My First 125 Hours Of Europa Universalis 5
[Modern Review] Reviewing the successor to a foundational strategy title.
The 8th of May 2025 is a date that will be remembered by history for centuries to come: Pope Leo XIV began his Papacy and in an incredibly on-brand twist of fate, this perfectly coincided with the reveal live stream for Project Caesar: the code name for a (barely) unmasked Europa Universalis 5. I along with many others chuckled at this fortuitous alignment as we crowded around the virtual campfire on YouTube to be regaled of conquests and colonies to come while the world watched the white smoke.
I came away from this livestream feeling positive… but highly sceptical. Then, the long wait began. Europa Universalis 5 finally came out months later on the 4th of November.
At the end of August last year, I reviewed Europa Universalis IV and in that review I discussed how Crusader Kings 2, EU4 and Hearts Of Iron 4 were the vanguards of Paradox Interactive’s mid-2010’s golden age and that should one of these IP’s fail it would be catastrophic for the company’s reputation and player loyalty. Paradox Interactive have had a shaky decade so far: Crusader Kings 3 launched in a barren state and has consistent issues with its challenge and gameplay depth, Victoria 3 launched in an even worse state and only last year became feature-complete and Hearts Of Iron 4 probably had its worst year yet in 2025 with a string of disappointing and expensive DLC’s.
Does Europa Universalis 5 do enough to reverse this trend and can it live up to its predecessor? Truthfully, 125 hours are not enough to answer either of these questions; I may revisit this review further down the line. But I hope you enjoy this preliminary review of the game so far.
Strife And Pestilence
Europa Universalis 5 begins on the 1st of April 1337: a full 107 years before number 4’s start date and amongst some of the most seismic geopolitical, cultural and global transformations in history.
In Europe, tensions between the kingdoms of France and England are about to boil over into the Hundred Years’ War, the Iberian kingdoms are in the late stages of the Reconquista, the Renaissance is just beginning to bloom on the Italian peninsula, the Baltic Crusade is wiping the last pagan states off the map, the Eastern Slavs are beginning to find the strength needed to cast off the Tatar Yoke and a frightening new power: the Ottomans is beginning to lead the way in Anatolia as Byzantium looks to be on its last legs.
In Asia, the Mongol Yuan dynasty is losing control of China and teeters on the brink of collapse, the Muslim Sultanate of Delhi holds an unstable grip over much of the Hindu-majority Indian subcontinent, a series of Mongol rump states rule over the Middle East with a certain Timur beginning the game as an infant, the Japanese live in isolation and Southeast Asia is dominated by rich maritime kingdoms peddling their wares overseas.
In Africa, the North lives under the shadow of the powerful Mamluke Sultanate which stretches from the Levant to Libya, Morocco and Tunis hold sway over the Maghreb while powerful inland empires like Mali and Ethiopia continue to grow, further south, nations around Lake Victoria, Madagascar and the state of Kilwa sit safe from attack… for now.
The Americas are quiet in the post-Maya Collapse, inhabited only by a scant few tribal confederations, nomads and the many city states and minor kingdoms of the Andes and Mesoamerica but any player with vision, perseverance and the thirst to resist the coming storm stands to create a formidable state here.
A decade into the game, in Eurasia, the Black Death will arrive, cutting your population by at least 1/3 and levelling the playing field across much of Europe as everyone becomes poorer, less stable and more hungry than before.
I vastly prefer Universalis 5’s 1337 start date to 1444 in EU4. By 1444 the wheels of history regarding the rise and fall of certain powers were already turning too fast to slam the brakes but here? The opportunities are endless. What if Novgorod or Kiev, not Moscow rose to power over the East Slavs and threw off the Mongols? What if the Ottomans were snuffed out before they could supplant the Byzantine Greeks? What if Morocco sailed West before Columbus and his Castilian benefactors? These were questions only the most skilled or foolish could dare to ask in Europa Universalis 4 that can now be explored by virtually any player.
I imagine some will be disappointed to see that Paradox have cut down massively on the geographical range of areas you can play in; Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Northwest and other areas that used to have playable tribes now have them no longer. It’s a shame but truthfully, these areas provided the worst gameplay in Europa Universalis 4 and possessed no unique content outside of the basic tribal mechanics, so I can’t say I’m sad to see them go.
The presence of completely blank space where societies were known to have existed though is a step backwards. Victoria 3 does this better with its decentralised states, acknowledging that cultures lived and existed in these ‘empty’ places that were later colonised even if they are not playable. This seems like a ‘coming in future DLC’ type of situation, since the cultures map does have (incredibly detailed) data for all of these areas.
Aside from the scale and sheer number of playable states in Europa Universalis 5, its other most outstanding feature is the cavernous depth of its simulation.
Europa Universalis 5 is a map and data lover’s dream. Culture, language, food productivity, population, trade goods, markets, road networks, migration, virtually every piece of demographic, economic and strategic data you could possible desire is simulated and able to be viewed and manipulated at your will. I will say that certain areas seem to have been touched with a brush of revisionism and modern sensibility but it’s all minor stuff that won’t upset any but the most ardent nationalists.
Unfortunately, this gargantuan breadth does make the game a pretty fearsome draw on your CPU and RAM with Paradox recommending 32GB to play. My PC has 16GB of RAM, an RTX 5070 and an Intel i7 12700KF CPU and despite that recommendation I’ve been able to play the game fine except for when transitioning between the paper map to zooming up close to see terrain, buildings and weather which tanks the framerate; Victoria 3 had similar issues in the past. It is frustrating to see old optimisation issues rearing their ugly heads once more, perhaps it’s time for a revision of the Clausewitz Engine?
A Sore Sight For Expansionist Eyes
As astounding as the simulation and data available to the player is there are 3 major disappointments I have with Europa Universalis 5’s presentation: the soundtrack, the user interface and the map itself.
Europa Universalis 4’s presentation was baroque and opulent: the stirring music, lined mapping paper in undiscovered territory and mission trees put you into the shoes of some of history’s most famous colonial and land-based empires. There was a fantastic juxtaposition between the noble and adventurous tone of the game and the atrocities the player could commit that really gave you the sense that all this civilisation and enlightenment was simply covering up wholesale slaughter and exploitation. Europa Universalis 5 has none of this.
During my first session of Europa Universalis 5 I heard a familiar tune: Falalalan, this song is a remix of ‘In Taberna’ from the soundtrack of Crusader Kings 2, it was a sweet moment, one that caused a wretched smile to curl across my imperialist lips but once the emotional cheap shot was over I realised this was actually a problem. Falalalan is recognisably a Crusader Kings song, it made me feel nostalgic for the times where I would play that game after school at age 16 on my crappy laptop, what it did not do is convey the tone of Europa Universalis; this is the equivalent of putting the Resident Evil 2 RPD Main Hall theme in Resident Evil 7, it doesn’t work! It would harm the game.
This all sounds like nit-picking but my wider point is this: Europa Universalis 5’s soundtrack is repetitive and while the songs themselves are excellently composed, there are not enough and they don’t make me feel the same way EU4 did, in fact, the tone is much less cynical which is disappointing.
Secondly: the user interface, this is a constant point of friction in Paradox games but after decades making these grand-strategy games and reaching number 5 in a series, you have to expect better than this; buttons are broken, there are endless tooltips and vital information and functions are irritating to access quickly.
Bear in mind that this is a pop-out window that takes up a section on the side of the screen.
Highlighted in red is the upgrade settlement button, this vital function allows you to upgrade owns to Cities, Rural Settlements into Towns and vice-versa… and it’s a tiny button hidden in the corner.
Highlighted in blue is the button to expand forts, it’s the same colour as the name tag for the county so it completely blends in. Good luck expanding your defences without squinting closer.
Highlighted in yellow are the road and RGO expansion buttons, admittedly these are less important since most players will be using the road map mode and production tab for either, however, they are still haphazardly shoved in beside similar icons that only show information.
At last we have the green, highlighted in this colour are the world’s tiniest buttons and these are for upsizing or downsizing buildings. Once again there is another tab to expand buildings better but still, this can’t have been the best Paradox could do.
I’ve been playing Paradox games since 2016, I started with CK2 and I’ve played everything from Imperator to Victoria 2 and to be honest? The launch now, clean it up in 1-2 years approach to the user interface is something I’m getting sick of, this is but a small example however even this mess is unacceptable.
Visually, Europa Universalis 5 is plain ugly, whether viewing terrain up close or in paper map mode.
Just look at the difference here, I swear I haven’t edited these images. Europa Universalis 4 lacked detail and only had primitive modelling for things like cities and ports but it was colourful and pleasing to the eyes, EU5’s map is like someone messed with the colour settings on a TV, it’s so dull and unappealing. Furthermore, some areas of the map were given less attention than others and have lacking terrain data, leading to some hideous looking environments when you play zoomed in outside of Europe and the more popular Asian nations.
In conclusion, Europa Universalis 5’s soundtrack, user interface and graphics get the job done but they are a step down from number 4 and feel directionless and bland compared to EU4’s more cynical sensibilities.
A New Campaign
By far the most seismic shift in Europa Universalis 5 comes in the gameplay department.
The previous title was ostensibly a grand strategy game about governing a nation between the years of 1444-1821 with the hopes of leveraging military, economic and diplomatic power to stay independent and achieve some form of hegemony but those with experience know that EU4 was best played as a map painter: a game of conquest with an increasing snowball effect the further you dominated. Think of it as Risk but for PhD holders and ultranationalists.
Europa Universalis 5 is different. The old mana currency system is gone and so are the mission trees; the POP (part of population) system is in, just like Victoria 3 as are layers upon layers of complex demography and economics simulation. The goal in EU5 is not to paint the map and the player’s aim this time is more open to interpretation. Want to cultivate innovation while maintaining the steely grip of autocracy? You can do that, planning to maintain an elite, professional navy while relying on mercenaries for your land forces? That’s possible, want to maintain a feudal economy, living off the land while the rest of the globe embraces trade and rising prosperity? Well, good luck.
This is all made possible through your nation’s laws and national values. Let’s take a look at the latter first.
Veterans of EU4 will recognise many of these national values immediately as an evolution of the ideas group system and I don’t use that word lightly, this is one of the most positive changes in EU5. Through the policies, privileges and positions the player chooses across their nation’s legal and political makeup and during events, the attitudes and priorities of society can be reshaped as you see fit.
There are a couple of these values like the Land/Naval scale and the Capital/Traditional Economy scale where one side is just objectively better (Bohemia players are never going to pick Naval for example and Capital Economy is superior altogether) but for the most part these are choices that don’t have a clear cut answer. Best of all, these aren’t concrete, set in stone decisions, you can switch later in the game if you so desire; a common strategy at the moment is to remain decentralised in the early game to maximise the vassal states’ superior religious conversion powers and tithe payments, then to absorb them later and undergo rapid centralisation in order to affect more direct control over your new territory.
The barrier between tall and wide nations: between nations best played with a small amount of territory and nations who seek to expand constantly has been broken down forever because the player can switch between the two by pivoting their culture towards values that assist one or the other style best. In Europa Universalis 4 I was constantly googling which idea groups to get with which nations, which ones were a waste of time and which were the best but with Europa Universalis 5 if I’m not coping well with the rapid centralisation or my shift towards a capital economy is causing chaos, I can just… slow it down, maybe even reverse my decision.
I love this mechanic and with some further tweaks and perhaps more added, I think it could be perfect.
Your laws tie in closely with your estate privileges and national values; advisors, parliaments and event decisions can suddenly jerk the needle one way or the other in regards to your values but it’s in national legislation that the most consistent, long-lasting progress will be made.
Every 5 years the player can convene a parliament, in which all of the estates take part and debate on pressing issues, this is the perfect time to gather political support for law changes and territorial expansion; political clout is its own kind of currency, earned through bribes, favours and promises and cashed in to pass agendas, change laws or to gain lucrative casus belli which are much harder to come by than in the previous game. The moment to moment gameplay of Europa Universalis 4 was about preparing for your next war, consolidating gains and furthering your grip on power but in Europa Universalis 5 it’s often a good idea to forgo conflict, especially post-Bubonic Plague when chronic labour shortages choke your economy and every slain levy is a serf who can no longer grow crops to feed the realm. War is a means to acquire more power when cultivating existing human and economic resources just isn’t enough.
Moment to moment, Europa Universalis 5 is about governance: trying to build amicable relationships between your estates, creating a diverse and powerful market where others want to come and trade and creating the conditions for future prosperity and everlasting stability. The gameplay loop is supremely rewarding and systems like proximity, control and prosperity mean that in the early stages of the game it’s barely possible to govern anything outside of your own capital and over time, you see the long arms of the state spread across roads, rivers and coastline to encompass your entire territory and to convert serfs into citizens: to turn your population into productivity.
I was a military menace in EU4 but in this game? I hardly bother, I just adore running my nation, climbing economic and political hurdles and I get a bit giddy when I overtake another state in market control.
Like I said at the top, this is more of a preliminary review than something comprehensive since I don’t know how it all works yet; trade is different, that’s all I can say so far, I don’t know if I prefer it or not, I don’t have all the facts.
In Europa Universalis 5, markets (read: Trade Nodes if you’re an EU4 veteran) are dynamic: they can be destroyed, created and their area of dominance ebbs and flows over time. You can see above that despite the existence of Krakow, Minden and Stockholm's markets, I held sway over parts of Northern Germany and Southern Sweden due to my naval dominance in the Danish Straits and some heavy investment into making serious ducats. Once again, I haven’t learned everything yet but from what I can tell? Those stuck in the intersection between larger markets are better off founding their own and sprawling empires should be destroying the markets of small states and spreading their own across every province.
Speaking of taking territory, the whole cores system has been overhauled too and made significantly better.
Rather than dumping a fixed mana cost to add core territory status to new gains, integration is now a gradual process; conquered states are those which haven’t been either integrated or culturally converted, integrated states are those which have been integrated into your realm but are inhabited by a religious or ethnic minority and core territory status is now mostly reserved for land inhabited by pops who are ethnically, linguistically and religiously of a primary or accepted culture.
Growing Pains
It’s been a couple of months since launch now, the honeymoon phase is well and truly over and the community is starting to refocus on all of EU5’s faults, there is a lot of doom, gloom and people complaining that they’re bored after playing 500 hours of the same game in 2 months, so I’m going to cut through the jabber and explain what I think the biggest issues are so far.
The Holy Roman Joke
In our world, the Holy Roman Empire was an enormous confederation that comprised modern day Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czechia and parts of Poland and Italy and stood for almost 1000 years: from the time of Charlemagne to the time of Napoleon. In Europa Universalis 5, you’re lucky if you see it last 50.
International Organisations like the HRE and the Papacy have serious issues in this game meaning that the Empire essentially serves as free real estate for larger powers, since many of these German polities are rich, populous and highly developed it creates a horrifying snowball effect propelling the new owners: usually the 4 horsemen, into superpower-dom.
Frenemy Fire
Paradox have flip-flopped back and forth, adjusting AI aggression and behaviour here there and everywhere yet a good balance still has not been found.
When the game launched, it felt as if offensive warfare was only ever initiated by the player, now, regardless of how well the AI can leverage control or integrate new territory smaller states in Europe stand zero chance at survival; my precious Portugal save was ruined when Castile invaded me twice, first for gold and then for my land.
Systems Versus Stories
There is a deep friction at the heart of modern Paradox games: the battle between history and agency. Players want the freedom to rewrite the world any way they say fit and enjoy that special game when the AI does something truly profane out of nowhere but when nations just feel like different starting modifiers for systems and all real life historical considerations are thrown out the window, it makes the game feel flavourless and stale. Europa Universalis 5 has flavour: unique technology, events and estate privileges but not enough of them, it has a lot of real history integrated into its events and decisions but neither the AI nor the player are explicitly steered towards them.
I’m not sure how to fix this problem but it is something I have felt since Crusader Kings 3, nations are less distinct than they used to be and we seem to be moving further from experiences that reflect real history… but the games are getting better too.
There are other minor complaints I have: I don’t like the new tech tree, forts have some glitches and most formables aren’t worth it but these are neither here nor there.
The Die Is Cast
I’ve barely scratched the surface of what is possible in Europa Universalis 5 and what makes it so compelling; this is the ultimate culmination of 5 years of Paradox shifting away from missions and railroading towards systems-driven game design. But let me answer the question you’re really coming here to answer: is it worth buying now and is it a worthy successor to Europa Universalis 4?
My answer to the first would be a resounding yes. Europa Universalis 5 is ugly, unbalanced and unpolished but the depth is unparalleled, the replayability unprecedented and the potential limitless; this is not Crusader Kings 3 or Victoria 3, Paradox have launched a complete game… just with a rough edge that needed some extra sanding.
Is this a worthy successor to Europa Universalis 4? To be honest? I don’t think so. EU5 plays like Imperator with bits of Victoria 3 and Crusader Kings 3 thrown in; the time period, repurposed old systems and the Trade-War-Diplomacy gameplay triangle are the only things that identify it as a Europa Universalis game. If you’re looking to paint the map, complete missions and re-enact real world history then this isn’t the game for you but if you love playing tall, running the apparatus of state and enjoy a slower-paced, more cerebral strategy game then you need Europa Universalis 5 in your library.
Let’s not mix words: I think Paradox have done a fantastic job. I was expecting EU5 to merely meet my expectations but it has exceeded them in most ways and I’m looking forward to racking up many hundreds more hours colonising, conquering and concerning myself with armchair economics.
I haven’t touched HOI4 since this came out, let that sink in.
TL;DR: Europa Universalis 5 is ugly, unpolished and in need of some patches but it blows CK3 and Vicky 3 out the water and has me hooked. I’m looking forward to what comes next.
Thank you very much for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed today’s post, as always I’ll be happy to chat in the comments below and please like and subscribe to the Journal for more.
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Fantastic review, but it got me wanting to try EU4 :P I never played a game in the series, should I start elsewhere? Cheers!
Awesome review. Still putting off my own first campaign until free time becomes less scarce, but I'm glad to hear that Paradox acquitted themselves relatively well this time around. Might hold off for a major content update or two just to let them sand down the rough edges somewhat.
Since I know you sunk some time into Imperator and Victorias 2 and 3, curious about how you reckon the new POP system stacks up against those three games. Does it feel like an evolution of those games' POP mechanics or does it feel like something new altogether that's particular to EU5?