How does it compare to HoI4?

[fulcrum28]

I am very tempted to buy this game for winter holidays or even before if there is some discounts in black Friday, but i wonder if someone has already played this game and also HoI3 or HoI4 and can elaborate a bit a comparison between them? thanks in advance!

[Taxman66]

It compares to HOI4 like Bananas and Crab Cakes.

Only slightly more seriously, I suggest watching an episode or 3 of this on Youtube to get a feel.
Mind you, of the videos I've seen the players are, being generous here, less than optimal.

[The Land]

Haven't played HOI4 for more than an hour (before getting my money back), did play HOI3 though only around release. Played HOI2 and HOI1 loads.

Strategic Command doesn't have the bells and whistles of Hearts of Iron - no division designer, no complex politics, a much narrower tech tree, a simple hex-map with no stacking, week-based tech turns not pausable realtime.

As a result Strategic Command is a much cleaner, more focused game. The fact you make fewer decisions in SC means each one has more impact, and you need to play it carefully at each of tactical, operational and strategic levels to make the most of it. Also, drastically ahistorical outcomes are much less likelt in SC.

[OxfordGuy3]

It's strange, I love Europe Universalis IV, but never really got on with any of the Hearts of Iron series. Strategic Command is a very different sort of game, though.

[xwormwood]

ORIGINAL: fulcrum28

I am very tempted to buy this game for winter holidays or even before if there is some discounts in black Friday, but i wonder if someone has already played this game and also HoI3 or HoI4 and can elaborate a bit a comparison between them? thanks in advance!

For all I know it is nothing like HOI at all. I myself only played HOI 1, maybe some hours, and than I never touched it again, wasn't my cup of tea, the UI, speed, and the general appraoch.

Not sure if you ever played games like Clash of Steel or Panzer General. Imagine a Panzer General where you can play on until the war ends (on the same map), where you get decision events, where you are allowed to use some diplomatic actions, to research techs, while not having to WORK to play the game.
From my point of view you can't make anything wrong if you purchase the game, it is deep, and unbeatable fun in a multiplayer game. If offers probably the hardest AI you can get when it comes to computer wargames. At least some game magazine wrote this, and at least I can confirm that the AI will do its job when it comes to the task to give you some headaches.

But the suggestion to watch some youtube game turns, or to read some reviews might be a good first step for you to get an general idea about this game.

I'm reader of the german gaming magazin Gamersgobal.de. They do test thoroughly and they gave HOI a 5,5 (out of 10), and SC WW2 a 7,0 (out of 10). I should add that SC would have gotten a better result if the game would have been completely done at the time of the release (some parts of the UI were missing). In the current state it would easely gotten a 7,5 maybe even a 8,0 or more. They wrote all this in their test review. So if you ask ME how it compares to HOI 4, I could answers that SC WW2 is a lot better than HOI 4. But I myself never played HOI 4, so don't listen to me.

[Meteor2]

For me HoI4 was a big disappointment.
I was a big fan of HoI3, but now I have put the newer one aside.

SC3 is, for me at least, a very good and immersive game. The support is fantastic and the game has all the things, which are needed to make it a
"only one round more" game (even after midnight). [:D]

[KorutZelva]

I love paradox but sometimes their game feels like filing your taxes to get to the fun bits. HoI AI is pretty poor many years after launch.

[Rake]

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

Mind you, of the videos I've seen the players are, being generous here, less than optimal.

[:)]

[sfbaytf]

I have all HOI including the latest one. HOI4 so far is a major disappointment. May be a few years and a lot of effort by the modding community before it decent. SC is more enjoyable

[hendriks65]

I have all HOI series and was a play tester for HOI2.

I loved HOI3, but that path was abandoned with HOI4 to make way for a at most sandbox game which you can play printing the "best" division designs, "best" plane upgrades, etc. Always the same tech paths, although extensive, all the same, each and every game.

HOI4 is a good very unhistorical game to get into for an online large group. The AI is practically dead. It plays solid and now has few crashes. War will usually break out by late 1937, mid 1938. Nothing is historical as there is no need to follow those paths, no penalties (in SC, if you chose to take all of Poland, the world and especially the USSR reacts). In HOI4, you can attack Denmark after getting your casus belli, puppet it and the world goes on with slightly higher levels of anger which helps everyone to step up production etc.

You can't even play HOI4 against a friend, it doesn't work. Let's say you play Germany - USSR. The allies do then nothing in the west to help USSR. Vice versa, play UK - Germany, USSR is dead. Can't be fixed. Air power is very OVER powered, money is removed and replaced by factories, you build those in great series.

There should be a HOI3+, but enhanced, hope they get back to it with HOI5.

SC is a great game and can be kept playing. At hardest level, you'll have a hard time winning!