Victoria 2 is a masterpiece

[Ruck]

Get a 0.002% bonus in Capitalists happiness when trading 2 units of cotton in your capital.

Victoria III Mission Tree
Mission 1: Build 5 Factories, then click on the mission and you get 10 factories more for free.
Mission 2: Conquer eastern prussia, then click on the mission and get cores for all of europe

Jokes aside, what I liked the most about Victoria II was the "background simulation", which is absolutely unique in the gaming world. There´s a "living" economy, which is there if the player is playing or not, the economy will work and grow or decline on its own. The player can only take a little influence on the economy and the same with pops, they will make their own thing and the player can only influence it, but no magic buttons "click here and 5 farmers will be 5 capitalists for the cost of 50 pop mana"...

Victoria II was a living and immersive game and is still unique today. I would even be satisfied if we would only get a remastered game with some economy fixes, some UI improvements, a new map and a battleplanner similiar to HOI4.

 

[Blobben]

It's my favorite game to fire up, pick a country, anguish over what to do for an hour, and quit having never unpaused.

 

[Gurkhal]

It certainly helped me to draw me into the time period of 1789-1918 but in all honesty, I personally feel that the series could use a new game in it. I'm probably to casual but I don't seem to really get the system fully and there are many things that could be added, improved or changed beyond the economical engine.

 

[Will Steel]

Indeed. Vicky2 certainly was not a "masterpiece" in any way given how grave its problems were (required major mods to fix), but a new game in the series that comes with fixes and fan suggestions could really revitalize the series.

EDIT: Lol, these people really couldn't handle criticism could they. Tell me how it is a masterpiece when -

- The game had major political flaws, like voting rights being tied to political party rather than laws, which means half your population loses and regains the right to vote every 4.5 years in the game, like some stupid flashlight turning on and off.

It took several major mods to fix that, and is still broken in vanilla.

- There are inconsistencies like the tiny one-province island of St.Pierre & Miquelon given its own state...but Asia and Europe get very few states where there could've been many.

- It has one of the worst military system in PDS games. Even Victoria 1 was far better.

But oh well, continue to drool and fanboy on. This is how we ended up with disaster called Imperator.

 

[RELee]

It's my favorite game to fire up, pick a country, anguish over what to do for an hour, and quit having never unpaused.

That's exactly how I learned this game.
Well, that's how I learn every Paradox game the first time. After about 2 months I can usually unpause to see what I forgot to do.

 

[alpla]

1,162k hours played, huh

0,0001% bonus happy workers in a random province.

 

[Maikcollos]

"no changing capital."

wait, you can change capitals?

 

[otblock57]

Really got back into Vic2 during this quarantine, it was wild. Subjugating southern China as the USA has never been more fun.

 

[Kazanov]

Its by far the best economy simulator of all PDX games, even after all these years i still play and enjoy this beautiful game.

If they ever make a Vicky 3 the only thing i want to remain more or less the same its the economy simulator...i still play vicky and mostly for that. No other PDX game can do the same thing.

 

[Kovax]

Its by far the best economy simulator of all PDX games, even after all these years i still play and enjoy this beautiful game.

If they ever make a Vicky 3 the only thing i want to remain more or less the same its the economy simulator...i still play vicky and mostly for that. No other PDX game can do the same thing.

Both the economy and population. Every other game abstracts the population to a much greater degree, and after X amount of time or some random event, they go from all of one thing to all of something else. Here, you get a more gradual and more realistic transition as internal and external forces shape your nation.

 

[NeoMJay]

My favorite GS game by far, despite some of its flaws. Even after 1000 hours (my most played game on steam and overall probably only behind StarCraft 2 where I played some 5000 hours from 2010 to 2014) I can still enjoy it, doing some funny or challenging things in singleplayer or having some causal or competetive multiplayer campaigns. For me it's more than fair to call it a master piece with the POP and economy simulation and a great successor to Victoria I.

Without being too harsh on PDX and not objecting to have a worthy part three, I am still in doubt to see it happen in a way the old guard would be satisfied. At least not when looking at the recent trend. I see where Paradox is coming from and also what they're aiming for, like more accessibility, beginner friendliness and an overall more flattened learning curve than some of the earlier titles. After all Victoria 2 remains a niche game and could never compete in terms of revenue with the more sold and adapted DLC boats (which I am not complaing about per se, instead enjoying many of them as well, just not as much as Victoria 2 ...despite some hilarious CK2 multiplayer sessions I'll never forget).

In conclusion I want to remind PDX of some other great classics like Darkest Hour and maybe a small team with an also comparably small budget could give Victoria 2 a reboot. I don't feel it needs too many new features or improvements. The foundation is great as it is, some fixes and polishing would be enough for me. Of course, things like the AI are another story and substantially the backbone of every PDX title (with their own weaknesses in all of them), but almost anything else can be modded already, be it some minor changes for multiplayer balance or complete overhaul mods.

Alongside my passionate criticism, I still want to thank you for this gem of a game and I am always happy to see other enthusiasts still being in love with it.

 

[Bowser]

Vicky 2 had its flaws for sure, but also huge potential. Being a big Vicky 1-fan it was the most anticipated Paradox game ever for me. With PDM and the expansions it got good, but not anywhere near what it could have been. I remember hoping for further expansions that would fix the economy, strange migration etc. Sadly the game got abandoned pretty quickly compared to alot of the other titles. I agree that the military system of Vicky 1 was actually better than the one in the successor.

Still, so much potential. I really hope that Vicky 3, if it is ever made, will build upon the economic system and the POPs of Vicky 2 and not go for a more simplistic model. Making such a system working well would be a feat. Add to that better modeling of the military, political, colonial and diplomatic game (not saying that the old systems were bad, but economy and population was what made Vicky 1 & 2 unique) and we can truly speak of a masterpiece.

 

[Henryii2]

I see where Paradox is coming from and also what they're aiming for, like more accessibility, beginner friendliness and an overall more flattened learning curve than some of the earlier titles

Exactly this, it honestly wouldn't be surprising if they "consolize" their games at some point.

 

[NeoMJay]

Exactly this, it honestly wouldn't be surprising if they "consolize" their games at some point.

Or better yet, making mobile games

 

[Kovax]

Victoria 3 Strategy Guide:

Press the big red "I Win" button. If you have difficulty with this, after 60 seconds a tutorial video will begin, showing you how to press the big red "I Win" button. Note, on higher difficulty levels, the red button may be slightly smaller.

This will obviously be a huge seller on the "casual gamer" market, since it's easy to learn, has a comprehensive tutorial covering the game's UI and its single aspect in depth, and it's likely to be less prone to bugs than most Paradox games upon release. The only question is whether or not the visuals will be up to current industry standards to get good game reviews.

There will be no "Victoria 4", because one cannot improve on perfection.

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

Victoria 3 Strategy Guide:

Press the big red "I Win" button...

There will be DLCs for not only customising the button, but to to make it even quicker accessible.
There wll be one added to the launcher, err sorry, you will be "rewarded" with this feature, if you buy two other DLCs beforehand.
So you don't even have to start the game !
You can still post pictures on how you press that button on all kind of "social networks" and get attention from every direction.
There will also be games posted on Twitter to create further customer engagement around this occasion
and not Steam-independent achievements. If only our new shiny launcher would work properly with mods and do what it's supposed to do,
but hey nobody can be perfect. It doesn't even require an actual game anymore and everyone is happy in the end.
Isn't that brilliant ?!

I enjoyed your post.
Thanks.

 

[luxfelix]

Despite it not being a character-centered game like CKII, I like the element of knowing where this or that regiment came from.

Also, the diplomatic incidents mini-game has so much potential, especially if it can be combined with the robust pops/economics features of the game.

These are two elements that I would love to see kept in at least some form for VickyIII if/when it comes out.

 

[Pass_West]

Work of art? Hmm. A grand strategy masterpiece, anyway. Ten years on I still enjoy playing it, clunky interface and other issues notwithstanding. Mods like HPM and Cold War have extended its lifespan nicely. I'm almost worried about Vic3 being announced because other than making it prettier (not a difficult task) I don't see how modern Paradox couldn't make it worse.

 

[Mikhail_Mengsk]