Europa Universalis vs Sid Meier's Civilization V
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.
Sid Meier's Civilization V
Sid Meier's Civilization V may just be every Civilization games before it, but it does it so well that many fans have touted this game as possibly the best Civilization game ever. The gameplay has been greatly improved mainly because the game has a lot more new game modes, a better variety of leaders, fun scenarios and a wide range of units that are balanced surprisingly well. The AI in this game is still as badly-predictable as before though, but its multiplayer aspect is as epic as ever, especially if you can find a group of players who knows how to play the game well enough to play with you. Aside from the breathtaking graphics and musical scores, there are plenty of mods you can use or you can easily make some of your own too.Sid Meier's Civilization V provides you with all the best features from its previous games while adding in some fun improvements of its own. It may not be perfect, but it's possibly the best Civ game so far.