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Solid, if complex, strategy game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 58 / 61
Date: June 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Hearts of Iron is a fun but quite complex game of global strategy that takes place during the WW II era. It can begin as early as 1936 and can end as late as 1948. The player can play any country in the world during that era, from the major axis or allied powers to the the smallest nations. The game is primarily one of military strategy, including numerous land, naval, and air units; but other factors (making use of strategic resources, running convoys, trading for needed materials on the international market, developing new technology, and managing diplomacy) are also important aspects of the game. Combine two parts Europa Universalis II (a previous effort by the same company) to one part part classic WW II tabletop wargames, add a dash of Civ 3, and you've got Hearts of Iron.

I bought this game with some hesitation because I had very mixed feelings about EU2, the game's most obvious direct predecessor. While sometimes fun to play for short periods, the problem of revolts in EU2 killed the game for me and made it unplayable in the long term. HOI overcomes this limitation; it still includes a social unrest factor, but it manifests as lost production and reduced performance of your military units, and possibly the overthrow of your government, but without the endless proliferation of rebel armies. Some reviewers have complained about the complexity of the tech tree in HOI, but this is actually one of my favorite aspects of the game. It is not possible to research everything (at least, not until you become quite good at the game), so you really need to think about your long-term tech goals and choose wisely from among all the choices. I think this is one of the most sucessful aspects of the game.

The maneuvering of the miliatry units is straightforward. The game's AI has few surprises, but it does an adquate job of making you work for your territorial advances and it will take advantage if you leave holes in your defenses.

The biggest limitation of the game is the relatively poor documentation, considering the high degree of complexity. There are many, many things that you have to figure out and control, and they are not explained very well, if at all. Fortunately, Paradox Games has some very good message boards that answer most questions. Be prepared to spend some time reading the boards to try to help you figure out the game's often mysterious behavior. For example, why your industrial capacity keeps going up and down, or how you go about loading your atomic bombs onto delivery vehicles, or how you trade your excess coal for the steel you need on the world market. You often have very little understanding of the mechanics of how the different choices you make affect what happens in the game. Maybe this is good, because it prevents players from trying to "min-max" the numbers. But it can also sometimes be frustrating, because you see your strategic resources changing or your troops doing worse in combat than you think that they should be, and you don't know what is happening to cause it.

Overall, a very solid and fun global strategy game, with a very high degree of complexity and micromanagement of units and resources and often-mysterious game mechanics.

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!

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.

Pretty good, but there's some weak spots

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 31 / 40
Date: December 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I just got this game yesterday, so I may not have thoroughly played it. It's set in WWII, from the years 1936-1948. You could play a game from 1939-1948 and 1941-1948. I find it fun that you can play as any country you want from that time period. From Bhutan to the Liberia it covers many countries. Mainly there's the major powers, Germany, Italy, UK, USA, France, Soviet Union, and Japan. Every country falls into a category of Fascism, Communist, demoractic, or neutral. The major powers persuade minor neutrals to get on their side. A setback to being a minor nation is lack of stuff to do. You don't have much IC's (Industrial Capacity; the "money" of HOI) and much of a military. But playing a major nation is great fun.

There is a massive technology tree. Too massive in my opinion. I guess I could say it gives you too many options so that you don't really know what they are about. There's like fifty, under different catagories; Infantry, Armoured, Nuclear, Light Aircraft etc. But the tech tree is so massive, and you start out with so little, that it's impossible to reseacrh all. You should focus on a few areas not all. (There's like twenty main cataegories). It takes s long time to research for most, from 60 days to 240 days.

The dipolomacy option is I guess you could say is Hearts of Iron's "claim to fame". However, it is rather limited from my view. As Germany I could demand territory, but only a few countries can. You can declare war, annex, install a puppet regime, and a few more, but you cannot do more "fancy" stuff like sign different types of agreements, treaties etc. Playing as Germany, the Allies declared war on me in 1938, for no reason at all. I could ask for peace but they wouldn't give it to me. And some countries don't become your allies, but that's natural, although they don't give a reason.

The militaries are extensive but a big probelm is the amount of time it takes to create a unit. Time to build one is measured in days, and it usually takes a long time for a good unit. FOr carriers and battleships I've seen 800 days. And a day in HOI takes awhile, like a minute. But the amount of units are incredible. Under three main catagories, land, sea, and air, they can be divided further, infantry, armored, destroyers, submarines, fighters, torpedo bombers, and transports for both sea and air. They're usually divison, squadrons, and groups respectivaly, but I've thet can be bigger when grouped under one of the hundreds of leaders they've researched. They can be shown on a map as little pegs or men. The graphics aren't too stunning, but that's okay becaus ethe gameplay is enchanting.

A problem I've had is the amount of pop-ups that come up at an event. Every battle is popped up, (you can get rid of them easily, by right clicking and saying "Don't show again") and every outcome. It gets very annoying when you are playing as a major nation with massive armies.

Terrain I've found out isn't a crucial factor as in other games. You can turn on the map to show terrain, and the pictres for terrain are very plain and ugly. Going over rivers takes time, but engineers (which can be built with units) help make it faster. I've never seen weather in actions, but I know it affects the outcome of battles, especially air battles.

Overall Hearts of Iron is a pretty fun game, though in the furture I can see myself getting tired of it, especially after Christmas. There are many options, for lots of fun.

Pros:
1. Great gameplay
2. You can play any country at that time!
3. Huge armies can be built
4. Lots of units to choose from
5. Diplomacy is a big part

+/-
1. Massive tech tree
2. Graphics are okay (too good can take away your attention)

Cons
1. Plain graphics
2. Lack of things to do (just three typres of games)
3. Too WWII-centric
4. A.I. and be stupid at times (like when war is declared for no reason)

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.

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.

GREAT IDEA, POOR EXECUTION

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: December 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

A strategic WWII game that lets you start controlling any nation as early as 1936. The game lets you manage the economy, research better weapons/equipment, build your industry, build you military. Finally the game I've always wanted. Unfortunately there are serious flaws:

Interface: difficult to set the resource allocation scroll bars to where you want them. Hard to understand what you are producing, trading, sockpiling. Wouldn't be big deal except for gripe #2.

Instruction book:[BAD]! Does not provide any real information on production, trading on world market, convoys, research(anyone think that's clear?)etc. Instead it wastes space with info that's in the tutorial and a historical timeline that's better left to the library.

Political options: Events are canned and you don't have much flexibility when it comes to diplomatic actions. You even have to declare war against a nation before you can invade! Try explaining that one to the 3Reich.

Hard to follow the action: What are my units doing? Are they attacking the enemy that's in the same territory or just sitting there?

These are the worst problems that I have noticed after 4 days. It is a complex game and very time consuming. Still, it's definately worth it for WWII/military buffs. I would have given the game 3.5 stars for a good effort. I hope that HOI 2 will iron out these deficiencies.

Give it a try.

Europe in Flames...or is that your brain frying?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 26
Date: November 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

One of the best game titles with a great genera mixed in with it! Wow! What more could one ask? Well...maybe one has already asked too much...

The game is going to be great, I played a demo and it provides the grognards out there with the ultimate in unilateral WW2 scenario perfection. Build your country from the ground up and make it the greatest power in the world! Technological control, situational briefings, political dynamics, and strategically encompassing...that is this game all over.

There is a bit of a problem with this though...the time consumption. I played beginning in 1938, with the Austrian Anschluse just ending and Germany gearing for war...three hours later I finished the year! I mean it was a rough trek, I had to organize convoys, and covert political missions, economic revival, military design, technological research, and deal with all the SOBs around me who wanted to pop a cap in my budding society!

Whew! I smoked a Chezch invasion and a Polish blockade and secured military control of Hungary, but I was so strung out by the end of the third hour I almost snapped when the Soviets and the Polish signed a treaty! A treaty! My plans were devastated! I ran out of demo time, but I do have to say that saved me (and the computer) from a terrible fate. I was so tired of dealing with all of the nit-picks of national functions that I felt like FDR in April of '45.

This game demands your full attention, no meaningless turn skipping, no ignoring of a coal convoy to Stockholm, no passing of a .02% increase in coal production in Munich for .01% decrease in synthetic oil production. You have to do it all, and that makes every turn a critical decision turn. Attacks are made so important that you almost cry when a unit suffers damage, its that rough!

My advice is to get this game if you want a game that requires total concentration, and the shutting off of outside life. It is the game that makes certain when a mistake happens...you only have yourself to blame! This is a hit-or-miss title. You have to ask yourself weather or not your in it for the war or for the micromanagement; are you an Albert Speer or an Erwin Rommel; did you like Close Combat or Eastfront II; do you value your computer or do you love it when, after hours of coercing France into a false sense of security you are attacked by her ally England and France declares war on you sending your next four years of planning down the drain?

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!

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!

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