The Wargamer

Introduction

The premise to Hearts of Iron 2 is a rather simple one, a playable computer game of which has been the dream of countless wargamers since army intelligence knows when: To allow the player to fill the shoes of one of the major (or minor) leaders during World War II and play out that, the most seminal of all Greek epics, toying with its cause, course, and outcome to first bring destruction, ruin and rampaging armies to the world, and then to mould a brave new future from the ashes.

Do I want to carry out Anschluss upon Austria and start down the road of provoking the Allies to war in 1939? Do I really wish to destroy the American fleet and conquer the Pacific when I could aid my German counterparts in Russia and share in their spoils? Will I overcome the German army before all others and conquer the entirety of Western Europe before the allies can even get their toes wet in Normandy?

This lies at the heart of Hearts of Iron 2: the ability to toy with the greatest Wagnerian show of Gotterdammerung the world has ever seen played out before its unbelieving eyes. Some have tried before, but for one reason or another they have failed to grasp the entirety of the war, concentrating instead on combat, grossly over-simplifying or omitting totally the other integral parts of any war effort; the very parts which allow the player the greatest flexibility to change the course of history.

A Polished Gem

The original Hearts of Iron, as I mentioned in my first impressions piece, was the first truly successful, if somewhat flawed, crack of the whip. I view it as being the game that laid down the basic principles and huge swathes of detail necessary to produce what we have now in Hearts of Iron 2, which is a game I will happily announce is, in my own humble estimation, the single greatest strategic level wargame of all time.

If Hearts of Iron was the rough diamond extracted from the earth, Hearts of Iron 2 is the same gem having undergone the treatment of a master craftsman, polished to perfection and presented to a beautiful princess on an engagement ring. To put it into historical gaming terms, it is the leap from the great innovation that was Civilization to the pinnacle of perfection that was Civilization II.

The game is based on the familiar Europa Universalis II engine which has been the workhorse of the Paradox range since its inception four years ago. Anyone familiar with the original will be right at home with the basics of the game mechanics, and thanks to the brilliant manual and the in-game tutorial, experienced players should be able to pick up the new intricacies of the game as easily as a new player should be able to pick up the whole thing from scratch.

This is quite a departure for Paradox who, in the past, have left players with small, uninformative manuals and little or nothing at all in the way of tutorials. The only gripe I have with the manual is the small text size, which could strain the eyes of the more aged among us.

Aside from this the content of the manual is excellently written and highly informative. The tutorials do a good job of acquainting the player with the game and preparing him for the rigors of the grand campaign.