izigame.me

Note: Paradox games and DLCs should always be given a two weeks grace period before reviews are enabled, it would greatly benefit the community given the amount of necessary flash hotfixes and exploit corrections. I give zero credit to any review of someone with a couple hours of gameplay or someone that uses Victoria II as if it was an argument for anything.
The DLC is only important if you plan on playing as a South American country OR if you have all the DLCs and want the full experience.
The game has gone a long long way since release and this free update and DLC are the best yet (more journal entries, decisions, specific events). I suspect that Sphere of Influence will be the true launch for this game.
The free update is the big cake for me here, massive overhauls on military and navy and QoL.
I wish they make a DLC like this for each region, would instant-buy each time.
Same for patches, loved the betas and big redefining changes. It puts a new light on almost all the countries when they do that, even in the context of a South American DLC.
CONS:
-Alot of hotfixes and patches with mechanics overturn, so basically the gameplay is not 100% stable. Maybe now it is, but a month ago you would have seen big difference. This could become a PRO if they continue in the same direction.
-The new jobseeking system and wage/profitability checks does not make the game unplayable, but it needs to be adressed because under certain circustances (laissez-faire, big markets, lots of added buffs, gold mines) it makes some building literrally impossible to fill over 1% employment even though the game pushes journal entries for everything.
-Warfare is getting there, but we need a way to be able to directly impact strategy. Strategic objective does not do it. We need to be able to move our armies like in EUIV, but get into a HoIIV kind of front when armies collide, where you can be prompted to changed between stances during fight or bring in reinforcements, I don't know, war is just a 5-speed mess right now if it's lopsided. In EUIV, try to take Fez with Portugal in the first couple years and you might just lose the tutorial if you don't watch for Fort Zone of Control, Rivers, Mountains, Morocco's vassals who might come in after the first wave, leaving your battered regiments in prey to them.
-Diplomacy will be the next thing to upgrade substantially, because EUIV and even games like RealPolitiks2 have more deeply impacting systems. I believe Sphere of Influence will have major focus on that.
In the end,
Colossus of the South is what it is, a colossal patch alongside a South American region focus.