Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+ or better CPU, 2GB RAM, 2 GB hard-drive space, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon X1900 or better graphics card, Direct X-compatible sound card, DirectX 9, Internet connection for multiplayer
Genre: RTS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

It has been almost seven years since Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun was released, and I have to agree with Avault’s Jim Richmond in his description of its enormous depth and complexity. Victoria, a strategy game of imperialism, politics and economics in the 19th century, was the kind of game that could overwhelm even the most hardcore gamers, and yet its minutia was part of its appeal. It was a game that made sure every single person in the game world, from farmers in Manchuria to factory workers in London, had an economic impact. It rewarded smart, patient players instead of mindless violence and button-mashing. It even provoked online discussions that demanded a minimal understanding of economics to follow what some players were saying. It’s no surprise, then, that some of the staff at Paradox Interactive were reluctant to make a sequel. So reluctant, in fact, that Paradox CEO Frederick Wester promised to shave his head if the sequel turns a profit (high pre-order sales have since triggered Wester’s promised trip to the barbershop). But the real question facing strategy gamers is whether Victoria II can live up to its promise of complicated, nuanced gameplay, while at the same time being a game that you can learn to play without dual PhDs in 19th-century political science and economics. The short answer is that Victoria II achieves these goals and gives strategy gamers a game that can keep them occupied for hours on end, with a few reservations as to how some mechanics currently work. The long answer is about as complicated as the game itself.

To understand how Victoria II is a strategy game and yet unlike many other strategy games, you have to understand the basis of its mechanics. Many RTSs use either military units, provinces or civilian units as a basis for gameplay, but Victoria II instead has population groups (POPs). The entire population of the world, from soldiers to aristocrats, is represented in POPs. They all have cultures, religions, social classes, jobs, political views, and even money and demands for consumer goods. POPs can change their socio-economic position, moving both up and down the economic ladder, and they can even migrate within the country or around the world to find greener pastures. Thus, it’s normal in any game for the U.S. to catch a lot of immigration from Europe because Europe’s unhappy and poor POPs want to leave the Old World behind for the land of liberty and employment. At the same time, the issue of slavery polarizes the politics of the political elite and make secession a possibility, giving the player in charge of the U.S. a different political balancing act with respect to issues affecting POPs. This emphasis on POPs means that Victoria has a fairly comprehensive economic model. The world economy functions much as it did in the 19th century. POPs produce goods, sell them, and try to buy the products they need through a global market. If they can only sell some of what they produce, they don’t make as much money as they would if their goods are in high demand. Capitalist POPs can even decide on their own what factories to build and what industries to shut down because of low profits.

This seems simple enough, but things get very complicated when governments take taxes and spend that money on military goods (which are also produced by POPs) or modify the world market by forcing minor powers into spheres of influence, changing where POPs buy and sell their products. Further complicating things are government policies in economics. Governments have varying amounts of control in the economy. Laissez-faire policies leave governments very little control, while state capitalists set up their own factories regardless of what their POPs want. As a result, players are forced to contend with real-world economic issues and to try and solve them with the tools they have available. One of these issues is that critical economic resources might be too expensive or simply unavailable. This leads to foreign policy dilemmas, and no game set in the 19th century would be complete without imperialism. Victoria II gives you the option to go to war with other countries and colonize the heart of darkness in Africa, but warfare is not just about inflating your ego by painting the map your color. With the whole world as your playground and a complicated economic model, warfare often takes on the character of its real-world counterpart. Invading and conquering parts of Korea or China might have less to do with looking like a powerful country, and more to do with a need for resources produced locally in those locations and a desire to ensure a market for your country’s manufactured goods. And when things get really tight late in the game, the great powers of Europe might very well attack each other, taking colonies away from one another and redrawing the map of Europe to suit the ambitions of those with the greatest military and economic might.

Diplomacy is not merely conducted at the point of a sword or rifle, however. In a move that I hope Paradox repeats in the future, Victoria II has a robust diplomatic engine that allows for “soft” imperialism in the form of spheres of influence. While the Heir to the Throne expansion of Europa Universalis III has a sphere-of-influence mechanic, it was a baby step in Bismarkian diplomatic direction in which Victoria II moves. The eight most powerful nations in the world are accorded the status of Great Power. In addition to looking cool in the interface, Great Powers can dominate the weaker countries of the world indirectly by forcing them into a sphere of influence. Unlike a classical alliance in which the two countries join each other in a war, countries in a Great Power’s sphere of influence can no longer ally with countries outside of their sphere and must buy and sell goods first to anyone within their sphere. This means Great Powers can build a large common market for themselves that provides them with vital resources and a place to sell their products without conquering half the world. By patiently building their spheres, and by carefully countering the diplomatic moves of other Great Powers, countries can stack the economic deck in their favor using some of the same techniques their 19th-century predecessors did. And being in a sphere of influence even benefits the minor powers, because Great Powers aggressively protect their spheres from conquering enemies, making life as a minor country more interesting that just sitting around and waiting to be conquered. This system meshes well with the War Goals system used to negotiate peace treaties. Countries must specify what goals they hope to attain in wars, making end-of-war negotiations a bit more rational with both human and AI opponents.

Considering the complexity of Victoria II and the poor release of the original Victoria, I feel compelled to point out that Paradox did all the right things with this release. Ed Hanks gets a gold star for writing a manual and strategy guide that help new players understand the complicated mechanics of the game. Trust me, you should read both all the way through, as well as play through the well organized tutorials. While this game is complicated, the materials walk you through what would otherwise be an impossibly steep learning curve; even veterans of the original Victoria should learn how the Upper House functions and what impact the +100% Tactics upgrades have on combat. However, Victoria II does have its share of problems. The biggest of these, and the one that’s hardest to understand if you’re not looking for it, is the Minimum Wage bug. Countries that enact a minimum wage suddenly find that factories that are given a blank check by the government to buy anything they need are unable to buy any resources. And since this affects both the AI and the player, world-wide recessions can strangle everyone’s economy because of the interconnectedness of the world market. There are also smaller issues with POP migration, where POPs move to colonies even when there’s no work available in their destination colony. You end up with the unemployed poor stampeding to the army, as even a low-paying job as a soldier is better than unemployment, with soldiers eventually taking up 10 percent or more of the population by the end of the game. There is also a small bug with revolts that makes them kind of spammy; it’s not difficult to suppress 500,000 Jacobin rebels, but doing so bi-annually can be tedious. There are also some growing pains with regard to POP needs and promotions; it’s too easy for certain POPs to become aristocrats, who in turn end up not being nearly as useful as capitalists or clerks. When eight percent of your country’s total population are aristocrats in 1914, and you’re also the most industrialized country in the world, then something feels like it has gone wrong with what your POPs have been doing. In an age of industrialization, there is no reason that the old aristocracy should be on the rise and thriving more than it did in the Middle Ages.

With all that being said, Victoria II is a wonderful strategy game, but its problems take what would have been a perfect Grand Strategy and turn it into merely a great game with the potential to be a classic. It’s the kind of game in which you sit back, enjoy a refreshing beverage and take the time to consider the long-term implications of your policies, and it does this better than even the original Victoria, to say nothing of other games that cover the period. It’s been a busy month for strategy gamers with the release of StarCraft 2, but players looking for a smart, engaging game that rewards patience and experimentation instead of button-mashing frenzies should grab a copy of Victoria II. Priced at $39.95, it will take uncounted hours for you to play through all the strategic possibilities it offers.

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