Victoria- An Empire Under the Sun

Victoria - An Empire Under the Sun, is one of the Paradox series of strategy games that also includes the more famous Europa Universalis and Hearts Of Iron. The game is instantly recognisable to anyone whose played any of the Paradox games. A chunky map with the world divided into regions, armies that move by "walking on the spot" for a few days then pop up in the next region, and a control panel where you make your choices.

The time period is from 1836 - 1920ish. So expect to see Prussia, Britain, France and Russia, slogging it out with the US on the rise. You basically try and build up the industry in your country (yes, you can be ANY country in the world, although most are so insignificant, it's not enjoyable to play), whilst perhaps developing overseas colonies and building the biggest army you can afford.

The economic model in Victoria is complex. VERY complex! It takes a few games to even begin to understand what's happening. I don't think the interface helps much in this respect. Generally, I like the Paradox games. It's nice that somebody releases games aimed at those with IQ's higher than Neanderthal! However, I don't like some of the interface 'quirks' that make the game more frustrating than it need be. For example, Victoria, like all Paradox games, has heavy use of sliders to set levels for things such as import/export quantities, and tax rates etc... There are loads of these sliders, and the levels you set are vital to the game, yet they've been implemented really badly. The values leap all over the place. Just clicking on the slider jumps the value around even before you've moved. They're also far too small for ease of use. Trying to set say, a Tax Rate at 49% is nigh on impossible, the slider lurches 10 units with just a molecule of mouse movement, and eventually I leave it at 47.6 as being as close as I can get. It seems all Paradox games suffer from this, and I wish they'd sort it out!

Despite that, I must say that Victoria may ultimately be my favourite Paradox game. It may be flawed, but there's nothing else comparable. It's a little like Imperialism from a few years ago, but much more deep and complex

One more point. Victoria is closely tied to history. This can be a double-edged sword, as on the one hand it appeals to those who like a historical game. On the other hand, game play outcomes will *broadly* follow history, whatever you do. Not that the game is the same every time, but Britain or the US will usually win, with Russia, Germany and France not far behind. Some events, like the formation of Germany and Italy, and the American Civil War, are hard coded to the extent that they nearly always happen. Yet the First World War doesn't appear to be hard-wired, as I've not seen it happen once!

In summary, this is a good game for the 'cerebral' gamer. You could get many hundreds of hours out if it by playing the different nations available.