pinback wrote:How is it different from a 4x game like Civilization or Master of Orion?
Huh, well, a lot of ways. I'm not the most qualified person to talk about games on any level (my "insight" generally limited to "I like game" vs "I don't like game"), but:
* EU is real-time, Civ is turn-based
* much stricter restrictions on things like diplomacy, declaring war, etc in EU. You've got to plan much more, and lay the groundwork for many years before taking some actions.
* real-life history is a constant presence in EU. If you pick a country that was historically Catholic, it's going to be Catholic (or you're going to have a hell of a time changing it), and that's going to affect the ways you deal with other Catholic countries, Protestant countries, Orthodox countries, etc. Also, some real-life historical events are going to happen and change the direction of the game regardless of what you do.
* real-life geography is also important -- cities/territories are more or less fixed (I think if you travel into eastern Asia/North America you get a little of the adventure/nation-building thing -- I generally play as Austria, so I don't really know). You don't have the tabula rasa aspect of Civ.
* building units/managing economies are so much more complicated in EU that just thinking about it makes me weep.
Lots more, I'm sure. Maybe I'll fire up EU this weekend. It's probably been a year since I last tried it and I've forgotten a lot. I've since also picked up Hearts of Iron, which is same/similar engine and similar difficulty, and usually ends with me completely losing World War II by about 1938.
(I have no idea what "Master of Orion" is -- late '70s Rush album? -- so I can't even feign intelligence about that.)
[quote="pinback"]How is it different from a 4x game like Civilization or Master of Orion?[/quote]
Huh, well, a lot of ways. I'm not the most qualified person to talk about games on any level (my "insight" generally limited to "I like game" vs "I don't like game"), but:
* EU is real-time, Civ is turn-based
* much stricter restrictions on things like diplomacy, declaring war, etc in EU. You've got to plan much more, and lay the groundwork for many years before taking some actions.
* real-life history is a constant presence in EU. If you pick a country that was historically Catholic, it's going to be Catholic (or you're going to have a hell of a time changing it), and that's going to affect the ways you deal with other Catholic countries, Protestant countries, Orthodox countries, etc. Also, some real-life historical events are going to happen and change the direction of the game regardless of what you do.
* real-life geography is also important -- cities/territories are more or less fixed (I think if you travel into eastern Asia/North America you get a little of the adventure/nation-building thing -- I generally play as Austria, so I don't really know). You don't have the tabula rasa aspect of Civ.
* building units/managing economies are so much more complicated in EU that just thinking about it makes me weep.
Lots more, I'm sure. Maybe I'll fire up EU this weekend. It's probably been a year since I last tried it and I've forgotten a lot. I've since also picked up Hearts of Iron, which is same/similar engine and similar difficulty, and usually ends with me completely losing World War II by about 1938.
(I have no idea what "Master of Orion" is -- late '70s Rush album? -- so I can't even feign intelligence about that.)