14 DAY TRIAL // I have been playing titles created by Paradox Interactive since I discovered the then endless possibilities I had in Hearts of Iron IV, and one of the features encountered in all their experiences so far is the fact that even complete and abject failure tends to be fun, as long as the gamer does not play out the entire downfall of his nation.
The fun of failure and the fact that each such experience represents an opportunity to learn something are coupled in the El Dorado expansion for Europa Universalis IV in order to add even more possibilities for players to explore, because they are limited now by their own imagination and not by that of the development team.
I created Dacia for the game and tried about five times to make it a solid power in Eastern Europe, aiming for different alliances every time and employing different tactics to increase my power as I tried to stand tall in front of some powerful enemies.
The Ottomans took me down, Hungary conquered me once, and the Polish managed to make me a vassal after a long war another time.
I did not succeed with any of these campaigns, but every time I learned something about my strategy and the way Europa Universalis IV works.
The game is so complex that my knowledge might be worthless next time around, but the simple fact that I have fun while committing major mistakes means that the replayability value is almost infinite.
El Dorado shifts the focus of the grand strategy experience
This most recent expansion makes South and Central America much more interesting to play in and it's nice to see that Paradox is aiming to add depth to all continents covered by the game.
But I still appreciate the crowded areas of Europe most and I am happy to see how the complexity of interactions between states has increased.
The core Europa Universalis IV experience was launched in the summer of 2013 and the current game already feels very different, with a much bigger focus on the experiences gamers can have and on making sure that each of them, regardless of whether it ends in success of failure, can be turned into a good story for another gamer.
