When the 'Game Over' screen arrived after my century in charge of the United States for our Victoria 3 review, I looked back over a very different hundred years from those familiar to me from history books. There had never been a Civil War - in the version of the story that unfolded in Paradox's latest grand strategy game, slavery was abolished more or less without incident in the1840s, but we'd come close to a revolution over the abolition of child labour thirty years later. By 1936, we were no longer the 'United States' at all - the nation was a wildly successful anarchist commune known as the United Syndicates of America.
Victoria 3 faces the challenge of living up to a decade of anticipation, and it's made some bold changes to address the shortcomings of its predecessor. It's without a doubt the most beautiful game Paradox has ever made, and arguably the most welcoming for newcomers. It makes fundamental changes to the way the series considers the ethics of slavery, labour, colonisation, and the agency of indigenous people. However, at launch, Victoria 3 is a wobbly prospect: bugs, crashes, and a few frustrating design idiosyncrasies leave the whole thing feeling somewhat underdone.
RELATED LINKS:
How to use the Victoria 3 construction system
Victoria 3 diplomatic plays guide
How Victoria 3 trade works and how to start a new trade route