolt me out of my suspense of disbelief.
I don't think I found a list of what tech levels led to what effects, only what the next tech level will do. This is annoying for any long term planning.
Other issues are mostly a matter of getting used to things I think.
Gameplay
Gameplay is quite nice! I enjoyed mucking about with France and Denmark. I liked the unit choices and it leads to more involvement in the military tech trees. In EU2, it was more like, "Oh look: my troops fight better now!" With unit types, I actually get something really tangible.
Government types look very interesting. The demo is too short a period to really see the difference perhaps, but perhaps in a few days I'll try Denmark and change the government type at the start to something else just to see the effects.
National Ideas are great. This allows you to specialise in a way previously unseen.
Advisors are fun. However, a few years into the game, there are simply no good advisors left. The only advisors left are single star +merchant/+diplomat/+spy advisors in my pool. I'd imagine that my pretty good prestige (always in the top 10, ranging from #1 at the start due to a succesful war to #8 in a time of inactivity/buildup) would allow me to get a better pick of advisors. Or maybe the advisors were scared off due to my slightly tarnished reputation? What factors influence the home country of advisors and their stats anyway?
Naval combat is still annoying. I've played "chase the Russians out of my pond" a few times now, trying to kill that last ship. Insta-flee is annoying to the extreme. At least it flees in a meaningful way (back to Russia) instead of ping-ponging around my private pond (the Sound is mine, do you hear, mine!).
Still can't gain capital provinces. Very annoying!
I like the endgame summary (an immediate resignation after start resulted in King Hans the Idle
)Overall
Based on the demo, I'd rate this game pretty highly. I'm not quite sure it's better enough compared to EU2 to buy it at full price. It's hard to tell from the demo alone. User interface is mostly an improvement. I can't judge how well the event system works yet, for a few decades is too short a time to get a real feel for it. I'd have to trust how the forum reacts.
The 3D is neither a step forwards nor a step backwards. I understand the reasons and since I expect to upgrade my gfx card once every 3-6 years, I'm not bothered. Laptop compatibility is no issue for me, but I can see problems upgrading a laptop though. That said, laptops are a poor excuse for gaming anyway
Performance is slow. If this doesn't get significantly better, it might tip the balance to waiting for the bargain bin. I understand the performance needs of a real time game (or actually, turn based game with many mini-turns). Still, the non-responsiveness of the user interface can be a killer. I hate applications which sacrifice UI responsiveness for running speed. I'd rather have the game run slightly slower (taking more time/day) and have a smooth interface than the other way round.
Overall, I'd say a good game. If you like EU2, you'll probably not be disappointed by the gameplay as such. I can't judge how historical/ahistorical the game will be from the demo. Based on your own preferences, you may or may not like it for that reason alone. I also can't judge yet if EU3 is different enough compared to EU2 in gameplay / feel to warrant buying it. Performance issues are, for me, a signal not to buy it at this state. This may change when the situation changes (better performance, better pricing or a better system).
