Developer: Paradox Interactive
Genre: Strategy
Platform: Windows

Europa Universalis III proves that an engaging, rich and broad real-time strategy game doesn’t require a cutting edge graphics and sound studio, a huge budget, or even a snazzy computer with a big hard drive. The game’s deceptively simple engine, control style and user interface belies a complexity and attentiveness to detail that’s lacking in most game studios these days - particularly in the RTS genre, which hasn’t produced any winners so far in 2007.

What makes Europa Universalis III so superior to the other RTS games coming out this year is the unprecedented freedom the player is given – more so than probably any other strategy game to date. Don’t let the title fool you - with more than 250 nations to play (all historically accurate, I might add), and more than three centuries of playable history, players are literally given a chance to reshape the world we know into the one we wish we did. Although each country features a unique starting location and political situation, the game immediately hands over full control of the government, advisors, trade, expansion, research, and economy of the player’s chosen country – giving players the chance to watch history play out the way they would have preferred.

Players familiar with the previous Europa Universalis titles will find the third installment to be an expansive revision of the successful strategy line, with more nations to play, more playable historical figures, and a dramatically improved graphical user interface. Beginners and new players will find a graphically simplistic, but cerebrally stimulating strategy title that’s equally fun as guns-and-swords conquest or brains-and-books statesmanship.

The single player mode boasts a sort of open-ended free-play, where players can assume the role of any nation at any point during the game’s historical span), and a more campaign-based mode of play, where particular nations can be played out in particular historical conflicts or contexts (think Spain in the last 1400’s, or the Hundred Years’ War). But when the long hours of computerized conquest begin to wear thin on you, don’t worry: Europa Universalis III features one of the most engrossing and entertaining multiplayer modes of any real-time strategy title to date.

In short, the only problem with Europa Universalis III is how difficult it can be to work up the strength to turn it off. The real-time nature of the game leaves players with a “just one more round” attitude that can stretch long into the night – or even into the morning. The multiplayer mode gives players competitive, fun and changeable gameplay that leaves them wanting a rematch at the end of each round. Be warned: this game is not for those with an addictive personality.