To suddenly make a leviathan 4X strategy game like Victoria 3 free to play the day before the weekend is either an act of historic generosity or a masterstroke of cruelty. My dear friends at Paradox Interactive, I have literally just sent Nic my contributions to this weekend’s What Are We All Playing round-up. And now, sirs and madams, you would have me reckon with approximately a century’s worth of densely tabulated imperialism, optional child labour and people called Leopold.
Not only have I popped my monocle, sirs and madams, but my top hat has gone off like a volcano and my handlebar mustache has twisted itself into a pair of propellers, which are now flying me away into the sunset. I bid you good evening, sirs and madams! I say again: good evening and good night!
The giveaway runs till 23rd June on Steam, and only applies to Victoria 3’s base game. You will need to buy the whole thing if you want to play beyond that window. It coincides with the launch of the Chambers Of Commerce DLC. Yes, this is the familiar Paradox gambit of enticing punters with a timed freebie, then burying them in paid expansions, like, I don’t know, Queen Victoria shoving Gladstone’s head down the toilet for proposing universal male suffrage.
We had words with the publishers last year about the often-heard claim that Paradox are in the habit of releasing games ‘unfinished’, then charging for expansions that add key mechanics. They said they were “trying to find a middle ground”, while acknowledging that it was a “fail” to release Victoria 3, specifically, without a proper warfare system.
Even in the absence of a chunky military component, Victoria 3 appears to be solid work. Back in 2022, our reviewer Caelyn Ellis called it “a warts and all take on a tumultuous period in history” and “a surprisingly thought-provoking experience”, not least for how it handles the whole British Empire thing. OK, Paradox, I have talked myself into trying it now. Witness me returning from the sky, whiskers whirring, exploded top hat held penitentially in one hand.
