For starters, I am going to admit that an interest in the era is going to go a long way to your enjoyment of the game, so if you are not interested in the Industrial Revolution, liberal revolts or post-napoleonic europe then whether or not you will like this game is going to depend on you. If you're like me and find the 19th century a fascinating era of human history then I think generally you will enjoy this game for simulating the era well enough to not suspend disbelief.

Primarily the game is about running all aspects of a nation between 1836 and 1936 from government to military to economy. While generally, there is a definite 'meta' (liberalize, industrialize, colonize,) each nation starts in a distinct enough position to keep this process interesting. For instance, the challenges of playing as Japan (fight regressive laws, build an industrial base from whole cloth) are quite different than say the Netherlands who have a large navy and industry but lack resources and have a small population.

Rather than a focus on expanding your nation's borders, instead this game prioritizes expanding your internal capacity with industry and legal reforms. Because large and constant wars tend to attract enemies, (ask Napoleon) it is more of a dance about snubbing your rivals' colonial resources than it is straight up conquering them. This era is the origin of the total war and turning your base industries into a war machine is very satisfying. Your nations economy is directly linked to its ability to wage war and so you must balance the supply and demand of your goods in order to avoid a crisis. Rather than sharp accumulations of power, Victoria 3 is about slowly building an economic machine to dominate the world while sabotaging your imperial opponents. If that sounds like fun to you, then I think Vicky 3 is worth it warts and all.

Now for flaws; The diplomacy and war-making are far from perfect. While the Diplomatic Play system allows for more complexity than your standard paradox game, it is easily exploitable and lacking a lot of nuance. For instance, you cannot choose to abandon or add war goals after the fighting has broken out and this can leave you with some unwinnable wars. Wars themselves are dead simple and instead of micro-managing your troops instead you deploy armies to fronts and all of the battling is done automatically with you only able to give basic orders like "attack" or "defend." While I think the war system isn't bad, I won't deny that it is pretty boring. While some new diplomatic options were added recently like the ability to trade states, the non-war diplomacy is pretty barebones, especially when it comes to your colonial subjects. For instance, you cannot build constructions in colonial administrations or subject nations which was a feature of Victoria 2.

Overall, it's pretty good and the DLC (at time of writing this "Voice of the People" and "Colossus of the South") don't add much so don't bother with them

Edit: I think that Sphere of Influence fixes most of the issues present in the diplomacy. Power blocs are a fun mechanic with a small amount of variation that provide new options for expanding your own empire to and within other nations. War and diplomacy are still pretty busted

For starters, I am going to admit that an interest in the era is going to go a long way to your enjoyment of the game, so if you are not interested in the Industrial Revolution, liberal revolts or post-napoleonic europe then whether or not you will like this game is going to depend on you. If you're like me and find the 19th century a fascinating era of human history then I think generally you will enjoy this game for simulating the era well enough to not suspend disbelief. Primarily the game is about running all aspects of a nation between 1836 and 1936 from government to military to economy. While generally, there is a definite 'meta' (liberalize, industrialize, colonize,) each nation starts in a distinct enough position to keep this process interesting. For instance, the challenges of playing as Japan (fight regressive laws, build an industrial base from whole cloth) are quite different than say the Netherlands who have a large navy and industry but lack resources and have a small population. Rather than a focus on expanding your nation's borders, instead this game prioritizes expanding your internal capacity with industry and legal reforms. Because large and constant wars tend to attract enemies, (ask Napoleon) it is more of a dance about snubbing your rivals' colonial resources than it is straight up conquering them. This era is the origin of the total war and turning your base industries into a war machine is very satisfying. Your nations economy is directly linked to its ability to wage war and so you must balance the supply and demand of your goods in order to avoid a crisis. Rather than sharp accumulations of power, Victoria 3 is about slowly building an economic machine to dominate the world while sabotaging your imperial opponents. If that sounds like fun to you, then I think Vicky 3 is worth it warts and all. Now for flaws; The diplomacy and war-making are far from perfect. While the Diplomatic Play system allows for more complexity than your standard paradox game, it is easily exploitable and lacking a lot of nuance. For instance, you cannot choose to abandon or add war goals after the fighting has broken out and this can leave you with some unwinnable wars. Wars themselves are dead simple and instead of micro-managing your troops instead you deploy armies to fronts and all of the battling is done automatically with you only able to give basic orders like "attack" or "defend." While I think the war system isn't bad, I won't deny that it is pretty boring. While some new diplomatic options were added recently like the ability to trade states, the non-war diplomacy is pretty barebones, especially when it comes to your colonial subjects. For instance, you cannot build constructions in colonial administrations or subject nations which was a feature of Victoria 2. Overall, it's pretty good and the DLC (at time of writing this "Voice of the People" and "Colossus of the South") don't add much so don't bother with them Edit: I think that Sphere of Influence fixes most of the issues present in the diplomacy. Power blocs are a fun mechanic with a small amount of variation that provide new options for expanding your own empire to and within other nations. War and diplomacy are still pretty busted