Hearts of Iron

The best in the series. My cd is broken for this game so i can buy it. Technology trees and the descriptions are alone worth buying it for, i love reading them while time was passing ( have something to do). I really gives you the feeling of that period. When it comes to combat, in every paradox game it sucked balls so going to war is worst thing you can do. Funny thing is i enjoy playing this game on cheat codes, i do love of building mexico or turkey into the super power. I love it. It all depends what are you looking for: 1. If for something that can immerse you into the period of second world war, you found. 2. if you are looking for combat experience, this game sucks. I am recommending this game but it all depends what are you looking for.

as you see in the title the main problem with this game is the general ability of explaining what to do. In paradox games, you generally get the hang of the beast within 1 or 2 hour... not with this one. This is the most confusing game I've ever played in my life. battle are not explained so you need to lose quite a bit to understand why you have lost and how to improve. simply put... this is kind of a risk game... kind of. its no "luck only" games but at the beginning, it certainly seem like it. the combat essentially revolve around good commander, tech and bonus due to the weather or the general geography. to understand what kind of weather does what... you need to guess since you can only see weather through a particular kind of map, which is, you guess it, not explained. so why did I give it 2 star instead of 1? because the game, in his core, work. the diplomacy is simple nowadays but really detailed for the time, the combat offer a deep understanding of general tactic in war and the games is full of historical details and info about the era. also, this is quite fun to change the timeline, like in every paradox game. this game is important for its legacy but that it. im going through a marathon of paradox game and this one is the only one that I can't recommend. if you want to play it, just be prepared, its really different. not a bad game to its core, but you need to decipher the beast to have fun. P.S... no, there is no guide. you need to figure it out on your own.

See the full, detailed, review here: http://www.rindis.com/blog/1722 I have found that HoI is my least favorite of the initial Paradox empire management games. Part of this is because I find it overly fiddly, and concentrates too much on lower-level items that clash with what I expect to see in a grand-strategy title. Also, there are some real problems with the shift from the exploration and limited war model of EU II to the total war presented in HoI. You can end up needing to coordinate military operations in widely separated areas at the same time, and that is never a good fit with a real-time title, pauseable or not. However, I think the real problem lies elsewhere. One of the things I enjoy about Paradox’s games is a certain sense of discovery. I like history, and I know something about any period they have, or will, tackle. However, these games always show me something new, there’s a lot of world out there, and just scrolling around the map will show you something that you hadn’t heard of. On the other hand, the world of 1936-48 is much more familiar to me, so I am not really finding new facets of history in it. Furthermore, I have a lot more experience with WWII from a game perspective, so I am also bringing more concrete expectations to it. There are also some definite poor fits scale-wise. Using divisions as the basic unit of armies, which most major countries fielded well over a hundred of, and then (in Europe) fitting all these divisions (plus air units) into a front that’s maybe ten provinces wide causes all sorts of pain in trying to manage it all, that the UI just has no hope of dealing with. All that said, it is a good game, and in representing many of the primary concerns of the period, shows a good amount of flexibility of approach from Paradox. For anyone who plays it, I recommend getting familiar with the game, and then looking at the Undocumented Features List thread on Paradox’s forum. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/undocumented-features-list.58118/ There’s some very good info in there, once you have some context for it. Item numbers 9, 27 and 7 are helpful to get around some of the problems with the UI.

The game has unfortunately an error from the Paradox days. This was found in the first patch Paradox released for Hearts of Iron: If and when you load paratroopers into their planes, you can't click to unload them for app. a week or two. Nor let them parajump before a week or two - with the result, that a lot of the paratroopers are dead. Which renders them rather useless, as they aren't quick transported. Sorry, but this matter destroys a good game.

Just meh. HOI promised grand strategy and the "ability to change the outcome of war. However, the ability to change the outcome is extremely limited. You can pretty much pick any nation in the world, but you are completely limited by both luck and their starting strength. Obviously, nations such as the US and Russia will always play better. This really trivializes any most other nations in the world. There is nearly no point to even try playing in certain parts of the world, because you'll spend the entire timeline doing nada, zilch, and nothing. Surviving the onslaught of Japan, China, while playing a tiny power is fun... Once. This game was improved upon by its successors, but the series never overcame this serious gameplay defect. Simply put, you must try to play out the war as it was in reality (you are a mimic). HOI2 is better, so there is really no point to play this game. Unless you must have one of the series from GOG or for nostalgia, move along. Rated 2 stars because it was fun at first, but it is definitely not a good old game.