Victoria III – First Impressions
Oh man I love Paradox Games, they really scratch an itch which no other game gets close to which is giving history context through game mechanics.<p>Playing through Hearts of Iron enough times and you really get a good understanding of why the cold war was more ideological than anything else and how certain governments would ally themselves with different factions depending on how wars played out. Play through Crusader Kings and you get an understanding of just how powerful France was before the formation of the UK and how HRE was simultaneously incredibly well organized and a mess.<p>I absolutely adore these games too because unlike 99% of 4x games out there it&#x27;s an actual sandbox. Rather than giving you set objectives you just have to survive until the end of the era which can be hundred of years or just a decade depending on the game.<p>I never understood why there was such a focus on &quot;Winning&quot; in Civilization, felt like it was such a limiting factor in how i could play feeling more like a board game on a computer, especially in multiplayer. If you ever fell too far back you might as well check out early. Meanwhile every Paradox game is an actual sandbox. You want to play as a small group of tribesmen in medieval africa? Go nuts. Want to try creating a mercantile empire with your base of operations in the middle of Siberia. No problem. You might not reach your objective but as long as you survive you will never &quot;lose&quot;.<p>Experiencing the rise and fall of your nation is way more fun than just racing towards the finish line and honestly makes more sense than achieving a &quot;Culture&quot; or &quot;Science&quot; victory.