A fantastic deep and feature-rich historical strategy game!

First, the bad news:
This game is very likely not for casual players looking to play their first serious 4x strategy game. The xs here denote the four main themes of this kind of game, where the player might engage in one or more of the following: eXplore (the game world), eXpand (your game empire), eXploit (the fruits of your explorations), and eXterminate (your in-game rivals). Casual games like Bejewled 3 (which I also love), have only a relatively few "moving parts" making it easy for the player to divine what is required to find success in the game. EU3 Chronicles has so many more of those "moving parts" and - worse still for the novice - many of the moves are indirect and their long-term are effects difficult to discover. Add to this the fact that Paradox Interactive, the original developers of this title (Virtual Programming does the port to Mac), has a very active fan forum where their designers get many new gameplay ideas and implement them in patches even years after release of the game itself. Though admirable, this results in a game that deviates substantially from the documentation, making the extensive manuals far less useful for learning the game. The in-game tutorials help a little, but are also not enough to teach the game. All is not bleak, however. Tooltips abound to help the player. Tooltips are informative pop-ups triggered by hovering the mouse pointer over most of the features on the screen. Finally, most 4x strategy games (like Civ V) are turn-based, but EU3 Chronicles is real-time. Turns naturally stop the action, allowing players to work out their moves at their leisure. Players can (and will) pause EU3 Chronicles and the gamespeed is easily adjustable, but it does mean the player will not be able to micro-manage everything all the time.

Now for the good news:
For experienced 4x strategy gamers and for those willing to work through the extensive learning curve, this game has nearly boundless possibilties. The game is very open in that it doesnt make you try to conquer the world (a very difficult goal) or anything else. You win by meeting whatever goals you set for yourself, for example a player of England might try to make it the richest realm in the game. The player will have to watch over "national" things like recruiting chief advisors and whatever military forces you need, setting your budget, targeting technological advancements, dealing in diplomacy, colonizing new lands, and defending your national interests. The player will also spend time developing the various provinces which make up the the players empire. All of which does not take place in a vacuum. You will be interrupted by the world beyond your borders (and sometimes far beyond them). Wars, revolts, pirates, and various other events will make sure you have places to go and things to do.

In conclusion:
This game should appeal to players who want to spend many hours guiding their 15th - 19th century empires to greatness in a complex real-time strategy game.

Otto Menoggin about Europa Universalis III Chron