User Reviews (1 - 11 of 52)

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Wonderful

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game is fun and depending on your mental capabilities you can do anything.(ever see brazil conquer the world??????????)
pretty much got me off of playing risk. I just need to get a chair with a back because playing for 10 hours straight hurts your back.
I has no patches. And the brazillians do not easily crush germany. Trust me. Its a game your either gonna love or hate. I personally Love it

looks are decieving

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

all the detail in the game is really mesmerizing. fascinating until you get through the first months of playing and realize commerce, diplomacy, research although keeps up a promising appearance, it just don't amount to beans, ie you can rsearch all the stuff for nuclear bombs and/or V1 or V2 rockets, the game just does not have them designed to ever really happen. the designers figure you'll be too engrossed slogging it out with the icons. a real let down and major dissapointment when i finally have to accept the game is not all they marketers promise.

Liked Europa Universalis, hated this game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When I heard this game came out and that it was by the same makers as EU, I was excited to start playing. I was very disappointed. This game, in my opinion, was harder than Europa Universalis--too hard to make it enjoyable. I still think though that the game is well put together and would be very interesting for those that like this era of history. Not for the light gamer.

Good after lastest patch but tough

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

loving europa universallis and loving WWII i thought this game would be great. it is pretty good but it is extremly difficult. if im an allied nation the nazis win, if im the axis the allies win. the tech tree is huge and it is really in depth with micro managment. if your a fan of europa universallis i suggest you get it. if you are new to this genre of game i suggest you try it out first. if you hated europa your gonna hate this.

Excellent idea, poorly documented. Be sure to patch.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The game is fun, especially if you have ALOT of time. The level of detail can be overwhelming, but is also fun. You have control over generals, resources, trade, science, consumer goods, just about every major area is covered. Graphics suffered for good execution. You can play any country in the world that existed at the time. Literally any country. How well you do is another story. But it's fun to play, say, Nationalist China every once and awhile.

Basically, it reminded me of what everyone wanted wargames of my youth, the old board games, to be.

Another interesting point: It is a European game, heavily promoted in Germany.(...)

The website provides a lot of documentation, which you'll need.

Here's the bad:

1) It doesn't work well out of the box. Patch it before you play.
2) It's very poorly documented. The manual says there are things that aren't there, and doesn't meantion things that are. Go to the website and look at the forums. That's the only way to make it work.
3) Mac and PC versions are not compatible. That means no long game sessions between friends unless they all have one platform or another. There's really no excuse for this, especially given the low-level of graphics.
4) It takes a REALLY long time to play. This can be a bonus, but it can also detract. I basically play it when I'm home sick for a week from work.
5) Victory conditions are not scaled to different countries. If you play China, you are basically held to whatever side you join in the war, probably Allies. But if you don't join an alliance, you don't "win".

Interesting but ultimately unfulfilling

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: April 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've played this game with the 1.05 patch, which greatly changes the game, i.e., making it a lot harder to do well. It's too much of a simulation. It's hard to do things that didn't happen in real life. It's very time-consuming and complex. Micromanagment is critical to success. If you have the patience for that, you might like the game.

Excellent and Innovative WWII Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: February 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Paradox has been a god among strategy gamers for those who have followed them through Europa Universalis I and II. Now they take that award winning system and applies it to World War II, and let me tell you that war has never been the same.

This is perhaps what the game less recent "Superpower" should have been. You can play any country in the world within the 1936-1948 time frame. You then lead it through out this time period, increasing industry credits through building industries in your provinces and keeping your nation up to terms with the demands of the main resources: coal, steel, oil, and rubber.

You can choose to play one of the major powers like the USSR, USA, France, Germany, etc...or you can play a minor nation. This includes Tibet, Venezuela...heck even Luxembourg! Using your IC you build military units and research new technology to make your army (and industries) better. As for following history...well that's up to you. There are "events" that let you choose how to do such things as Stalin's officer purge and, of course, the different demands by Hitler such as the Rheinland, Sudetenland, and Anschluss.

In every aspect, this is truly a complex and unique game. Wargamers and micromanagers alike will enjoy this game, and I highly recommend any fan of World War II games try this out. It will be an all new experience for you.

On a side note, there are now some mods available online that include not only patches that are now up to 1.05c (at the time of this review - 1.06 is expected out very soon), and there is a mod that allows the time to go beyond 1948. There is even a mod that changes the time period to World War I!

If you like Europa Universalis and want to play WW2

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

That's a brief and acute description of Hearts of Iron.

Europa Universalis was Paradox's blockbuster selling tons of copies throughout the world and set the standard for a very detailed strategy game. The game was wonderful although you had to micromanage a lot and sometimes you lost sight of the big picture. In HOI this happens most of the time.

Hearts of Iron is a EU2 set in the 1930's-40's. You may pick up any nation in the world but the game is focused in the "big" nations (US, UK, Germany,etc). Although I remember having much fun playing Australia or South Africa.

The game has the same EU2 engine but adds new features such as government types (fascism, democracy, communism), military leaders or strategic resources.

I played this game for more than 2 months and I replaced the poor manual with the superb forum on line. The people there were really helpful and have many cool tips for improving your playing.

Overall, if you like EU2 and want to try it in the WW2 time period.

Slow moving - Complex - Unexciting

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: November 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I played this game avidly for two days then, permanently uninstalled it from my computer. I am an avid wargamer, going back to the days when most games of this genre were boardgames. The old Avalon Hill title " Hitler's War ", would be a much better choice. Considering that this is a wargame, combat is unexciting and it is very difficult to predict the outcome of an individual battle. Given all the complexity, one has to either slow down the gamespeed to a slow crawl or pause it constantly as events unfold. As a single player game, Hearts of Iron is not the best choice out there. It might do better with mulitple-players but, I'm not willing to give it the chance.

For those willing.... the best grand strategy game around

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: November 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

OK -- lots of bad rap (and some good) on this game. I'll start off with this... Hearts of Iron gets 5 stars in my book for the best strategy game around, but I take one away for the game manual. Sorry, I'm one of those who believe a great game should have equally great documentation. The manual is poorly written, has typos, and leaves entire aspects of the game completely untouched. Hence, you feel even more overwhelmed by an already deep game.

Having said this, it makes discovering the gems of the game that much better. roadtowar.com is THE website to go to for answers. There are forums covering everything, with tips from guys who play A LOT. Once you put the time into figuring out all the games nuances, the reward is there.

For those who trash the game, saying they don't like having to micromanage economies, pick leaders of armies, and figure out the enormous (and accurate) tech tree.... I suggest that maybe REAL strategy games are not your thing. Stick to good, but very different "strategy" games that are much shallower and easy to learn, like Warcraft and Age of Empires.

For those who like real, in-depth, strategy with lots of options, and deep, solid gameplay, Hearts of Iron is about the BEST you can do. You do have to be prepared for a time commitment to enjoy it to the fullest, though. Just don't give up on it, and you'll see what I mean.

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