Hearts of Iron III
This game lets you play as any country during World War 2. I played the base game plus all expansions (SF, FtM, TFH).
You can manage every aspect of the war, from diplomacy to espionage to research to actual combat. You can even try to stay neutral and sit out the fighting if you want, but what fun would that be?
There is an enormous amount of complexity - casual gamers beware! If one part of the war is too tedious for you, it can be set to be automated. For example, rather than personally overseeing every trade deal you can check a box and let the computer handle all of your trades. The computer is not as smart as a person and it can’t metagame but in most tasks it does an adequate job.
– Real player with 755.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Military Games.
The King of Grand Strategy
Most of you who visit the shop-page for Hearts of Iron III probably already know what this game is all about. It’s a hardcore (as hardcore as it can get, actually!) Grand Strategy Game by Paradox Interactive. That one sentence really says it all.
This review is intended for those who don’t yet know what Grand Strategy (the capitals are there with a purpose!) is all about. Simply put: Grand Strategy games are the best, but also the most complex, pc gaming has to offer. They are immersive, complex, and very addictive. They are not for everyone, that’s for sure. You don’t play them for the graphics, nor for the sounds or some great level-design, but only for the gameplay, which can also be very, very difficult to master. There are tons of stats, of units and/or provinces to be controlled and only one person who has the power to control them: you.
– Real player with 408.6 hrs in game
Arsenal of Democracy: A Hearts of Iron Game
The basic campaign game is just fine as a WW2 simulator. I think the best fun is changing a saved game by changing governments, research levels, TC levels etc and then playing as a single country (either Russia, USA, Britain, Japan and Germany mainly) and trying to actually conquer every single province in the world before 1966 with no allies and no trade. This is still quite a struggle and lots of fun, and a lot harder than you would think. If you play Russia in 1936 with hyper tech you still need to get over the Atlantic into Canada/US before the US develop the bomb, the same with Germany. Japan taking on Russia, China and India as well as the US all at once is a challenge as well. A evil USA conquering the British empire and then choosing which Eurasian to take on first can be fun too (either Germany or USSR). Being an Evil Britain and expanding your empire at the expense of France and the US in the late 30s can also be fun, giving you lots of resources for a death match against Germany and then Russia. There is just so much you can do in this game, and that’s why I have spent so much time playing it. It is way better than the Hearts of Iron games it springs from, and I hope it keeps developing. I’m a big fan!
– Real player with 6009.1 hrs in game
I played the first hoi2 more than 10 years ago. I have spent several thousands of hours enjoying different hoi2 versions, mostly against AI, but I cant recommend it as it is now, unless you already are player of some other variant, love it, and know how to use cheats, create mods and events in order to get a challenging campaign.
First this game was created by people who understood and/or created the game mecanhics. So the war played out mostly according to history and pretty much every nation on earth was a nice play and a possible path to become a major power. At some point the creators most probably left and moved on to other projects, but did however leave some dedicated people with the task of fixing bugs and to do further developing. This was a mixed blessing, as whoever have been assigned thoughout the years they have lacked the full understanding of the game. Some things improved, but at a cost that made the game unhistorical, imbalanced and pretty broken. As it is now, every scenario execpt the 1936 and 1945 Cold war clash will create an overpowered Soviet Union. However The 1936 scenario on the opposite creates a Germany that destroys Soviet in 1941, unless its army runs out oil first. (Current German AI more or less only buils army units that are motorised. Anybody else cringe at this totally unrealistic behavoir?)
– Real player with 3174.9 hrs in game
Cauldrons of War - Stalingrad
This game is a good sequel for the last game of this series CoW barbarossa and it seems to have improved a lot. The AI seems much smarter in this game than in the last one and there are a lot more actions to do than before.
I intend to play this game for a long time just like I did with Barbarossa.
I RECOMMEND that you check the game out if you are interested in a large scale operational strategy in a WW2 setting.
– Real player with 92.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Asynchronous Multiplayer Games.
Pros- URAAAAAA!
Cons- the 6th Army is surrounded in Stalingrad please send help.
I’ve had the game since the beta dropped, and I’m happy to say I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It gives fresh perspective to the massive amount of challenges both sides face during 42', while still being very tasteful or pulling punches, which I respect.
It’s not a game where one strategy works every time, where yesterday’s blitz straight to Stalingrad means today’s attack will also proceed flawlessly. It’s not a game where the AI will sit and let you roll over them; it’s a fight, sometimes for every inch.
– Real player with 58.3 hrs in game
Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game
Darkest Hour would merit an award not only for its terrific value but also for the care put into its playability and historical accuracy. Historical events will generally always occur but sometimes at a different moment than anticipated depending on a number of factors. It is generally impossible to avoid having Stalin’s purges as the Soviet player, or election results in France for instance. But in spite of this, outcomes may be very different from game to game because of all other factors that may come into play. It is a complex game that requires a lot of attention, but that is also very rewarding to play.
– Real player with 2008.6 hrs in game
I have 250-something hours in this game, and it is truly worth every cent i payed for it, i think it was like 2$ CAN. As Hoi4 can never hope to run on my system so this was my first hearts of iron game and i think its a good introduction for the series. It does have a steep learning curve and requires some mental capacity, but it is sorta simple when you look at it and its parts.
Some reviews say that the game is rather linear, that is sorta true at a glance depending on how you play. You can choose to play any nation at a variety of start dates and choose multiple paths to go down for your nation, (though not nearly as extensive as hoi4s foucus trees). there are options to go down alt-history in the base game, through the great number of events and decisions. they are limited though, it is impossible to have a communist USA for example, without the use of a little thing called console commands, which opens up alot of opportunities. make canada a fascist industrial powerhouse rivaling germany in might? you can do it, you can cheat your way through alot, but my advice is to use it only for developing minor nations or capitulating a already defeated enemy, or bypassing the script and creating your own scenarios.
– Real player with 812.1 hrs in game
Hearts of Iron IV
Let’s be real, you’re here because you want to finally have the chance to play as a Nazi.
Maybe you’re someone like me. I’m always the good guy, the Jedi, the Paragon, the lawful good.
Then when playing Hearts of Iron IV something in me snapped, I came to see that in these strategy games you are the villain, you are evil.
Embrace it, let the hate strengthen you, harden your heart to the lamentations of your foes, sit atop a throne of skulls steeped in blood and command all you survey.
If I’ve learned anything by talking to other gamers, it’s that if someone makes a game where you can kill people, some gamer is going to kill everything that can be killed in that game. Be that gamer, and enjoy this gem of a game. 10/10
– Real player with 3419.8 hrs in game
after 1500 hours i can tell you the developers dont care about this game, mod creators make better and more enspired content as 1 or 2 people they charge 20 dollars for them to break your game and kill the community with there unenspired lazy dlc filled with expliots and bugs tank designer is so broken and transport planes are actually supply a whole army with 200 planes and its taken them more them weeks and they still havnt fixed it it is just a value they have to change in the game code modders have already fixed it in days sad to see that this company is all about the money so sad man i just want to play a game that is made by people that care
– Real player with 1562.3 hrs in game
Hearts of Iron 2 Complete
Hearts of Iron II is one of the best Grand Strategy games I have ever played. It’s deep and detailed yet easy enough to learn. Keep in mind though, when I say easy, I mean easy for a Grand Strategy game, for the usual RTS player it still is quite a hill to climb.
The big strategic elements are well made and fulfilling with lots to do in building your country up, fine tuning your army and position it just so. The expansions add tons to that with an expanded diplomacy system and a espionage system both of which, although not as good as the actual warfare, works fairly well.
– Real player with 496.2 hrs in game
This game was released 16 years ago and it is still the best of Paradox’s entire catalogue. Yes, you need to run it on 16-bit compatibility mode, and yes it does not support HD, let alone 4K but the immersion is incomparable to any other historical strategy game. Think about this, there are hundreds (thousands?) of real life generals accompanied with their real life photographs that you can promote, remove from command, or to send into a suicide mission in Cambodia. I remember reading about El Campesino and Lister Forjan in For Whom the Bell Tolls, and imagine the excitement of 13 year old me when I got to see their faces and even got to command them in Hearts of Iron 2.
– Real player with 365.1 hrs in game
Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi
I have never once been horny while playing a game. until now
NAVYFIELD
This is the father of all naval games, yes it may be grindy but that’s all MMOs.
Pros:
FANTASTIC ship customization(no custom paints or skins but you can fully customize your weapon load, ammo, etc)
Friendly graphics that are still appeasing but easy on low end PCs
Great sounds/music
Sim-cade gameplay (combines realistic and arcady style of play) You can choose if you want to set your gun angles by ourself instead of the auto aim function, along with things like belt armour, deck armour, etc.
Huge selection of ships in which some can be remodeled into more powerful or different ships of it’s class (ex: The Admiral Hipper CA can be remodeled to Prinz Eugen)
– Real player with 217.7 hrs in game
Do i enjoy the game? YES!
Old vet since start of the game and played nfeu later on. Now back thanks to steam.
Pro’s
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arcade style battles (quick)
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low demands on pc requirements (to low for todays standards)
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diverse community
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games 24/7 cause people from the whole world are in 1 server (does have lag when chinese play )
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for old players its mostly the nostalgic value that counts.
Con’s
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The game is so old that you cant run fullscreen unless you force it through your monitor
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alot of crashing (not for me personally)
– Real player with 110.4 hrs in game
Making History: The Calm and the Storm Gold Edition
This game is excellent. It was fairly easy to learn. I like the look of the units, tanks troops etc. It has a lot of replayability. You do have to play as one of the world powers to really enjoy it. If like me you play to rule the world. It does have some historic accuracy in this regard. I’ve read a few complaints about that but c’mon no underdeveloped country smaller than a medium sized American State was going to stop the German War Machine. Different world powers face different difficulties. For instance Germany should store up plenty of oil or research how to make it out of coal before alienating the entire world and having no trade partners. China produces tons of food so they are either a good ally or someone to invade. A lot of people have commented about no problem going into debt but there is a penalty that will eventually wear you down if you get to far in debt. There are units to produce, factories to upgrade, new units to research and coal, oil and iron production that cost money to produce so must be managed. The good news is it’s not overly difficult so you can enjoy the war. I mentioned lots of replayability. When you are setting up the game you can scroll down and choose to be the confederate states. I tried it. I found I had to take out a portion of the US first and then make peace so the land I had conquered would produce at full capacity. Then you need to build your navy up to join the fight across the pond. There is also a way to play as one of ,i think five, imaginary countries where you grab as much unoccupied terrirtory as you can while building up to take out the other powers. I’ve had a lot of fun with this game at less than a penny an hour so far. I haven’t played in awhile but will return to it. It’s that good once you get the hang of it and play as different world powers.
– Real player with 896.0 hrs in game
I have a few hours playing this game, 200, so I am in a good position to review it from an expert level. While I see many here not happy with the game, some say it is too difficult, some say aspects are missing etc, I say, what do you want for $10?!
The amount of gameplay that I have been able to get out of it is worth the $10, HOWEVER, the following aspects of the game or NOT of the game in some cases, are in other games like CIV5 etc.
I am going to brainstorm here, so take it as you will:
- There is no intelligence, if I am moving tons of troops to a sector next to an opposing sector, the computer does not recognize this and lets me do so without counteracting or sending me an alert.
– Real player with 458.7 hrs in game
Making History II: The War of the World
I have played a significant amount of turn based strategy games and in fact, it is my favorite genre. I would like to tell you that Making History II: The War of the World is one of the most enjoyable games of it’s kind and I would honestly put this one in the “low graphics classics” category.
You truly have the power to “Make your own history” with a unique play through almost every time and in most cases you are at the mercy of the AI. You would be surprised just how hard it is to try and replay WW2 just as it happened in real life. However, not knowing what is going to happen next is what gives this game it’s replayability.
– Real player with 1907.8 hrs in game
Reviews over this game seem to be split between those who hate it and those who love it. I am now part of the latter group, albeit it did take a bit of getting used to. Pretty much everything the negative crew mentioned is true, I just find it is not as bad as they make it out to be. On the other hand the game is a LOT of fun to play. If you are coming from playing HoI like I did you need to get used to that there is very limited historical accuracy in this game. If you want Austria to join Germany you have to attack them. Alliances take weird turns in this “anything goes” game. And the game engine is a bit quick in starting rebellions. The first time I tried the game, by ‘38 not only had the UK lost most of her colonies (not that I minded playing Germany) the UK itself had fallen appart into: UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Fascist UK…
– Real player with 543.3 hrs in game