Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Windows Vista/XP/2000; 1.9 GHz Intel Pentium or similar AMD; 512MB RAM; Direct X 9.0c; 128MB video card with support for pixelshader 2.0
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

The economic forces that drive the computer gaming industry work in mysterious ways, but occasionally to the average gamer´s benefit. This seems to be the case with the Europa Universalis franchise. Paradox Interactive has followed up the financial success of its previous expansion pack with the release of a second add-on, Europa Universalis 3: In Nomine. Listening to compliments, complaints and suggestions of all types, the designers have made an attempt to improve and expand upon many aspects of the original game. The most obvious examples are an extended timeline, with an earliest starting date of 1399, and new troop types and technologies. As in the previous expansion, Paradox capitalizes upon what makes a strategy game of this depth and magnitude fun: options, options, and still more options.

The most game-altering of the new features is National Decisions. In previous versions, important questions of government policy were handled through the event system. While this worked at a crude level, events did not provide nearly enough feedback about prerequisites needed to fire them and were plagued by the system´s Mean Time to Happen” mechanism; sometimes you might wait 50 years or more after meeting the requirements before getting the chance to act. Now, important decisions facing your country are their own game mechanic, complete with an interface that explains them in detail and the ability to enact or make choices about them the moment they become available. Policy decisions of this scale include things such as forming Spain as Castille or passing laws against blasphemy, which makes the conversion of heathens easier.

Your government also has the choice not to act on a given issue and maintain the status quo, so you are never forced to make a National Decision just because you meet the prerequisites. For example, at one point in my recent game, I met the criteria to become an empire, complete with a new government type and some other benefits, but my army was in tatters and rebels were roaming the countryside, so I put my empire on hold until things settled down a bit. Regardless of what I wanted to do about the situation, the choice was in my hands; a definite improvement.

Speaking of rebels, another improvement is how rebellions are handled. Taking a cue from Europa Universalis: Rome, In Nomine´s rebels are not just roving bands of peasants who are generally angry at everyone and everything; now they´re rebels with a cause. The malcontents are organized into various groups, from starving peasants to religious revolutionaries or nationalist agitators. Because they all have their own goals, they behave differently from each other, and not just in combat. Some rebels will try to form independent nations, while others will attempt to overthrow you without dismembering your empire. Even more interesting, you can now negotiate with them. Each group wants something different, from religious freedom to changes in your domestic policy. Major rebellions can now become political anarchy if they are not dealt with one way or another, because the rebels might not agree with each other while still hating your ruling government. Uprisings might even become multinational revolts if several countries face problems of a similar nature simultaneously. There´s nothing like trying to put down something on the scale of the French Revolution, only to see it migrate from your country to your neighbors, where it then gains support and returns to you.

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