Final Verdicts of Victoria 2

[ComradeOm]

Looking good so far. The one complaint I have (not sure if this is warranted) is that P'dox seem to have replaced the micromanagement of manually promoting POPs with the micromanagement of adjusting tax sliders to automatically adjust POPs. I wasn't a fan of the old way but trying to get my tax bands lined up correctly is proving to be a real pain

 

[Snall]

Some bugs for the AI and maybe the rebels system but I can impose my will pretty easy on any nation - hoping the beta patches, etc, just make it better and better like EU3.

 

[CatKnight]

Possibly Paradox's most solid release ever. Certainly their most solid release 'out of the box'.

After going through the tutorial I loaded up as Belgium. I'd never made it very far into V1 because of its complexity. In V2 the complexity is there if I want it, but it also seems much more intuitive - much more easy to keep a handle on everything. I had a few small economic problems, but the solutions were pretty much common sense once I thought of it.

My Belgian game is now three years old. (There was a CTD. Grr.) The Dutch picked a fight with me. My British buddies and I dealt with them, then in stereotypical English (and very Paradox AI) fashion saw no need to invite me to the peace talks.

 

[naggy]

I'd have to say, for Day 1, it's 10/10.

Issues:
* If you to L-F or Interventionism before discovering railroads, you are in trouble.
* There needs to be more of a distance factor for SoI's (distance from naval base?). I concentrated on high population nations, and OE probably shouldn't be able to put Japan in their SoI right at game start.
* The War Goals are plain awesome.

I'll probably have more later, but while the game obviously needs balancing (what game doesn't?), it's a blast to play, and that's the important part.

 

[masochist]

I'm really enjoying it so far. Great to be playing a Paradox game that feels complete out of the box. Love the interface and general "feel" of the game.

The countries that I've played so far all have laissez faire economics policy. I've found it a little too hands-off compared to the original Victoria. May try a state capitalism approach as I prefer the micro-managing.

 

[Nachtwesen]

I must say it is really fun to pay this game.. I agree with you all.

What I like is the fact that minors arent so poor.. if you manage seem a few years.. indeed you can do some good stuff with them.

I did beat denmark with lübeck and so.. economy started to bloom.. yea pretty fun this game.

Still need to learn some stuff.. but yea it is indeed pretty fun!

 

[unmerged(138986)]

And knowing Paradox, it will get even better... though at the moment I can´t quite see how. But I know you guys will manage!

It's probably a very minor point for most, but to me the absence of tech descriptions is nearly a gamebreaker. I just got the demo and had to think:what on earth is so hard about a simple copy&paste from vicky1? And there is space enough in the box right next to the tech picture! It was the same from hoi1 to hoi2(though i love hoi2dd anyway). Dear Paradoxians,the moment this issue is resolved i will buy the game like i did vicky1(one of the best strategy games ever made). The rest of the game seems very thought through and may indeed be the best first release so far.

 

[Aragos]

As a semi-pro game reviewer, I can say this is one of the better Paradox releases in a long time.

-works out of the box
-fast; game runs at full speed if desired (in contrast to HOI3)
-no game breaking problems (no CTDs, no overpowered AI countries)
-fun to play
-very complex, high learning curve if you are new to the series

bad--I only have seen one from the half dozen games I've played. The massive liberal revolts worldwide. I thought it was just me as the USA (e.g., I blamed myself for bad play), but then I did a quick look around the globe and discovered half of the great powers were overrun with rebels. It needs to be slowed down a bit; it can easily ruin the entire campaign as GPs are too busy running down rebels to fight each other, unification, etc.

 

[archaon_archi]

It's probably a very minor point for most, but to me the absence of tech descriptions is nearly a gamebreaker. I just got the demo and had to think:what on earth is so hard about a simple copy&paste from vicky1? And there is space enough in the box right next to the tech picture! It was the same from hoi1 to hoi2(though i love hoi2dd anyway). Dear Paradoxians,the moment this issue is resolved i will buy the game like i did vicky1(one of the best strategy games ever made). The rest of the game seems very thought through and may indeed be the best first release so far.

I agree on this. I miss the tech descriptions. They add a lot of flavour and don't make it look like you are simply researching some modifiers. Anyway, I've been seeing the use of the word gamebraking too lightly in the last hours.

 

[Vulture]

My Belgian game is now three years old. (There was a CTD. Grr.) The Dutch picked a fight with me. My British buddies and I dealt with them, then in stereotypical English (and very Paradox AI) fashion saw no need to invite me to the peace talks.

... as it probably would've been historically. No way Belgium would have been allowed to negotiate with the Netherlands separately. Or at the very least, they wouldn't have been allowed to negotiate a peace that did not have the Great Powers' approval.

 

[Olaf the Unsure]

It's way too early for anything like a "final" verdict, but I'm very happy so far. The game needs some balancing -- though, in fairness, what seems imbalanced to me now may make complete sense once I understand the game better.

Overall, I like the fact that your influence is mostly indirect -- that you don't have god-like control over every element in the game. The challenges here seem much more subtle than in other games, and I think perhaps the reward will be all the more satisfying for it -- assuming I can figure out some of the finer points.

Thumbs up so far.

 

[unmerged(75409)]

My Belgian game is now three years old. (There was a CTD. Grr.) The Dutch picked a fight with me. My British buddies and I dealt with them, then in stereotypical English (and very Paradox AI) fashion saw no need to invite me to the peace talks.

That's how diplomacy worked at the time. Small countries had their affairs decided by the greater powers. You should want to be a great power instead

 

[Voimala]

9/10 so far. As playing Russia around 1860 I love the diplomatical aspects of the game. Instead of continous fighting I have had 20 years of peace and development in the country.

I am perhaps too liberal to allow the capitalists to build factories that fall to state subsidies right away. Whats this canned food anyway, that they so much desire?

 

[grafter34]

This comment cought my eye. What do you mean by this? We worked hard to try and make the game as polished as we could, because we felt that you would get more enjoyment out of the game that way.

What I meant by this is that in vic 1 there always seemed something to do, pops to split budget to manage, armies to deploy capitalists to check on and a much more tangible pop militancy , whereas now with little or no militancy one can have your whole country over run.
In this new polished version at times it feels like too much though was put into the stunning graphics, but my largest problem the lack of events, in my japan game I have reached 1880 with only westernisation wind and the rising sun event for gp status. I always liked the events in vic and felt in many ways they were what seperTed the game from many other titles. I understand the moddability of the new vic but I feel that perhaps vanilla should have contained more events. I would also very much like a way to trade techs and provinces again, I really miss that and I feel it would be particular useful in multiplayer.

Sorry for the text block and thanks for a great game, I'm going on holiday now for 2 weeks so I hope by then we are on 1.3 and have all the rebel problems sorted out .
Thanks again

 

[GrafKeks]

I gibe the game a 9/10 the only big change I´d like to have is the OOB manager from HoI or somthing similiar and the option to automate some things.

Anyway the game is great fun and I´ll definitely pre-order the Add-On

 

[grafter34]

Oh and I also really miss the ledger. On the plus side I love many new features and I think that when this gets it's very own VIP and expansion it will be my favourite game, as it certainly has the potential, and if it wasn't for the rebels I would say this release is much better than Ricky VIP

 

[MaybeNever]

Whats this canned food anyway, that they so much desire?

General on topic question unrelated to vodka (strange though that may seem):

From what I've read, it sounds like you need to do a lot of juggling of tax and spend sliders to get pops to promote in a useful fashion, or else you end up with not enough clergy or clerks or whatever. Is it possible to play a successful game without fiddling with these? I'm not too interested in having to find a bunch of sweet spots so that my research or industry don't completely collapse.

 

[Naselus]

The term 'a triumph' springs to mind. There's a few minor issues - the rebel overload thing that crops up in 90% of games, the ledger could do with a few dozen extra pages, and the SOI system could use a few automation options so you're not constantly micromanaging it - but nothing a couple of very small patches won't fix outright. By far the most complete Paradox game out of the box, and far more accessible than most, too.

 

[Spruce]

I have a few requirements before I consider buying VICTORIA 2 =

- no more 1000 battleship fleets at end of game (end game)
- no more map cluttering by crazy peace deals (middle and end game)

 

[Dafool]

In relation to the release, the game's great. No massive problems or performance issues. The game is more or less playable without any real hiccups. This is appreciated so much and doesn't make me regret pre-ordering.

As for the game itself, I feel it's good, but a little lacking. Nothing too serious to worry about, but it does feel like I'm along for the ride a bit more than I'm guiding my country through the game. I don't want the intricate pop tinkering of the original, but sometimes it feels I'm having no real effect on them even as I'm trying my damnedest. The few bugs that exist aren't really that big and I'm certainly not someone to complain over those few tiny problems when 95% of the game is working perfectly. I have to say I'm impressed and I'd give the game a very solid 8/10.