Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun

The game crashed on me when I hit the spacebar to skip the Paradox Interactive opening credit, not a good sign. Tried to find any patch information on the game on the Paradox Forum site, all patch information leads to Victoria 2, could not find one word on whether my Victoria 1.0 needed a patch at all. Plunging on ahead, I spent 6 minutes happily telling various territories to build factories or expand production, when Victoria experienced an error and crashed.I will be generous and give this game an extra star, as I am uninstalling it before braving another crash. I have no idea if the crash was because I was running XP, or because Victoria 1.0 needed a patch that I couldn't find. A specific link to a game-specific patch webpage would have been helpful. As a final insult, the game requires a complete computer reboot after uninstalling. Thanks!

Victoria is an interesting concept for a game because it takes into consideration many aspects that other games (Civilization) tend to barely delve into, for example, that the power of a nations military is dependent on industry. Although Civilization touches on the physical concept of this idea, Victoria differs by creating an environment that is more true to history and dispersement of resources. Think of it as a game where small details are often the most importance are geographically accurate.The challenge to this game is the extremely high learning curve, because it is difficult to grasp how to play and what are the most common strategies for building up a nation. In addition to a high learning curve, there is much to manage. Including trade, resources, diplomacy and more.I recommend using walk-through videos on You Tube as a way of determining whether you like the concept of the game, or as a method of learning how to play Victoria.Overall the game was fun and once understood can be time consuming and addictive.

I was looking for a good strategy/builder game like Majesty 2 or 1701 A.D. This was definitely not it. I now see why there are no extra photos on Amazon. This game was very old school in my opinion, frustrating and boring. Instead of walking you through a tutorial, the game simply had pop-up windows that told you what to do, like my memory is that long! All you do is drive your troops from one location to the next on top of a geographical map...literally! If you are looking for a interactive game, do not get this one. I am surprised the same folks that created Majesty created this game too. I wish they would come out with more economic strategy games like Majesty.

This game is an extraordinary historical simulation, you can pick any nation and guide it from the beggining of the 19th century to 1920 managing trade, taxes, production, diplomacy and last but not least the army. The manual contains the basic information necessary to play, but it takes a first game, I suggest with a small nation, to practice and get a hold on the rules to fully enjoy the simulation. Reading the reviews I was afraid of bugs but although sometimes the game crashed it was tolerable, I suggest to set the autosave feature every few turns. Finally, for those who played Europa Universalis, I think Victoria, being more realistic especially because of the trade feature, is a consistent improvment.

I enjoy strategy games, Age of Empires, Civilization, a few others. I didn't spend a ton of time with this game for several reasons. First, it doesn't come with an instruction manual which was disturbing, especially for a game with as many intricacies as this one. Second, it's just way too complex. There's a very very steep learning curve. The menu system is very poorly designed, and in some cases doesn't even function, or at least not in a rational manner. Third, my best attempt at learning how to play made it seem as though this game requires an intense amount of micromanagement, the kind of micromanagement that makes you wonder who thinks that kind of thing should actually constitute a "game". It seems more like punishment to me.I wanted to like this one. I love history, and I generally find things interesting that allow you to rewrite or reenact history to your liking. The themes of militarization, industrialization and diplomacy are good ones. Victoria implements it in a way that is clumsy for the user.The music is pretty good. I like that you can choose any, literally any, country in the world at that time. Most games pigeon-hole the user into one of the countries they want you to play. Unfortunately I can't think of much else that I really enjoyed. The graphics are sub-par, but this type of game doesn't really require much in the way of graphics so that's not a big deal. Overall, just not a fun game to play so I can't recommend it.

Fantastic strategy game. A bit outdated now, but absolutely worth a play if you like the Grand Strategy genre