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Published
by Paradox Interactive
Developed by Paradox Interactive
Release Date: Out Now
Price: £29.99
Hearts
of Iron II, an introduction.
Hearts
of Iron was a grand strategy war game set in the World War
II era. The game wasn't a simulation as such and allowed
you to create your very own World War II. Fancy playing
through the whole of World War II in charge of a 'minor'
nation such as Tibet? No problem. Hearts of Iron allowed
you to take charge of any one of a number of nations and
take on the challenge that your chose nation would bring.
Diplomacy, research and tactical planning were all required
and for those who spent the time learning how to play the
game it offered a very rewarding experience. Like Europa
Universalis the game is a real time strategy that you can
pause at any time to make decisions.
What's
the game about?
Essentially
Hearts of Iron II is an improved version of Hearts of Iron.
Several elements of the game have been reworked and polished
to make the game more accessible and a better experience
overall. Research is now much more straightforward as is
organising battles. More units have been added and a more
detailed map with more provinces has been included. The
game has 19 scenarios in all and you can play a full campaign
as a multiplayer game over the Internet if you wish or play
over a LAN (more on that in a moment).
What's
good about the game?
The
main improvement has to be the interface which is much more
inviting than in Hearts of Iron. Extensive and informative
tooltips save you the task of clicking through different
menus to find valuable information. The main categories
Technology, Diplomacy, Production etc. are now tabbed, meaning
you can quickly move from one screen to another in an almost
effortless fashion. Hearts of Iron only came with a few
scenarios but the range on offer in Hearts of Iron II is
much better. There are 19 in all with 4 of these being open
ended scenarios covering the crucial years, 1936, 1939,
1941 and 1944. The remaining 15 scenarios are more focused
on historical events such as Operation Barbarossa, The Ardennes
Offensive, Rommel in Africa and the Spanish Civil War. This
gives the gamer a more comprehensive experience of the World
War II time scale and the range of material on offer here
means you're not going to have experienced all the game
has to offer for many months to come. If you like to take
your strategy games online though then you really are in
for a treat. Up to 32 players can play together. Nations
can either be shared or you can choose different nations
and play against each other.
What's
not so good about the game?
The
biggest problem with Hearts of Iron II is the learning curve.
This isn't a game where you can jump right in. It's not
even a game where playing through the tutorials once will
allow you to make sense of everything. It's a game where
you'll have to put the hours in to fully appreciate the
different elements and how they interweave with each other.
Another issue I have with the game is its support for just
one screen resolution. The game only supports 1024x768 (with
no windowed mode on offer) and as a result if you're playing
the game on a TFT of 17" and over you'll have to read
text that looks plain ugly and is rough on the eyes. It
also has a few other side effects that we'll mention in
a moment.
How
does it look?
Graphics
are not as important in strategy games of this nature but
having said that you still expect a certain standard. The
visuals on offer in Hearts of Iron II are best described
as functional. Those of you that have played a Paradox Interactive
game before will be completely familiar with the look of
the game. What Hearts of Iron II has going for it though
is an excellent interface which makes the wealth of information
that the game contains, so much more accessible. The graphics
that represent your military units do look poor though and
if you are playing the game on a TFT with a native resolution
of above 1024x768 then they manage to look even poorer with
their blocky low detailed appearance (the game on the whole
has a blocky and uncomfortable look about it if you are
playing on a 17" TFT or greater). Another side effect
of this fairly low resolution is that you can't see a lot
of the map at any one time. Yes you can zoom out but the
detail in the zoomed out mode is not as good as it should
be. In fact the locked screen resolution is a bit of a mystery
as the first Hearts of Iron game allowed you to change screen
resolutions, as do most of Paradox's games, so to take away
this feature for Hearts of Iron II seems a step in the wrong
direction.
How
deaf gamer friendly is the game?
There's
nothing to complain about here as Hearts of Iron II is completely
deaf gamer friendly. Paradox's games have a history of providing
their wealth of information via text and Hearts of Iron
II is the same in this respect. It's also worth mentioning
that the game manual is superb. Written by Chris Stone,
the manual is written from a gamer's perspective rather
than from a developer's or publisher's perspective. This
means it answers the questions that need answering and doesn't
contain any abstract references that whilst they are nice
to read, don't help you learn how to play the game. Game
manuals are usually poor efforts so it's great to see such
a well written book (with 90+ pages) that provides such
informative insights on how to play the game.
Final
thoughts.
I've
no doubt that this is one of the finest games to date based
on the World War II scenario. Yes there is a great deal
to Hearts of Iron II and the learning curve is Mt. Everest
like in its steepness but thanks to the tutorials and an
excellent manual you will be able to get to grips with all
the game has to offer, although it will take dedication
and for those who just want to install the game and then
get on with it, it may come as a bit of a shock. Some key
areas of the game have been streamlined and simplified to
make the game more accessible but there's still are a lot
more to learn than in an average strategy game. If you can
put the time aside to learn how to play the game though
you'll find a richly rewarding experience and there are
few games that come as close to this in capturing as many
aspects of World War II.
Overall
Game Rating: 8.8/10
Deaf
Gamers Classification:
(Click
the letter or here
for details)
A cracking sequel to Hearts of
Iron that offers impressive depth and virtually unlimited
replay value. The game is fine for deaf gamers but you should
be aware that the game has a huge learning curve and you'll
need to be dedicated in order to fully appreciate what Hearts
of Iron II has to offer.
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