Hearts of Iron II: Complete

Cannot say enough good things about this game and have recommended it to dozens of friends. I love games of all sorts, have played most and consider HOI2 one of the top games I've ever played. It is a bit daunting to start, the tutorial is okay and the scenarios are challenging. The depth of game play hooked me and kept me coming back again and again, year after year. Play any country you want during WW2. This game gives you flexibility and you can rewrite the outcome of WW2. This is the greatest WW2 simulation game I have ever played. So many great memories of managing closely fought battles. The first time you play through the Germany vs Soviet fight WOW, just WOW. It was awesome, huge, close and had such meaning. Another thing I loved about HOI2 was the amazing modding community. If you have played through the game several times you can try a community MOD or alter the game yourself. I ended up lightly modding the game to suit my tastes and you can to (I'm not a programmer). I just wish Paradox would release a similar game with random map capabilities. The game mechanics are good and once you are familiar with them the game flows well. You can speed through years while at peace and slow it right down or pause when in a close fight. Buy this game and play it.

Hearts Of Iron II is a wargame set in the era of WW2, so do not expect a civilization-type of game with this one. It looks like an Axis And Allies boardgame, but in this one you can play any nation of that era from the entire globe. You are preparing for war, if you choose the start of the game being in 1936, build up your forces, research technologies and conquer other countries, to gain more resources, become stronger and start to conquer even bigger nations. Thanks to GOG, this version includes the Armageddon expansion, so the time is being expanded to the Cold War area and does not end in 1947. The game has no real goal though, only three factions exist in the score, so you can set the goals freely for yourself, which I like very much. The strength of your forces, weather, territory etc. have to be taken into account for every battle and I highly advise you to read the huge manual too, because the game is really deep within itself and nothing for gamers that love a quick game for just 30 minutes. Yes, you can shape the outcome of history and it is funny watching the USA having Alf Landon as their president instead of Roosevelt, then invading Middle and South America or the Germans using paratroopers to conquer London, yet if you play a country like Switzerland, Tibet, El Salvador or any other small nation, expect to do almost nothing throughout the entire game. Bigger nations can research more technologies at once, so you are quickly falling behind, you do not own enough resources to build up a sizeable army, sometimes you need years to change your nation’s government from totally introverted, which prohibits you to declare war, to a more interfering one and then the other nations have already advanced too far in strength. If you play a mid-sized to large-sized country you will find an extremely challenging wargame with an extreme amount of strategical depth and a lot of historical surprises, yet, unfortunately, you will get bored playing the small ones.

It's the first Paradox grand strategy game I ever played and it was a fantastic experience. I even think, it still holds up to a degree

Worth getting on sale, though you could just as well get Darkest Hour, which is based on it. However, it is just a war game. I enjoyed it for what it was when it came out, but I'd suggest playing it with the alternate history mod kaiserreich, which adds more in the way of political events and choices. Otherwise there is probably something with more depth or complexity out there, if you don't just want a wargame. On the plus side, it won't give you the performance issues late HOI titles will.