Below are user reviews of Crusader Kings/Hearts of Iron and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
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User Reviews (1 - 2 of 2)
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Properly Prodigious
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 10 / 14
Date: February 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User
I can only compare playing these games to reading a Tolstoy novel.
At first the enormity and complexity can seem to overwhelm, but before it is done it has piqued every part of you that can be moved to feeling.
As a Russian cannot be himself away from 'Mother Russia', a tourist in that land, might consider their tradition and protocol cumbersome.
In this way, I do not feel that one could recreate the flavour and factors that influenced those who dreamed of dynasty, that created the unique world of the Middle Ages, without including those things in Crusader Kings, that make it so deeply complex and to me, satisfyingly complete.
Hearts of Iron is a deeply complex undertaking that allows the player to feel he has some control of a people, a military and a nation.
Although it falls short of reality, yet it is only the way that sleep mimics death, in that only in the experience itself can you feel everything. Fifty five millions of people died in the years of World War II, nothing can recreate the frenzy of a national pride and identity of Fascism, the wholesale cleansing of decadent corruptionof the ruling classes and hope for equality of Communism, or the fear for the freedom to rise to greatness through the capitalism that lies at the foundations of Democracy, or ultimately, the horrors of the unimaginable loss of life and humanity of a world at war.
This game however, to a great degree of success, attempts to recreate the manipulation of events as one of those leading nations of the world that had influence over the outcome. The game involves us in those events as we took up arms against ourselves from 1936 to 1947, and in doing so forces the player to educate himself enough to become proficient in this, in order to be effective at it.
And ultimately the level of entertainment of these games depends entirely on the abilities of the aspirant.
If frivolous entertainment is your forte, avoid these titles.
fini
Paul Conklin
(Yes I know the user says 'Mary', duh, my wife bought it for me.)
Be prepared to
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 10 / 10
Date: May 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User
Both of these games are from Paradox, and they are both excellent games. Be prepared for a very steep learning curve, these aren't games you can just jump into and start playing right away. They have an incredible amount of complexity that allow you to fiddle with several aspects of your chosen country, controlling the economy, production, ideology, etc. There is literally no limit to who you can play in the games either. You can try to play WWII from the view of the Albanians or the Canadians, or whoever. Same with Crusader Kings - you can start as King of England or France, or as some lowly Count in some small principality in central Europe, both approaches will present different challenges.
[...]
Once you start playing one of these paradox games you will likely start playing the others. They are totally engrossing and as I said in the title, will "waste" monumental amounts of your time.
Enjoy.
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