Developed by Paradox Games and set in the exciting and transformative 19th-century Victorian era, balance the competing interests in your society and earn your place in the world of Victoria 3.

It offers a crazy in-depth world, full of opportunities and possibly many downfalls based on the decisions you make. A very overwhelming amount of options can be very daunting for new players and even some fans of the genre, but very rewarding when you put the time in and learn about this era.

There are many ways of playing, whether you want to jump into Campaigns with countries that are preset, or choose the Free Mode, select any country you like, and try to build up your society and economy. In a world that evolves from the second you begin, you have to pay close attention to your country and other countries you are associated with. You never know when you might just be cut off and left to fend for yourself.

These types of games aren’t really something I spend a lot of time on, so I need every aid I can get. Starting out with a tutorial to teach me how most of the basics work, I still found it kind of difficult to get the hang of. Luckily, there are settings to slow down the pace of the game, allowing me to take my time and continue to learn, which I do believe is a standard in this genre.

There is no war in Victoria 3, but this doesn’t mean there is no beef with other countries, as there are relationships to help with the economy. For example, the British Commonwealth, when you decide to pick a country like Australia, might just randomly get cut off by the British if you aren’t helping them back. This being said, you can build your army in a way, to give yourself that military appearance, but there is no option to actually go to war or be invaded by other countries.

You can play manually or set some things to automatic, using the automatic expansion method on your building and businesses. I did enjoy setting it to automatic and setting the in-game time to as fast as possible, watching my country evolve by itself, though still having to make some other choices along the way, to keep my society happy, or to lead them to their demise.

Graphically, I found Victoria 3 very pleasing. Setting it to ultra and zooming right in on the countries made it feel like I was looking at a really nice tabletop model that was actually alive and evolving.

Zooming right in on your countries and cities also gave you sounds of the city, people chatter, machinery, birds chirping, water running, and so much more. This was all accompanied by a variety of music, setting that old Victorian-era mood very well.

This genre isn’t really something I spend a lot of time playing, or really enjoy for that matter, but for fans of these games, I highly recommend it. This game has everything you want and so much more. It’s a very pleasing game visually and audibly, with a deep society and economic system to play around with.

Written by: MrVibeAU