Game is stuck in the endless cycle of returning to the launcher screen. Solutions for the issue found over the internet didn't not work. I highly recommend avoiding it.
It's all about grinding toward better equipment. Space is two-dimensional. It's an attempt at sail ship broadside-based combat but it's horrible at it. I you enjoy it, try Sea Dogs series instead. By the time you reach bigger ships, they have so many turrets that lining up/avoiding those broadsides doesn't really matter that much; a much bigger ship can wreck your smaller and nimble one one even if you stay behind it (out of the broadside angle). Using space to your advantage is punished: you can fail mission due to trying to outmanoeuvre opponent you are tasked to destroy. Why? Because there are invisible limits on where you can go during a mission. Manoeuvre in a smart way and it's mission fail. (By the way, you can have two mission targets spaced almost on top of each other, good luck trying to save someone). What other guys wrote: it's made for console controllers. Not worth even the discounted price.
It's a 180 degrees turn from previous Europa Universalis games. Technology spreads in a way that when first colonizers meet tribal societies, those tribal societies have star forts, cannons and everything. It doesn't make any sense, unless it's multiplayer-only game (which it isn't). Cultures doesn't matter at all. Everyone and everything is the same. Somehow, developing a province makes you... lag behind in technology. Large countries only get larger, with no signs of internal strife nor anything that happened in real history. Countries that historically were swimming in gold are poorer because you can only earn serious money by having trade node nearby. Two good things: 1. Trade and trade protection system (navy patrols) require much less micromanagement. 2. You can't just walk over fortifications ignoring them. Forts do work as barriers. There are numerous nonfunctional or imbalanced game mechanics because the predatory DLC system is all about cutting out content from the game (instead of adding it). EU3 with some DLCs is much better experience unless you want to conquer the world as high-tech Maori or something similar.
Like most people here, I have problem with animation freezing after hitting "Breach" button rather often, making the game unplayable. For some reason, in game's universe, Russian special forces run around with ARs and not Kalashnikov variants. Other than this, it could be nice game if author got some terminology right and enemies had any AI worth calling it AI. Avoid.
Like Open General, only worse. Interface is clunkier, there is less depth, less campaigns, tactical options feel limited. And, relatively to OpenGeneral, you really can't do much with settings. There are five campaigns (including very short tutorial one), all on the axis side. One major plus, however: game allows you to turn off randomized outcomes, so you can play it more like chess (chess with obnoxious sound effects, that is). Can't recommend. There are much better options out there.
Interface is very outdated and extremely inefficient in presenting information you need. Starting with one, small county isn't viable start choice, since your decisions matter way less than even minor random events. Unless you like when it hurts.
Still feels like a rushed, underdeveloped game. Since most reviewers covered positive aspects, I`ll focus on the bad: Due to being based on plot twists, replay value is on par with rewatching Sixth Sense - you may end up doing it once for the sake of catching some details, but more than that is a chore. Areas are vast but mostly empty (in terms of quest density). Graphics (especially animations) are worse than in its predecessors from the same age. Combat mechanics - unbalanced like it wasn`t even playtested. Keyboard shortcuts are strange, unintuitive or lacking (try playing a thief type, or pretty much anyone other than straight click-to-hit fighter). NPCs dialogue text is imposed over the area and not displayed in another window, making it harder to read. Game is full of the 'I should not have sold that vendor trash, because it wasn`t' moments. Side-quests are fed-ex kind, very few can be solved by talking with NPCs the right way. Game is bad at self-explaining its mechanics: what does the "MSR:18" or "NP -50" mean when I equip that item and how exactly does it affect my combat effectiveness? Good luck without checking external sources. Compared to the masterpieces of the era (Fallout 1&2, Baldur`s Gate 1&2) - it is a pee-wee league game.
Things that are annoying and clearly imperfect from today's perspective: 1) Game mechanics is of the 'death spiral' kind - if your early performance is suboptimal (not bad, just not perfect), the gameplay becomes exponentially harder later on. Trying to work around your past mistakes (e.g. one of the heroes/towns lost) isn't an option in most cases. You will end up loading games a lot. 2) Game is click-intensive, i.e. you will end up doing the same things, repeatedly, that require (unecessary) clicking through a bit too many options/sub-menus. 3) Some scenarios containt a 'catch' - an element you should be aware of but aren't informed until it's too late - e.g. time limit (or similar constraint). Replaying them for this specific reason ruins he immersion.
Utterly unplayable on certain systems (including multitude of my different IBM laptops running WinXP): everything and everyone moved ten times faster than should. Tech support provided me a copy-paste 'help' from the forums (applicable only to certain graphics cards, none of mine). Do you feel lucky?
Warning. You can't design your own perfect castle, like you could in the first installment. Other than this, pretty much the same.
