German review (with screenies)

[SykoNurse]

German review

http://www.withingames.net/index.php?show=articles&type=showreview&id=150

The experts in strategy gaming of Paradox Entertainment are back with a new game. After the clearly newbie oriented „Crown of the North“ this time the experts are adressed once more. With „Victoria – An Empire under the Sun“ there is another historical, global Strategy Game for hardcore gamers in position, which is supposed (like HoI before) - thanks to the very good Europa Universalis 2 - to put the fans under a spell. If the concept still works we`ll see in detailed test gaming.

The Pro-Game goes next round.

The Swedish developer Paradox Entertainment already provides very deep and complex strategy game supplies for the community for a few years already. Most of these titles are based on the engine of the bestseller „Europa Universalis 2“ of the same developing team. After the latest ultracomplex „Hearts of Iron“ used the era of WW2 as a background and the "light"-offspring „Crown of the North“ also could adress less experienced players, „Victoria“ now deals with the time of industrial revolution and colonialism in the late 19th century.

New game in known "gown"

YOu are wrong if you are awaiting an optical revolution. Once more „Victoria – An Empire under the Sun“ uses the 2 years old engine of Europa Universalis 2. The screen is divided in two main areas: On the left is an informational bar, on the right the actual part of the map. Via the information menu you can direct all aspects of the game, on the map view you see what is going on in your states and provinces. Here you direct armies and convoys or gather info about the single provinces.

Depending on your settings the whole map lies open on the screen or - with fog of war on- just shows the geography. All activity of foreign units is concealed. Who thinks this sounds familiar will certainly have played one of the predecessors, here the user interface is similar. The goal of the game is easily described: See that your nation becomes the world dominating power by latest end of 1920. Unfortunately this is easier said than done. Your competitors aren't just a bunch of other nations but the whole world.

All in all the map is divided into over 2800 single provinces, some of which make a state. At the beginning of the game the territorial divisions are the exact copy of the historical worldmap. In the ongoing game the course of history certainly changes accordingly to the players actions. If certain circumstances kick in, fitting proven historic (random) events come into place. Moreover there are always changing events, that sometimes have drastic impact on the world simulated in Victoria.

 

[unmerged(19173)]

a Google translation to English

 

[SykoNurse]

Demanding and complex

The player at the beginning of his game can choose his country from a list of all nations - according to his choice it will be easier or harder to take a global dominating stance. Apart from this choice driven difficulty the options leave it up to you to choose the AI aggressivity and general difficulty. Don't think you'll have an easy time on the lowest difficulty level as the President of teh United States of America. Even with this combination the seasoned player will have a hard time. This can by times become very frustrating. An introduction for these players would rather be „Crown of the North“. After celebrating enough successes here you may try the complexity-miracles that are „Hearts of Iron“ or now „Victoria“ – else you need nerves of steel and a certain masochistic tendency to get the hang of the game.

The number of issues you have to deal with in Victoria is manifold and can hardly be described in a single article. One keypoint you have to take care of as a leader is the population itself, whose life and behaviour is determined by dozens of influencing factors (which the player mostly can change with a lot of adjustments). Depending on your leadership and use of resources the members of the different classes like Nobility, craftsmen, military, clerics, labourers and slaves react differently on the decisions of their political leaders. After the population you have to care for your states as such, like setting taxes, coordinating the different political agendas, look after the distribution of resources or trading with other nations or the provinces between each other. Luckily in many places there is a possibility to tell the AI to take care of certain decisions, which then micromanages for you. The AI does that astonishingly well.

 

[SykoNurse]

The listing of Victoria's features continues with the administration of the relations of provinces with each other. Every people has different ethnic and political goals in mind and wants to be treated fairly well. With your neighbouring countries you have diplomatic relations instead. Contracts and pacts want to be made and broken again if needed. The various possibilities range from non-aggression and defensive pacts to trade agreements and military access rights through neutral states. Next thing is the unavoidable military managing. Armies want to be raised, irregulars organized, corps put together or distributed. In places where Diplomacy seems to fail cartainly always military power can decide over the end of a dispute. Who now believes we are at the end of the featurelist is terribly wrong. We did not mention the scientific research yet, the player also has control of and neither have we mentioned colonial politics regarding the expansion of Great Powers into their new oversea possessions in Africa or South America.

Realtime strategy for Pros

As you can see Victoria has become a strategic heavyweight again, demanding everything from the pro-gamer. The game itself, like all games on the EU engine, is realtime. In this case this does not mean (like in other games of this genre) you have to direct your troops hectically over the battlefield with your mouse, but only that all factions make their actions at the same time and not give out their orders turnbased. Hence it is advisable to set the gamespeed to a slow level, because you miss too much else. The computer-opponent like mentioned above is hard to come by even on the easiest settings. It becomes a real tough nut if you set your difficulty higher in the options.

The also already mentioned random events having drastic impact on the game regularly leave you at the game's mercy. To win Victoria you do not only need to show a good gaming performance but also a little luck. Of course if you rather want to play against friends but the computer you can do that. The comfortable Menu of the Multiplayer-Mode makes setting up an MP game a most easy. Possible are games over LAN, the Valkyrie-Net-Service or over a fast TCP/IP connection. The internet game via TCP/IP requires at least 512 kbit/s. In Multiplayer games the host decides upon the gamespeed and victory conditions. The speed of the game can only be changed (unlike the single player) by the host in th eoptions menu.

 

[Gaute65]

New Screenshots

In this link there are new screenshots.

 

[Galleblære]

Hmmm, Sweden as one of the starting nations you can select... and Mexico... strange.

 

[BiggN]

any idea who the industrial power house is in this SS?
http://www.withingames.net/screenshots/vicky/vicky_004.jpg

 

[SykoNurse]

Not very colourful but a clear view

Unfortunately Paradox Entertainment didn't manage to stay by the relatively good looking design of „Crown of the North“. Everything looks a little pale and the graphics are lacking special titbits. Exemplary is the overall view, thanks to the fully developed interfaces giving a good control over the game. Despite numerous menus, submenus and sub-submenus (sometimes up to five! submenus) the title is playable really well. This is because of the logical division of the menu, which in contrary to a Master of Orion 3 is always understandable, even if Victoria is extremely deep. Everything can be done fast and uncomplicated thanks to useful keyboard shortcuts and context-menus.

Acoustically the game ranges in the better midfield. The music is nice and doesn't start to be annoying, even in a longer game (which you will usually have). Judging subjectively the quality of Hearts of Iron`s music is not reached though. This is not a really decisive factor for a game like Victoria. The counting elements for a game of this type, like gamedepth, overall view, functionality, again have been done very well.
The only conclusion to be drawn has to be that fans of Paradox games once more can't go wrong. The occasional players are a lot better suited with „Crown of the North“ for mentioned reasons. Impatien natures and adrenaline junkies better leave their fingers from a game of this type.

 

[Earl Uhtred]

Marvy, simply marvy.

 

[unmerged(12303)]

3 campaigns... I wonder which one will be the most popular...

F

 

[unmerged(10945)]

Oh, I like this. Look at all those damn political screenies of the ROTW. And a country list!...or some of one.

 

[SykoNurse]

developer: Paradox Entertainment
publisher: Strategy First (US)

testversion (language) English (US) (Beta Build 131003)
*: for pros

multiplayer
LAN, Valkyrie-Net or TCP/IP-Verbindung (at least 512 kbit/s)
supported audio-standards

minimal configuration
P-III 450 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 4 MB DirectX-compatible graphics, Win

recommended configuration
P-III 800 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 8 MB DirectX-compatible graphics, Win

testcomputer configuration
Athlon XP 2700+, 1024 MB RAM, Geforce 4Ti 4200 64 MB, Windows XP Pro

supported 3D interfaces
none

opinion:
Phew, Paradox Entertainment gives us a tough nut with „Victoria“. Generall speaking I could repeat my opinion from Hearts of Iron. Both games don't lack anything regarding complexity. If you are looking for a game of this kind and cannot decide on which to buy, I'd recommend to buy the title with the scenario better suiting you. Nothing more to say from my point.

pro
- very complex
- high difficulty
- Intelligent AI, as well with oppponents as assistant features
- good functionality despite the depth of the game
contra
- graphically obsolete
- nothing new compared to „Hearts of Iron“ or „Europa Universalis 2“
- totally unsuitable for non-pros

ratings

graphics 6.0

sound 6.0

controls 7.0

gamedepth 10.0

multiplayer 7.5

fun 7.5

Here are a bunch of screenshots attached.


[edit]corrected some things[/edit]

 

[unmerged(17303)]

Hah!

Denmark placed higher than Sweden. must be an act of God.

 

[SykoNurse]

Originally posted by todorp
a Google translation to English

this doesnt work for me

 

[unmerged(2036)]

There is also a review.

My german is a bit rusty - however,
the most positive points (to me) seemed to be
a well working AI-helper, and a very functional interface

Btw. what does farbarm mean?

 

[Havard]

Originally posted by BiggN
any idea who the industrial power house is in this SS?
http://www.withingames.net/screenshots/vicky/vicky_004.jpg

Something German IIRC...

 

[Gaute65]

Originally posted by mrmister
There is also a review.

My german is a bit rusty - however,
the most positive points (to me) seemed to be
a well working AI-helper, and a very functional interface

Btw. what does farbarm mean?

Sykonurse has made a translation of the review. German preview

PS

Maybe we shall close this thread or merge it with sykonurse?

 

[unmerged(10945)]

After seeing various political screenshots now from the various parts of the world and different time periods, I would have to guess there is way more country tags in Victoria than in EU2. How many were in EU2, around 200 not including the 20 user defined, right? None of those screenshots show the many potential revolters that could pop up either. Oh, that's so awesome.

 

[unmerged(17303)]

Originally posted by Havard
Something German IIRC...

You would know better than I do...

Seems similar to Algeria though.

 

[Havard]

Originally posted by Friedrich II
You would know better than I do...

Seems similar to Algeria though.

Oh, it's definitely not them. I haven't got the game files here but I can check that later today if noone comes up with the answer.