Europa Universalis IV

Paradox have a long history of making their games for Steam, publishing them on other platforms as an afterthought and not caring at all about compatibility or support and this is an egregious example of that. This release is incompatible with various mods, even though it is supposed to be the same as the Steam version. You should also expect plenty of problems with vanilla multiplayer, it WILL NOT work smoothly out of the box. Basically, if there is any chance of you ever wanting to try out mods or multiplayer, this is not for you.

solid game on release, since than plagued with DLCs, which make half of button not working unless you buy said DLCs... really just awful anticonsumer policy all around if you have to, get emperor and art of war DLC, those were at least somewhat worth the money avoid leviathan at all cost

Used to be a pretty good game the first couple of years, which is how I ended up with over 2000 hours in it. However, the DLC for this game has a track record of very often breaking previous mechanics, or making the game unplayable without you buying the latest DLC (eg: playing after the releases of Cossacks or Common Sense would put you at an incredible disadvantage for the first few months after they came out). Eventually, features from paid DLC do get released in patches, but that is only when new features get built on top of it, and the developers remember that it's not part of the core game. It usually takes around 2 years for it to happen. That, or they plan to overhaul it to a significant degree in the next upcoming DLC. Unless you intend to buy most non-cosmetic DLCs, I recommend you do not purchase this game. It will take your experience and fun hostage whenever the team working on it feels like it, and the only way out is to pay more, and more, and more money to avoid that happening.

The game itself is good and if you like the genre, is very well worth playing. BUT, like many other games of this publisher: beware of the money grab! Paradox is milking the s*** out of their games with a DLC frenzy like no other. Similar to Stellaris, Cities Skylines, Hearts of Iron IV, Cities in Motion ... you are looking in spending 200 something credits into a wholesome experience with all DLC's - in the case of this game here currently even more than 300!!! Surviving Mars, Prison Architect, Planet Fall, Crusader King III, Battletech, Tyranny ... still amount to somewhere around 80 to 90 bucks. There are always some pricey DLC's following the main product. Definitely wait for a sale and more importantly for a complete edition!

There can be no denying … … that selling every portrait, unit and whatnot as a DLC is an appalling and despicable practice that Paradox take a couple steps too far. Especially whoever had the impertinent idea to harass people with heavy metal music in an historically themed product, in order to make us pay for additional, less nerve-killing soundtracks, deserves to be hung up by his toe nails. Nevertheless, there would neither be active support nor further development for a ten year old software if it was not bolstered by DLCs every now and then. They should be fewer and fatter (more bang for the buck), sure, but it is unrealistic to expect programmers to keep working on a product for a decade or longer without remuneration. Furthermore, the money earned with current products is also necessary to finance the development of the fifth iteration of the series. The add-ons, mods and additional content and information to make the most of the title have led to some people spending hundreds of hours playing EU4, others have thousands of hours under their belt. This indicates that in the end, the game's price/value ratio is better than the one of most cheaper games. The complete experience, including all add-ons, DLCs, soundtracks, units, i.e. everything available on GoG at the time of this writing, will set you back $109.07 USD at the currently discounted Black Friday sales prices. Now everybody can calculate how many hours of entertainment are worth such a price tag to them. Given what we all routinely waste on lousy movies in theatres, abysmal TV served by cable/streaming TV, books that do not provide the information/guidance they promised, mediocre food or disappointing dating, Europa Universalis IV might not be such a bad deal after all. As a game it certainly is not, quite the contrary: it might very well be one of the best grand strategy titles/series/franchises ever produced. Whether you can stomach the publisher's business practices is a different matter.