HomeFeatureseuropa universalis II
Have You Played… Europa Universalis 2?Russia’s greatest love machine
Russia’s greatest love machine
Europa Universalis IIwill always be one of my favourite strategy games, even if I don’t play it any more because its sequels have improved on it so much. Paradox’s epic map-painting series is one of those dependable few whose each progressive entry gets bigger and better than its predecessor, with the annoying bits ironed out, and the best bits amplified. Still, they’re all pretty much the same, topologically speaking: gigantic strategy games, which let you guide a single nation through the entirety of the early modern period (i.e, everything from Knight Time, through to the invention of the top hat).
I think of them all as a single game, really, that just gets bigger and wiser as it gets older. Like an elephant. Although, you know, a reallyrefinedelephant. This elephant, in fact:
But I met this fellow when he was a much younger ‘phant, back before he got a taste for fine wines, and still lumbered around bashing into trees occasionally. He was calledEuropa Universalis2 back then, and I spent many, many hours in his company during my final year at university, when I was meant to be preparing for my exams. When I was meant to be doing… anything else, actually. For about six months, I pretty much just played EUII.
Admittedly, none of this did much to help the history of science degree I was meant to be completing, but as you can see, it taught me lots nonetheless.
