User Reviews (1 - 11 of 52)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Wow! Finally a strategy game I can enjoy.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 27
Date: December 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Tired of RTS games that tend to be light on strategy and just a long clickfest? Tired of games that promise the world but only allow you to operate tiny bits of it? Then grab this game.

Hearts of Iron is a strategic simulation of World War II (Europa Unviersalis I & II cover earlier time periods). You can be ANY nation you want during the period of 1936-48. Of course if you pick Bolivia you should realize that you're going to be stuck with Bolivia in the mid 20th century, which means that creating an atomic bomb before the US might be out of your reach. After all, this is a simulation of a real event, not scifi! Still, anything is possible and you're welcome to try out any strategy for world domination that you like.

The economic and political models go deep and your choices are plenty. Some have noted that there isn't time to research it all. That is true but it's not a design flaw, it's realism. Nations during World War 2 often had to make choices as to what they would build and devote time and energy to research. Most nations simply were not wealthy enough to do everything (the British abandoned work on the A-Bomb after realizing they simply couldn't afford to continue). This is true in the game as well and it forces you to make choices as you guide your nation through the war. That's the fun of a strategy game though, making hard choices and pursuing a strategy to victory.

The military model is also good. Individual carriers, battleships, and cruisers are depicted for the navy, individual divisions for the army, and wings for the air forces. All of these units can be grouped into higher command structures to make issuing orders easier while still preserving much historical realism.

Individual leaders are represented, both political and military. Don't like one of them? You can replace them with someone else (be careful replacing the popular ones, the citizens might become upset). If they please you however you can promote them up the ladder to greater positions.

This game is as good as people are saying about it and more, if World War 2 on a strategic level interests you at all, this is the game!

A Dream Come True

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 29
Date: November 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Based on a (highly modified) European Universalis 2 Engine, Hearts of Iron lets you play World War 2 from 1936 to 1948.

Play as any country, on the entire globe. Research hundreds of military technologies, assign hundreds of individual commanders and politicians. Deep diplomatic model lets you join alliances (either democratic, communist or facist), influence other nations, trade resources or technology.

Resources (steel, oil, coal, rubber) are critical to keeping your war machine running. Trade for what you don't produce (protect your convoys). Develop the technology to convert coal to synthetic oil, or oil to synthetic rubber. Better yet, conquer the sources of what you need. Diplomacy is key to preventing potential enemies from acting until it is too late.

Play Czechoslovakia and refuse to give up the Sudetenland. Play the US and struggle to get your people ready for war. Play as any nation on the map (sorry, Monaco and the Vatican are not represented).

Programmed by the team that brought you EU and EU2, detail and replayability are guaranteed. For fans of Grand Strategy, this truly global World War 2 game is a dream come true.

Awesome for the enthusiast but weak AI

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 20
Date: December 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you love intense strategy games and history, Hearts of Iron is for you. It is not for the gamer who doesn't want more complexity than Risk-type games. This is without a doubt the closest I have ever seen to the all-encompassing, grand strategic simulation of WW2. There isn't a board game that comes close to it's scope. Paradox deserves kudos just for the attempt; also for the results.

I played it for several hours using the 1936 scenario (HOI also has 1939 and 1941 scenarios). I accepted the default options which I believe were all set to 'easy'. I got up to 1940 as Germany and had annexed Austria (due to Event), Sudeten Czech (due to Event), Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania and conquered Northern France, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Greece. I brought Hungary and Bulgaria into the Axis. I think this was all too easy (maybe this will be much harder at the higher complexity settings). After declaring war on Poland, the UK made a few bombing runs into Germany then they disappeared for the balance of the game!!! France didn't do anything until I invaded her later and was easily beaten. Italy had invaded France from the south and France let Italy take 3/4 of her territory and used all her effort to stop Germany. Still France fell in about a month. The AI is weak. I did all this using version 1.00 of the code. There is now a patch out that supposedly improves the AI.

The gameflow was about as smooth as I would expect given the level of complexity. There is an awesome integration between resources, industry, technology and ultimately, combat effectiveness. Another reviewer on Amazon didn't like the tech tree. I loved it. It could have been simpler but that would have greatly undermined the scope of this game and it's historical reality. Technological improvement in WW2 didn't happen in huge leaps (ala Sid Meier's Civilization) but in a myriad of small improvements allowing for continued, incremental improvements in industry, military, etc. HOI does this wonderfully. I wish HOI had a tech tree chart to explain their tech tree better because it is hard to manage. I love the leaders too.

If you want to know about the games features read some of the many in-depth reviews that are on-line.

Strengths
Game Flow - Given the complexity, Very Good
Control, composition and organization of military units - well done
Integration of Technology, Industry, Military - Excellent
Tech tree - Awesome!
Military Units - incredible variety (icons could be improved however)
Military Leaders - Many with varied capabilites
Tutorials - Do a good job of getting you going
Music - Thematic classical

Fair
Graphics - OK, not special

Weaknesses
Robustness of Interface - Need more help to run your country (especially territorial improvements)
AI - As usual with Strategy games (except Age of Kings)

HOI is by itself in the world of RTS gaming for WW2, weaknesses notwithstanding. It sets a new, and very high standard in this realm.

Next generation game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: February 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Having played this game constantly since it's release I've seen it go from innovative concept with many problems to a ground breaking and truly engrossing game experience. While the game was arguably released to early by Strategy First, the developers (Paradox) is maintaining a steady flow of patches that is eliminating bugs, improving the AI and adding new features at a rate that is nothing short of amazing. This is also helped by the highly active community around the game which is providing bug reports, coming up with ideas for new features and creating user mods ranging from historical events to new AI files or entire scenarios.

Anybody who has (like me) played strategy games for 20 years and is very familiar with the usual hexes, stacking rules and "I-Go, U-Go" turn format might be sceptical of the sweeping changes that HOI brings to the genre. You will very quickly get used to the variable speed (you can pause while giving orders) of the game and soon appreciate how much this brings to the game, by giving a sense of realism and continuity that positively sucks you into the game. This is especially important in multiplayer games where you can really get caught up ("what, 5 in the morning already"!) in the game.

There are some aspects of this game that add incredible depth. The tech tree is the most obvious example, it is very educational and allows you to explore every aspect of tech during the war with 14 categories with many levels of theoretical research in each, followed by many applied techs in each theoretical level. The game also has an event system that covers incidents such as the Anschluss, the Nanking Massacre and the creation of Vichy France. This system is completely open to player input so you can create your own events or install events written by other members in the community.

Overall the game is stable, truly enjoyable in single player and amazing in multi player. A definite buy!

A winner for sure

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 16
Date: November 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Hearts of Iron, the latest (soon to be) release from the Scandanavian brainchild of PC strategy gaming, Paradox, follows in the footstep of its ancestor, Europa Universalis.

Taking control of a nation - and not just the big powers, but even small ones such as Romania or Greece.. you guide your selected homeland through land, air and sea all over the globe. Fighting for your cause and ultimate victory or defeat - or perhaps stalemate await your efforts.

I believe this game will be a lot of fun because of the depth and scope of the game. Not european theatre, or africa, or pacific - fighting on many fronts all over the world. The possibilities will be endless. With strategy, resources, and dumb luck you may be able to save Poland from being devoured once more by ravenous neighbors, dominate the pacific as Japan, or bring the war to its historical conclusion!

It should be noted for history buffs that due to certain restrictions in Europe and for basic reasons of not wanting to offend certain ethnic groups affected by the war, Swastikas and any kind of concentration camps or ethnic cleansing have been omitted from 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!

Enjoyable game - some minor faults

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I am writing this to counter some of the other reviewers which I thought were rathar negative. It is true that the manual has some errors. This happens quite often in games because the manual has to go to press well before the game is complete. Therefore, quite often changes are made which differ from the manual. The 1.02 patch is essential and the readme which comes with the patch explains some of these errors. I would also suggest going to the forum which is linked from the Paradox website. The other negative comment is that the AI is weak. This usually occurs when the player varies greatly from what actually happened in history. The AI doesn't know what to do then. For example if you played as Germany and didn't invade Poland, the AI probably wouldn't know what to do. Keep in mind that this is a WWII simulation. This is not like playing Risk. The AI will always try to follow history

Methinks some of the reviewers haven't checked for patches..

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: February 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I was on the fence about this game, and finally took the plunge. I went to Strategy First and noticed that there were four North American patches (quite involved ones at that). Applied them all, and this is a very enjoyable game. A word of warning, though. The learning curve is steep, so you have to stay with it. It's a complex game, but WW2 was a complex time. Many of the games up to HOI only looked at one aspect of this era.

I wonder if some of the reviewers bothered to apply any of the patches. If you look at the bugs that are being fixed in each patch, it is clear that Paradox is trying to address the game's shortcomings, and they do so beautifully.

The "new" greatest strategy game of all time.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: May 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Take what was previously the greatest strategy game of all time (PANZER GENERAL II), Axis & Allies (too simple), and The Operational Art of War (too complex)and roll them into the "new" greatest strategy game of all time. If I was Goldie Locks this one would be JUST RIGHT.

Hearts of Iron is simply fantastic.

The game as it is issued was quite "buggy", but 99.9% of that is fixed in the v1.04update that is available for free online.

For moders I would rate it a 7 as far as ease of modification (not totaly simple but not too complex).

Hitler reincarnates!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 17
Date: November 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I don't have the game yet - but do own EU 1, 2 and have been closely following the HOI forums. With the depth and complexity of this game - managing research, army formations, ministers, diplomacy, naval and air warfare, resources, production and industry - whoaa! A wargamer's wish come true! The HOI forums at paradox.com would fill you in with the exact features of the game. Caveat though - if you are the type of person who wants an action filled shabang game - stay away. My only beef with this game is the time span although I am sure someone will mod this anyway. I am a civ fan but this game would be more complex in depth.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next 

Actions