Last week, I clicked on _Europa Universalis V_ with a pilgrimage-like mood, and I played until four o’clock in the morning on the first night. This game is like a time black hole. Every time I think about “sleep after another hour of playing”, I look up and find that it is dawn outside the window.
When I first started playing, I was in a daze. Obviously, I am already a veteran in _Europa Universalis IV,_ but in the face of five generations of brand-new systems, I am still like a child who has just learned to walk. It took me an hour just to understand the basic operation, during which I wanted to smash the keyboard countless times. But when you finally figure out the doorway, the sense of accomplishment is simply addictive.
What shocked me most was the details of the game. In the past four generations, there was only one culture and religion in each province. Now there are living people living in every place. They have their own beliefs, culture and social class. Once, in order to appease the dissatisfied people in a town, I had to adjust the tax policy, which led to a national fiscal imbalance. This kind of design that moves the whole body makes me really feel how difficult it is to govern the country.
The details of the map are also amazing. If you get closer, you can see that the soldiers are wearing military uniforms of different cultures, and even the style of equipment will change with the development of science and technology. Once I stared at the Nordic forest for a long time just to appreciate the details of the trees swaying in the wind. However, the coastline occasionally has strange jagged teeth, and this small flaw is particularly conspicuous under the overall exquisite picture.
But there are indeed some headaches in the game at present. When I played until 1500, I found that the European powers were doing something incredible. Bohemia actually established a large colony in Canada, and no one explored the whole of India. What’s more outrageous is that I actually started to speak Italian in the Congo Basin, and this historical trend made me laugh and cry.
Stability is also a problem. Once I played with Portugal for ten years, during which I flashed back four times. I was so angry that I almost gave up this archive. Later, it was found that turning off the building tab could alleviate this problem, but this temporary solution always makes people feel imperfect.
Nevertheless, I can’t stop playing this game. I like to plan the layout of new towns the most, just like playing a realistic version of the simulated city. The new control and proximity mechanism makes the territorial management more realistic, not just painting the map and everything will be fine. Every time I see my carefully planned economic zone begin to make a profit, I feel indescribable satisfaction.
If you also want to try this game, my advice is to be ready to invest a lot of time. This is not the kind of work that can be used casually, but once you master its rhythm, you will find yourself completely immersed in that world. But if you are a perfectionist, maybe you can wait for a few more patches and wait for the developer to adjust the balance better.
Now my Portuguese kingdom is moving forward in the era of great navigation. Although the treasury is often in a hurry and the border problems are continuous, this feeling of being in power is really fascinating. Do you want to build your own empire? Remember to set the alarm clock in advance, otherwise it’s easy to forget the time like me.
