Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday Expansion Pack

by Atari

Product Features

• Real-time WWII strategy game spanning 5 campaigns from 1936 to 1953
• Play as one of 175 countries rather than just one of the classic "big boys"
• New technology and diplomatic features increase your options for game resolution
• Intelligence system lets you steal and sabotage equipment, control mass media, start riots, and even assassinate ministers
• Explore intriguing "what if" questions both during and beyond the classic WWII context

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000CDP1IG
• Item Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: April 4, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,891 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is an intriguing real-time strategy game for the PC that begs some interesting "what if" questions related to World War II. Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday includes all the campaigns from the original Hearts of Iron II that take place in 1936, 1939, 1941, and 1944, as well as a new mission that continues the battle in 1953. The world of Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is both familiar and strange, with events that often come to drastically different conclusions than they did historically.

Events often come to drastically different conclusions than they did historically. View larger.

This game is reminiscent of the classic WWII board game, Axis and Allies. View larger.

This version of Hearts of Iron II also includes updates and expansions requested by gamers, with technology, units, and abilities being added for each side to make for a balanced gameplay. What is also intriguing is the ability to resolve the entire conflict through diplomatic means rather than by force -- a trait that sets this game apart from most WWII strategy games. Players can trade weapons and secrets with allies to strengthen themselves as well as their alliances.

This game is reminiscent of the classic WWII board game, Axis and Allies, but has the additional advantages of the computer platform -- more complexity, and real-time gameplay -- that keeps the action non-stop. One particularly unique aspect of Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is your ability to play from more than just the traditional "big boys", such as the US, UK, Russia, Italy, Japan and Germany; in fact, you can play as any one of 175 countries. You also have the option of which year to start and what specific missions to try, which is especially important as the only way out, other than by winning, is by surrendering.

It's also important to choose which technological path to take, rather than simply assigning certain strengths based on your choice of side or nation. Technology is broken down into different categories, such as Air Doctrine, Land Doctrine, Armor and Naval units, as well as the classic and sometimes all-important Secret Weapon programs. In order to make technological progress, you'll need to assign teams to work on specific projects, many of them based on real historical programs. Each team has different sets of skills that allow them to work on different projects, while each project focuses on a different field. The expanded technological tree in Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday even allows you to develop nuclear weapons. Another important factor in this game is diplomacy, in which your choice of allies can say as much about you as who your foes are. The all new diplomatic options and intelligence system lets you steal and sabotage equipment, control mass media, start riots, and even assassinate ministers and leaders.

Product Description

Platform:  WINDOWS 98/ME/2000/XP Publisher:  PARADOX INTERACTIVE Packaging:  RETAIL BOX Rating:  EVERYONE Hearts of Iron II Doomsday is a standalone plete version of the game that expands upon Hearts of Iron II by increasing the time line to include the development of super weapons. Taking advantage of the huge gaming munity many balancing points and game play improvements have been included enhanced by a significantly improved game A.I. The game also includes a plete scenario editor so players can fully customize games of their own design taking them to a whole new level of play.Features:World War II scenario with an alternative historical oute. Extended time line until 1953 with historical scenarios like the Israel conflict. Complete scenario editor. Expanded tech trees allowing players to develop tactical nukes and other types of nuclear warfare as well as helicopter squads escort carriers etc. Enhanced Brigade Attachment system increases the player's tactical opportunities. Significantly improved AI. Tradable Weapons - equip your allies with the latest technological advances or get other nations to surrender their secrets. System Requirements:Win 98/ME/2000/XPPentium III 800MHz128MB RAM3D Video Card 4MB RAM600MB HD4X CD-Rom

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Consumate WWII Strategy Game, July 9, 2006

By 

Charles Curtis (Jackman, Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday Expansion Pack (CD-ROM)

I'm a huge fan of Paradox Interactive. These guys make the perfect games for history geeks like me. Gloriously complex, very playable, with the smack of verisimilitude. Hours of pleasure..

I started war-gaming twenty-five years ago, when I was just a kid in grade school- the Old Avalon Hill era. Hexagon boards, dice, fat rulebooks and hundreds of cardboard unit chits. And far too few fellow geeks to play with. A.H. put out a strategic level European/Mediterranean theatre game called Third Reich. I loved that game. I played WWII out with my little brother, or by playing all factions myself, hundreds of times. Ah, the good old days..

But wait, no. The sepia tones fade to a harsh, merciless grey. I've played HoI2, and this new hyper charged "Doomsday" revision of that glorious game. And there is no comparison. This is Third Reich beatified and transfigured. To heck with the old days.

With HoI2 you can begin campaign play in 1936, 1938, 1939, 1941, or 1944. The diplomatic and military situation being as it was historically at each date. You can play any country in the world - any major power (Germany, U.K., U.S.A., U.S.S.R., France, Italy, Japan) or a lesser power such as Australia, S. Africa, Canada, Brazil, Turkey or Spain, etc. Or you can even play a minor country like Bhutan or Costa Rica - even though they have very little economic, scientific, diplomatic, political, or as a result, military power. Still, if you want to attempt world conquest with say Nicaragua, Switzerland, Tibet or Siam, you are free to.

There are also minor scenarios where you can play out Barbarossa, the Invasion of Poland, Japan in China, the Spanish Civil War, a hypothetical war between Argentina & Brazil, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Ardennes offensive (Battle of the Bulge).. you get the idea. I'm solely a 1936 campaign game man, myself, though, so I can't speak to the quality of the scenarios.

In the original HoI2 campaigns all end in 1947. Which often cuts the game short while things are still very interesting (Hitler played a very stupid HoI2 game- I mean, taking on the U.S.S.R. and U.S.A. simultaneously? While the U.K. is still kicking? Don't you be so stupid. Things could've gone on so much longer.. 988 years longer, vielleicht?) So 1947 is too early an end date.

This new Doomsday expansion corrects that. The new end date is 1953 (the year of Stalin's death.) And a new "Doomsday" scenario is added, beginning in 1945 with Germany defeated. Europe is divided between the Comitern and Allies, and they're at war. Dr. Strangeglove is in the house, ya'll. Yeeehaw!

Armageddon aside, the glory of HoI2 Doomsday is that you can start in 1936, and play through 1953, and absolutely anything can happen. Early Cold War, or Axis world domination, whatever. I mean, you can do all sorts of interesting things (especially if you use the F12 cheatcode "freedom" to change the political conditions of your country more quickly than would otherwise be allowed - Germany can be made communist, the U.S. fascist or communist, the U.S.S.R. a democracy - and all international alliances and national leaders will change..)

The economic and technological aspects of this game are very good- the tech tree is pretty complex, and every country- even the little ones - has a bevy of historic industrial firms and technicians (e.g., Germany has I.G. Farben, Krupp, Siemens, Junkers, Porsche, Rheinmetal, Mauser and individuals such as Guderian, Udet, Goering, Von Braun, Heisenburg, Von Manstein, Raeder, etc. the U.S. has Ford, Raytheon, Oppenheimer, McDonnell Douglas, Nimitz, etc.) who are assigned different tech/doctrinal projects. You can choose to pursue certain lines of technology, and military doctrine and ignore others, try to research them earlier than they were historically, etc.

Economically, each country has an factory industrial base which determines how many units you can produce or support, and which must be fed resources. Resources are obtained by controlling their geographic sources, or through trade with countries who have surplus resources.

Militarily, this is a division level game. The units are assigned historical names and designations (1st Panzer Division, 101st Airborne, K.M.S. Bismarck, U.S.S. Lexington, etc.) You organize them into corps and armies, and fleets. Every unit has a historical commander whom you can reassign and promote, with his own unique skills (Patton, Rommel, Monty, Yamamoto- the whole gang's here.)

Politically and diplomatically you can pick your governmental cabinet. If you dislike your head of state, you can gradually over time manipulate the political & economic climate of your society so that he is replaced. (or you can use the cheat code I mentioned to do it instantaneously.) The U.S., for example, has its historic elections, and F.D.R. can be defeated.. how about a Landon or Wilkie administration?

The axes of your political and economic culture that you can manipulate over time are these: Right/Left, Democratic/Authoritarian, Open/Closed Society, Free Market/Centrally Planned Economy, Standing/Drafted Army, Hawk/Dove, Interventionist/Isolationist. All choices here effect your game play.

One other major change in Doomsday from the original is that they've added an espionage tab to your menu.. you send spies to check out your enemies and neighbors, and get partial and less than fully accurate information instead of HoI2's omniscient all army/navy/air force comparison charts. More realistic, methinks. You also get an idea of what they are researching, which is a nice improvement. Your spies can attempt other missions (assassinate leaders, sabotage projects, foment partisan revolt, etc.) Overall, an improvement, I think.

The A1 is solid, and will usually throw up a challenge. The program is pretty stable, and Paradox is very good about patches and support. Check out Paradox's web forum [..]

In sum: the game is a excellent one. If you play a major power, and stick to the historical script, the war will quite often fall out more or less as things actually did. But what's the fun of that? You could, instead, say, skip Pearl Harbor and take and send the Japanese Imperial Army into Russia instead of China. Or, you could play the U.S. and realize her manifest destiny by conquering all the Americas.. Or you could truly challenge yourself and attempt wide conquest with a middling power such as Turkey, Spain, Nationalist China, Brazil, or Canada.. or try to prosper with even a much smaller power such as Ireland, or a Latin American country like Guatemala. Be creative.

Five plus stars. Buy this game if it sounds at all interesting to you.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best in the genre and a must-have for wargamers!, July 5, 2006

By 

Jonathan Walters (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday Expansion Pack (CD-ROM)

To call Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday anything but the best strategic-level WW2 era wargame on the market today would be a crime.

The game allows players to command almost any country of their choosing and guide them through the period of 1936 to 1953. `Doomsday' is actually a stand-alone product, and so while it only adds a few new elements and changes a few others from HOI2, it isn't a traditional `expansion pack' in the sense that Frozen Throne is to Warcraft III. The big change from HOI2 is that a new espionage element is added, allowing players more control over spying aspects of the game. This helps the game slide more easily into the cold war era, which is the focus of Doomsday.

For those unfamiliar with the Hearts of Iron series, control in Doomsday is granted over more than simply military forces, and the player has complete control over the nation of their choice's industrial, political, and ideological direction. The level of detail is astounding, with each country having politicians, military leaders and research specialists available to use that were actually active during the period. Players can even name individual ships and divisions to their liking, and promote or demote commanders and replace key cabinet members as they see fit, all with differing consequences. And while the game is very event-driven, it has the flexibility to allow variations from what happened historically while still keeping within the general capabilities of the player's country. For instance, if a German player wanted to build a strong carrier fleet, it can be done. The game is also highly customizable, and almost any element (literally) of the game can be molded to the players liking.

At the heart of any true wargame though is it's A.I., and for a game of this size and scope, Doomsday does an admirable job. Not to say everything that the computer does always makes sense, but it certainly does make playing the game fun and gives players quite a challenge in the process. The only real complaint I have about the game is that airpower in the game still seems flat and tacked-on. The engine suits land and naval combat well enough, but air combat seems `broken' at many points, being either too weak or too strong in many areas. Another problem is that while ground units can target specific provinces for attack, air units cannot and instead attack in a general region of several provinces. And while some gamers are also quick to correctly point out that Doomsday is not an actual simulation, this is probably the closest gamers will get to a solid representation of the conflict on this scale.

My Summary:

Pros: Best game in the genre, allows near total control over almost all aspects of control. Graphics and sound are good for a game of this type, highly moddable, active mod community helps extend gameplay, stable.

Cons: May not appeal to players who dislike micromanagement, some AI issues, airpower needs work.

Summary: If you're a true wargamer and you don't own this, I have to ask what's wrong with you... However, players that already own HOI2 will have to be the judge as to if the changes are worth it to them. Those looking for something less involved but on the same scale can look to World at War or Strategic Command 2.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doomsday is awesome, April 13, 2006

By 

Peter "Peter" (Ottawa, Ontario) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday Expansion Pack (CD-ROM)

This is the best WWII simulator on the market. Doomsday simply updates it and provides some great user enhancements as well as a new WWIII scenario.

Be warned that this game is complicated, has a high learning curve, but as a result is extremely rewarding and fun. The AI is better than any of its competitors and can actually provide a challange for even expert users.

Anyone interested in Alternate History and wants a computer simulator to try it out should give this one a go...

Best game I have ever played - and the one game I constantly go back to after I get bored with the rest.

The expansion included the original HOI2 - and so for the cost is the best value for any game on the market.