Empire Earth 3 vs Europa Universalis
Empire Earth 3
Empire Earth 3 is unfortunately the final stopper to what had been a pretty solid real-time strategy game. What happened? Well, the game seemed to have went on a completely wrong route and ended up stripping itself of all the best parts in an attempt to borrow from other game franchises. Not to mention, their implementation, be it borrowed ideas or pretty good ideas of their own, is simply horrendous. However, all of these might not be apparent to players who have not played any of the Empire Earth games before so if you've seen good reviews of the game... well, this is probably the reason behind it.Empire Earth 3 has hammered in the final nail in the franchise's coffin and it's truly a pity. The series itself has plenty of potential and could have been as great as some of the classic real-time strategy games that are still very well-known today, but due to whatever reason, things happened, a poor game was rolled out, and everything just fell apart. Empire Earth 3 may not be worth buying for fans of the previous two Empire Earth games, but if you're a collector or if you're new to the series, you might still want to give it a try.
Europa Universalis
Europa Universalis is a historical real-time grand strategy game that includes all aspects of world history in the Early Modern Europe era, a period of time between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Due to the game's meticulous need to be accurate in its historical accounts (period monarchs, known military leaders, and technological advancements), the game can, in some way, be doubled as an educational game since you can learn quite a lot simply by playing it.That said, the gameplay in Europa Universalis is just incredible for its time. The game is played on a huge world map that is divided into around 1,500 provinces where you can literally govern your nation the way you like. You can get involved in your nation's colonization efforts, explore new lands, trade with neighboring countries, wage war when they renegade on that very trade deal, spread the religion you've adopted far and wide, and of course, navigate the tricky political waters of diplomacy.
Not to mention, instead of using a turn-based format, the game has opted for a pauseable real-time format, so you can pause the game, issues orders and plan out strategies, before unpausing the game and let the world events play out. There are even tons of historically-based missions and events which may affect the world based on your actions and decisions.
When it comes to grand strategy games, there are only a handful that truly embodies the genre, and obviously, Europa Universalis is one of them. However, being the original game in the franchise, the graphics might be a bit worn for wear, but if you don't really mind, you can definitely pick this game up from GoG.com.