It's a typical Paradox game. Not too fancy graphic, but very deep gameplay. The learning curve is steep, but it become very rewarding when you get used to everything. The Victorian setting is unique. I mean, we all have had enough medieval and Rome already, haven't we.

I bought this one because I am a die-hard Hearts of Iron fan. It was really enjoyable playing a similar game set in the Victorian period showing the rise of the great powers that would clash in WWI. If you enjoy grand strategy this game is a bargain at the price. Also many different mods available to keep things fresh!

I have spent many hours with Victoria. While the graphics are comparable to games 15+ years ago, the gameplay is so open ended and complex to keep me coming back.

Those who are worried about the learning curve should give this game a chance. Being able to choose any nation in the world at a specific time allows for a quieter game to allow you time to learn. Just do not pick a great power your first game because there are many things going on and new players will not be able to keep up.

I had never played a Paradox strategy game before and after spending ages going through the library, picked out Victoria as my first game to buy. As an experienced gamer with over 20 years playing computer games, I expected to be able to figure this game out quickly but.....honestly, I don't have a clue how to start :) (Why does Paradox not include tutorials on many of their games, for something this difficult it's a bit ridiculous??)

That being said, I'm absolutely loving figuring out Victoria, which seems to have endless possibilities. In fact, I've never seen a game with this much depth, this much information and this many things to fiddly with. If you really love a detailed game where you can control just about everything, Victoria is the best I've ever seen.

I figure it will take me at least two weeks to even be able to make a go of starting a scenario and getting through it,(other beginners beware, the learning curve is ridiculously hard) but for someone like me who loves a challenge, this game is definitely giving it to me.

Graphics are beautiful, the information is amazing and, once I get the hang of it, I've a feeling this is going to be one of the best games I've ever played. I'm looking forward to finishing it and moving on to the the next Paradox strategy game. Kudos to the development team. Victoria really is a beautiful game.

Victoria is an outdated game, lets be honest. But its gameplay is solid. The main issue is definitely interface, with very unnattractive menus. The graphics are very similar, yet slightly inferior to Hearts of Iron II. The economic system is probably slightly easier to decode than in Victoria II. I played Victoria II before Victoria and its still an enjoyable game, but I have to prefer Victoria II. Vicky was definitely worth the $2.50 on sale though!!!

If there is one thing I prefer this over Vic II, its definitely historical events. While Paradox's recent trend is towards sandbox gameplay, there are many historical events which add flavor, but don't make the game too rigid. Its a great balance, and a shame its not in Victoria II.

Although this review seems very critical, it was still a very good game, deserving four stars.

Paradox's Victoria, is itself a paradox there are moments of great pleasure in the game as you achieve military or economic victory, but this comes at the cost of intense time-consuming gameplay to achieve this. This feat in and of itself is a rather tricky one, if cannot endure the rigidness or the layers and layers of systems, micro-management, nuances and glitches that this game has. Though there are auto-management to peel away the complexity, I find that the lack of control ultimately effects your overall strategic choices forcing you to sacrifice openings and weakness that AI countries have. Yet if you have played a Paradox game before this isn't new and probably can deal with the issues I've address, but to newies to the world grand strategy games this probably isn't the best introduction to it. So to those who fanboys of Paradox or have play one of there games before have at it Hoss, you'll have yourself a arousing good time and to newies I recommend something that won't drive A)Insane or B) Sleep deprived.

One of my favorite games from Paradox, I have spent many many hours playing this game both solo and with friends. Still worth the money today, even with a new game out in the series.

While Victoria may have been a good game in its heyday, a playthrough in 2011 will prove that game simply hasn't held up over time. While the Europa engine is admittedly getting old, games like Darkest Hour and Arsenal of Democracy have shown that the engine can still offer a fresh, fun, and clean gaming experience.

Victoria no longer offers any of these - the interface, which is perhaps the most important part of a detailed grand strategy game like this one, is incredibly confusing and difficult to use. Managing one's economy is nearly impossible. The map is unattractive, and unit sprites add little flavor. If your computer can handle it, opt for the sequel, Victoria II.

A great simulation of the Victorian era which allows you to play out the time period through multiple nations and from multiple starting points. Initially rather buggy the game has been well-supported. If you are into strategy or are a history buff, check this out.

This is one of the best strategy games I've ever come across. If you want hours of fun, through hard work, look no further.

My favorite "old" paradox game, with mods its still definately playable, and in many ways is superior to Victoria 2. It has more historical accuracy so things don't get as out of hand in vicky 2 like austria conquering denmark EVERY TIME in the first year of the game. Cheap and nice, I strongly recommend this even if you have the second.

The graphics aren't pretty. The interface is outdated. The detail is more impressive than just about anything you'll find in another game today. Lots of gameplay features and things that go beyond Victoria 2's reliance on 'flavor'. Make sure you get the expansion, Victoria Revolutions!

It looks like it takes a lot of effort to get into at first, but its actually quite engrossing after the first few minutes of looking things over. I'm not sure if I'd pay 20$ for it and its expansion, though, just because there are so many other great games available on Gamer's Gate. Maybe not the biggest must have, but a great addition to any strategy/state building collection.

This is a very good grand strategy game, needs an expansion(good thing there is one). More complex and deep then Europa Universalis 3. Definitely not a game for those that don't want to think.

Victoria is a quality challenge. The game is wide in scope and not for the gamer who wants a quick game. I rate the game three stars in hindsight. The expansion for the game, Revolutions, far exceeds the games little sister, Victoria. Together you will find the best gaming out there minus the eye candy.

I've only played Victoria on lans and I can't say I have ever felt the need to play it singelplayer. It was great fun but sadly we never got to finish any games even thou we played the same session for more than 30 hours. If you ever played any of the Civilization games and thought those games were too long this game is not for you. And dont even try to play it on a lan if your not planning on staying there for at least a week. :)

Interesting mutation of Europa Universalis, focusing on Golden Age of colonization in XIX century, stopping on World War One. You have access to different resources (depending on counrty you chose at start), different, historical, units and options. There's emphasize on diplomacy and espionage, which is good thing and wars are reduced to minimum. Go and create you Empire Under the Sun!

If you are looking for a game where you can control everything to the most minute detail this is the title for you. The ability to manually control the pops and trade, as well as most aspects of production, gives you complete control. Definitely the most involved (and therefore difficult to learn) of the 4 main paradox titles, and much more controllable than Victoria 2.

There are some bugs, but these can be fixed with the extensive library of available mods.

A complicated grand strategy game by Paradox Interactive with the focus on the Victorian era. Unlike the previous games by Paradox, Victoria has an emphasis on politics and economy. Because of this, it has a slightly deeper learning curve. Still, it's a rewarding, fun game for strategy lovers. Take charge of the Republic of Texas and have the nation take over the world.

nice game very realistic (compared to tw), more complex than the total war series on the grand map with a lot of things to think about, i prefer this one to the sequel (especially since i got it free :D)

Victoria is a very good game. Much complicated, but very rewarding at the end. Together with Revolutions it's one of the best Paradox's productions. Shame it's not so popular as EU or HoI though.

This game is a real gem. I particularly liked the population and migration part of the game. Also the economy simulation is one of the best constructed for a wargame, to this date. If you have not given this old lady a swing, I think you should. Also get Revolution and the VIP mod, while you are at it.

In my humble opinion, and that of several other gamers, Victoria is by far the greatest strategy game ever concieved and made, even better than EU3 with all it's expansions. It's depth and management is unbeatable. It is indeed a complex game, very hard to master, but very very pleasant to play and easy to enjoy. Even if you commit mistakes and lead your nation to nowhere, it's still fun. Well worth the price.

If you can't get enough of complex micromanagement over every aspect of a country, then Victoria is the game for you. Victoria puts you in command of any nation of your choosing during the turbulent age of industrialization and imperialism. From the mighty United Kingdom to the humble Haiti, you can choose to focus on conquering your neighbors, developing your economy, or reforming politically, or all of these at once! This is not a casual game; you will spend hours exploring all your options. This makes the sense of triumph when you lead your nation to greatness all the more satisfying. This is an excellent game for strategy fans!

The old lady herself.

A glorious game, of a type few are made these days: steep learning curve, incredible complexity, but oh so very rewarding once you 'get there'.

The Revolutions expansion is very much recommended: it saves you plenty of click-work in a lot of cases, and only adds to this already great game.

Of the Paradox games I have played (EUIII, HOI2:DD, & AoD), this is by far the best. It is a bit overwhelming at first due to having to control, the economy, military, colonization, diplomacy, etc.,-- but then again, that's what makes this the ultimate grand strategy game. Would recommend the expansion, Revolutions to be purchased along with Victoria.

Very good game for those who like their strategy hard and demanding on your brain with hundreds of options and ways to do thing - i.e. have a Prussia India. As well as freedom it gives the player massive control over faction with a micromanagerists happy place in the trade and production section of the game.

However it is let down by a very difficult to get to grips with UI similar to (also Paradox) early Hearts of Iron and Eurpoa games and the Crusader Kings that can be annoying especially in terms of zoom that mean the game can require a lot of pausing at times to get through messages.

Good game,which i would defiantly recommend but if you purchase go in with expectations of the old style UI. If this puts you off I doubly recommend Victoria 2 with much expanded features, map and UI to make it a much more "modern" game in being far easier to get into.

The game which seperates the nerds from the nerdy :D

This is a game heavily geared towards being able to multi-tasking a huge set of competing demands on a very detailed level - economy, colonisation, research, diplomacy and research.

It's either one of the greatest games you'll ever play, or one of the worst. And even those in the former camp will agree with the latter over some of the gripes.

Purchase with Revolutions and save yourself from premature baldness. Although you'll still be pulling out enough hair to give yourself a fairly respectable receding hairline...

Although Victoria II took the throne from now on, It is still worth having this game - they maybe sequels but they are quite different from each other and worth playing separetly.

If you like Europa, hearts of Iron and/or Crusader Kings then there's no excuse not to buy into this game! Worth a buy before the new one comes out!

This is a very good and deep game buried under a horrible interface. The bugs and micromanagement make it too much of a hassle to play. It also suffers from poor documentation, which does nothing to relieve the problem of its interface. I can only recommend purchasing it simultaneously with the expansion, Revolutions, which addresses many of these issues.

Victoria is a very ambitious Paradox title using the Europa Universalis engine. It is a more economic-focused Paradox title.

It is quite complex and there is a lot to manage. It takes a while to wrap your head around the various interactions, and to be honest, I do not find it as accessible as some of the other Paradox titles like Crusader Kings or Rome due to the complexity and lack of tool-tips that pop-up when hovering over certain items.

For example, in other Paradox titles, tool-tips often appear to give a briefly explanation of what a particular button does and what the effect will be. In Victoria some of these do not end up having the tool-tip pop up, and with such a complex game it seems like this would've been the best game to implement tool-tips on everything to ease the learning curve.

This game has really widened my horizons for strategy gaming, before I had played Victoria and its expansion, I was a die hard Hearts of Iron II fan, and was very avid about the game. However, I found that Hearts of Iron lacked a certain amount of micro-management, and didn't allow you to become involved in the inner workings of your government and the management of your population and workforce. Overall this game is worth buying, even if its a bit dated. A must have for any die hard strategy gamer

Another great game from Paradox, personally I prefer the Hearts of Iron series but I still highly recomend you purchase Victoria. Do be beware, the game is very challenging and not for those who have a short attention span.

Arguably my favourite title in the global Paradox Interactive/Entertainment games. Doesn't have a patch on the Regionalized Crusader Kings though. I love the economic system, I love the historical events and mods. No complaints from me!

Best when combined with Victoria Revolutions and the ViP mod.

A classic in most respects. It is a historically accurate simulation of 19th century industrialization, expansionism and all the subsequent sociopolitical issues these brought. Of course, you need to get its expansion, Victoria Revolutions to get the full complement. With the expansion politics will enter into the game, social unrest, revolutions, all the stampede these bring. One major fault of the game is it being too dependant on immigration. You need to get immigration to be able to industrialize, else, you will get left behind a lot. Therefore, you need to go liberal, institute social reforms, and be a democracy or constituional monarchy. This limits the gameplay and rather ignores the historical fact of autocratic industrialized states like Russia and Japan, nomatter how backward they were in the industralization ladder. Upcoming Victoria 2 will address all these issues, and it seems like its guaranteed to become a hit, since all the little that has been wrong with Victoria R was addressed in Vic 2. This is a good game to have.

Victoria is my absolute favorite Paradox Interactive game. I really can't give the game a higher recommendation than that, considering what excellent products Paradox is known for.

The game applies EU2's engine to the 19th and early 20th century. You take on the role of any country you can think of and try to guide it to glory or merely survival, depending on circumstances. Victoria also features the best economic simulator of any strategy game I've every played. It will take you a dozen playthroughs before you're able to keep your economy running smoothly and avoid driving your nation into bankruptcy.

Another major concern will be keeping the competing factions of your increasingly political population in line, and avoiding the out-of-control rebellions that can crop up if enough of your people become dissatisfied with your governance. Unlike EU3, this is extremely difficult in Victoria.

I can say, without hyperbole, that Victoria is the most complex and difficult of Paradox Interactive's games by a wide margin. It will take a great deal of experimentation, reading online strategy guides, and frowning over the game's cryptic manual before you are finally able to play this game competently. The rewards, however, are more than worth it. Victoria is absolutely superb and worth the time of any gamer with an even passing interest in Victorian history.

This is at the same time the best and the worst game in the paradox series. I loved how you can control every detail, and yet at the same time that control makes it hard to have a game that doesn't take months to get through. I especially liked how this game is the one which has the smallest effect from an aggressive military policy.

Victoria, at it's core, is a very good game. It has numerous features to keep the player interested, such as colonies, warfare, politics, technology, industrialisation, and trade. It does a nice job at executing these features, but there are problems. In the initial release, there were many bugs and exploits, but these have been fixed with patches. The interface is ugly and inefficient, the diplomacy is usually very one-sided, and the historical events force one to adapt one's playing style to the standard. Overall, a 3.5/5

I really enjoyed this game, but it was made obsolete by Hearts of Iron 2 and EU3, I would really like to see this game updated and have a sequel made. I loved the fact you could play this game through and then use your save in Hearts of Iron 2, I wish you could have used you EU save game and play on through this and eventually onto HOI, that would be the ultimate epic game, one day I hope we can see that. All in this game game is fun, but not a true classic, unless your really into the period of history I would recommend getting EU3 or HOI2

For myself, itīs the best game by Paradox.

On the first run, everything seems to be very complex, an itīs sure that you will lose on your first attempt.

But every hour of playing makes you a little bit better. When you liked HoI or Europa Universalis and thought, that these games are a little bit too easy, play Victoria.

This game is simply great. Once the steep learning curve has been mastered you will find yourself immersed for hours in this virtual world making you feel like a victorious Kaiser or a belittled Emporer. Please take note , however, that this game really is hard to comprehend and isn't easy to play.The gameplay isn't as fluid as EU3 and can be annoying with no scroll control over the camera.

I'd recomend this game to anyone with the time to master it

A stunning achievement in grand strategy. Simply put, the must have game for those who love to conquer the world in every aspect, not just militarily. Incredible micro-management is required and not for the faint of heart when it comes to strategy games.

It has a cult following for a very good reason.

Really brilliant! If you want a strategy game beyond warfare... that's your option.

You can find here a simulation of politics (social reforms, a democracy in action with historial political parties, managing support of different social classes and nationalities...), of economics (several goods and natural resources, and the most important thing: factories and industrialization), of historical colonization of Africa and Asia, with the rise of European empires... It's not a warfare game. Though you can feel the experience of dealing a Great War!

I prefer it complexity to Civilization series... Historial simulation is more interesting for me. And it has a political and economial scope wider than Hearts of Iron.

The only "but" to the game is the learning curve. You need to invest a little of time to get results... but believe me, it worhts the time.

A very good model of the political-socio-economic systems of the Victorian era. The military piece is reasonable given the focus on nation building vs. warfare. We can always find variables not taken into account in this type of model, but this is a very good effort to account for the most important issues.

This is probably the best paradox game with a challenging experience. Unlike many other games the gamer of Victoria must not only consider war and victory but also economic growth and development, and gaining prestige by colonization perhaps. The newbie may find the game frustrating because much needs to be considered and it is thus a dificult strategy game. The manual may not be enough. Therefore, I strongly recommend to read Memnon's advanced manual found in the game's wiki, called "vickywiki", where also other interesting material can be found such as guides, tips etc. (http://www.paradoxian.org/vickywiki/index.php/Main_Page)

May the game bring you as much pleasure as it gives me!

Quit probably Paradox best game so far, it has far more things to do than any of the other games, and you can play any country you want, and see how far you can take it.

Also the AI is quite good, be prepared to die horribly should you mess up:)

If you play race/sport/FPS/Sims games or think that Command & Conquer is a strategy-game, you might want to pass this one.

On the other hand, if Railroad Tycoon, Sim City, Europe Universalis, Civilization etc strike your fance - gear up for the gaming experience of the millenia!

Victoria will just blow your mind. It has a very steep learning curve but 'Net is filled with guides.

It just IS the best strategy game for Victorian-era and possibly the best economy simulator ever.

Music is nice, graphics do their thing - don't expect anything shiny but immensely huge content. Also, no 5-minute quickies here, since every game is very possible an all-nighter.

You will return to this game year after year after year.

This game has good staying power, while im not a fan of the liberal revolutions because they make it alot harder to make money in the game, the game itself is great. I've owned it for about 3 years or so now and I always end up coming back.

Where to start? I guess, is this game right for you? A game with hi-spec graphics that will cripple your pc as you slog it out with stupendously large armies against largely stupid AI in battles that consist of such strategies as who can click 'Build' the fastest, this is not. This is a game which, once you have overcome the rather steep learning curve, offers a depth of strategy and control I have never encountered in any other game, even other Paradox titles.

It offers the scope of EUII (or III), yet blows this and titles such as Hearts of Iron DD out of the water with intricate, yet intuitive, control over every aspect of empire-running: taxation, market policies, world trade, political intrigue, colonisation, war, diplomacy, immigration/emiigration, social unrest, class structure, minority rights, social reform... the list goes on. Whilst war is an option, you never feel it is necessary in order to accomplish your goals - you could easily overcome a neighbour without lifting a rifle. In all, a great game, particularly with the huge online community and stellar mods such as VIP.

While a good idea it falls short of being truly great. The complexity is high and the learning curve is not very forgiving.

Together with the Revolutions expansion/revision it is a nice game though.

I lost my old CD and rebought it over gamersgate :P I liked it that much!, despite all its flaws.