Recent reviews by Ollie Penguin

A really lovely game that you can just boot up for a lil bit to relax to!
Generally adore this lil game and the calming music that comes with it, definitely worth the price!

Genuinely a really amazing game and I look forward to seeing how it progresses through Early Access. This is definitely an example of Early Access done right, though!

I think honestly the best thing about the game is that it's a perfect compromise between survival players, building sandbox players, players who want to chill and players who want a challenge. I say this because it essentially offers all of these things, more or less, as players can venture off at their own pace and take part, or not, in the more challenging aspects of the game.

I've saved reviewing this game for a few years now, waiting until I finally had all the main DLC and whether or not I could up rate or down rate it.
Ultimately I've decided to recommend it HOWEVER, whilst the base game is certainly worth its non sale price, the DLC are not. As such I can only ever recommend buying the DLC when they're on sale, and even then it's a ridiculous price once it all adds up...
Also I will note that if you don't get the Extended Timeline mod, you're an idiot and missing out on roughly 1600 years of extra content :P

This was my first Paradox grand strategy game and I went into it knowing nothing, it is a very complicated game and took me many tries before I could play successfully and many months of me finding new features and mistakes I'd been making, don;t let that put you off and maybe use Youtube if you prefer not going into something blind. This is because once you've got the hang of it, this complexity is part of what makes this game so good.
That said, if super complex strategy games aren't you're thing at all, you may struggle to enjoy this game.

The game itself allows for huge replayability (pretty much infinite, especially with mods). This is because you can play as any nation that's ever existed in the time frame and each game will play out incredibly differently even if you don't change your play style or country one iota (which most people do change but I'm sure some don't).

Unlike the infamous diplomacy of Civilization games, or sometimes iffy diplomacy of Total War games (though the latter are getting better), the diplomacy in EU IV is well fleshed out and if you build relationships and alliances between countries, they're very likely to act how you'd expect, equally they don't follow you into war if there's nothing in it for them, they don't trust you, you haven't helped them enough or if it would rip their country apart, which is a nice realistic touch and makes the alliances feel more real and your wars will be more carefully prepared.
The way the economy, trade, wars and technology works are really nicely developed and fleshed out too!

One tip I will give you, regarding the UI, is that because the game is so complec everything is hidden away. Rather than exploring this straight away, would explore it on a 'I have a specific problem, how do I fix this', otherwise you will be swamped by choices!
The UI looks nice and is easy to use with practice, though.

My major gripe with this game (and CK II + HOI IV) are the ridiculous amounts of DLC and their pricing. Some of it should've been base game,m whilst others simply shouldn't be priced as high when you consider the content you get. The content and quality of the DLC themselves vary dramatically and I would suggest using online guides to decide which ones you want if, like me, you don't have tons of money to spare on this game at once (it's taken me nearly 3 years of slowly treating myself to DLC purchases and no doubt there are more to be released...).
I would say however by and large the DLC are worth getting if you can afford them, as they include features that enhance general play as well as specific cultures, playstyles, regions and countries.

TL;DR I would give it an 8/8.5 out of 10 on the basis that it is a really fun and great game with the possibility for hundreds (or if you have no life, thousands :P ) of hours of gameplay. It only loses points for the DLC practice that Paradox engage in for this game.
Certainly when it's on sale, it's a steal!

Wow. I bought this game on a whim, because it looked fun, unique and was on sale. The only word I have to really describe the game properly, is magical. It was a great experience, and one that I think I will revisit every now and again. It's not for everyone, but I reckon if you're looking at reviews and are interested in the premise, then you'll like it. Buy it, try it for an hour, and get a refund if you truly didn't enjoy it.
I spent 2 and a half hours wandering around with a badger, in a bizarre yet surprisingly entertaining and relaxing experience. We met others on our travels and even had others oin us for a while, but ultimately it was me and the badger exploring the world together. I think perhaps one of the more beautiful moments in my gaming history was, towards the end of this time, we met up with various animals, travelled to a mountain where we met more and together we all travelled through a breathtaking cave together, waiting for everyone and just chatting with the emotes. It was an incredible experience and it has a fantastic, heartwarming community totally devoid of any negative people or anything that makes hanging out with strangers online stressful or horrid.
So what are you waiting for?! Stop reading this and just try the game already!


P.S: I wish that abdger the very best of luck, they were an amazing travelling companion :D

Great game, really fun and you can get, from the looks of it, a decent amount of playtime from it. I was going to buy it new but didn't due to the lack of saving however I bought it when they added it and I must say, i'm glad I did. I lvoe Romans and I love watching my gladiators fight (and win :P). A great thing that I should mention is that the devs are great. They seem to really respond to player feedback and add things if enough people want them, which is really what you want EA devs to be doing! Definitely worth a buy to see if you like it or not and, if not, then... well... you deserve to be crucified like the scum that you are :P

Amazing game! I feel that i've just scratched the surface with the content in this game! I was influenced to buy this recently after I found out that the makers of Reus had made anotehr game a while ago, immediately wanted to try it (I love reus) and this is just as good if not better! Great art style, seriously these guys have made two fantastic and charming looking games! The soundtrack's nice, doesn't get boring at all and yet it's not too 'in your face' either.
The actual gameplay is really interesting! A mixture of luck, Turn Based Strategy, exploration (obviously) and thinking ahead, the replayability seems, thus far, to be really great and I can easily see myself spending many more hours. The difficulty, for me at least, is quite hard, but I like a challenge. However if you don't, then do not fret, as they're are quite a few difficulty/gameply options to tone it down (or up) if needs be.
Overall I heartily recommend this game to anyone who thinks it looks even mildly interesting, as it'll be worth your time and then some! I will definitely be purchasing the available DLC very soon, as more content is a prospect i'm sure i'll look forward to once i've played it a bit more!

I loved this game! The atmosphere is perfect and the AI was a fun and interesting part of the game! sometimes it can be a bit frustrating but think outside the box or look for clues and you'll be able to solve whatever you need to with relative (ish) ease! Whilst it took me around 2 hours to complete my first ending, there are others so I would guess, depending on your play style and speed, it would take about 4-6 hours to complete the game in its' entirety which I would say the price is pushing it at £15 ($20?) but it is a very well made game and i'm happy with what I got out of it!