Europa Universalis IV

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Very Positive · 87%Very Positive · 87%2013

The verdict

A deep, endlessly replayable grand strategy sandbox with a huge mod scene, but a steep learning curve and a costly DLC wall. Skip it if you dislike paying hundreds for content or reading wikis.

Great for

Patient history buffs and map-painters who want hundreds of hours of replayable strategy, solo or in co-op

Main risk

You'll likely need hundreds of dollars in DLC to get the full experience, after a brutal learning curve

What players love

Huge depth and replayability

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews

“There is probably 1000's of hours of content in just the base game”
Steam review · 88 h played ↗

“Amazing game, incredible depth, you play for hundreds of hours and still discover new mechanics to push the next run even further.”
Steam review · 505.8 h played ↗

“Every playthrough is different. I've been playing for a decade now and I keep coming back”
Steam review · 977.2 h played ↗

Better than EU5, stable and finished

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews

“EU4 is a finished, complete, balanced, stable product.”
Steam review · 124.4 h played ↗

“A wonderful game. The fourth part is more interesting than the fifth.”
Steam review · translated · 222.9 h played ↗

Rewarding once the learning curve clicks

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews

“EU4 is hard to learn at first, but once it clicks, hours disappear without you noticing and becomes very fun”
Steam review · 47.9 h played ↗

“Pretty steep learning curve, but pretty incredible once you get the hang of it.”
Steam review · 27.4 h played ↗

Great modding scene (Anbennar)

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews

“it's also home to what is perhaps one of the greatest total conversion mods in history, Anbennar, which is completely free”
Steam review · 124.4 h played ↗

“If you ever get tired of the vanilla game, you can just download awesome mods, like Anbennar, and spend way more hours in it than in vanilla.”
Steam review · 3027.3 h played ↗

Learn history and geography

Mentioned in ~1 in 17 positive reviews

“As a history buff, I can't put into words how fun this game is and on top of that, how it teaches you as you play.”
Steam review · 1830.5 h played ↗

“this game has helped me immerse myself into the history of any country I have visited in the last 10 years”
Steam review · 2692.3 h played ↗

Fun with friends in multiplayer

Mentioned in ~1 in 30 positive reviews

“came for co-op, stayed for friendship-destroying border disputes.”
Steam review · 299.6 h played ↗

“in Coop With or Against Friends its also an absolute blast!”
Steam review · 528.5 h played ↗

What players complain about

Overpriced, excessive DLC

Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews

“there's so much stuff the game either hides from you or locks behind a dlc.”
Steam review · 163.4 h played ↗

“You need a $20 DLC from 2015 to directly add units to an army.”
Steam review · 3.2 h played ↗

“One bajillion DLC splintered across years of development.”
Steam review · 1153.1 h played ↗

RNG-heavy warfare and cheating AI

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“It isn't a strategy game, but a game of luck that penalises the player when they play well.”
Steam review · 5751.4 h played ↗

“the computer cheats like the purpose of forts is to protect your borders.”
Steam review · 3776 h played ↗

Steep learning curve, poor tutorial

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews

“After six hours trying to learn the basics I was just as lost as when I started, so I requested a refund.”
Steam review · 6 h played ↗

“I dont wanna spend 20 hours watching tutorials to understand the basics of this game”
Steam review · 8.6 h played ↗

Bad, hard-to-read UI and scaling

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews

“The text in this game is so small and there is so damn much of it that it is completely unplayable”
Steam review · 0.1 h played ↗

“I don't mind the look, but need to be able to read the fonts. When I turned up the GUI scale everything became blurry and straining on my eyes.”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

Crashes and poor stability, especially on Mac

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 negative reviews

“Game-breaking crashes ruin runs constantly.”
Steam review · 3723.1 h played ↗

“it’s barely playable on Mac due to constant freezes and crashes”
Steam review · 673.2 h played ↗

Slow performance and loading

Mentioned in ~1 in 25 negative reviews

“The Engine is so unbearably slow, especially when loading/restarting/birding.”
Steam review · 716.9 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Unsupported

Minimum

OSWindows® 10 Home 64 bit

ProcessorIntel® Core™ i3-2105 / AMD® FX 4300

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsNvidia® GeForce™ GTX 460 / AMD® Radeon™ HD 5850

Storage6 GB HD space

Recommended

OSWindows® 10 Home 64 bit

ProcessorIntel® Core™ i3 3240 / AMD® FX 8120

Memory8 GB RAM

GraphicsNvidia® GeForce™ GTX 560 Ti

Storage6 GB HD space

OSWindows® 10 Home 64 bit

ProcessorIntel® Core™ i3-2105 / AMD® FX 4300

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsNvidia® GeForce™ GTX 460 / AMD® Radeon™ HD 5850

Storage6 GB HD space

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