Victoria II: A House Divided Demo

The entire world went through some major changes at the end of the 19th century, given the fact that the industrial revolution was well on its way to becoming the standard way of manufacturing goods. However, the world politics started shifting dramatically, since the great empires started to fracture and long-time giants like the Ottoman Empire and Austria were slowly losing their credibility.

Victoria II: A House Divided is a strategy game that deals with that specific time period and provides you with the opportunity to take the reigns of a major world power at the time, in order to see whether you can keep it together under the pressure of modern times and rebellions. Naturally, there are economical issues that must be resolved as well, which means that you have to keep an eye on income, taxes and various other monetary gains or losses.

Given that the title at hand is actually an expansion pack, it doesn't change all that much when it comes to core gameplay mechanics, but it does add a few interesting features, as well as some other changes that were needed to support the new circumstances unique situations. Hence, the starting point of the game is 1861, which means that it is now possible to witness events like the US Civil War, which is actually quite difficult to deal with.

In case you feel like the helpful type, you can opt for a less civilized and successful nation from around the world and help it overcome the hardships it has to deal with, in order to make it prosper and get in line with the civilized nations from western Europe. However, as you might expect, this task is definitely not easy and it does require a fair amount of work and dedication, especially if you do not go for the right reforms and miss too many opportunities along the way.

Gameplay-wise, not much has changed in the progress, since you still control everything by simply clicking on stuff and deciding on option A, rather than option B. However, there are almost endless choices and decisions to make, which means that you probably won't be able to see more than half of what the game has to offer after a single playthrough. This might discourage new players as well, although there is a tutorial to help you get started if you are not familiar with the genre.

Regardless of how complex and deep Victoria II: A House Divided may be, it can sometimes work against itself, by making matters too complicated to be worth the trouble. However, if you do manage to stick with it and persevere, you are handsomely rewarded with a dynamic and exciting gameplay style and a replayability meter that's through the roof.