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needs to go back in the oven -- for a looonng time

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: December 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The short review is -- wait a long time, this one is not anywhere near ready yet.

I enjoyed EU2 and if you do not have that game I would suggest that you buy it instead. HoI, even after the 1st patch, is full of technical bugs and playability problems. The EU series was extensively patched after release, so give this one several months to get patched up. It is playable now, but I doubt that you will find it a rewarding experience after completing a campaign or 2.

I had some initial qualms about their using the EU engine for HoI that may, unfortunately, have been all too accurate. The user interface is woefully inadequate. The game becomes a click-fest --not of the twitch game sort, but of the Master of Orion/Reach for the Stars sort. You can choose not to micromanage your resources, but if you do, your performance will be several orders of magnitude below what it would be if you do micromanage. Computers should be all about removing the burden of tedium from the user, not adding to it. Many more reports are needed. Simple functions common to many strategy games such as a "cycle through all my provinces/units" function are absent in HoI.

As is often the case in strategy games, the AI is, to put it mildly, inadequate. Unfortunately to the point of making a single player game of HoI truely masturbatory. You cannot possibly be challenged by the AI if you play Germany, Britain, Russia, or the USA. I haven't played Japan or Italy yet. And real-time pausable games do not translate well to multiplayer in my experience. Turn-based is far better suited to multiplayer in a game that requires such massive micromanagement (thereby requiring pausing the game as long as 2 hours, potentially). If you limit the amount of time 1 player can pause the game, it becomes a contest of quickness, not strategy.
Another really major problem for me is that HoI is neither fish nor fowl in the sense that it requires far too much time to play and is very detailed in some aspects, but is a very poor simulation of WWII era warfare and gives very little "feel". The chrome is all in the tech development and not to be found anywhere else. So it is neither a true beer and pretzels game, nor a true grognard's delight.

I'm still waiting for someone to computerize the old SPI Campaign for North Africa, but for the entire European Theater. CNA was unplayably complex as a board game, but with a computer to keep track of things for you, it could be quite wonderful.

Awesome game in need of refinement

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is a game I eagerly awaited ever since hearing about it, and it doesn't disappoint in magnitude and realism. Of course it'll need a patch or two (1 already came out that fixed many issues) but it hasn't crashed on me and most bugs I've encountered after the first patch have been minor. That said, this game is everything it advertises and more. Buy it, prepare yourself for full immersion into WWII, and while the hours away!

Bugs, Crash and more. Dont they playtest this first?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game has a lot of depth and I would recommend that you get it. A nice feature is the large and in depth technology tree and nice graphics. I am going to keep this game just because it has such potential. However, I will highlight just a few of the problems I have encountered in the last 24 hours, THAT THE MOST RECENT PATCH DOES NOT FIX. (11-26 patch)

The game has crashes at least 4-5 times an hour. Whats upsetting is the fact that some of the bugs could have been fixed with some iota of playtesting by the developer. For example, if you try and upgrade a military unit of a country you are allied with the game crashes.

The resource management sounds good but I have 99999 of each resource after a few years. Therefore the resource management is worthless.

The bottom line is this: its a great game that was rushed to the market and is LOADED with technical glitches and bugs.

Almost Great

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

As the title of my review states, this game is "almost great". "Almost" because, as many other reviewers have pointed out, the game suffers serious flaws. Nevertheless, the more I have played the game and gotten into it, the more I realize the depth and strategy involved, as well as the fun that the game can be. Casual gamers looking for a saturday afternoon breather should skip this title; real strategy gamers (and not just grognards) should take a look at this game.

Absolutely incredible

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is without a doubt the most detailed wargame that I have ever played (the list is long and distinguished). It is everything that one could ask for from a strategic WWI simulator. ....

Yes, there are some frustrating elements of the game that folks mention, such as the ongoing popup screens, but for the most part they are all configurable behaviors. For example, the ability to hide different types of popup screens.

I highly recommend this.

Engrossing fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a sui generis grand strategic World War II simulation. You can play any country (including Uruguay and Liberia!) and start at 3 different points. You are the absolute ruler of your country and allocate resources and production, direct research efforts, build armies, navies and planes as well as direct your military in battle. The AI is generally good, but not excellent. The naval game is severely flawed (aircraft carriers are totally useless in this game) but the land and air games work well. As with EUII, patches are frequent and the company is responsive to the gaming community.

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).

Could have been great

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: January 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game had great possiblities but the current version is unplayable. I don't know who wrote the reviews at the very beginning but they must not have opened the game (perhaps the publisher?). AI is so bad that a 3 year old could beat it. It is possible to take over the world playing Spain. Real let down.

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.

A long time coming....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have been waiting for a full theater WW2 game. This is the best (and only) one I have ever played. The detail is amazing. Individual units are named, historical commanders and politicians. Any country on the globe can be played or influenced to join any of the three factions.

What is also really great is the chance to rewrite history. You can opt to have FDR lose the election to Landon, you can give into the Japanese and not place an embargo on them. You can steer your research into flying bombs, jet fighters, and atomic weapons.

This game is basically Axis&Allies on steriods. Although the AI can be kinda wierd sometimes. But aside from that its a great game.

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