Marksman Gaming - Review - Hearts of Iron II

Author: scharfschutze

Type: PC Game

Released: 2005

Designer: Paradox Studios

Publisher: Paradox Studios

Genre: Grand strategy

What exactly is grand strategy? Well, take a turn-based empire builder like Civilization I/II/III or Alpha Centauri, throw in all the elements of a geo-political simulation like Diplomacy, and finally add a full, in-depth combat engine. What do you get? Well, you probably get something like Hearts of Iron II.

The sequel to the well-loved Hearts of Iron, Hearts of Iron II puts you in the shoes (or boots, depending on the circumstances) of a single country's government. It falls to you to manage all the major elements of your nation, including resource production, diplomacy, research & development, and military production. Depending on the self-sufficiency of your chosen nation, you may have to resort to extensive and complex diplomatic agreements to ensure your basic needs are met. Unfortunately, you must perform all these tasks within the geo-political maelstrom of World War II.

Hearts of Iron II is an incredibly difficult game to play, simply because of the incredible number of variables you, the player, have to keep track of. Resource production, military movement, military production, and even technological research all factor into your plans, and the game forces you to make decisions on the fly. The game itself is real-time - the clock ticks on, day by day, and the computer is moving at the same time you are. However, you do have one advantage over the computer: YOU can pause the game and issue orders (they won't be carried out until the game is unpaused), allowing you to coordinate diplomatic or military actions. And coordination is often the key to victory.

Despite the fact that you're in the middle of World War II, combat actually takes second place to one extremely important factor: economics. Though you cannot win the game without war, war without the economy to back it up is literally impossible. Economics is based primarily around the acquisition of resources. In Hearts of Iron II, there are five major resources - Metal, Oil, Energy, Money, and Rare Resources. Metals, Energy, and Rare Resources are all consumed by your industries; Money is required for all sorts of things, especially paying your research teams; and without Oil, your vast army of tanks, planes, and ships aren't going anywhere. Secondary resources - all related to your nation's industrial capabilities - include Industrial Capacity, Transport Capacity, and Manpower. So, as you can see, Economics is a really big folder. To help you keep it as simple as possible, you manage your country's economy through the use of "sliders" that allocate industrial effort to certain "general" aspects, including Consumer Goods (stuff people like to buy), Production (how much of your industry is geared towards military construction), Supply, Upgrading, and Reinforcement. As for resource production, there is a lovely little window alongside the Production "sliders" that tells you your exact daily surplus (or shortfall) of each resource. If there's a surplus, good work! If there's a shortfall… better start cutting a few deals.

Cutting deals with other nations is an essential part of your nation's survival… contrary to some political ideals, no nation survives this world alone. You can engage in all manner of diplomatic situations, from a daily trade agreement, a one-time deal for resources or blueprints, or even inviting another nation to become a military ally of your country. Each nation is diplomatically related by two numerical values: how belligerent (war-mongering) they are, and how friendly they are towards your country. The Belligerence value displays how aggressive a nation is, and is important for two things. One: you might want to reconsider any close diplomatic ties with extremely belligerent countries - unless you ARE the belligerent! Second: democratic or isolationist nations cannot declare war unless a nation's belligerence value is too high; you can avoid a war with superpowers like Britain and the USA by simply starting a series of "brush-wars", little conflicts with small, unallied neighbours, and waiting for a few weeks (game time) before starting another one.

Once war is declared, you have many options with which to fight. The unit/tech tree is massive, and covers practically all the bases. Hearts of Iron II encompasses three separate combat engines: land, sea, and air. Both sea and air units are "based" at a specific area, and head out on sorties before returning to base; land units move across the map and do battle when their path collides with an enemy force. The basic unit varies depending on the arena being fought: divisions are the smallest unit you can move around on the map by land; either flotillas or single large vessels by sea; and wings (~70 aircraft) by air. The types of division/flotilla/wing vary considerably, and almost every major piece of military hardware used during World War II makes an appearance. In addition to the basic units, you can attach brigades to land units, in order to heighten their capabilities. These brigades range from heavy tank brigades, artillery brigades, or engineer brigades, all the way to police detachments and armoured car brigades. These allow you to "customize" a fighting force to your specific needs.

The game offers several large campaigns that each begin at a significant point in the war (or just before it), but there are also several "mini-campaigns" that cover a very specific part of the war. These include the Desert Fox (recounting the Afrika Korps' campaigns in 1941-42), Operation Overlord (the invasion of Normandy) and even a war between Argentina and Brazil. You can play each campaign from almost any angle; in addition to the "major powers", for which the scenario has been balanced, you can choose to play as any nation on the map. Thus, if you like a challenge, you can see how long you would have lasted as a country such as Norway, Finland, or the Netherlands.

Breakdown

This review has received our Perfect Ten Game award for: Sheer scope of gameplay woven together with a massive tech tree, an incredible diplomacy engine, and simple, but effective, combat engines for land, sea, and air warfare.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics in this game are fairly simple, which is a good thing, because there's so much happening that too many graphics would actually weigh the game down. For the most part, everything is written, and the few graphical models are fully adequate to the game's mechanics - although, personally, I would have enjoyed a little more variation in unit appearance.

Effects: 5/10

The game has very little in the way of effects, and this is really the only category where the game falls short of the mark. I appreciate the need to limit input - there are, after all, so many variables a player has to consider already - but I think that in-game effects could have been just a little bit better, and added to a more immersive gaming experience.

Gameplay: 9.5/10

The only real drawback to Hearts of Iron II is what a friend of mine calls "the learning cliff". This game takes at least three or four hour-long (or so) attempts at playing before you really get the hang of it, and during those learning sessions, you'll probably be wondering "why even bother?" Hang in there, because once you get the hang of it, you will truly unleash your inner Napoleon. Just don't get discouraged by the frequent periods when it seems like nothing's happening - they're the perfect time to start planning that new invasion…

Replayability: 10/10

The true name of this game is replayability. Thanks to the game's diplomatic/military/economic engines, no two games ever play out exactly the same way. It's impossible to research every technology in one game, so there's always room for a new strategy in the same scenario; the massive unit tech tree means that you can always build up your own unique force; and there's the fact that every independent nation in the world (in 1936) is playable (to varying degrees - it's really no fun trying to play as Luxembourg). Truly one of the best games I've played from a replay standpoint.

Overall: 10/10