Rating: 
Summary: Great Stratagy Game, But Simple Graphics
Review: The game takes a little time to master the functions, but it has endless possiblities. By far one of the best WWII games I have played. The editor doesn't really work though. I have only one complaint about the game, for anyone that has played the axis and allies computer game, you will notice the graphics are almost identical which is a little .... But game play is great.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Game with a few Problems
Review: I have to say that HoI is one of the best strategy games I have seen. I think the in depth research tree was the best feature of the game, though it took me a little while to get the hang of it. Gamplay is excellent. There is nothing more fun than sending panzer spearheads into France and encircling their entire army, trust me on that. The game accurately reflects the situation of WWII. I never really understood the difficulty of invading the USSR until I tried it myself as Germany. Sure, the western part of the country with ease. I then decided to send a unit to Vladivostok in the east, just to see what the compute listed as the ETA. It would take three YEARS to make the trip. Also, the process of developing an A-bomb is long and tedious. So, its basically impossible for someone like Brazil to develop one, as in real life.I had two problems with the game. First, the manual is useless. Basically, use it as a coaster for your computer table. Its actually pretty nice of them, considering you're going to want something to drink after your hooked on HoI. But seriously, the manual doesn't tell you anything. I've had the game for several weeks and the supply situation is still confusing. Sometimes I'll make an amphibious assualt on an empty enemy territory, my men will land and then reembark on the transports for no reason. Why? The second problem is the stupidity of the AI. For exampled, I crushed Great Britain in a scenario as Germany. I could have annexed it, but instead I offered to sue for peace. Basically, things would have gone back to the pre-war situation. The AI refused. That's gone beyond foolish optimism. Despite some problems, I think HoI is a must have for any fan of strategy games. Its one of the most realistic games I have yet seen dealing with WWII.
Rating: 
Summary: Addictive, realistic
Review: This is an outstnading simulation of World War II covering the period from 1936 to 1948. You manage your country (and you can play ANY country) dealing with research, resources, building and deploying a range of historically accurate troops. As pointed out the manual is very flawed -even expert gamers should do the tutorial that comes with the game. You will also (surprise) need to patch the game as soon as you bought it - the 1.02 patch corrects a range of bad flaws with the shipped game. For help and forums relating to the game go to hearts-of-iron.wargamer.com.
Rating:
Summary: Almost Great
Review: As the title of my review states, this game is "almost great". "Almost" because, as many other reviewers have pointed out, the game suffers serious flaws. Nevertheless, the more I have played the game and gotten into it, the more I realize the depth and strategy involved, as well as the fun that the game can be. Casual gamers looking for a saturday afternoon breather should skip this title; real strategy gamers (and not just grognards) should take a look at this game.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable game - some minor faults
Review: I am writing this to counter some of the other reviewers which I thought were rathar negative. It is true that the manual has some errors. This happens quite often in games because the manual has to go to press well before the game is complete. Therefore, quite often changes are made which differ from the manual. The 1.02 patch is essential and the readme which comes with the patch explains some of these errors. I would also suggest going to the forum which is linked from the Paradox website. The other negative comment is that the AI is weak. This usually occurs when the player varies greatly from what actually happened in history. The AI doesn't know what to do then. For example if you played as Germany and didn't invade Poland, the AI probably wouldn't know what to do. Keep in mind that this is a WWII simulation. This is not like playing Risk. The AI will always try to follow history
Rating: 
Summary: Might become a good game... When finished
Review: Having played Europa Universalis 1 and 2 for a while, developped by the same studio, I really had high expectations for this game as it is roughly based on the same engine and gameplay. Huge disappointment. On the plus side, you have the initial ambition: recreating a deep, complex simulation of WW2. But the final game really fails to hold to its promises, due to: - bugs. The game crashes regularly and there's a number of things that you should be able to do, but you can't. - absence of AI. You really feel like there's absolutely no sensible strategy in front of you when fighting other countries, as they do not react to your own actions and seem to act randomly. And I would also mention the absence of a decent manual sold with the game, and the hideous graphic aspect among other flaws. Well, I think a strategy game doesn't need to be really beautiful or perfectly designed, but it could have been nicer. The developer uses to provide the gamers with good support and two patches have fixed some of the problems that made the game almost not playable when it was released... May be it will be worth buying when all the problems are fixed and the price has come down, but for the moment I think it offers extremely poor value for money. Strategy gamers will find it too easy due to the poor AI, and casual gamers could be overwhelmed by the complexity and level of detail.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been great
Review: This game had great possiblities but the current version is unplayable. I don't know who wrote the reviews at the very beginning but they must not have opened the game (perhaps the publisher?). AI is so bad that a 3 year old could beat it. It is possible to take over the world playing Spain. Real let down.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre disappointment
Review: I LOVED EUI and II and thought that this game would continue the progression of those games. I have been mostly disappointed so far. The AI is very weak, the game logic is lacking in many departments (Diplomacy is one of them), and the game is buggy. Once you get the basic hang of the game it is not possible to lose as the USA, Germany, Britian or Russia. (Haven't played Italy or Japan yet). The minor nations are playable but not worth playing really - I tried playing Nationalist Spain and Turkey and it was boring) I do not really see much replayability in the game, except to the extent that you can vary your technological research and get different weaponry to achieve your ultimate goal - world conquest. I just felt that the real depth that I associated with the Europa Universalis games is lacking here. Maybe more will be done with the game as time progresses and maybe the players will mod the game as well but at the moment its going to end up sitting unplayed in its cd case because I think I have really done all that's worth doing with the game. Save your money until its upgraded some, or until there is a HOI 2.
Rating:
Summary: Good idea, poor attempt
Review: While I am a fan of complicated strategy games, and would love to recommend this game, I found it to be extremely buggy. I am using the latest patch (1.02) and still experience random crashes and broken features.
Rating:
Summary: needs to go back in the oven -- for a looonng time
Review: The short review is -- wait a long time, this one is not anywhere near ready yet. I enjoyed EU2 and if you do not have that game I would suggest that you buy it instead. HoI, even after the 1st patch, is full of technical bugs and playability problems. The EU series was extensively patched after release, so give this one several months to get patched up. It is playable now, but I doubt that you will find it a rewarding experience after completing a campaign or 2. I had some initial qualms about their using the EU engine for HoI that may, unfortunately, have been all too accurate. The user interface is woefully inadequate. The game becomes a click-fest --not of the twitch game sort, but of the Master of Orion/Reach for the Stars sort. You can choose not to micromanage your resources, but if you do, your performance will be several orders of magnitude below what it would be if you do micromanage. Computers should be all about removing the burden of tedium from the user, not adding to it. Many more reports are needed. Simple functions common to many strategy games such as a "cycle through all my provinces/units" function are absent in HoI. As is often the case in strategy games, the AI is, to put it mildly, inadequate. Unfortunately to the point of making a single player game of HoI truely masturbatory. You cannot possibly be challenged by the AI if you play Germany, Britain, Russia, or the USA. I haven't played Japan or Italy yet. And real-time pausable games do not translate well to multiplayer in my experience. Turn-based is far better suited to multiplayer in a game that requires such massive micromanagement (thereby requiring pausing the game as long as 2 hours, potentially). If you limit the amount of time 1 player can pause the game, it becomes a contest of quickness, not strategy.
Another really major problem for me is that HoI is neither fish nor fowl in the sense that it requires far too much time to play and is very detailed in some aspects, but is a very poor simulation of WWII era warfare and gives very little "feel". The chrome is all in the tech development and not to be found anywhere else. So it is neither a true beer and pretzels game, nor a true grognard's delight. I'm still waiting for someone to computerize the old SPI Campaign for North Africa, but for the entire European Theater. CNA was unplayably complex as a board game, but with a computer to keep track of things for you, it could be quite wonderful.
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