Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun review

The Danish army guards the border, but what can one single division do against a major world power? Poor Denmark...

Some might say that Victoria ought to be out of bounds for me. As an editor, I am enough of a powermonger as it is and I am always haunted by wild dreams of conquering the world (note to self: never invade Russia during the winter).

But for some reason or other, this wonderful strategy game found its way to my desk and in the spirit of Gollum, I immediately crawled into my office, laughing maniacally as I installed the game.

Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun takes place during the years 1836 to 1920. This was the time spanning from after the Napoleonic Wars up to the end of WWI. In our fast-moving time, we tend to believe that mankind has never evolved as much as during the 20th century, but that is not necessarily true. In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution lay the foundation of the modern world. At the same time, Marxist Socialism was thought up, the machine gun was introduced, electricity was discovered, cars began invading the streets, the US struggled though a civil war, the UK became a global power, Central Europe was changed for good by the formation of Germany, monarchy was replaced by democracy and the list goes on and on...

Simulating the 19th century seems to be an insurmountable task, but Paradox Entertainment has used their brilliant formula from the Europa Universalis games and have mastered the challenge perfectly.

Are you smart enough for this one?

The goal is to have as much prestige as possible before the game ends. It's a long, uphill struggle...

If you have tried the Europa Universalis series you will feel quite at home in Victoria, but, as is the case with any Paradox game, you’re in for a bit of a culture shock. During the first terrifying ten minutes, you will be assaulted by far more options and much more information than the average brain can possibly process. Luckily, this feeling fades, along with the dizziness and black spots in front of your eyes, and then you’ll be able to appreciate the opulence.

In short, Victoria is all about gathering as much prestige as possible, before you reach the year 1920. The game runs in real-time, that is, time progresses continually, but you can pause the action and make changes whenever you want, which is generally the best thing to do.

The brilliant thing about Paradox’s strategy games is that you can play as any nation in the world. Want to manage some obscure Asian state during the 19th century? No problem. This could easily be boring, though, if it wasn’t for the inclusion of thousands of built-in events for every country, which always carry consequences or perhaps bonuses.

Take Denmark, for instance. Here, you will experience the construction of the famous Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen, and you will experience the birth of writer extraordinaire, Soren Kirkegaard. You will also run into serious difficulties when the historic war between Slesvig-Holstein and the Prussian Empire breaks out and you are left with a few paltry Danish divisions against the mighty Prussians. The historical events obviously influence your country a lot and you need to be staunch in your rule, and hope for a little luck as well, if you want to avoid historical disasters like the US Civil War, for instance.

Take care of the people

The game simulates all the most important events of the 19th century.

Victoria employs some very complex systems for keeping in touch with all aspects of the game. You don’t really play as a specific government or king, rather the entire state or country. This gives you the freedom to do more or less exactly what you want. You can declare war against other countries, you can build new factories, regulate import and export, recruit new divisions and much more.

The most important thing is to have order in your finance department. This requires you to limit expenses, because if you raise the taxes too much, your people will become more aware of themselves and their problems. Should they also be getting militant at the same time (if you have neglected to set up social benefits and pensions), they will riot in no time flat.

America has become engulfed in a civil war. But will the South prevail this time?

When I say that you are almost omnipotent, I refer to the fact that you still need to take the different political factions of your country into consideration. These have been properly researched so in the aforementioned case of Denmark, for instance, you will encounter the proper historical parties. As time progresses, your people will demand a higher level of democracy and this leaves you with another set of choices. Will you enfranchise everyone, or only the wealthy? Should there be political freedom or will you ban certain parties? Elections are held every fourth year, and you must respect the outcome, because the mob will surely get angered if you change the leading party manually after the election.

The parties have different agendas and it is almost catastrophic to get a leading party with a laissez-faire economical policy, because this means that you can’t lower your taxes below 45 percent of the maximum level. This has cost me most of my army multiple times, because I had to disarm, attempting to get the frail economy back on track. Therefore, you must take politics into account when laying down your strategy, so you get the right parties in power in time for war.

There is no reason to stay undeveloped

Research is pivotal, as well as interesting. I've just invented some new military gear here.

As an upcoming world regent, you must remember that research is paramount. This is quite an extensive part of the game, and in contrast to previous Paradox games, the development is tied to historical events. This means that you can now choose between 125 inventions, ranging from certain types of cannons to subjects like psychoanalysis and Romanticism. Additionally, each breakthrough can trigger historical events. You might not see all the consequences immediately, though. A long time could pass before you see any of these events (like the Karl Marx thing).

This way of handling research is truly brilliant and as always, Paradox games don’t just deliver entertainment, but also lost of historical entertainment (my History teacher wouldn’t be able to spot the difference between the two – ed.). Every event or piece of technology is always accompanied by more or less thorough texts that reveal great background information.

In the 19th century, Central Europe was still a patchwork of smaller states. Can you say "easy prey"...?

In case the game hasn’t already cured your lust for power, there is also a system of diplomacy in your way. This has been upgraded from the previous Paradox offerings and you can now negotiate about almost anything. The other countries will monitor your actions, so if you make a deal with Spain, France might not be happy about it. The AI controlled countries seem much more active on the diplomatic front than earlier and luckily Paradox have abandoned the bad-boy principle, which meant that if you waged war often, more and more countries would begin to hate you.

Now, you will instead be offered alliances and the like throughout the game. Attacking Russia five times doesn’t necessarily mean anything for your status amongst the enemies of Russia, such as Austria and Germany. We praise Paradox for this change in gameplay dynamics.

Neverending story

All provinces produce goods. which enter into a global trading system.

It is obvious that one could easily write extremely long articles on the subject of Victoria. However, I will round this one off by discussing the last big gameplay change from Europa Universalis, namely in the industry department. You can now build factories in your provinces and produce a large array of products. Many of these depend on each other and you need to go through a long number of steps in order to produce artillery, for instance. All your commodities enter into a global, very active trading system, complete with fluctuating prices (according to supply and demand), monopolies and much more. You must also keep an eye on the different sections of your population, which are divided into nationalities and social layers. Yes, there is a lot to take care of, and that is the great thing about Victoria. Sometimes it’s hard to believe how Paradox managed to cram all of this into one game.

There is even a multiplayer mode, but it requires patient, competent opponents because of the complex nature of the game.

Already a classic

My dreams of conquest have been fulfilled. I now control most of Europe. Notice the sheer number of provinces on this tiny section of the world map - Victoria is truly a huge game.

If you have always hated your history lessons in school, this might be just the way to brush up on your knowledge. Victoria is the best Paradox game to date: it’s bigger, smarter and more fun than Europa Universalis II, which I have hitherto regarded as one of the very best hardcore turn-based strategy games. Victoria is also surprisingly bug free when compared to the Europa Universalis games. A patch has already been sent out, however, but it makes the game much harder, so you might choose to delay installing it, if you want an easier introduction to the game. Furthermore, the manual is not nearly comprehensive enough (even though it’s longer than most other contemporary manuals out there), it almost equates to handing out a pamphlet for using a particle accelerator. Hopefully, fan sites will provide additional information as well as tips and mods.

Back in my office I’m left exhausted, contemplating the results of my conquering campaigns and ruthless aggressions against every neighbouring state. My empire stretches from the French Riviera to the Ukraine. It feels good to have accomplished something. Let’s call it a day.

Source: Boomtown DK
English version by: Jonatan A. Allin (neonwolf)