Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday Expansion Pack Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a huge fan of Paradox Interactive. These guys make the perfect games for history geeks like me. Gloriously complex, very playable, with the smack of verisimilitude. Hours of pleasure..

I started war-gaming twenty-five years ago, when I was just a kid in grade school- the Old Avalon Hill era. Hexagon boards, dice, fat rulebooks and hundreds of cardboard unit chits. And far too few fellow geeks to play with. A.H. put out a strategic level European/Mediterranean theatre game called Third Reich. I loved that game. I played WWII out with my little brother, or by playing all factions myself, hundreds of times. Ah, the good old days..

But wait, no. The sepia tones fade to a harsh, merciless grey. I've played HoI2, and this new hyper charged "Doomsday" revision of that glorious game. And there is no comparison. This is Third Reich beatified and transfigured. To heck with the old days.

With HoI2 you can begin campaign play in 1936, 1938, 1939, 1941, or 1944. The diplomatic and military situation being as it was historically at each date. You can play any country in the world - any major power (Germany, U.K., U.S.A., U.S.S.R., France, Italy, Japan) or a lesser power such as Australia, S. Africa, Canada, Brazil, Turkey or Spain, etc. Or you can even play a minor country like Bhutan or Costa Rica - even though they have very little economic, scientific, diplomatic, political, or as a result, military power. Still, if you want to attempt world conquest with say Nicaragua, Switzerland, Tibet or Siam, you are free to.

There are also minor scenarios where you can play out Barbarossa, the Invasion of Poland, Japan in China, the Spanish Civil War, a hypothetical war between Argentina & Brazil, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Ardennes offensive (Battle of the Bulge).. you get the idea. I'm solely a 1936 campaign game man, myself, though, so I can't speak to the quality of the scenarios.

In the original HoI2 campaigns all end in 1947. Which often cuts the game short while things are still very interesting (Hitler played a very stupid HoI2 game- I mean, taking on the U.S.S.R. and U.S.A. simultaneously? While the U.K. is still kicking? Don't you be so stupid. Things could've gone on so much longer.. 988 years longer, vielleicht?) So 1947 is too early an end date.

This new Doomsday expansion corrects that. The new end date is 1953 (the year of Stalin's death.) And a new "Doomsday" scenario is added, beginning in 1945 with Germany defeated.Europe is divided between the Comitern and Allies, and they're at war. Dr. Strangeglove is in the house, ya'll. Yeeehaw!

Armageddon aside, the glory of HoI2 Doomsday is that you can start in 1936, and play through 1953, and absolutely anything can happen. Early Cold War, or Axis world domination, whatever. I mean, you can do all sorts of interesting things (especially if you use the F12 cheatcode "freedom" to change the political conditions of your country more quickly than would otherwise be allowed - Germany can be made communist, the U.S. fascist or communist, the U.S.S.R. a democracy - and all international alliances and national leaders will change..)

The economic and technological aspects of this game are very good- the tech tree is pretty complex, and every country- even the little ones - has a bevy of historic industrial firms and technicians (e.g., Germany has I.G. Farben, Krupp, Siemens, Junkers, Porsche, Rheinmetal, Mauser and individuals such as Guderian, Udet, Goering, Von Braun, Heisenburg, Von Manstein, Raeder, etc. the U.S. has Ford, Raytheon, Oppenheimer, McDonnell Douglas, Nimitz, etc.) who are assigned different tech/doctrinal projects. You can choose to pursue certain lines of technology, and military doctrine and ignore others, try to research them earlier than they were historically, etc.

Economically, each country has an factory industrial base which determines how many units you can produce or support, and which must be fed resources. Resources are obtained by controlling their geographic sources, or through trade with countries who have surplus resources.

Militarily, this is a division level game. The units are assigned historical names and designations (1st Panzer Division, 101st Airborne, K.M.S. Bismarck, U.S.S. Lexington, etc.) You organize them into corps and armies, and fleets. Every unit has a historical commander whom you can reassign and promote, with his own unique skills (Patton, Rommel, Monty, Yamamoto- the whole gang's here.)

Politically and diplomatically you can pick your governmental cabinet. If you dislike your head of state, you can gradually over time manipulate the political & economic climate of your society so that he is replaced. (or you can use the cheat code I mentioned to do it instantaneously.) The U.S., for example, has its historic elections, and F.D.R. can be defeated.. how about a Landon or Wilkie administration?

The axes of your political and economic culture that you can manipulate over time are these: Right/Left, Democratic/Authoritarian, Open/Closed Society, Free Market/Centrally Planned Economy, Standing/Drafted Army, Hawk/Dove, Interventionist/Isolationist. All choices here effect your game play.

One other major change in Doomsday from the original is that they've added an espionage tab to your menu.. you send spies to check out your enemies and neighbors, and get partial and less than fully accurate information instead of HoI2's omniscient all army/navy/air force comparison charts. More realistic, methinks. You also get an idea of what they are researching, which is a nice improvement. Your spies can attempt other missions (assassinate leaders, sabotage projects, foment partisan revolt, etc.) Overall, an improvement, I think.

The A1 is solid, and will usually throw up a challenge. The program is pretty stable, and Paradox is very good about patches and support. Check out Paradox's web forum [..]

In sum: the game is a excellent one. If you play a major power, and stick to the historical script, the war will quite often fall out more or less as things actually did. But what's the fun of that? You could, instead, say, skip Pearl Harbor and take and send the Japanese Imperial Army into Russia instead of China. Or, you could play the U.S. and realize her manifest destiny by conquering all the Americas.. Or you could truly challenge yourself and attempt wide conquest with a middling power such as Turkey, Spain, Nationalist China, Brazil, or Canada.. or try to prosper with even a much smaller power such as Ireland, or a Latin American country like Guatemala. Be creative.

Five plus stars. Buy this game if it sounds at all interesting to you.

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Product Description:
Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is an intriguing real-time strategy game for the PC that begs some interesting "what if" questions related to World War II. Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday includes all the campaigns from the original Hearts of Iron II that take place in 1936, 1939, 1941, and 1944, as well as a new mission that continues the battle in 1953. The world of Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is both familiar and strange, with events that often come to drastically different conclusions than they did historically.

Events often come to drastically different conclusions than they did historically. View larger.

This game is reminiscent of the classic WWII board game, Axis and Allies. View larger. This version of Hearts of Iron II also includes updates and expansions requested by gamers, with technology, units, and abilities being added for each side to make for a balanced gameplay. What is also intriguing is the ability to resolve the entire conflict through diplomatic means rather than by force -- a trait that sets this game apart from most WWII strategy games. Players can trade weapons and secrets with allies to strengthen themselves as well as their alliances.
This game is reminiscent of the classic WWII board game, Axis and Allies, but has the additional advantages of the computer platform -- more complexity, and real-time gameplay -- that keeps the action non-stop. One particularly unique aspect of Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is your ability to play from more than just the traditional "big boys", such as the US, UK, Russia, Italy, Japan and Germany; in fact, you can play as any one of 175 countries. You also have the option of which year to start and what specific missions to try, which is especially important as the only way out, other than by winning, is by surrendering.
It's also important to choose which technological path to take, rather than simply assigning certain strengths based on your choice of side or nation. Technology is broken down into different categories, such as Air Doctrine, Land Doctrine, Armor and Naval units, as well as the classic and sometimes all-important Secret Weapon programs. In order to make technological progress, you'll need to assign teams to work on specific projects, many of them based on real historical programs. Each team has different sets of skills that allow them to work on different projects, while each project focuses on a different field. The expanded technological tree in Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday even allows you to develop nuclear weapons. Another important factor in this game is diplomacy, in which your choice of allies can say as much about you as who your foes are. The all new diplomatic options and intelligence system lets you steal and sabotage equipment, control mass media, start riots, and even assassinate ministers and leaders.

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