Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista; Intel Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+ (quad core) CPU; 2 GB RAM; 2 GB hard-drive space; NVIDIA GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon X1900 graphics card; DirectX-compatible sound card; DirectX 9
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now

It’s been raining WWII games here at Avault recently, and so I was not really surprised to have another handed to me for review. In this case, it’s Hearts of Iron 3, an entry in one of the few Paradox Interactive franchises that I have not chosen to play in the past. I have always thought that Paradox’s strength has been in grand strategy games in which nation-building takes place during a century or more. I had felt that a more focused strategy game from them would be a fast trip to micro-management hell, a feeling compounded by things I had read about previous HOI releases. And so, with some trepidation, I installed my copy and started playing, only to find a nuanced game with plenty of fun, rather than hellish, strategy-based micro-management.

In HOI3, you can take control of any extant nation during the period of 1936 to ‘48. The game takes place in hourly intervals, allowing you to play through every hour of every day before and during the war. HOI3 features a number of scenarios, from the lead-up to war in ’36 to the last desperate attempts of Germany to stave off defeat in ’44; the entire world is your battleground. You set your country’s policies, build your military (ships, brigades and air wings), assign leaders and order your units to fight in any way you choose. When combined with the complicated tech tree, a political and diplomatic system that realistically portrays feelings of neutrality and aggression in various countries, and a combat system that recognizes the importance of supply lines, combined arms warfare, and terrain, you find a historical game with everything except FPS resolution of combat. And because the entire world is represented, there is plenty of room to carve your own place in history. You could play as Franco’s Spain and join the Axis, or play an imperialistic U.S. that abandons Europe to the fire of war and instead chooses to conquer North and South America. Japan can decide that war with America is a waste of time and instead attack the Soviet Union. The possibilities are breathtaking, and the only limitation is the historical position of any nation at the start of a scenario.

There is plenty to do in HOI3, so much that it might seem that you could be overloaded. Managing the German invasion of the Soviet Union is enough to tax any player, but doing that while coordinating the strategic bombing of the United Kingdom would normally require obsessive behavior. And yet, Paradox’s greatest innovation in the game is an AI component that takes care of anything you assign it to do. I don’t just mean automating the economy or letting the AI conduct research for you. Literally, any part of the game can be handed over to the AI, with the added bonus of allowing you to give instructions and receive feedback on what the computer needs to accomplish those goals. As an example, in one game as the Soviet Union, I managed to crush the Axis fairly quickly, leaving me time to spread Communism to other parts of Europe. As a test, I handed over the entire Western Front to the AI, and told it to prepare for an invasion of Spain. The AI deployed its armies properly and stockpiled supplies, but it also sent me a request for additional units, specifically medium armor, because it estimated that it would need the extra offensive power to completely crush the enemy. When I declared war, the AI went to work while I sat back and sipped a refreshing beverage. It took only two game months, but the AI followed my instructions properly and annihilated Spain, allowing me to add it to my ever-growing Communist empire. While no one would want to play a game in which everything is automated, my experiment demonstrates that, when the action gets hectic, you can count on the AI to run the minor conflicts by itself and follow your instructions while you concentrate on what is really important.

And what is really important varies from game to game and country to country. Because each faction is subject to its historical starting conditions, you can’t just play the game as a more complicated version of Axis and Allies. If you choose to play the U.S. prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, be prepared to face stiff domestic opposition to any attempt to get involved in the war. Just getting America into the fight early might be half the fun when playing the Allies if Japan decides to avoid attacking Pearl Harbor. On the other hand, playing Japan carries with it some serious economic problems, as she has more industry than natural resources. This forces anyone playing Japan to make hard choices about trade and war, since antagonizing the U.S. could result in an embargo that cuts you off from needed raw materials. These historical circumstances make it impossible to act in an arbitrary manner (i.e. invade France in ’36 to start the war early), while still giving you room to change history if you’re willing to put the effort into doing so.

HOI3 has a steep learning curve. The manual is well written, and there are additional strategy guides and quick-reference cards available to those who register their game, but I still strongly advise that you run a minor power, like Brazil, for your first game to get the hang of various mechanics. In particular, the supply system is quirky, and no amount of reading can replace practical experience in managing your military in parts of the world where climate is bad and infrastructure is non-existent. Also, the AI performs superbly when it handles things for you, but when it plays the United Kingdom, the AI seems to squander its navy for no clear purpose. This is a big problem, because with the British navy off wandering around the world, sipping tea while not bothering to defend the English coast, the UK is too easy to invade than it otherwise should be. However, HOI3’s biggest problem at the moment is a memory leak that substantially degrades performance after an hour of play, a problem that gets even worse if you have many items in your production queue.

Despite all that, I really enjoyed Hearts of Iron 3. There are plenty of WWII games floating around on the market right now, but I can’t imagine any war game aficionado being unsatisfied with playing this one. Priced at $39.99, it’s worth picking up a copy. It will definitely keep you busy without overwhelming you with micro-management.

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