Rating: 
Summary: Best RTS game ever
Review: The best REal Time StrateGy EvER created by men till 2002. It has some bugs, but with the new patches, those are forgotten.
Interesting and very very educative
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: This has to be one of the best and most engrossing historical strategy games ever. While the graphics won't win any awards, the game play is excellent. A must buy for anyone who likes history or strategy.
Rating: 
Summary: Below Expectations
Review: Europa Universalis II is a real-time strategy game that allows you to control your own nation. The game's timespan is 1419 to 1820 and encompasses nearly all of the world's political entities of the time period. Available nations include France, England, Wales, the Papal States, China, the Mughal Empire, the Aztecs, the Incas, Byzantium, etc.The things I like about EU II are the extensive detail regarding the time period, the large number of playable entities, and the several different aspects of play. EU II contains over a thousand historical personages who may appear as kings, generals, or admirals. Also, the game includes several key historic events like the Protestant Reformation and the Treaty of Tordesillas, which can have important implications for gameplay. Probably the thing I most like about EU II is the concept. EU II goes farther than any other game regarding real life aspects of the time period. The idea of controlling a European realm at the beginning of Europe's ascent to greatness is intriguing. The problems with EU II though are great. While the game contains many available sides to play, only a few are worth controlling. Most nations you choose just get destroyed within 20 or 30 years. The warfare conducted between two sides is woefully inadequate. I've never been a big fan of showy graphics but at least let me control the outcome of the battle. The dearth of scenarios begs for an expansion pack, which may have been the reasoning behind including so few of them. The one scenario that I'm sure most people would be interested in, the open-ended scenario, is disappointing in the extreme. All sides start from roughly the same level; but, there are only a total of seven players. Instead of having a start-from-scratch scenario with every potential country involved, this scenario just uses a few players with too vast a space between them to be any fun. EU II the concept should be very fun to play and addictive. Instead EU II the game is tedious at times and not full enough to be considered complete. Perhaps EU III will be better.
Rating:
Summary: The best ever!
Review: This is the most fun I have ever had with a PC game! The control is outstanding, the options endless, and the attention to historical detail is remarkable. Forget CivIII and the rest, the is THE strategy game to have.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the most boring games made after 2000!!
Review: I was hoping for another great stratagy game that I could add to my large collection of PC games. I usually love Stratagey games, but this game is an exception. The game is very buggy and feels cheesy. For example, when you try to click on something, it takes many clicks before it gets the messgage. And no it isn't lag. I forced myself to play it for several hours thinking that if I gave it a chance, I'd learn to like it, but I just hated it more an more with every waking moment. This game reminds me of a much downgraded civilization 2. Trust me. There a many good stratagey games out there. This just isn't one of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Buggy multiplayer
Review: People have to know that this game is buggy concerning multiplayer cessions. While you can decently play with one other player, trying to run a game with 5 or 6 players is impossible, despite what it is said about the game.
Patches don't correct that fact. Even, it can worsen it (patch 1.03 made multiplayer impossible).
Furthermore, Paradox Entertainment is telling you can use their valkirie.net service to play internet game. That's a lie because valkirie.net is almost alawys down and is limited to a chat area, not a gaming area. That's pretty sad and Paradox, obviously, doesn't care of the multiplayer community.
Rating:
Summary: Good Game but with unimpressive AI
Review: I stopped playing this game after a while because the AI should be called artificial stupidity. I was easily beating the next most powerful country (on my first grand campaign) by out colonizing and conquering the new world. On the discussion boards everyone says the AI is easy to beat. Since I don't have time for a multi player game, which in my opinion would be the ultimate strategy experience (and the only real way to play the game to its fullest), I'm left on the short end of things. Also one game takes forever to play, especially the grand campaign. I'm not sure how you could coordinate a multi player game when it takes so long. Some of the rules of the game, such as not being able to take over the capital of a country unless the capital was the only province when you declared war on them, get in the way of game play. I should not have to make peace with an enemy and then declare war on them again 5 years later when the truce runs out in order to gain their capital (especially since I'm occupying it already). Also, certain countries can not be eliminated from the game as they are the focus of certain events in history. Also bad is how you are funnelled into a specific time line which sometimes makes no sense in the current context of the game. There are numerous subtlties of the game that aren't explained very well in the manual. Luckily the discussion boards fill in most of the details. To play this game well you should spend a lot of time reading the discussion boards. If you liked playing Risk but want a more realistic style of game play this is it, but be aware that it takes forever to play it from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: It could have been great, but...
Review: EU2 could have been a great game, but if you enjoy playing online, don't even consider buying it! Due to the numerous bugs and lack of developer support, the multiplayer function is just useless. Sweden-based developer Paradox does not seem to be working on a patch that would fix the problem. This is terribly frustrating, since such a game would really reach a new dimension by introducing decent multiplayer capabilities. Plus if you have Windows XP, you won't be able to see the cinematics due to a compatibility problem. I'm fed up with these developers or publishers promising things to convince you to buy their products, and not delivering these things. I just cannot imagine what it would give if drugs or car companies did the same.
Rating:
Summary: intimidating at first but you'll get used to it
Review: I agree completely with the comparisons--Civ 3 was very disappointing and EU2 leaves everything behind. The music is carefully chosen and historically interesting; the map may be intimidating at first (looks like a Risk map multiplied 100 times) but as you get to know your provinces they get better. Unlike Civ there are no unique monuments that confer special advantages but rather specific increments of technology that makes more historical sense.
Almost reminds me of Koei's Romance of 3 Kingdoms games on Nintendo...
Rating:
Summary: Best Strategy game in existence!
Review: I never played the Original EU, but I picked this one up because i was very disappointed with Civ3. This game more than makes up for that one. While the game play is a little slow in the beginning, the level of thought you have to put into this game more than makes up for it. It's like chess on steroids. The Game interface is good, the AI is great, and as was stated by others, this game has the best music in it, period. I've spent about 50 hours on the first scenario, and haven't finished it yet, but am totally addicted. Some here have talked about bugs, but I haven't found any yet (by contrast, Diablo2 was so buggy when it came out, my computer crashed constantly). This is truly the best strategy game I have ever played. It makes Civilization and Empire Earth look stupid and childish by comparison.
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