Hearts of Iron 3 Strategy PC Game - Hoi2 improved

Released by Paradox Interactive back in 2005, Hearts of Iron 2 was one of the best WWII strategy PC games of all time. Although Hoi2 introduced this real time strategy series to most of the world, it began with the original Hearts of iron which is still one of the classic RTS games of all times.

One of the most exciting things about Hearts of Iron 3 is the potential you can see it has, and knowing the history of paradox games you know HOI3 can reach this potential.  Any fan of strategic war games will recognize the name Paradox Interactive.  Many of its games are among desktop PC's best strategy game titles.  Besides the hearts of iron series, paradox interactive has released scores of other popular strategy game series like Europa Universals, sword of the stars, Victoria, and supreme ruler. 

Hearts of Iron 3 is incredibly in depth and attempts to simulate global warfare on a scale rarely attempted in a strategy PC game.   There are so many deep and detailed areas in this game it would take many pages to touch on most of them, and writing a review without having played through at least a campaign or two would be very unfair. Although it can seem overwhelming trying to learn how everything works in such a complex and detailed system, it is certainly worth the time invested and results in an engrossing and rewarding strategy game.

As I spend more time and learn these details myself, I will add aditional Hubs and give an updated review in a couple weeks.  This first HOI3 hub is focused on the improved and simply massive game world, which is far superior to the hearts of iron 2 map.

With it's limited resources and the looming US navy, Japan is always an interesting and challenging choice to play in global wwii strategy games.  However, due to the limited map design of Hearts of Iron 2, the Pacific war was extremely dull and unrealistic feeling.  A large reason for this was the way the islands were designed.  Almost all of them were a single province which mean you could only have one army on the island at a time.  The result of this was there were no island battles or wars, you could only invade the island from a ship, and once you were on the shore the entire island was transferred to your country. 

Something as simple as expanding islands into multiple sections completely changes the feel of the pacific war.  You can now land armies and maneuver while fighting for control of major islands.  Also added to the hearts of iron 3 map are many additional "straits".  These allow land units to move from one land mass to another if separated by a small amount of water by using "simulated" landing craft and not needing to be loaded onto large transport ships first.  In hearts of iron 2 there were only a small handful of these straits.  Now you can find them in every major island chain, as well as numerous other locations around the globe.

The sheer size of the map can be pretty intimidating, even for the superpowers. You really get a feel for the amount of planning and logistics that were needed when you attempt to launch your own Barbarossa.  You can see more images of the Western front and North Africa on my gaming desktop pcs blog. 

From the handful of hours I have put into Hearts of Iron 3, I can already see its potential and know I will be playing it for months to come.  You will be seeing more updates and a full review on this complex strategy war game in the very near future.  Let me know if there are any questions or features that could use more explaining.