Gives you control of a nation to guide it through the years of early Colonialism and create a dominant global empire and will provide you unprecedented freedom in how you want to rule your nation, unparalleled in its depth and historical accuracy.
Still playing this as much as I can since release. I was looking into getting a CIV 5 expansion, or Rome II, but this game is scratching my strategy itch far better. There are a couple of minor UI issues, like wishing to could send a newly constructed ship to a fleet, but overall the micromanagement is much better than EU III. It's at this point that I feel I have a pretty good grasp of the game, and I just started a brandenburg game in Ironman to try to create Germany early. It's this sandbox aspect that makes the game so appealing, and Paradox so far has done a good job with patches and tweaks.