Deep economy and politics simulation
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“Excellent economic simulation of the Victorian era, with so much replayability”
Steam review · 557.5 h played ↗
Victoria 3
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Mostly Positive · 72%Mostly Positive · 72%Paradox Development Studio2022Grand Strategy · Strategy · Simulation
−70%$49.99$14.99
US Steam price, checked 5 h ago
The verdict
Victoria 3 is a deep economy and politics simulator that has improved a lot since launch. Skip it if you want hands-on war, if you dislike heavy DLC costs, or if you won't learn complex systems without a good tutorial.
Great for
Players who love economic and political simulation, watching numbers grow, and learning complex systems
Main risk
Automated, buggy war and naval systems plus costly DLC, with a steep learning curve and weak tutorials
What changed in the last 30 days
59 recent reviews
Recent negative reviews complain about the military and naval system, bugs, crashes and DLC pricing. This looks like fallout from the latest naval update and DLC, but the sample is small.
59 recent reviews
What players love
Greatly improved since launch
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“Despite the game's bad launch and at best dubious reputation, I think the game has improved considerably since release.”
Steam review · 484.4 h played ↗
Rewarding once you master the complexity
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“The learning curve is real, but the payoff for pushing through it is enormous.”
Steam review · 377.1 h played ↗
Addictive, high replayability and freedom
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“very fun to see your economy grow, its addicting”
Steam review · 879.1 h played ↗
Interconnected political and social systems
Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews
“Love the way the political and economic systems intertwine.”
Steam review · 213.8 h played ↗
What players complain about
Automated, buggy war and naval system
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“Disastrous Warfare System: They completely removed player agency.”
Steam review · 436.2 h played ↗
Updates and DLC ship with many bugs
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“I am not an alpha tester getting paid to find your bugs; I am a customer who paid full price for a finished game.”
Steam review · 1241 h played ↗
Overpriced DLC and base game feels unfinished
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“Features that should be base game gets locked behind expansions that cost about the same as the base game itself”
Steam review · 534.1 h played ↗
Crashes, desyncs and poor late-game performance
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“crashes to desktop are frequent, often deep into a campaign, costing hours of progress”
Steam review · 400.3 h played ↗
Poor tutorial, confusing UI and steep learning curve
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“the tutorial does not explain how to play the game.”
Steam review · 3.2 h played ↗
Every country plays the same, little flavour
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“no matter if u player Aruba or the British Empire, your path is always the same.”
Steam review · 459.2 h played ↗
Since the last analysis (Oct 8)
- Praise goneModding and community support
- Complaint movedOverpriced DLC and base game feels unfinished: #4 → #3
- Complaint movedCrashes, desyncs and poor late-game performance: #3 → #4
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable10 GB
Minimum
OSWindows® 10 Home 64 Bit
ProcessorIntel® Core™ i5-3470 | AMD® FX™ 9370 (AVX support required)
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNvidia® GeForce™ GTX 660 (2GB) | AMD® Radeon™ R7 370 (2GB) or Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics or AMD® Radeon™ Vega 8
Storage10 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows® 10 64 Bit or Windows® 11
ProcessorIntel® Core™ i5-6600K | AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2600X (AVX support required)
Memory16 GB RAM
GraphicsNvidia® GeForce™ GTX 1660 (6GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 5600 XT (6GB) | Intel® Arc™ A580 (8GB)
Storage10 GB available space
OSWindows® 10 Home 64 Bit
ProcessorIntel® Core™ i5-3470 | AMD® FX™ 9370 (AVX support required)
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNvidia® GeForce™ GTX 660 (2GB) | AMD® Radeon™ R7 370 (2GB) or Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics or AMD® Radeon™ Vega 8
Storage10 GB available space
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