Steam Reviews

[uglyduckling81]

Thought I might share my experience just now.

Saw EU4 for 75% off and thought yeah why not, I'm a huge HOI fan so I'll jump in.

Get to the Steam page and see a 30% positive review ratio. It's all people complaining about price and DLC policy.

I like the way Paradox supports it's games for years after initial release so I have no real problem with the reviews, or so I thought.

The more I read the more I think hhmm maybe I won't buy this game. In the end I passed on it as the total package is very expensive. If the collectors edition with all the DLC was 75% off I would of taken it but it's not.

This was my experience as a HOI and Paradox in general fan. Overall Positive reviews are down to 80% which is about double the bad reviews it previously had before this price hike debacle.

I imagine how many people are not buying EU4 as a result of the current review standings.

PS: Also I will never buy a game that has regional price fixing in place so I'm glad Paradox reversed their stance in that regard.

 

[Badesumofu]

Then you missed out on a great game and an amazing deal because you were swayed by an angry mob. The price rise they were protesting is being reverted anyway. If you don't like to buy all the DLC then don't. Base game + CS + AoW costs $30 total right now.

If you will never buy a game that has regional pricing then I've got bad news for you - you will basically never buy another game again. The greatest irony here was that the regional price changes actually reduced regional price variance. They were bringing the prices in regions where it was cheaper up closer to the base price that the rest of us have always paid.

So congrats on your incoherent position and missing out on EU4.

 

[darth254]

base game definitely worth. the gajillion DLC can add up $ wise but buying the base game dirt cheap is not a risk at all whatsoever so might as well. if bad comes to worse, look at YouTube playthroughs. those are just as good as reviews cause they actually show you the gameplay.

 

[IndraSunrise]

The free trial is free.
To date, I've spent under $100 on eu4. I have all game play expansions.
I've played over three thousand hours.
That's a whopping three cents per hour played.

 

[Kergan]

IMO a lot of the negativity in Steam is whining. Even if you pay the full price for the game and all DLCs, there's a good chance it'll be the cheapest "per hour of entertainment" cost you'll make in years (provided, of course, that you like this type of game).

If you want a minimalist package, at the very least get the base game + Common Sense (development) + Art of War (better wars). Throw in Cossacks (better diplo, estates, hordes) as well if you can easily afford an extra DLC - it's miles above the remaining ones.

If you want to get a few "Dessert" DLCs (sweet but not indispensable), then Rights of Man (consorts, ruler personalities), Wealth of Nations (trade improvements, trade companies, privateers), and Mare Nostrum (condotierri) rise to the top.

 

[fabioke]

Just an alternative view to the already great suggestions. The buy-in has become steep but it shouldn't be a problem if you realize that EU4 has always been a great game since launch.

My advice would be to revert to a patch that matches with the DLC you bought.

For example: You can buy Conquest of Paradise, Wealth of nations, Res Publica, Art of War and revert to patch 1.9.2.
EU4 was a great game then and is still a great game now.

You can check the link between the DLC's and the updates with the link below:
http://www.eu4wiki.com/Patches

Great Cut-off points are:

- Base game
- Art of war
- Common sense (I bought the game here so beware of bias)/Cossacks
- Rights of man

 

[ashalpha]

As someone already noted you got swayed by the collective mob who were angry about the price hikes on DLCs in certain countries. Delete all the DLC price whining and you would probably have a game that was already in the high 90% in reviews just on base which I certainly enjoyed even before they had a single DLC. And let me put this to you everyone who is complaining so much about the DLC prices probably have at least 1000 hours on the game. Do they dislike the game? No. They are complaining because now they have to spend a few cents more per hour of enjoyment that declines as they spend more time playing. They just wanted their voice heard which I respect even if I don't agree. They got want they wanted in the price rollback and now they have severely damaged the reputation of a game that they actually like.

 

[CMDR_HERNE]

Plenty of content just with the base game of EU4. Though a sale is the best time to buy any dlc. Art of War and Common Sense are the major dlc to pick up. Though I would recomend just playing the base game for a few weeks and then you would have a better idea as to what to get that suits you. As the amount of dlc looks overwhelming at first, but when you sort out the wheat from the chaff you'll find it's not that many that's worth getting.

Other alternatives are to get EU3 or For the Glory (EU2)

EU3 Complete is not really complete as it misses the last two expansions Heir to the Throne and Divine Wind. So it's cheaper to get the EU3 Collection.

For the Glory is based around EU2. Very good value and a very good game. Graphics look dated but that doesn't get in the way of the game play

As for recent reviews of EU4... take it with a pinch of salt

 

[ponasozis]

>get eu 4
>find a buddy who is rich and has all the expansions
>play only mp games with him constantly
>profit

 

[KapiKolu]

I'm one of those guys.
I am, now, discouraging my friends from buying the game.
And they are not buying it.
Manipulative if you ask me

 

[Tacticus101]

PS: Also I will never buy a game that has regional price fixing in place so I'm glad Paradox reversed their stance in that regard.

Regardless of other discussions and the right or wrong, technically it was the opposite way around. Paradox normalised their prices across different currencies, people complained because they wanted regional price fixing in order to make it cheaper for people with weak currencies.

 

[Supermilk]

TC swindled himself, nothing to see here.

I will say I do feel bad for anyone who is a fan of HOI. They are in for a shock when they play the new one. It is sickeningly broken.

 

[Unit101]

I divide the money spent by the hours of entertainment. For years EU4 has been the only game I have been playing. So that is a couple of hundred hours. I think I have spent about ~€70 on this game (I bought the base game and most DLCs during sales).

If I spent 700 hours on this game then this game costs me €0,10 per hour and getting less.

They do not serve beer for this price nor movies.

 

[Sian]

steam reviews are notoriously worthless since they're whining in the main game reviews about the existence of DLC (not even regarding if the DLC is worth it, or if why it aren't) or simply that a tiny change to game balance they didn't like (Usually in the shape of fixing abuses) happened

I give them just about as much worth as I do the opinion of 4chan

 

[zorkman]

Thought I might share my experience just now.


PS: Also I will never buy a game that has regional price fixing in place so I'm glad Paradox reversed their stance in that regard.

I don't know where you live but I have gotten news for you, in that Regional Pricing has always been in place. In fact those of us in the UK have been ripped off for years compared to Americans & nearly everyone else.

If you don't agree with the price don't buy it, then if enough people did that then prices would change. Paradox just do what companies have always done regarding supply & demand in an area. I am in no hurry & pick up titles & DLC's very cheap when they fall in price.

 

[Orkonkel]

This one time, I didn't look at a review of a product I wanted before purchasing it.

O wait, that was basically every time.

 

[uglyduckling81]

Thought I might just update my post.

I took the plunge this sale. I generally agreed with what people were saying on here.

It comes out to about AU$165 for most of the content but importantly it includes all the expansions.

Wish me luck in the coming learning process

I don't know where you live but I have gotten news for you, in that Regional Pricing has always been in place. In fact those of us in the UK have been ripped off for years compared to Americans & nearly everyone else.

If you don't agree with the price don't buy it, then if enough people did that then prices would change. Paradox just do what companies have always done regarding supply & demand in an area. I am in no hurry & pick up titles & DLC's very cheap when they fall in price.

I'm in Australia but our steam store prices are in US currency. So it's particularly bad to see US steam price of say US$40 for a game and US$90 for the same game in Australia. That I can't abide. Often when these games go on 50% sales they are still more expensive than the US counterpart price when not on sale. I don't know why Australia is seen as a country with a huge amount of extra money over others but it's simply not the case. I used to be a fire fighter in Australia, I earned about AU70k/ year after 7 years. My brother in law is a firefighter in Canada and earns about CN$105k after 3 years. Their dollar is worth more, products (food, electronics etc) in Canada are much cheaper.

Rant over, the game is almost done downloading.

 

[Badesumofu]

Thought I might just update my post.
...

As the first responder to the thread - well done. Although all you need is the expansions and any music packs that sound good to you. I don't have any of the content packs, myself.

I'm Australian as well, and I can't abide the 'Australia tax' either. I can handle that some regions get games cheaper, but I won't accept being charged more than the base price (although actually I now consider up to 10% acceptable given Steam are taking GST now) just because publishers feel they can get away with it. Especially given we still have to pay in USD!

That's probably got a lot to do with what my stance was on the whole price-rise thing. PDX have never charged the Australia tax and the price rises were all in regions where they were previously paying less than us anyway. So it irritated me a bit to see people complaining about a price rise when they were still paying less than us, people who benefit from regional pricing complaining about it because their benefit was reduced somewhat just doesn't wash with me.

Well anyway, again, I hope you have a blast with the game. PDS games have given me more fun per dollar than just about anything else I've ever played. Not just that, but also without PDS the genre would have probably gone the way of isometric RPGs (although that genre seems to be in the process of a resurrection Divinity OS 2 in particular is seriously excellent).

 

[uglyduckling81]

I played the tutorial, watched a little on youtube from Benjamin Magnus and started a Castille game.
Thought it was going ok, settled with Granada after a short war though I couldn't completely conquer due to their alliance with Tunis so I just took 2 of their 3 territories plus cash.
Then Aragon declared war on an ally of mine so I entered the war without looking at their allies first. France and a whole bunch of others joined. I was quickly crushed. My main cause of concern was the ongoing cost of replenishing my army non stop. It seemed to cost about 20 ducats/month for the army to replenish.
Guess I'll try again being a little more cautious of people's allies, i'll just take the penalties from breaking the alliance next time.

 

[Viperswhip]

I do not find the DLC to priced incorrectly, I think people just are not used to the Paradox way of doing things, they don't release many fire and forget games; they patch them and create new and often good content (I have no really enjoyed the game as much post Art of War).

Still when you come to the game later and look at getting all of it, even at 75% off it can look a bit daunting. It's not so bad when you just pick them up over time.

I do not enjoy what the game has become, but thankfully you can back patch the game very easily, but I wouldn't leave any nasty review for the game. If you don't like some aspect of the game that came in a DLC or patch, just go back in time or disable the DLC. Given the support they have for their games, the clarity of development (paradox twitch), you can't really complain about the price.