DLC REVIEW: ‘Victoria 3: Sphere of Influence’ A Huge Leap Forward

Victoria 3 by Paradox Interactive was released in 2022. The game was off to a great start, with a nomination for the Best Simulation Game award at The Game Awards. In 2023, Paradox released a variety of packs to enhance the flavor of Victoria 3. This included the immersion packs “Voice of the People,” a region pack, “Colossus of the South,” and additional music and art packs—released to varying success. There were also free updates to the game, including over-hauling warfare in Update 1.5 that added better quality-of-life momentum. Between the two, 2023 was an up-and-down year for the game.

Now, in a new year, Victoria 3 is back with what Paradox is calling its first major expansion to the game, “Sphere of Influence.” Victoria 3: Sphere of Influence has one main focus: allowing players to expand their power and influence without going to war. The expansion gives players three main new diplomatic features to accomplish, spreading their influence along with additional content, including power blocs, foreign investments, and interest group lobbies. Players directly control two of the three features for the most part, with the third happening more randomly as the game progresses.

One of the more frustrating things that has plagued me throughout my time with Victoria 3 has been the AI-controlled countries. Regardless of the countries you invested in, they would not develop properly even when players would attempt—with their limiting diplomatic actions—to help them. There have also been very limiting actions when it comes to “allying” and/or helping out other nations. These issues are directly addressed with Victoria 3: Sphere of Influence. The expansion excels in giving players more ability to help out nations, whether it be for their own kindness or general exploitation.

Power Blocs aim to allow nations to band together or sometimes be forced under one main ideology. Ultimately, there are five types of Power Blocs: Trade League, Sovereign Empire, Ideological Union, Religious Convocation, and Military Treaty. Their names speak for themselves, like the Trade League being based on internal and external trade or the Sovereign Empire being based on colonization and exploitation of other nations. Power Blocs consist of one leader nation, and players can join one or make one, which allows more interaction with other countries.

If a player wishes to join one, the leader nation needs to be willing to accept them— like most other diplomatic plays in Victoria 3. If players wish to make a Power Bloc, first off, their nation needs to be at least a Major Power to create one, then they need to select the type of Power Bloc they want and one starting out principle. Principles are the bonuses the leader and bloc members receive for being in the Power Bloc. Power Bloc starts with one principle, and you can add others over time as it grows. Players can also design their own banners by selecting colors and an emblem to turn their Power Bloc into something visibly unifying in addition to policy-based.

The type of Power Bloc a player wishes to join or make is important to the overall gameplay. They each will determine the bonuses they will receive from the Power Bloc and also, to an extent, how their laws and government should be structured. The more cohesion the nations in the Power Bloc have, the higher the bonuses. This is really where how much control you have over your nation and/or who you invite can be vital.

For example, in an Ideology Union, a nation that does not align with the leader’s main law principles can derail the entire Power Bloc’s cohesion. This makes it important to have laws that you, as the player, want in place and nations that fit what you are trying to accomplish. Now, obviously, if players have an influential larger nation, they can force some of the members to possibly change their ways.

That said, Power Blocs do allow leaders to give their members additional help in addition to the member bonuses. Thus, players can spend their own influence to help specific nations within the Power Bloc. An example of this would be a player spending 50 influence to spread knowledge to a nation to help them with their technology and improve their nation.

Power Blocs are only the first of many diplomatic components added in Victoria 3: Sphere of Influence. Foreign Investments are another main feature being added that allows nations to build in other nations. Now that building levels have individual ownership, other nations are allowed an opportunity to gain some capital via construction within those other nations. Foreign Investment agreements can be either one-sided or two-sided. By using a Mutual Foreign Investment agreement, both nations build in each other’s nation.

This can open doors for players who enjoy expanding their empire influence without fully expanding their empire. Players before could only build in nations that they had conquered or annexed, but could not in their subjects or puppets or even countries they were just trying to bankroll to help develop. Now to build in another nation, it does take a player’s construction time to build it, so if a player is spending all their time building in another nation, then they are not building on their own, which can lead to their own nation falling behind.

If a nation does break the agreement players will still control the construction they had build within the nation and gain those dividends. However, another diplomatic action of enforcing nationalism has been added as a counter to where a nation can take over a foreign investment in their nation.

Both Power Blocs and Foreign Investments are big steps in the diplomatic play for Victoria 3, which give players more ability to work with other nations and/or control their subjects. However, while they mainly gain allies in the process, they will also upset some nations and possibly gain some foes along the way. As a player who often plays as a smaller to mid-tier nation, being able to gain allies and form a band of nations that can take on the big boys is quite enjoyable.

Foreign Investments build on the economic updates that have been released since the launch. But you know the influential world wouldn’t be complete without Lobbies. These Interest Group Lobbies allow interest groups to try to influence foreign policy both domestically and abroad. Interest group lobbies appear randomly in a way that flows the current events of your nation. There will be some starting lobbies, but most will occur as events happen.

This means if you start making deals and Trade Agreements with a specific country or getting a high migration from a specific country, then a lobby will more likely spring up around it. These lobbies are simple: oppose or oppose a specific country. Players can bolster these lobbies by performing specific actions or completing events when given the chance.

As players interact with other nations, these lobbies will appear in those nations as well. Once again in the form of for or against engagement with your nation. If you really want to gain some control within a nation, you can start funding these lobbies in the hope of being able to sway negotiations in your favor. These lobbies really just add some flavor and randomness to your game and you can jump-start a foreign relationship or kill it.

Victoria 3: Sphere of Influence to expand more to the diplomatic gameplay added new additional interactions outside of even just the new ones within the main features. There are new subject interactions that add another layer to being in control of a nation. Allowing players to support their subjects government or just overthrow their ruler make them start again to just allowing them to have control of their market are some of these new interactions.

After a year of various content packs, “Sphere of Influence” finally adds a new “game mode” for players to try out. The Great Game is the new game mode that players select from six nations to battle over Central Asia. Players can select the British or Russia and try to conquer Central Asia or one of the smaller independent nations and try to remain independent as the two giants fight over who gets to conquer the region. There are new events and journal entries tied to the history of this historical rivalry that players need to complete to conquer the new game mode.

This new game mode adds some new challenges and flavor to the game and allows players to learn some history about The Great Game. One of the things have enjoyed about Victoria 3 is the unique ways they have put history into the game whether be journal entries or just linking wiki pages of historical characters.

Overall, Victoria 3: Sphere of Influence is a big leap forward compared to the content packs that have been released since launch. Victoria 3 has always been about controlling your nation, but it was lacking in engaging with the nations around you outside of warfare. These main features of Power Blocs, Foreign Investments, interest group lobbies, and their supporting bells and whistles add plenty of variety to the game, and with the additional game mode, this actually does feel like an expansion. As a player who enjoys building up the neighboring nations instead of conquering them, these new additions felt like great upgrades to the diplomatic system that keep the game from going stale.

Victoria 3: Sphere of Influence is available on PC and part of the Victoria 3 Expansion Pass.