Europa Universalis V

Europa Universalis V is the thrilling next iteration of Paradox's long-running grand strategy series. If you're still playing EU IV and wondering whether the upgrade is worth it, I'm here to tell you that you absolutely need to play this game. It takes everything about the last entry from 2013 and improves on it. If you're a newcomer with an interest in complex, deeply involved grand strategy games, then now is the perfect time to jump in.

With its automation, friendlier UI, and fleshed out playstyles outside of expansion, it’s a grand strategy game that is innately fun, endlessly engaging, and worth the decade’s wait.

Europa Universalis V is big, varied, and engrossing. Playing France is very different from starting as the Golden Horde, which poses a whole other set of challenges than guiding a Native American tribe or China through history. The game’s systems constantly challenge players to make big choices, even when they don’t engage with a dynamic events chain or ponder how to get out of a disaster. Simply managing internal politics and economics, from developing provinces to balancing the demands of the estates, is a game in itself. Diplomacy, trading, and warfare add layers of possibility and challenge. Europa Universalis V will give grand strategy fans hundreds of hours of fun, but might be difficult for newcomers to fully enjoy at first.

Europa Universalis V expands on every single aspect of its predecessor, drawing inspiration from the best and most modern Paradox grand strategy games. It’s a true colossus that can easily steal hundreds—if not thousands—of hours from your life. There’s still plenty of work to be done in terms of fine-tuning and balancing, but the overall vision is crystal clear, the amount of content is remarkable, and the level of interaction is at its peak. Equally impressive is its engaging pace and the excellent tutorials. Europa Universalis V is a vast, ever-changing experience—an essential title for anyone who loves history, complex games, or, best of all, both.

It’s not without its faults, though, with crashes, stuttering and weird bugs that will, hopefully get squashed soon, but the total sum of its parts cannot be denied: Europa Universalis V is Paradox at the height of its powers, and I cannot wait to see where things land as the game matures over time.

Europa Universalis 5 isn’t just an evolution, it’s a true rebirth. Paradox has modernized its classic without losing its soul, delivering a deeper and more dynamic historical simulation than ever before. The game feels more alive, clearer, and more coherent, with reworked systems for population, trade, and warfare that add incredible depth. Sure, it’s still complex and can slow down in the late game, but the journey is worth it. Every decision matters, every century tells a new story, and when you finally close the map after dozens of hours, it truly feels like you’ve shaped history.

While Europa Universalis 5 is not without its flaws, it is also a resounding success, particularly where its cousin, the ambitious but flawed Imperator: Rome, unfortunately floundered. It takes the best ideas of its Paradoxian peers - such as dynamic populations, a far more detailed map than we’ve ever seen, complex internal factionalism - and integrates them into a stable experience that covers a fantastically rich period of history...Even with so many hours in the review build, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface, and I have yet to see a single campaign to the end; it is a Paradox game after all. That, more than anything, is the grandest praise I can attribute to the game. It is absorbing, seemingly infinitely replayable, deeper than the Mariana Trench, and sets a new standard for what grand strategy should mean.

Europa Universalis V marks the start of a bright new age for Paradox's Grand Strategy series, rebuilding the core, while retaining so much of the breadth, detail and regionality. There's some slight rough edges, which aren't surprising for a game of this scale, and room for expansion to better explore certain ideas and regions, but isn't there always?

Despite small nitpicks such as recycled events and an at-times rough user interface, Europa Universalis 5 is a fantastic grand strategy game. Extremely complex but well worth the effort it takes to learn, this game feels like developer Paradox has learned the lessons of the last 15 years of its games.

I think the core of Europa Universalis V is terribly impressive. Europa Universalis has never been this complex, easy to play and offered the possibility to automate parts of the game you do not want to deal with. The latter feature lacks some configurable options for the computer, which controls what you have automated. Despite small performance problems, a lack of settings in the campaign mode and a computer opponent who does not always impress, this is without a doubt my favourite in the series. There are countless gameplay systems and things I haven't had time to give my opinion on in this review. The whole experience is really good though and I look forward to the continuation with updates and expansions. This is a little deeper, a little more complex and offers you powerful tools you can use to navigate, influence and change the course of history. If you liked the predecessor or are curious about the fifth iteration, I can highly recommend this to you.

If you liked any of the previous games in the series, then it’s difficult to see how you won’t love this one. It takes some big steps forward and improves on all of the big systems that have been carried across from the previous entry. The map is beautiful and more detailed than ever, with the new population systems informing how it takes shape, something it does very naturally as the game progresses. It’s absolutely the standout in the genre for the time period it covers, and if we have to go another twelve years before we get another one, then at the very least we’ve got a great strategy game to play in the meantime.

Europa Universalis V is a monumental grand strategy evolution, thanks to its innovative, organic population simulation and immense strategic depth on a beautifully detailed map. Despite a baroque interface and steep learning curve presenting a significant barrier for newcomers, and potential late-game performance drops, it offers infinite replayability and emergent narratives, solidifying its place as Paradox's most ambitious title.

A new bar for complexity in the historical grand strategy genre that sometimes buckles under the weight of its ambition.

A heavy, slow, complex and truly grand strategy game that demands your full attention and continues to occupy your thoughts even when you’re not playing. Yes, it has some big problems but I’m sure it will reach perfection before long.

Europa Universalis V is the most mature version of the series: not only does it add features, but it integrates them into a coherent fabric that makes the historical simulation more believable. It's not perfect, but it's a blast.

Initially incredibly overwhelming, but once you're in... still absolutely overwhelming, but also pretty awesome to have so many options.

Europa Universalis 5 marks a bold step forward for the series, managing to lets its tangle of initially intimidating systems breathe and interact with each other in an outright impressive manner that also feels less limiting than the Monarch Power of its predecessor. The sheer amount of detail and granularity on display feeds into a complex gameplay loop that, with enough patience and help from its integrated automation, reveals itself as surprisingly approachable while allowing you to claim victories as you're learning the ropes...Its focus on simulation does translate to a slower-paced sequel that, on top of demanding lots of time for one playthrough, can also feel cumbersome. Yet, in breaking away from the series' boardgame roots and borrowing elements from its cousins, Paradox Tinto has managed to truly put the "grand" in grand strategy, creating a beast of a game that's eager to eat hundreds of your hours provided you're brave enough to cross the swamp leading to its lair.

Europa Universalis V doesn’t just impress, it devours. It weaves diplomacy, conquest, faith, and culture into a tapestry that first humbles, then enthralls. What begins in confusion ends in obsession, as you are crowned by the systems that mystified you on first pass. If not for Paradox's usual optimization fumbles, this game would've been the absolute pinnacle of strategy forever. Regardless, it stands above many of its ilk as the grandest of grand strategies.

Europa Universalis V has a bright future ahead and the potential to become the ruler of grand strategy games. Its complexity serves as both its greatest challenge and its strongest asset. It’s unlikely to win over newcomers to the genre, but devoted map painters will undoubtedly fall in love with it. This is Paradox Interactive’s most ambitious project to date, and if the studio maintains its long-term support, it will stand without equal.

Europa Universalis V is another brilliant grand strategy game from Paradox. It is on par with its predecessors and takes the series forward. It is challenging and complex. However, it's best not to rely too heavily on the AI's assistance, as it tends to fail.

It’s the very opposite of pick up and play but the level of detail and complexity in Europa Universalis 5 is truly staggering and matched only by the difficultly of learning how to play it.

Europa Universalis 5 feels like the culmination of everything Paradox has done over the last two decades and if there’s ever been a game worthy of being called a grand strategy title, this is it.

Europa Universalis V ushers in what will likely be a new golden age for this grand strategy franchise, even if it currently needs some fine-tuning.

Issues aside, Europa Universalis 5 has been an utterly incredible introduction to a whole new gaming world for me. It’s wonderfully welcoming yet entrancingly absorbing, and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone interested in getting into the grand strategy genre.

Europa Universalis 5 might be the most on-paper impressive historical strategy game of all time, with its depth of simulation, ultra detailed map and demographics, and flavorful depiction of the half millennium that brought us from the middle ages into the modern world. At the moment, though, it is definitely hurting for some polish, particularly when it comes to general balance, tuning, and AI behavior. It doesn't really feel entirely done yet, and that's what you should probably expect if you decide to brave it as an early adopter. That being said, I think the foundation is very strong. Paradox has focused on the right things to maximize EU5's long-term potential – perhaps at the cost of day-one smoothness – as long as these devs can manage to wrangle its eminence effectively. The systems are excellent, and it's already an ocean-deep, exciting wargame and nation manager. With time and care, it could achieve hegemon status in the genre. But for now, that dream still lies somewhere over the horizon.

Europa Universalis 5 is a fantastic addition to the franchise that will likely only improve over time as bugs and UI issues are addressed. There are so many different possibilities for replayability, not only from the selection of nations, but even playing the same nation over again will result in a different game.

If you're really craving a new global RTS and you're a big fan of the Victoria series, you can give Europa Universalis V a try right now. But it's better to wait: it won't reach its full potential for at least a few years.