A worthy successor to the original. Builds on almost every aspect of gameplay. This will not disappoint fans.
There are really two ways to play this game, as a sandbox where you roleplay your dynasty and watch them prosper from rags to riches or you play it to wipe every other dynasty off the face of the map no matter what the cost or method. The latter activity is actually what gives this game replayability and enjoyment for me and it's very easy to overlook any strange nuances like 'why do elections work in this way?' when you realise that really the entire system of the game down to every mechanic is really designed as a kind of arena to get one up on your fellow players and find creative ways to engineer their downfall. Think of monopoly set in the middle ages with torture racks instead of parking fines and that really puts you in the right mindset to get the most out of this game.
So let me summarize some of the key differences in this game from the original Europa 1400 :-
* You now have an avatar, in fact you can control up to three members of your dynasty simultaneously. This increases the immersiveness of the game and also controls the flow. In the first Europa you could carry out your daily activities very quickly, click on the market, buy something, click on the council chambers, do something, click on the house, invite some guests round to dinner. Now you have to actually run around the map doing all that stuff, but there are no 'action points' to constrain your activities. You can simply do as much, or as little as is more often the case, as you have time for. Some abilities have a 'cooldown' feature which basically means you can only do it once every 12 hours for example, this was also necessary to balance the game after the removal of action points and overall I give this the thumbs up. It feels better than the original game even though I was extremely sceptical about it going in.
* The camera works independently to the rest of the UI. This is a great thing, it means that you can be busy watching a fight and at the same time hire a new worker in your smithy, tell your wife to start training in your house and send a dungeon guard to go and pick up your rival for a cosy little 'Q&A' session with the hot irons and all that without missing a moment of the action you're actually interested in. Getting bored in a long winded council meeting? No problem just move the camera somewhere else, your avatar will stay there and play his part and you can pop back in at any moment and take direct control of proceedings. Almost every task in the game can be accomplished with one or two clicks although there are also more long winded ways to do things and not every player will discover all the short-cuts. For example you can target your actions against people in your dynasty book just by opening the book and clicking on their frames. The tutorial should take more trouble to point out these UI tips, but it really leaves you to figure it out most of the time.
* Class based advancement and abilities. This is a big hit for me and hugely adds to the replayability of the game. There are lots of different directions to take your avatars and they even gain special abilities. Like a scholar will gain the ability to pray and have God Himself protect a building of your choice for 24 hours. Who can argue with security like that? You gain XP for almost every type of activity that furthers you in some way and you can spend that XP in a wide array of skills such as rhetoric, and less familiar ones like empathy and martial arts.
* Multiple cities on one map. I'm not convinced yet that this adds a lot to gameplay but it's an interesting variation on the original theme. Each city is a distinctly independent entity and has its own council, laws and market economy. Generally it's not very viable to divide your interests up between both cities as that inevitably involves lots of time wasted travelling between them so you tend to pick one and go with it. I was once put in the extremely uncomfortable position of being required to appear in court in two different cities at the same hour on the same day. As a result of this I automatically became an outlaw in one of the cities for not showing.
* It's been built for multiplayer. Every gameplay feature has clearly been thought out with multiplayer ultimately in mind. In this respect this game works much better than the original. The 'cutscenes' that used to frustrate you in the original such as going to court or getting married are now better integrated into the flow of time. As I mentioned earlier if you are stuck in a boring meeting you can just move the camera out of the building and go do other stuff instead or even just not turn up for the meeting in the first place. You can also witness some of these events as a third party with the help of visual chat bubbles, for instance you can actually see your opponents flirting and bribing various people and especially entertaining is when you are sitting in the council chamber and see one of your adversaries walk up to the registrars desk and demand your removal from office.
* Custom avatar models and facial features. More in line with roleplaying games you get to customize your avatar, but what is even better is the way each dynasty has a very distinct clothing style based on your coat of arms. It's very easy to identify your rivals or allies this way and in court cases and council meetings gives you a very visual indication of whom you should place your trust in or undermine or whether you are losing control of a situation (it's a bad sign with everyone else in the room is wearing the colours of your bitter arch rival).
* The graphics engine has had a complete overhaul and feels up to date and at least on par with today's technology given this is not the focus on the game. The camera controls felt very intuitive and easy to manipulate. It's no oblivion though.
There has been a lot of talk about bugs and glitches. I installed the 1.2 patch on the day I installed the game, so this is the only version I have seen and the only one you should be worried about unless you have a problem downloading patches. This game is very stable and has very few glitches that actually bother me. I experience occasional sound glitches, and that is basically it. The only other glitches I found really do nothing to hinder gameplay or experience: one of my congregation was sitting in mid-air, and sometimes the animations of emotes go slightly wrong, for instance if you intend to cherish your loved one with a kiss and she is standing on a slope higher than you, you will plant the kiss squarely in her bosom and yet she will still reply with some shy Jane Austin 'Oh good sir, you flatter me with your attentions!' when really given the era you've just acted like an outright scoundrel. This is actually entertaining, probably not intentional though.
I was scared multiplayer would be unstable. Usually when there are problems in single-player that is the tip of the iceberg as far as multiplayer goes, as in most games this is usually an afterthought for the developers. Not in this game, I played a LAN game with my wife for the best part of an entire day and not a single crash, glitch or problem was observed. In fact, it outperforms the original Europa which would usually crash every 5-10 game days or in multiplayer one person would get stuck in infinite loops.
This game is best played in multiplayer with your friends and some beers so you can In summary if you have never played Europa before this game is worthy of your attention. At least try and find a demo and try it, the concept and gameplay is not for everyone but it's truly unique and you will not know if it's your kind of thing until you have tried it. If you are a fan of the original don't hesitate any longer just go out and buy this game already you will NOT be looking back. Invite your friends over with some beers, fire up a multiplayer game and then laugh at their demise as you vote them 'Guilty!' of some terrible crime you just made up out of thin air and send them off to the dungeon.