Victoria 3 test – p.1

teasers

With Victoria 3, Paradox launches its fifth grand strategy game. And the economy game stands out enough that it can appeal to Paradox veterans and newcomers alike.

All screenshots are from GamersGlobal

In the global strategy game Victoria 3 you’ll take the reins of one of over 100 countries to steer it successfully through, you guessed it, the Victorian Era – and beyond. And, as is to be expected with a game from Paradox Interactive, on a heavily map-based display and with numerous setting and control functions including interlocking systems that you first have to get used to.

You basically determine your goals between 1836 and 1936 yourself. Do you want to convert a monarchical great power into a free state? Or maybe help a small country to “place in the sun”? Your decisions often have an indirect effect or only over a longer period of time. State management needs to be learned and requires foresight. You are mainly on the economic floor. But of course you can also let the guns do the talking. There is one thing that Victoria 3 is definitely not: a classic “Map Painter” in which you have to conquer as much of the world as possible. I’ll tell you after more than 50 hours of play whether the game concept works.

Beautiful graphics, & beginner campaign

Graphically, Victoria 3 is a head-turner, at least for the genre. The dynamically changing map is pretty and you can see a lot of details. The contemporary music sets the right mood and the effects are well chosen.

The basic campaign will help you to get to know the complex game. Here you will be given certain tasks and it will be explained to you how and why you should do certain things. After the very informative introduction, I quickly felt left out in the rain. My first game in Sweden ended in a boycott because I relied too much on credit. After all: The very good tooltips are a constant help. I’ve learned a lot in all my campaigns and I’m not a pro yet. It took me some time to figure out how best to form a government. This learning process is part of it. But you can unlock achievements even with a reduced level of difficulty and without Ironman mode, with which you only have one save. If you want, there are three other campaigns available in addition to the sandbox mode: economic dominance, hegemon or egalitarian society. Tasks then steer you in certain directions.

But I also felt misguided in my Belgium game for economic supremacy: I was supposed to reduce the market price of coal, iron and steel to 25 percentage points below the base price. So I eagerly built the industry. The only thing was that the goods, which were cheap as a result, were constantly being bought away from me by other countries, despite the maximum export duty, which increased the price on my market again. So I didn’t manage to reduce the market price of all goods sufficiently at the same time. I didn’t want to resort to drastic measures like turning a country into an enemy and imposing an embargo, and embargoes on individual goods are not possible.

Except for achievements, I will therefore rather let off steam in the sandbox. There, too, you get tasks in the journal that, when fulfilled, trigger an event, such as the “Institute of Philosophy”, which then lets you choose between various bonuses. What is incomprehensible is that there is no tool tip that tells you in advance what advantages you can draw. Then there are “Choices” with which you can, for example, start an expedition to the source of the Nile or explore the Wild West. And a skyscraper in Stockholm is pretty chic too. The choices can be quite costly – and again you don’t know what they can bring you in advance.

Madness and happiness: the interfaceThe controls and the user interface are partly excellent. At times, however, I was almost driven insane. For example, there are no configurable autopauses and popups. Events are usually only displayed at the bottom right and so you can quickly overlook something. Hey, I’m not at war? Oh, the other country has caved in! What is probably supposed to increase the flow of the game ultimately led to my reluctance to switch to high speeds. Secondly, because of this, I was on the alert like a gundog, and still occasionally missed something. Only to then constantly manually activate the pause as a result. I really hope that Paradox will make adjustments here.

With the money symbols next to the market price, you can always quickly see whether a product is rather expensive or cheap.

I was also a bit unhappy with some menus that work with graphics that are too large and free space, true to the motto “style over substance”. This reduces the overview and increases the scrolling effort. Why does only the states building view have an optional list view? I want more functional Excel charms like this! I find the decision not to give the game a summary overview with information and statistics (although you can already find them somewhere) very regrettable.

But the user interface also does a lot of things right, such as the tooltips. The menus are usually well linked to each other. At the bottom of the screen you can activate “lenses” like the trade or production lens. The map view adapts accordingly, which also changes depending on the zoom level. For example, you can use the production lens to see what buildings you can actually build and where – and then directly order their construction. You can also start diplomatic actions in this way or select an area to colonize.

Can you create the economic miracle?

In order to be successful in Victoria 3, you must first and foremost increase your gross national product. Instead of spitting your hands, you should rather play the keyboard of the closely linked mechanics. The management of your buildings, the population and the markets as well as a clever diplomacy are the core elements of Victoria 3.

Your country or empire is made up of states (in the approximate sense of the German federal states). Some give bonuses to certain buildings. Coal mines in Silesia are a good idea, as is timber industry in the Scandinavian forests. Malarial areas are less advantageous. The population of a country is more or less self-sufficient. However, as industrialization progresses, she increasingly finds work in rural buildings such as farms and mines. The population also toils in factories, ensures the flow of goods in ports or takes care of smooth processes or tax collection in the administration.

Resources and goods are bought and consumed by the population, (further) processed in factories or exported; the resource chains quickly become multi-tiered. In order to be able to fill positions, you need enough population. In addition to a high birth rate, migration from neighboring countries helps here. For this, however, your standard of living, i.e. the ratio of salary to the cost of the goods consumed by the population, must be right. At worst, immigration turns into population exodus.

Manpower and Household Discipline

If necessary, you can subsidize buildings. The legal ban on child labor reduces the working population, but women fight for their right to work. Also, not every able-bodied person can work everywhere. A farmer will not screw radios together in the electronics factory. In order to ensure growth and progress, you must also ensure education and permeability. And with more demanding jobs, the needs also increase. Gotland in Sweden doesn’t have such a problem, because rabbits and hedgehogs say good night there. Because of the population deficit, I built practically nothing there.

Poll taxes, excise taxes and tariffs are good for the national budget. He is burdened by the purchase of resources, such as paper for the universities, administration, salaries and weapons for the military. You will spend enormous sums on the construction of new buildings. Inexpensive building materials help to keep costs down. Profitable buildings also pay into an investment fund, which you automatically tap into for the construction of certain buildings.

Whether you throw yourself into a war needs to be well thought out, because it can get really expensive. If you live too much on credit, you risk falling into a negative spiral. Because interest burdens the budget. And at some point you can’t raise taxes any more. If you are lucky, another country will offer to take over your debt. But in doing so, you enter into an obligation that can be used to “motivate” you to take various actions, including joining the war. When I played Belgium, France wanted to force me into a customs union and Austria demanded a general from my Swedes as compensation. I gave up the general, but refused to join the customs union, which massively worsened relations.

Through the industrialization of your country, which you may also enlarge or enrich with colonies, you turn the spiral upwards and increase the GDP. If you don’t manage to do this, you will be left behind in the competition for supremacy and your options for action will be restricted.

You don’t necessarily have to go to war in Victoria 3 – the economy rules. In addition, the fights are unspectacular.