Europa Universalis IV is an extremely hardcore strategy game in the series by Paradox Development Studio. The game is in the “grand strategy” genre, and it definitely does not disappoint when it comes to scale.

The very awesome premise of Europa Universalis is that you can start your game from any point in human history and the game world’s timeline will be parallel to ours. From that point onward however, your actions will completely change the course of human history and you’ll be living and breathing in an alternate reality.

The game’s mechanics are more focused on the historical accuracy behind how countries, monarchs and empires act and behave. This isn’t in the vein of Civilization where countries are faced by gibberish speaking figureheads that do nothing but serve as a visual representation of said country.

In Universalis IV, you’ll actually have to learn political subterfuge or military tactics in order to further your conquest and secure your lineage and world dominance.

The trailer above has the game’s quite amazing main theme, you can download the demo here.