The power-hungry among you will be put to the test by the realistic role-playing sci-fi or historical games known as Paradox Games. These games span human history from its beginnings to the present day and test your love of authority. Test your limits and boundaries of how much you can invest in your empire, people, races, industries, and lots more.
In this article, we will be covering the Top 10 Best Paradox Games of all time and setting you on the right course to play them in the new 2023. Let’s get started.
Top 10 Best Paradox Games Of All Time
Paradox Games are all about replayability and testing something new each time. It goes without saying, but most of the games that are mentioned here have fantastic modding communities that are highly worth checking out that can give a whole different experience to them.
10. Surviving Mars
This sci-fi builder known as Surviving Mars is a great game that will have you exploring and getting the reality of colonizing a planet that does not have any atmosphere on it. It is both brutal and fun and while it isn’t all that much player friendly, you’ll feel that rewarding element as you progress through it.
You will have to organize your resources, terraform the world, and explore newer lands that are all different from each other. The game expands as you progress it and at one point you might just have a wonderful land filled with tourists.
9. Tyranny
Tyranny is a strategy RPG that evolves around a character that you build in a world of chaos and disorder. Everything that you will choose as an option in the game will tailor and completely change the game’s cycle and story.
Tyranny basically is a line where you’ll walk between good and evil. The game gives you so many opportunities and each time you play you can choose a different method and get a whole different game. The whole world and premise of things is very unique as you start out as the evil lord’s commander and his task to completely destroy a known world.
8. Victoria 2/3
Victoria 2 is a Paradox classic but since it isn’t all that player friendly, we had to place it much higher in the ranking. The new Victoria 3 was supposed to be that fresh new Vic experience that players have been waiting for, for years now, but unfortunately, the game still has a lot of things to fix.
The game takes place in the 19th century which is known for the rise of nationalism and the big empires and colonial expansion. You will have so many things to do with the setting and taking care of the economy and the needs of your people are unlike any other game.
7. Prison Architect
This is a prison lifestyle experience and simulator that is backed up with very funny interactions and possibilities. You have options of playing either as the warden and keeping the prisoners in check or playing as a prisoner and trying to break free from it.
In either game mode, the possibilities are endless since there are so many things you can try out. The game has challenges that you can try out which makes it even that much more fun since it becomes hard.
6. Imperator Rome
Although Imperator Rome has gotten its fair share of negative feedback since its release, the devs have begun working on it and today it stands as a very stable and interesting Paradox title that is worth checking out. It is set in the period of the setup of the Roman Republic.
It isn’t locked only to Rome, however. If you are a fan of the ancient world and all its differences and systems, you’re going to love this game. You can choose any of the lands that existed at the time and fashion your own unique route to how you want to build your lands and people.
5. Europa Universalis 4
Europa Universalis 4 is a historical simulation of the biggest events of Europe and the world that shaped the world as we have it now. The Renaissance, the invention of guns and cannons, creation of new borders and empires, to leading the revolution to fight against feudalism.
It is a very in-depth experience that will have you want to try out every single land since it has a unique culture, missions, ideas, traditions, and much more. Each play will be different and it’s up to you how you want to build your country – is it going to be a cultural haven, a religious center of the world, the world’s biggest explorer, or the warfare machine for world conquest?
4. Cities Skylines
Cities Skylines is a very addictive and highly rewarding city-building simulator. You might think of it as boring, but if you give it a try you’ll soon understand how fun it is to start off with a very small village and expand it to a metropolis.
Everything from daily tweets of your citizens to protecting yourself from tsunamis, to expanding your city borders to reach some fields for farming or oil. It is very fun and extremely replayable since in each play you’ll get new city ideas that seem much more fun and better than the previous.
3. Stellaris
If you wanted to step into the future and take a breather from the history side of things, our top 3 pick is Stellaris which will give you all sorts of Star Wars vibes. You will be playing in the galaxy with your own ships and civilization while staying on the exploration route and discovering all sorts of new planets and species.
Each time you’ll play you will be meeting with different characteristics of species and planets. Everything that you’ll do, like adventure, combat, and even economy, is backed up with certain animated presentations that you’re able to play with.
Stellaris is hands down the ultimate space explorer as it gives you so much freedom on what to do with everything basically. You can decide whether you’ll want to spread peace or whether some planets are worth destroying.
2. Crusader Kings 3
The roleplay winner of the Paradox games goes to Crusader Kings 3. You will be playing in the medieval setting which is the longest year span of any other historical Paradox game title. In this medieval setting, you can start off as any ruler in the world no matter whether is the emperor of Byzantine or the bloodthirsty Vikings, and raid all over the known world.
If you think of it and it happened in the Medieval Ages, in Crusader Kings 3 you can do it. And to top it all off, you are just playing as one person and not a kingdom. This one person can become sick, depressed, known as the mightiest warrior, and all types of traits and characteristics that is up to your playstyle of how you made him or her to be.
All of your traits and playstyles are followed by wonderfully designed animations and events that will give you a full sense of immersion. No matter how many times you’ll play, you are almost certainly not gonna get the same set of things happening over and over again. The replayability of Crusader Kings 3 is unending because of the many different things you can try out. You can even become a prophet and create your own religion, culture and whole lots of things!
1. Hearts of Iron 4
If you a fan of historical world war movies and want to test yourself what would it be like if you were a general in it, look no further than the best Paradox title named Hearts of Iron 4. You are thrown into the world before the biggest war of humanity and get to choose any nation that existed in 1936, just 3 years before WW2 started.
There are so many playstyles that make the replayability of this game out of this world. You can choose literally any nation and leader and live through the events as they happened while tailoring your own unique playstyle as you wish. If you wanted to make a diplomatic economy-friendly Germany, you may do so. If you want to go on a world conquest with Gandhi while nuking everyone just as in Civilization, you can do it too.
The level of depth is so accurate and interesting while at the same time being simple and player-friendly. You can design your own planes, physically change all the parts of your tanks, and so on. Everything that you’d wish to do in a WW2 setting, in Hearts of Iron 4 you can do it.
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