HOI II or HOI II?

[mrensing]

Hello all. I have dug HOI out of the basement and become sucked into it again. Question for those with all three games...is it worth buying HOI 2 or HOI 3? Are either, or both, a significant improvement over HOI? Is 3 a significant improvement over 2? And finally, is there another game out there that does the same thing as HOI but is a better game?

I purchased the original UE as well, and I can honestly say that I did not enjoy it at all. Perhaps the UE engine just lends itself better to the WWII setting. Keeping that in mind, are there other Paradox games set in different periods that you have enjoyed as much as HOI?
Thanks for the opinions all.

[RyanCrierie]

Don't get HOI3. Even at $7.50 it isn't worth it.

[JudgeDredd]

I'd have to agree that HoI2 in it's current state is better than HoI3 at the moment, though HoI3 is getting there.

You'd maybe be better off getting Arsenal of Democracy which is the latest (and final?) version of HoI2.

And EUIII and it's expansions was a great game, though I have heard the latest iteration of that one is also the best

[bairdlander2]

Arsenal of Democracy would be your best bet with the latest GIP mod.

[Skeleton]

Judge is dead square on regarding this; don't get either, but rather Arsenal Of Democracy. Words cannot express how disappointed and disgusted I am with HoI3. Foolishly, I didn't wait the obligatory 8-10 months after release and I have fired HoI3 up with each patch only to remove it from my hard drive and swear that I wasn't going to do buy anything upon release from them again. For the money you would spend on the HoI Anthology, 1 and 2 and both of 2's expansions, you would be better suited to spend it on Arsenal of Democracy. With everything that has been added, and with the price, it looks like a winner. If I were not still so disgusted with paying $50 for HoI3 and if it had a physical copy option, I would pick it up today. Just my two cents...

[billyjj]

Hearts of Iron 3 is just not a fun game. Spend most of your time on the production menu making sure you dont waste your ICs. The game pretty much plays itself, its got a million useless features you have no control over the combat or the air battles and the game is real time but you end up pausing it every 5 seconds because who can play a game of that complexity in realtime? It will take you longer to play a game then it took to fight the actual war... I was a fan of HOI until 3,.. but now that I found matrix games I wonder why I ever liked HOI in the first place.

[bairdlander2]

ORIGINAL: billyjj

you have no control over the combat or the air battles

Im not a fan of HOI3,but can you explain what you mean by that?

[Jeffrey H.]

Umm, tough choice I suppose, HOI 2 or HOI 2, like the title says.

[JudgeDredd]

lol

[freeboy]

HOI3 was imo not a fun game, AOD is both fun, better than the origonal, a standalone and 19.95.. If you want a omplete war gaem, as in teh complete war.. notthe bestgame, but a fun game AOD is a good fun way to spend some time.. the game is vastley improved HOI2, tweeked the way the community had been asking for years, it should have for pc sake come out before hoi3, but that is not the folks problem that made it as HOI3 still is cumbersome

[comte]

HOI 2

[Lützow]

In theory HOI3 should be the better game due to additional features, but when it came to actual gameplay, it was boring.

[Josh]

ORIGINAL: Lützow

In theory HOI3 should be the better game due to additional features, but when it came to actual gameplay, it was boring.

Don't you guys call that "verschlimmbesserung" [:D] Trying to improve a game/gameplay, only ending up with a product that is actually worse.

My 2 cts on this, AoD... just from the looks and the reviews of it it seems like a winner.

[Obsolete]

I find it interesting how many here don’t think HoI is that bad.  A few years ago there was a thread at the Wargamer, on what is the WORST wargame made.  This happened because they couldn’t agree on the best.

HoI I got one of the first nominations, though there were multiple other Paradox titles to also be nominated.  Even Matrix-G got one nomination for I-of-the-Enemy.

There were a couple by even Micro-Prose, and quite a lot by publishers that many of you probably have not even heard of before.  I always found these quite interesting, if not humorous reads.

[Skeleton]

I am not certain how to read your post Obsolete, so if I miss-interpret it in replying, my apologies. I believe the issue is actually one of releasing a game that simply is not ready for release. Three years from now, that could change. Anyway you want to slice it, I would be hard pressed to recommend getting HOI3.

[Greybriar]

ORIGINAL: Obsolete

I find it interesting how many here don’t think HoI is that bad....

It's like the old sayings: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or "One man's trash is another man's treasure" and so on. It's all a matter of personal perspective.

I don't know how many games I have purchased because others raved about how they had enjoyed playing them and which I thought stank. And the opposite was sometimes true--I thoroughly enjoyed playing a game that others despised.

But I truly do wish someone would add an extra "I" after one of the HOI IIs in the title of this thread. [:D]

[JudgeDredd]

Hearts of Iron II and addons (and presumably AoD) are good games...no doubt about it. HoI3 is not up to par as yet and I presume will go along the lines of the previous HoI titles until it becomes a great wargame. Right now, it's not

[Lützow]

I don't think HOI isn't any good. In fact it's the best available grand strategy WW2 era game and I feel tempted to throw another 20 bucks toward Pd for AOD. Just HOI3 was bland and I'm not even thinking about bugs here. In principle this spin-off had everything necessary to make a dignified successor but the final outcome sucked.

[06 Maestro]

ORIGINAL: Jeffrey H.

Umm, tough choice I suppose, HOI 2 or HOI 2, like the title says.

I couldn't make up my mind.

[LarryP]

I gotta say, I have been playing AoD and it's much more fun than any of the HoI series so far. For $20 it is far more worth it than $7.50 for HoI3. Some great additions have been added.

Some have complained that not enough has been changed for the $20, but I disagree.