Reviews by Cristi P.

Crusader Kings III
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Very polished

Overall, feels a lot more thought out & polished than CK2 - easier for beginners to get into it, since most every concept is explained through the interface (no need for reading the wiki). Otherwise, fairly easy for CK2 veterans to come to grips with as well, as it's very similar to the previous one (and the very few concepts that are new are very well explained).

Only shortcoming is that there's still a lack of content compared to CK2 + all its DLCs, but I guess Paradox are still holding out on basically re-releasing it eventually. Plus there's a slight chance DLC will evolve in different directions compared to CK2, which I guess is probably a good thing.

by Cristi P., Romania - Apr 23rd 2021

Crusader Kings III: Northern Lords
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Worth the price, I guess

I guess it provides a fair bit of content given its low-ish sale price, and this game needs every bit of replayability it can get, considering that it has to compare to CK2 + DLCs.

(coming from the perspective of someone who played CK2 for 1000s of hours, new players might be more impressed by it)

by Cristi P., Romania - Apr 23rd 2021

Imperator: Rome - Heirs of Alexander Content Pack
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Decent content

To be honest, I mostly bought this because I wanted to get back into the game after the 2.0 update, and didn't want to feel like I was missing anything. I got a few more playthroughs out of it before getting bored, which adds up to probably dozens of hours - so I feel like I got my money's worth.

Imperator is generally going in the right direction (I think), but it still has a fair bit to go before it's as endlessly replayable for me as EU4.

by Cristi P., Romania - Apr 23rd 2021

Europa Universalis IV: Emperor
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Some good ideas, some not so much, plenty of bugs

Quick disclaimer that I've played the game for >1000 hours at this point, so I was very likely to pick up this DLC no matter what. That said, despite all the hype around this release and all the development time that went into it, it came out with a shocking amount of issues, leading me to believe QA was quite shoddy.

Probably the feature I like the most is removal of "max number of states" (including the dreaded corruption from "too many territories"), and the ability to create trade companies anywhere outside of your capital province's subcontinent. Governing capacity & hegemonies are a mixed bag for me, and this whole DLC soured me a bit on Paradox's lax dev practices (took them ages to start working on hotfix patches). I'll be a lot less likely to buy into hype and buy DLC immediately upon release to avoid these issues.

by Cristi P., Romania - Sep 4th 2020

Imperator: Rome
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Not bad for a start, doesn't feel complete

I was super hyped about the game before its release, from all the youtubers making videos about it before it was out, and I decided to pre-order a game for the first time, as it felt like a no-brainer (I have around 3000 hours in Europa Universalis 4 and Crusader Kings 2, and this looked like another Paradox title that sits somewhere in between).

For the first 10 hours I was exhilarated with the new gameplay, but after another ~40 hours in it there are quite a few cracks showing up, and I have to say I feel slightly cheated (maybe I shoudn't have succumbed to the temptation to pre-order). I'm kind of torn, since on the one hand the game does look like it's had quite a bit of work put into it (maybe more than the average game for the same price), but at the same time there are glaring faults that I would have expected Paradox to have pre-emptively fixed since they were once prevalent in EU4 and CK2.

On the surface, it looks like it has very complex systems interacting with each other, but in practice you can easily ignore 90% of them and still have no problems steamrolling your way through the game with barely any understanding as to what's going on. There are a *lot* of things in-game that are not explained properly, but if you have any sort of experience with other games by Paradox you should be able to find your way around them regardless (there are still a handful of mechanics in-game that I was absolutely stumped by, and I'm still bitter about the lack of transparency).

If you've managed to hold off on buying the game until now, I'd still argue you should hold off. The game has some stuttering issues even on beefy machines, and the gameplay itself is fairly shallow - I don't think there are enough differences between nations to warrant playing through the game multiple times (and this should be an absolute dealbreaker for fans of previous Paradox games). I can't imagine you'd want to play this as a non-Paradox fan (maybe if you're really into the historical age depicted), but even then I'd wait until the wiki is fully fleshed out, because the game is still dense (and not in a good way).

I'd wait until patch 1.1 arrives (I think they announced it to come somewhere in June), and hopefully they'll rework some of the more egregious mechanics. As it stands, I don't want to blame them of being lazy/malicious (i.e. splitting up essential functionality to package as DLC), but I fully expect them to come up with extensive free updates to make the game playable in the long-term. I just can't recommend it too strongly right now.

by Cristi P., Romania - Apr 29th 2019

Crusader Kings II: Holy Fury
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Pretty decent, nice new flavor

The warrior lodges and bloodlines are pretty OP, but it's nice to have something new to focus on in times of (relative) peace, though you still end up twiddling your thumbs a lot. The way they reworked Crusades brings more transparency, but it's kind of annoying that you have to sit tight for a few years until everyone comes on board before the actual war starts. Most of my games devolve into blobbing uncontrollably, and my own levies & retinue are typically enough even for holy wars, so there's no real point for waiting on other allies to join. I could be wrong, but I think they didn't apply the new system to Pagan Great Holy Wars, so that's a bit odd.

Plus a few quality-of-life improvements, and a UI shake-up (that is also in the free patch I think). Worth the price I got it for on release, with only a slight discount, but then again I'm also a bit of a completionist (I sink a lot of time into Paradox games).

by Cristi P., Romania - Apr 22nd 2019

Cities: Skylines - Industries
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Some good, some boring

At this point, I'm not sure the DLC that's coming out is any better than user-created mods. There wasn't that much content in here to keep me interested for long, and I got pretty bored with the base game after a few hundred hours of play. I'm by no means an expert at the game, but I just get tired with the endless micromanagement, braindead AI, and slightly less-than-perfect object positioning.

Still one of the best city building games in recent history, and I'm happy to give money towards keeping it actively maintained.

by Cristi P., Romania - Apr 22nd 2019

Europa Universalis IV: Golden Century
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Mostly decent

Pretty big boosts to Spain in this DLC, mission trees additions are always nice, and minority expulsion is an interesting mechanic for colonizers (though it annoyingly keeps your colonist permanently tied up for the duration). Holy orders don't make much sense to me, it's just another button to click to spend excess mana points. Really bizarre that you can't remove them from a state afterwards too. Flagships are just mildly interesting, and naval barrage feels kind of pointless outside of a few edge cases.

As with all DLC, read through the full list of features to see if anything screams out at you before buying. This one in particular is kind of niche, I can't really think of any vital improvements introduced here. I appreciate efforts made by Paradox to keep pumping out new content, but it's also quite annoying to see so many bugs and regressions slip into new releases. After a DLC release like this, you typically have to wait for a couple of hotfix patches before you can really get started on a full campaign. Some dodgy design decisions in there as well (like more restrictive conditions for moving you capital off-continent) makes some people want to revert to earlier patches.

by Cristi P., Romania - Feb 22nd 2019

Europa Universalis IV: Dharma
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Mixed bag, still quite fun

(Note that I've sunk 1000+ hours into EU4 so far, and have nearly all DLCs anyway, buying this one was a no-brainer)

If you've played the game for as long as I have, an update like this is very much welcome to keep things fresh and try to do another run, with a fresh new nation. In my case, I started as the Timurids, forming the Mughal Empire (which seem to have been massively buffed), and having a lot of fun with it (the Mughals' national ideas & culture assimilation bonuses are amazing).

The most welcome change is probably removing the minimum land requirements from estates, which made previous world conquests that much more tedious (though I believe this is included in the free patch that went with the release as well).

The new custom government reforms are also quite interesting, but it keeps getting harder to advance down this path the more you go through with your world conquest (as reform progress is tied to average autonomy). Going over the maximum number of states now gives you yearly corruption, which sounds kind of terrible, but realistically it's only an extra money sink to root out corruption. Makes the game mildly more challenging in certain scenarios. Not a fan of the rework to religious conversion (now only working in states), but I typically play with humanist ideas anyway, and I think they've rolled it back a notch in the newer 1.27 free patch.

Definitely read the full patch notes/development diaries if you're interested in the full details on what changes before you buy. This is probably the best time to buy the DLC too, as they supposedly fixed a bunch of the bugs introduced from 1.26 in 1.27. Maybe wait for a sale though, 10 dollars (or euros) feels like the sweet spot for the amount of content provided.

by Cristi P., Romania - Oct 3rd 2018

Cities: Skylines - Parklife
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Sure, why not

It looks like Paradox have added a few quality-of-life improvements in this DLC (alongside new content), so I'm happy that they keep trying to improve the game. The price is fair enough that I don't have a problem justifying the purchase, though maybe I was a bit over-hyped for this piece of content from all the video playthroughs I had seen before.

I was kind of expecting them to remove the old "parks & plazas" content to force players to use the new system, but apparently it's still there. Meaning you can still plop down happiness-generating items quickly and painlessly instead of taking the time to design your custom dream park. I wonder if the new way of doing things will eventually feel to tedious, and most players will just fall back to using the old parks system.

Something else I've noticed is that the new parks take quite a while to level up, based on the # of visitors they accumulate (makes sense I guess). I was hoping to blitz through the whole DLC in an hour or two, but apparently you need to invest quite a bit of time into this side project to really make it flourish. I wouldn't call it essential DLC, but it's nice enough for the extra tools & roleplay value it gives you.

by Cristi P., Romania - May 29th 2018

Europa Universalis IV: Rule Britannia
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Pretty cool

Bit torn on this one, as some of the features already made it into the free patch. But the price point is just about right, and I'm happy to reward Paradox for their efforts to keep updating and improving a nearly 5 year old game now.

The decision to add a new tab for missions was a good move, especially for people like me that play the game with the eu4 wiki open at all times, though it does kind of add a bit of clutter.

by Cristi P., Romania - Mar 23rd 2018

Europa Universalis IV: Cradle of Civilization Collection
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Interesting mechanics

Wouldn't call this a "must buy", but if you've already got the more essential DLC and find yourself getting bored with the game, the new drilling & army professionalism mechanics give you something extra to micro-manage so you don't just twiddle your thumbs in-between wars.

Or if you plan on playing a muslim nation, then I bet you'll find a lot more depth there, though I'd suggest you find a list of features contained in the paid DLC that didn't make it into the free patch, to decide for yourself if it's worth the asking price.

by Cristi P., Romania - Jan 29th 2018

Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome
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Uh, if you want to play Russia?

I'll be honest, I've spent hundreds of hours playing the game with various DLC thrown into the mix, and this is the very last DLC I bought to complete my collection. I can only recommend buying it with a deep discount whenever available, but you shouldn't feel like you're missing out on much if you don't get it.

There aren't that many redeeming qualities about it (judging from most other people's reviews), but it does potentially spice things up a bit if you plan on playing as Muscovy and/or form Russia. Be warned that if you get the DLC and play as some other nation, the DLC will probably make the AI-controlled nation of Russia quite a bit more powerful than before.

by Cristi P., Romania - Jan 29th 2018

Europa Universalis IV: Mandate of Heaven
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Pretty Cool

The new "ages" mechanic with splendor points that you can spend on new abilities is pretty cool. Same for the "golden era" option, though it's a shame you can only declare one once per campaign. One thing to keep in mind is that all of your opponents will have access to the same improvements (you'll likely see dozens of "Nation X has declared a golden era!" messages).

The diplomatic macrobuilder is moderately useful, EU4 definitely needs more menus like this (so you can see, at a glance, if there are any nations around willing to ally you or accept vassalization).

Can't speak for any changes for the chinese/japanese factions as I haven't played those nations yet. I'm still worried about how crippled they'll be by the very slow expanse of institutions to that part of the world.

by Cristi P., Romania - Jan 3rd 2018

Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations
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Improvements to trade

Not that much content included in this one (I think most of the changes made it into the free patch, which is really nice of Paradox). I still bought it on sale (and it's fairly cheap to begin with), and noticed a few new options, like using your spy network to "justify trade conflict" giving you a cheap casus belli. Or manually moving your trade capital to another province (I probably think I understand trade mechanics well enough to have found a use for this yet though).

I'd only recommend getting this one on a steep discount (>50%), and make sure you have other more important DLCs first.

by Cristi P., Romania - Jan 3rd 2018

Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise
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Only if you want to play native nations

Most of the content in here seems to target "new world" nations, so if you don't intend to get into the colonization game (or anti-colonization, as a a native american nation), you probably won't feel like you're getting your money's worth.

(You can get either this or El Dorado if you want to play random nations & get the diplomatic option of supporting another nation's independence. I'd recommend El Dorado over this, but only if you're a completionist and already have the other, more crucial DLCs already)

by Cristi P., Romania - Dec 26th 2017

Cities: Skylines - Green Cities
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Nice enough for the completionists out there

I'll preface this by saying I've bought almost every other DLC that came out for this game. Each time I get a new one, I spend a few dozen hours on a new sandbox city (don't care much for custom scenarios), so I quite often feel I get my money's worth.

I wouldn't say Green Cities is a must-buy right now, I'd wait till it goes on sale for a 50% discount maybe. If you don't already have Mass Transit, I'd recommend it over this one. But if you're like me and get a nice tingly feeling from seeing electric cars buzzing around your city, reducing pollution & whatnot, by all means get it now.

Even at the current price point, it doesn't feel like a ripoff, and I quite like supporting Paradox's work on this game and encouraging them to keep putting out DLC for it.

by Cristi P., Romania - Dec 26th 2017

Europa Universalis IV: Rights of Man
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Quite good, though maybe not exactly essential

This DLC adds a bunch of fairly useful abilities to the game, like the "great power" system (if you're planning to play as one of the bigger nations). There's another DLC out there giving you the ability to "threaten war" to slowly annex provinces, and I've come to use it almost constantly. I imagine threatening over breaking alliances will be just as useful.

Similarly, personality traits add a bit of extra spice to gameplay, and having queen regents seems pretty darn useful to sidestep painful regency periods.

One of the first DLCs I'd recommend getting, provided you already have the essential "Common Sense" and "Art of War" (otherwise go for those first).

by Cristi P., Romania - Oct 28th 2017

Europa Universalis IV: Res Publica
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For the completionists

This is one of the older, and probably therefore cheaper DLCs for the game, but it doesn't add a whole lot of extra content over the free update. Really cheap if you can get it on sale, but I'd highly recommend going for more highly valued DLC first (like Common Sense or Art of War), if you don't have them already.

There are numerous threads on Reddit ranking EU4 expansions in terms of usefulness if you need more advice to go on (just search "what DLCs should I get EU4"). Hope this helps.

by Cristi P., Romania - Oct 28th 2017

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado
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Situational DLC

I'll be honest, I only got this because I was very keen on playing a specific country (Moldavia), which starts off as a vassal at the beginning of the game. The DLC allows for new diplomacy options, most importantly (to me) the one to get other countries to support your independence war against your overlord. This drastically improves gameplay options if you're playing as a vassal/march.

Other than that, the custom/random nation content might be nice, if you get bored with the base historical game (I haven't yet).

by Cristi P., Romania - Sep 27th 2017

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