Victoria 3

 PC
User Score
5.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 115 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 43 out of 115
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 115
  3. Negative: 51 out of 115

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  1. redhott
    Nov 5, 2022
    4
    It is a 4/10 because it is not what a AAA company like PDX should be okay with. After all, 700 employees, not counting the freelancers. There is a high chance that this marks the end of PDX.

    Here's the problem (after 60 h), as many pointed out on Steam: Shallow economic gameplay. The economy system behind the gameplay is cool but the actual player experience is repetitive, boring,    It is a 4/10 because it is not what a AAA company like PDX should be okay with. After all, 700 employees, not counting the freelancers. There is a high chance that this marks the end of PDX.

    Here's the problem (after 60 h), as many pointed out on Steam:

    Shallow economic gameplay. The economy system behind the gameplay is cool but the actual player experience is repetitive, boring, and micro hell. This is what you do most: Watching your building queue, and then check your building type config every 3 min. Just urgs.

    Horrible wargame mechanics. It is likely the worst wargame of all time. No tactics. Almost no strategy. All that matters is best equipment and the biggest army.

    Naval warfare is likely the upmost horrible I've ever seen. You do not sink ships anymore. You weaken their morale? You've built the newest navy in the world, to compete with UK? No problem. UK can switch its ship tech within a few weeks. And, if you manage to win all naval engagements... well, UK still has 100+ ships but this times the morale is 5 %? It will become a meme soon, I guess.

    Army and navy teleporting. So, warfare is all about teleporting. Within a few weeks to the other side of the world? No problem. In reality, in that time, a ship travel across from NY to SF (without Panama Canal) took 200 days. In this game, barely a few weeks.

    No real anti-blob mechanics. In this game, you can blob the world after a decades. Your allies will not anything about it, and your enemies do not care.

    Laws and government are, on the one hand, more interesting. On the other hand, it has never been easier to abolish slavery, serfdom, or to establish women's rights. You can abolish slavery as the US in 2 years. It destroys the last remaining national and cultural differences and challenges quite early on. Eventually, all govs and nations look and feel the same.

    Flavour and nations. They all play the same. All economies play the same. All governments too.

    So, if PDX was a small indie studio with inexperienced directors and designers, it'll be fine. But PDX is bigger, and more experienced. Granted, the folks in charge of this game seem to lack experience or talent. Maybe some folks who never were in charge before, who were newly promoted after being for years in the second row. Because how else did they come up with this mess? This game was clearly not designed nor managed by a talented management team. But even if we neglect that, this is by no means okay for a 700 or so employee company. Even Epic Games has 2,200 employees, works on much bigger and more complex titles, and yet manages them better than PDX. It means, PDX seems to be in deep internal trouble.    … Expand
  2. annovictoria
    Nov 13, 2022
    1
    I am into Anno 1800 with thousands of hours, but I also did some 120h in Victoria 3. A few points:

    I've been wondering why nobody points out how the art style of Anno 1800 was stolen here, to the worse. Understandably, projects influence each other, but in this case, the UI style, the illustration style, even the color set and the music, and many small details are a rip-off of Anno    I am into Anno 1800 with thousands of hours, but I also did some 120h in Victoria 3. A few points:

    I've been wondering why nobody points out how the art style of Anno 1800 was stolen here, to the worse. Understandably, projects influence each other, but in this case, the UI style, the illustration style, even the color set and the music, and many small details are a rip-off of Anno 1800. This is not okay for a publicly traded AAA company like Paradox, like a lack of talent.

    The warfare system is not worth mentioning. But the team behind it is still defending it, which would be funny if it would not indicate some talent issues among the directors.

    The diplomatic system is also not worth mentioning compared to Stellaris, CK2/3, or Victoria 2. There is a great Steam comment where someone illustrates how hillarious the system is.

    However, the economic gameplay could have been a lifesaver here. After all, there is quite some depth in the background. But the actual gameplay is rather lackluster and badly designed. I see the Anno 1800 influence here, compared to Victoria 2. But the micro hell of the building configurations... Did they test it? No one complained about how annoying it is, how often you check on it, like very 1-2 minutes? Not only is Anno 1800 but there are better economic games out there which solved all these issues already and are better at it.

    I will return to Victoria 3 after 1-2 years of patches, but for now, it is too badly designed for me. It has neither the gameplay excitement of EU4/CK3, nor the economic gameplay depth of Victoria 3, nor the warfare and conquest fun of, say, Victoria 2, HOI4, or Stellaris. It is, therefore, kind of nothing to me -- maybe because it tried to compete with Anno 1800 too hard.    … Expand
  3. indieinsights
    Nov 3, 2022
    3
    When I read that the IGN reviewer, who gave Imperator once 8/10, gave Vic3 the same rating, I knew we were in trouble. After 100+ h into Vic3 I feel confident to say this: It is not bad at the surface, but beneath... it is just not good enough. It may end up like Imperator. Warfare is teleporting armies and fleets across the world. You've won a front? No problem. Your armies teleport backWhen I read that the IGN reviewer, who gave Imperator once 8/10, gave Vic3 the same rating, I knew we were in trouble. After 100+ h into Vic3 I feel confident to say this: It is not bad at the surface, but beneath... it is just not good enough. It may end up like Imperator. Warfare is teleporting armies and fleets across the world. You've won a front? No problem. Your armies teleport back to your capital and idle there for no reason? And from there you move back again to the same front again, in case it reopened. Or you decide to move to the other side of the world, in no time. Vic3 warfare is like made by an underfunded indie strategy game dev with a lack of talent. I've never seen anything as bad as this one here. On the other hand, trade, resource balance, and buildings are micro hell: and it gets worse the bigger your nation is. Literally, every time you conquer a new province, or you annex someone, or you do production research, you do this: again and again and again, you go through every single building type and config it (because it shows that building type with default "mixed" config which means it could be anything, so you better quickly config it to what it was a minute before; and do that every 10 min or so). Diplomacy is pretty shallow too. So, the economic system behind the gameplay, which everyone is excited about, is quite cool, even though it can be extremely easy exploited (like those videos about single-island mega nations after a few decades). But the actual economic gameplay (open trade tab > check balance > queue new buildings) cannot compete with many other economy-building games, imo. And I think that this is Vic3's biggest trouble: it is probably one of the worst wargames ever made; but at the same time, it is a below-average economy game (even though we know that the economic system behind is deep); and the diplomacy system is not even worth mentioning compared to EU4, CK2, Stellaris, or Vic2. All is left is hope, I guess, that Vic3 will not end up like Imperator. So, if you are into PDX games in general, wait for sale. Not worth it. And yes, I tried to love it but it is too broken, too badly designed, with so many bugs and issues. I will give it a try after 1 year again though.… Expand
  4. uxelduxel
    Oct 29, 2022
    2
    2/10 likely to be another Imperator. Even if you look beyond the RNG mess of Warfare its not that "good" a game.
  5. RogerT
    Oct 28, 2022
    2
    As a veteran Paradox gamer (Began with HOI2 and played all of Paradox's main titles since) I had very high hopes for V3, until I saw their shockingly bad and empty war system. Victoria 3 had the depth of a free online browser and its gameplay consists of clicking on what to build in a specific order to increase your economy so you can build more stuff and keep the pops happy. It's aAs a veteran Paradox gamer (Began with HOI2 and played all of Paradox's main titles since) I had very high hopes for V3, until I saw their shockingly bad and empty war system. Victoria 3 had the depth of a free online browser and its gameplay consists of clicking on what to build in a specific order to increase your economy so you can build more stuff and keep the pops happy. It's a browser type button clicker with no strategy, no tactics, no personal direction - nothing. You just click what to build so you can build something else, so you can then build something else. It's painfully boring... My main gripe is with the system of war. Firstly, you build barracks, employ generals and choose the basic area you want their forces to attack. The rest is in the hands of the AI. This means that there is almost ZERO strategy involved, it all depends on what you were able to build coupled with some luck... In previous Vic titles and other paradox titles, you could win wars with the odds stacked against you using your own strategy, such as holding back your forces and keeping them in good order until the enemy was impacted by attrition and you could join with a friendly army to defeat a larger enemy army. You could place your army at an advantageous position and win a battle. Leave the enemy grow tired of trying to storm your forts... Vic 3 has NONE of this. NOTHING. The main part of Vic 2 and other PRD titles was engaging in wars with a healthy economy, industry and politics. So when you go to war you can feel like a general, a strategist, whatever. This has no indepth war mechanics. It's insane. I honestly feel very angry its so bad. THANKFULLY I got to play this for free, personally if this game was 10e I'd prob still give it as pass. Don't waste your money. It's getting 2/10 and the only reason is for the map graphics and the clicky clicky part of it...… Expand
  6. Emperormti
    Oct 27, 2022
    1
    Honestly it's just an economic simulation. And even that at least in my opinion is done poorly. The buildings and trade are very bagley explained and I can't get a hang of it. The "war" is done very weird with the fronts. You don't recruit units but the general who arledy comes with units? The hell is that! Colonisation as well, you pass a law and press like 2 buttons, it's just a waitingHonestly it's just an economic simulation. And even that at least in my opinion is done poorly. The buildings and trade are very bagley explained and I can't get a hang of it. The "war" is done very weird with the fronts. You don't recruit units but the general who arledy comes with units? The hell is that! Colonisation as well, you pass a law and press like 2 buttons, it's just a waiting game. I would happily refund the game but sadly I bought it on GMG and well I can't. Honestly it's money wasted. A lot of it too.
    So enjoy my money paradox and I will not be buying any dlc in near future.
    Look I enjoy games like hoi4, endless space, CK3 etc. While this game isn't for me, I can't refund it so I might as well mess with it a little.
    In conclusion Victoria 3 is a big disappointment for me.
    I don't recommend    … Expand
  7. vola9699
    Oct 28, 2022
    0
    For good experience u need buy 1000 DLC's for 10000$
    Game is broken. Cyberpunk 2.0
  8. SPIDozen
    Oct 26, 2022
    3
    We have been waiting for a better Victoria 2 not a Frankenstein of CK3 EU4 and something from Vic 2 such as music that didn't change at all even tho they called it "remastered ost".
    Many systems were broken and unfinished to the point being boring, and clearly need a rework, but devs already have a year plan of DLCs in the steam page. Economy is boring clicker which is easy to do and has    We have been waiting for a better Victoria 2 not a Frankenstein of CK3 EU4 and something from Vic 2 such as music that didn't change at all even tho they called it "remastered ost".
    Many systems were broken and unfinished to the point being boring, and clearly need a rework, but devs already have a year plan of DLCs in the steam page. Economy is boring clicker which is easy to do and has no actual balance, they may fix part of it but in the core it's a EU4-HOI4 economy, build more-get more.
    Game is made by the worst visual designers, visually unappealing and straight up downgrade which creates more submenus than stellaris or EU4 which is superior to it's visual information conveying. CK3 graphics are decent but they are clearly used there just because they invested in developing and have it as a fast option. Victoria 2 at least had an appealing unified design and pixel art with nice pie charts and graphs with real photographs. But Vic 3 is just a compelation of every recent paradox
    They deleted the best part of the game, war. This game doesn't allow for a deep diplomacy, it even got rid of the old tension points which were a cool feature to create a Global Great War while mostly being peaceful.
    Doesn't have any old features from other games for Multiplayer, they just forgot about it, same for the bugs, even made more.
    Also a lot of woke themed stuff in the way invents are layed out, 19th century was brutal for many.

    IMO every positive review made on this piece of DLC-milk machine is plain and people who wrote them hasn't enjoyed good strategy games in a while.    … Expand
  9. MiloTheORange
    Oct 26, 2022
    0
    Long time paradox fan and player, since 2006, I've always supported most games but also called out Paradox when they made a mistake or a bad game. This is a mistake. Warfare is terrible, the game is unpolished and is a rip off for $ 50, especially when we live in times when people have little spare cash. Fix the game.
  10. Kerber
    Oct 27, 2022
    3
    Standard paradox business model just much more transparent as victoria was in the past really challenging and not first time gamers friendly game. Now is dumbed down to be easy play where warfare is ridiculously simplified but economy is also impacted along with population choices
    Game feels like skeleton, for sure to be built up with dozens of expansions.
    I’m sure this will look more    Standard paradox business model just much more transparent as victoria was in the past really challenging and not first time gamers friendly game. Now is dumbed down to be easy play where warfare is ridiculously simplified but economy is also impacted along with population choices
    Game feels like skeleton, for sure to be built up with dozens of expansions.

    I’m sure this will look more coherent in couple years so unless you want to be beta tester just get it in two years with bunch of expansions at steam discount. Until then don’t expect victoria 2 sequel but more theme hospital simulation just with countries.    … Expand
  11. TheSimplyZero
    Oct 26, 2022
    0
    So. It's just broken. Game not save setting; it freezing when i open country with a lot of trade-path's; bot's are dumb, they cant make a great economy and go in a permanent crysis with no end, what breaks every players economic sistem; game have a lot of micromanagement, too mach micromanagement, i played in victoria 2, stellaris, crusader kings 2-3, hoi4, eu4, sengoku, imperator:rome,So. It's just broken. Game not save setting; it freezing when i open country with a lot of trade-path's; bot's are dumb, they cant make a great economy and go in a permanent crysis with no end, what breaks every players economic sistem; game have a lot of micromanagement, too mach micromanagement, i played in victoria 2, stellaris, crusader kings 2-3, hoi4, eu4, sengoku, imperator:rome, i've played in them hunder...thousands of hours, and i have no problems with it, but this... you need keep an eye on EVERY of dozen's product price, keep on eye on i repeat EVER farm or factory and you need make it work, make it work in the game where price of goods change every second, that's "brillant idea", i've played on Portugal, and it was sh*t, i imagine what going on countries in first ten, like in Britan; Wars, there is no wars in this game, only some of cubes which goes brrrrr, no tactic, no strategic, only cubes; Diplomaty, it's broken like every each element in this damn game, every each that countries make are some dumb cray thing, sometimes i've thinking that ai in this game just make some random stuff, i keep getting union offers with some random countries wich whom i have no entry point, at the same time countries with good relations and with interests in my region may refuse any of diplomaty option, even trade-union or trade-aggrement, WTF Paradox Interactive. And i yet not say about more localisation and visual bags. Imperator: Rome at the start works much better and have much content in it. I turn a blind eye on many of **** things later, but this is too much...… Expand
  12. Gme
    Oct 29, 2022
    0
    Paradox is the only developer that gets away with releasing Early Access games without labeling them as such, and then making people pay for the updates. The game also has no functional UI and they forgot to put in army and navy mechanics. This game will be abandoned and forgotten.
  13. Nikapol
    Nov 1, 2022
    3
    My first game in this series was original Victoria, even not Victoria Revolution. But I don't want to complain how this game is different from previous games. That is actually a good thing, as they feel dated.

    The issue is that this game is basically a "Cookie clicker". You click to build more factories, wait a bit, click once more, wait a bit, click once more... There is nothing of    My first game in this series was original Victoria, even not Victoria Revolution. But I don't want to complain how this game is different from previous games. That is actually a good thing, as they feel dated.

    The issue is that this game is basically a "Cookie clicker". You click to build more factories, wait a bit, click once more, wait a bit, click once more... There is nothing of interest in this game. No significant difference between countries, no specific events. Lots of crashes, different bugs (especially with war ai and colonization).

    Victoria 3 is bad as third game in franchise. But even if it was a first game, still I would give it low score. Just another weak game from Paradox. I don't know how many DLCs should they create and how much $$$ should I spend to make it a fun game.    … Expand
  14. FredDie86
    Oct 26, 2022
    0
    Another shallow DLC platform yey. After 10 hours it already feels boring and unfinished. Looks pretty tho, better than CK3.
  15. Htimez2
    Oct 27, 2022
    0
    This game is neither historical or fun, they push to to make your government as far Left and as far woke as you can possibly go, with zero historical realness or accuracy, minor third world countries have same tech and technological advancement and economy as larger actually advanced and civilized countries. This is paradox bowing to the woke making this game unrealistic and as "equal" asThis game is neither historical or fun, they push to to make your government as far Left and as far woke as you can possibly go, with zero historical realness or accuracy, minor third world countries have same tech and technological advancement and economy as larger actually advanced and civilized countries. This is paradox bowing to the woke making this game unrealistic and as "equal" as possible, equality/equity is not how things were in the 1850's. Also if you ask simple questions about the in game push for politics in the dicussion board with 200 people agreeing with you, they ban you from commenting in the steam discussion section. SO don't ask about in game mechanics if they happen to be about political decisions because you cant ask about "politics" in a political game.… Expand
  16. Nyrome
    Oct 30, 2022
    0
    I cant believe it. I have followed the game since dev diary 1 and I cant explain how angry I am about the game.To keep it short, dont buy it. Apart from all the bad mechanics,bugs and uncapable AI it is impossible to play the game after 1890s-1900. Because it is so damn laggy! I mean how can you release a game like this? You are taking away 1/3 of the game. Nevermind, war mechanic is bad,I cant believe it. I have followed the game since dev diary 1 and I cant explain how angry I am about the game.To keep it short, dont buy it. Apart from all the bad mechanics,bugs and uncapable AI it is impossible to play the game after 1890s-1900. Because it is so damn laggy! I mean how can you release a game like this? You are taking away 1/3 of the game. Nevermind, war mechanic is bad, as mentioned THOUSAND times. Economy was kinda good to build in first 15-20 hours, then you get bored of it because AI sucks at economy. Imagine Great Britain starting with 70M GDP and making it barely 250M till the end of game, France for example is doubling the Great Britain. Whole game looks like a beta, If I would be optimistic, I would say this game needs a year or two, ONLY if they decide to listen what community wants.For now, dont waste your money and time.… Expand
  17. GERULAS
    Nov 1, 2022
    0
    A total trash and a pure garbage, wait for 1843958349859438 DLC's to fix everything
  18. bwort007
    Oct 30, 2022
    0
    Dont listen to the kiddy hater croud. Most of them didnt played the game. Paradox has a wide audiance today and os many kids come here.
  19. T4p0k
    Oct 30, 2022
    0
    At first, Victoria 3 creates a pleasant impression. It seems to be a well-developed economy, a redesigned diplomacy and a dynamic society... But after playing a little more, you realize that the game and its mechanics are empty.

    Although the economy is well-developed, however, if you look into it, you understand that it is not complicated. The player is only required to build those    At first, Victoria 3 creates a pleasant impression. It seems to be a well-developed economy, a redesigned diplomacy and a dynamic society... But after playing a little more, you realize that the game and its mechanics are empty.

    Although the economy is well-developed, however, if you look into it, you understand that it is not complicated. The player is only required to build those buildings that produce scarce goods. You follow this simple rule and already in the 80s you have no equal. Which by the way speaks about the stupidity of AI. Diplomacy is also not finalized - countries cannot enter into current conflicts. The terms of the peace treaty are clear already before the start of the war, it is impossible to add new claims in the course of the war, which is stupid and unrealistic. And of course the degraded system of war. The game is certainly not about war, but all that a player can order his generals is which front he should attack or defend. This deprives of any challenge and the outcome of the war can be predicted before it starts the war. A lot of attention was also paid to domestic politics, but there is no challenge here either. The interest groups are too passive and almost do not offer any resistance to the adoption of laws.

    And most importantly, after playing a game for one country and transferring to another, you realize that they are no different. Nothing at all. The game has very little replayability. And on top of everything else, Victoria 3 is not optimized and is sold as a full-fledged AAA game, which of course does not correspond to reality.    … Expand
  20. MinesomeMC
    Oct 30, 2022
    3
    Its Victoria 2 mixed with CK3 and HoI4 but dumbed down. The game feels lackluster, and is missing a lot of flavor. The War system while it could've worked just doesn't work very well. I enjoyed the niche of moving my troops where every I wished as well as moving my navies through the ocean. Now I only get to assign them to frontlines and hope that rngesus assigns more troops to a battleIts Victoria 2 mixed with CK3 and HoI4 but dumbed down. The game feels lackluster, and is missing a lot of flavor. The War system while it could've worked just doesn't work very well. I enjoyed the niche of moving my troops where every I wished as well as moving my navies through the ocean. Now I only get to assign them to frontlines and hope that rngesus assigns more troops to a battle than the enemy. Economy is alright but is a bit confusing, which is something Victoria 2 has also had an issue with which just requires the player to learn more. The political system seems a bit lackluster as well, while the diplomacy is interesting and you can get land without going to war in a way similar to crises, except its ignited by you the player or the AI. This is fine, but the fact you can only receive the first cb if they back down, just sucks. I feel the war system needs a rework, diplomacy needs more options, etc. Which will likely happen, but till then ill have to give it 3/10.… Expand
  21. SaraJp
    Nov 7, 2022
    0
    I'm a Paradox veteran. I have played their games for around 6350 hours putting together CK2 and 3, Sengoku, Imperator, Hoi3 and 4, Victoria 2 and Stellaris. I'd rate all of these games (maybe except Imperator) with at least 8/10.

    Victoria 3 is just horrible. It's beyond boring - it's pointless. The game is far too easy if you go the only cultural build that the devs deem "correct".    I'm a Paradox veteran. I have played their games for around 6350 hours putting together CK2 and 3, Sengoku, Imperator, Hoi3 and 4, Victoria 2 and Stellaris. I'd rate all of these games (maybe except Imperator) with at least 8/10.

    Victoria 3 is just horrible. It's beyond boring - it's pointless. The game is far too easy if you go the only cultural build that the devs deem "correct". There are very few actual choices, and the pretext that every country is different is false. After five or six games, the replayability value sinks like a rock.

    Graphics are below mediocre - the map is passable, but character models are nausea-inducing. 2D art is simplistic, bland and derivative. Nothing is eye-catching, exciting or charming.

    Soundtrack is a an all-time low comparing to other Paradox Games - uninspired and repetitive.

    Historical accuracy is dreadful. Alternate history is supposed to happen AFTER the game begins, not before, Paradox. Otherwise label it as "Victoria 3: The Alternate Reality We Think Is Better".

    The economic system does not deliver. Micromanaging becomes ridiculous and laughable when you have the power to declare wars on other nations, and also have to decide if one single farm in Kentucky is going to plant a few peach trees alongside the corn fields. Trading isn't exciting - you never have the feeling of well planned trade route bringing back money. The system is just so very dull.

    I won't even touch the war system. There are already enough reviews talking about how hideous it is.

    Also, to the people saying "wait for DLC and the game will be good" - are you mad? The game is supposed to be entertaining out of the box, not four years later and costing 400 dollars.    … Expand
  22. BeingDS
    Nov 20, 2022
    1
    I was very excited for Victoria 3. Sadly, Paradox seems to have lost its touch. This makes two out of its last three releases that have been rushed out the back door in a flagrantly unfinished state, with clear evidence of a thoughtless, slapdash, half-baked approach. You'd think they would have learned after Imperator: Rome. Apparently not, however.

    Many design decisions are    I was very excited for Victoria 3. Sadly, Paradox seems to have lost its touch. This makes two out of its last three releases that have been rushed out the back door in a flagrantly unfinished state, with clear evidence of a thoughtless, slapdash, half-baked approach. You'd think they would have learned after Imperator: Rome. Apparently not, however.

    Many design decisions are inexplicable. But even without getting into the weeds, the biggest problem is that at no point in development do any of the developers appear to have asked the simplest of questions: "What is the player going to do?" They sold the removal of armies that players directly interact with as a feature that would "reduce micromanagement", and that's fine... but now what is the primary gameplay loop? What is it that we are meant to be doing?

    Apparently, a lot of clicking and waiting. That is the "gameplay" of Victoria 3, such as it is. You begin in 1836, build buildings, wait for them to complete, then build more buildings to rebalance your economy due to the impact of the last set of buildings you built. Rinse and repeat, over and over and over. And suddenly is 1900, the game is 3/4 over, and you've been doing essentially nothing for most of it. At no point does the "setup" phase end and allow the player to actually immerse themselves in the setting. Not that there's anything to do even if that weren't the case.

    The user interface is a dumpster fire. This game requires the player to absorb and process vast amounts of information. What buildings to build in what order, how many to build, where to build them, what production methods to use, which things to manufacture versus trade for... all these require detailed understanding of a wide variety of factors. However, the information you need is fragmented, spread across many screens and tabs, sometimes hidden deep in nested tooltips--and at no point does the player ever have all the information they need readily at hand. You need a notebook to write things down in, and a calculator, and a whole lot of patience, to make optimal decisions. And I don't mean just "min-max" type decision. I mean lay-player level. There are mods that improve the UI, but not by much, and the glaring inadequacies don't go away.

    On to trade. For starters, you cannot stop other countries essentially stealing your goods. Any country that wants to can just start shipping away your goods, and you have no say in the matter, unless you want to embargo that nation entirely. Little is more frustrating than seeing a nation start a trade route for a good you are already short of or that is critical to one of your industries or pops. Starting and managing trade routes is a chore, and it's not clear how many units of a good you'll get or send, or what the impact on your industries or economy will be. For a game where entire production chains can collapse unless balanced on the head of a pin, this is a real problem.

    The less said about warfare, the better. Wars in this game can be largely ignored. You send your generals to the front, and then you go back to building factories and farms in an endless loop. Armies and generals are tied to regions. You can send them to overseas fronts but cannot transfer them to another HQ. This results in asinine situations like being unable to do a naval invasion because your fleet wasn't built in the same region you built your army's barracks in. There are a heap of other problems with the military mechanics, but I'd need one or more entire reviews to get into them all. Suffice it to say that this is the worst part of Victoria 3.

    Diplomacy is similarly inadequate. Everything happens via "diplomatic plays". War? Diplomatic play. Annex a vassal? Diplomatic play. Rebellion? Diplomatic play. All diplomatic plays result in war, unless one side "backs down". And even backing down is broken--if your opponent backs down, you only get your first war goal. You have no choice. You can't reject a backdown, and it results in a five-year truce. Essentially, your target can say "no thanks, take this but not these and buzz off". Also, other nations can join any diplomatic play... resulting in 19th century world wars over something as simple as Belgium attacking an African tribe. And, since war goals can't be added once a war starts (there's no post-war treaty system), something like World War I would only result in Serbia and Austria getting anything.

    There's so much more wrong, but essentially the problem is that Victoria 3 is an early-access game being marketed as a finished product. It is not. It has all the polish of a 99-cent iPhone game, the width of an ocean and depth of a puddle. It is "Boom Beach" meets "Adventure Capitalist" meets "Plague Inc." -- for $50.

    Patches are coming, but I'm not optimistic they'll be nearly enough to save this mess. If you insist on buying this, wait for a sale. But I can't in good conscience recommend it.    … Expand
  23. sprf
    Jan 17, 2023
    4
    The community was opposed to radical changes made to economy and especially warfare system even before game made it to it's release day, but the real problem is that Victoria 3 is really shallow in terms of content, and, unlike it's predecessor (Victoria II), can't offer enough replayability for you to come back to the game. It may be wide as the ocean - but the truth is that it's deep asThe community was opposed to radical changes made to economy and especially warfare system even before game made it to it's release day, but the real problem is that Victoria 3 is really shallow in terms of content, and, unlike it's predecessor (Victoria II), can't offer enough replayability for you to come back to the game. It may be wide as the ocean - but the truth is that it's deep as a puddle.

    Also, Vicky 3 is very unoptimized in late game (close to 1900's) because the game has to render each individual PNG for every building in construction queue, and a construction progress bar for each one - this slows down the game dramatically, no matter how powerful your PC is. And AI is a complete joke, offering absolutely no challenge, because they're programmed in such a horrible way that they bankrupt themselves by building too many ports.

    As of now, Paradox has yet to fix all issues, not even talking about the problems at the core of game itself, so I do not recommend this game right now.    … Expand
  24. MEDVE1978
    Dec 26, 2022
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. At first glance it seemed a very good game, more a political strategy than anything else. It seems like a very detailed and nuanced game with insane depths. But unfortunately this is just a facade, a mask. Under the detailed surface there are many uniformed processes, too many.
    So the problems:
    1. Politics: you have a couple of interest groups. Some of them are always unhappy and start revolutions. Sometimes because of simply stupid reasons. I had revolutionary threats because of women's rights, children's work and because couple of guys wanted less freedom of speech. It's almost always difficult to get through with the right laws, simply because noone wants them and you can not influence anyone to support your cause. Yes, you can bolster groups but its simply very expensive. So it is almost impossible to have legislation like compulsory school (In my recent playthrough I have a very rich Scandinavia, the richest country in the world with relatively few citizens, but still only the trade unions want to abolish child working).
    2. Budget: it is not easy to navigate that. You open a tab, then an another to see the cause why your budget is leaking, but its complicated.
    3. Buildings: micro management at its finest. You have to set almost everything manually. There is a setting for auto expanding the buildings, but there is no setting to auto subsidize one if it needs money (you either subsidize or not and if the building turns immensly profitable you have to change manually). There is also no auto setting of the production methods: if there was a method using wood, iron and coal and one using wood, steel and electricity you can not set the system automatically to adapt to the resources available, you always have to set manually.
    4. Market and trade: market and trade are chaotic, which is not a problem at first glance. However you have simply very limited options. You can not limit the trade you are doing with other nations, you have only the abilities to totally stop trading with everyone or have 10-20% tariffs (or to embargo them). This leads to other nations simply getting everything they want from you, while you being unable to control your markets.
    5. Diplomacy is very diverse at first sight but its also just a mask. You can have a protectorate / vassal / puppet etc. , conquer, annex. With the minor actions you can embargo, trade agreement. However there is no spying, assasination plots, defamation etc.
    6. Population and migrations. Most great migrations are **** they make no sense at all. Croatian people migrating to Senegal, Sweedish people to Indonesia etc. Some populations are always discontent. You colonize a little country in Africa make it into a wealthy island in a sea of poverty without slavery, with education, industry etc. Regardless the inhabitants will revolt because of cultural reasons.
    7. The weakest link: war. Many people have written bad things about it. Yes, you can simply issue 3 orders: attack front, defend front, stay. But that's not the biggest problem. The war feature is almost completly broken: Some time ago I was attacking Tidore (in Indonesia). Half part of Tidore was in Celebes the other part in an other island. My army began attacking the enemy and I gained a quick victory. But only partly, because there was a sea straight separating Tidore. The army did not attack the other shore, it traveled back overseas. I had to start a naval invasion and wait 2 months before it attacked again. Other case: I had a colony in Africa. The main tribe revolted and created a revolutionary state. I collected my military to crush the rebellion and had 5-1 advantage. The combat began I was steamrolling the enemy. Than the revolutionary state broke into two parts. Suddenly the new state crushed the old one and I was not in war with the new one! This way they seceded and I had no means to attack them for 5 years. As also others said: commanding a major power you attack a little tribe or sultanate somewhere. It has no real significance, few resources. The tribe has no chance, and you are not infamous. But than, simply Great Britain or France or another great power joins in and you find yourself in a major war because of nothing.

    So this game had really big opportunities and it could have been a really good game but it just fails.
    The micro management makes it too slow and monotone, while the rewards are too little. You create a new building with new technology and you think you will make big money with it. You are wrong, the new building / production method will need much more resources and you will have to obtain them. If it functions because there will be not enough specialised workers (there will be not, even if you build many universities). So its an endless rabbit hole. You are grinding yourself through the game but few solutions bring satisfaction.    … Expand
  25. Justaposter
    Nov 16, 2022
    0
    I think this game is solid but it is missing a few key things that would make the game for me alot better,

    1. Is the Politcal system PDX games helped me learn alot about economics and politics and though after actually learning about how different government systems work, I just think Victoria 3 does not have accurate rempresentations for political systems, however I think It has a lot    I think this game is solid but it is missing a few key things that would make the game for me alot better,

    1. Is the Politcal system PDX games helped me learn alot about economics and politics and though after actually learning about how different government systems work, I just think Victoria 3 does not have accurate rempresentations for political systems, however I think It has a lot of potential in this department, for example In Victoria 3 for laissez faire and capitalistic systems of government they use the fact that you the player decide what buildings are built in different states and have a "capital investment pool" to rempresent the fact that you the player "aka the government" are not spending the money. Also these buildings are businesses and are represented as such by the fact that they have cash reserves and these have a limit but in real life the robber barons had like infinite money and they humanize the element that these are businesses and they can become chains. and they only judge of if they are dong well if people are employeed which is not the only metric of indicating if a buisness doing well, in other words PDX should be giving artificial caps to businesses only based on its "building level"

    I think that they political systems do not follow government types based on real life for example the US or other non parliamentary democracies are not represented well in game because they still follow the idea of "building a government" which is not apart of those systems. Particularly the United States often and though this may differ based on the progression of any save is that their are two main parties and all others do not have significant power. Also for politics they ability to pass laws is WAY TO OP. like they are not based on what political party holds the most power or not if the prime minister might be ousted. I feel like in all of the Victoria 3 and alot of PDX their is no Political pressure other than revolts and in Victoria 3 radicals.

    I think changing by adding a more sophisticated political system would help the game immensely in its depth and immersion.

    Another things is taxes and government wages and administration, it is wayyy to simple in this game its just the click of a button and the only effect government has is how much it taxes people which though is important this is not the only jobs in govenerment besides legislators/rulers have so paying low government wages is only consequence being basically not making an interest groups happiness decrease is not a good understanding of what government does it not accurate at all

    Also everyone says the war system needs to be fixed please It is super broken.

    I think their is a lot good things about Victoria 3, I feel like diplomacy and international relations are a lot better than in Victoria 2 I think it was way to easy to take advantage of just meme-ing certain strategies and gaining leverage over certain resources in Africa was the main way to win. Where as in this game I think their is a much more diverse way of being good and effectively doing things right in Victoria 3. Also I think Victoria 3 allows much more understanding of the importance of the market to the player in this particular game especially the import and export of goods, usually in Victoria 2 you would usually let the AI do the trade stuff for you because of the way trade worked in that game, where as in this game it is made to be understood by the player and not only between the AI themselves, basing it on price and understanding why those prices are important. I also like feature of Standard of living which was not a feature in Vicky II it helps me understand what my economic policies are doing to my pops where as in Victoria II the only focus just green line go up or down. and if another party or different people are swung in control. I also like that your punished alot more for war in this game because of how the market works for small arms and the way production of these things was changed. I also think surprise to many the pop system is way better in this game because migration makes way more sense though I think still can be much improved and before you just knew what your pops were now you know what they need to increase standard of living. AMAZING CHANGE, I thought It was super helpful and I also think the tech system has alot of benefits and I think clearly Paradox went out of their way to understand they way Tech changes the economy. that I will tip my cap

    Overall I think this game is a 7/10 and if they tweak and fix the politics and war system and how the politics and government works in this game works based alot of presumptions and over simplifications the war system is not fun, and the economy is decent but just not what I want it to be I think this game is tetering on greatness but I give it slack because what I want is not accesible to any player at all so for accesibilities sake it is like this    … Expand
  26. Adalwulf
    Nov 6, 2022
    1
    Dumbed-down version of Vic 2, optimized for selling dlc and respecting progressive sensibilities. Save your money and play Vic 2 with mods.
  27. Pidaroxi
    Jan 7, 2023
    0
    Ще не вмерла Україна
    І слава, і воля!
    Ще нам, браття-молодці, Усміхнеться доля! Згинуть наші вороги, Як роса на сонці; Запануєм, браття й ми У своїй сторонці. Приспів: Душу, тіло ми положим За свою свободу І покажем, що ми браття Козацького роду. Гей-гей, браття миле, нумо Братися за діло! Гей-гей пора встати, пора Волю добувати! Наливайко, Залізняк І Тарас Трясило    Ще не вмерла Україна
    І слава, і воля!
    Ще нам, браття-молодці,
    Усміхнеться доля!
    Згинуть наші вороги,
    Як роса на сонці;
    Запануєм, браття й ми
    У своїй сторонці.

    Приспів:

    Душу, тіло ми положим
    За свою свободу
    І покажем, що ми браття
    Козацького роду.
    Гей-гей, браття миле, нумо
    Братися за діло!
    Гей-гей пора встати, пора
    Волю добувати!

    Наливайко, Залізняк
    І Тарас Трясило
    Кличуть нас із-за могил
    На святеє діло.
    Ізгадаймо славну смерть
    Лицарства-козацтва,
    Щоб не втратить марне нам
    Своєго юнацтва.

    Приспів.

    Ой, Богдане, Богдане,
    Славний наш гетьмане!
    Нащо оддав Україну
    Москалям поганим?!
    Щоб вернути її честь,
    Ляжем головами,
    Назовемся України
    Вірними синами!

    Приспів.

    Наші браття слов’яни
    Вже за зброю взялись;
    Не діжде ніхто, щоб ми
    Позаду зостались.
    Поєднаймось разом всі,
    Братчики-славяне:
    Нехай гинуть вороги,
    Хай воля настане!    … Expand
  28. XIMU
    Nov 13, 2022
    1
    As a paradox fan who spent 1k hours on hoi4 and at least 300 on all other paradox games, I say the current state of this game is basically an unpolished mess and painful to play with.

    First of all, the warfare mechanic is horrible. To be honest, I do like the auto-combat system, but the confusing mechanic, stupid AI, and lacking explanation made warfare in V3 the most painful warfare    As a paradox fan who spent 1k hours on hoi4 and at least 300 on all other paradox games, I say the current state of this game is basically an unpolished mess and painful to play with.

    First of all, the warfare mechanic is horrible. To be honest, I do like the auto-combat system, but the confusing mechanic, stupid AI, and lacking explanation made warfare in V3 the most painful warfare among all other strategy games. Combat width, supply, battle strategy preference, and many other major mechanics are unexplained in the game; and those that are explained such as army buffs, debuffs, remaining manpower, and types of equipment are hidden behind layers and layers of secondary windows. This makes the combat system basically a dice game, but you do not know what number you are rolling for, how many dice you're rolling, and what have you rolled.

    As a strategy game based on the historical Victoria era, there are almost no historical events in the game except the game starts on 1836 and the opium war. The black ship, Meji restoration, world expo, South Pole expedition, the Franco-Prussian war, US land purchases and civil war, and the annexation of Manchuria by Russia either don't exist or only happen rarely for AI-controlled nations. And the ironic thing is, all of the historical events mentioned above do exist correctly in Victoria 2 and are present in Victoria 3 loading screen.

    And there is a ton of major game balance problem to mention

    Also, the game is guaranteed to lag and crash on some older pc. If you are using one, good luck    … Expand
  29. nclrvppr
    Jan 23, 2023
    0
    the most random strategy game I've ever seen. You want to sign a law? you will, but only with 40% chance. You want to start an offence? Only if more than 10 soldiers want too!
  30. Terpene
    Feb 10, 2023
    4
    Horribly overloaded, over baked, underwhelming game. Tedious and boring, countries have barely any uniqueness, the systems that are in-depth, you wish weren't, and the war mechanics are just line vs line. Almost an insult to fun, worsened only by how much love and effort was put into this overall mismanaged game by the art team. Now wait for 10 dlc's to come out and I'm sure it'll be aHorribly overloaded, over baked, underwhelming game. Tedious and boring, countries have barely any uniqueness, the systems that are in-depth, you wish weren't, and the war mechanics are just line vs line. Almost an insult to fun, worsened only by how much love and effort was put into this overall mismanaged game by the art team. Now wait for 10 dlc's to come out and I'm sure it'll be a little better...
    Oh, and you can't rename anything, what's the point of alternate history if you can't change anything??
    Very little meaningful choice, and tons of restrictions.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

65
#65 Best PC Game of 2022
39
#39 Most Discussed PC Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 36 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 36
  3. Negative: 0 out of 36
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 25, 2024
    60
    Victoria gives players a glimpse of the changing world of the nineteenth century. The player forms nations, oversees ethnic groups, colonizes a world untouched by Western civilization, and most importantly, manages trade and industry. The game itself has shortcomings that disappoint. Prussia doesn't always succeed in unifying Germany, and in 20 hours of play I have yet to see a war between the US and Mexico, or even an attempted civil war in the US. [Issue#323]
  2. GameCritics
    Jan 23, 2023
    55
    Overall, Victoria 3 offers a lot of play for those interested in grand strategy, with a number of detailed and complex systems to learn over time. It’s also a solid entry point for people newer to the famously complicated genre, but experienced vets looking for engaging wars or more historically-focused titles should either keep an eye on future updates or look elsewhere.
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  3. Games.cz
    Jan 19, 2023
    80
    Be patient, work through your failures. If you do, you’ll get to enjoy a truly fascinating simulation of the 19th century world with all its diplomacy, trade and social developments. War is secondary. And it’s for the best.
    Read full review
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