The World War II scenario can go all the way up to the beginning of the Cold War similar to the Armageddon expansion pack, but you can’t go from 1914 and work your way through to 1964 which is kind of a shame really. However, due to me receiving an advance copy of the game, I was not able to test the game online. Multiplayer also makes a return and is unchanged from how it worked in Hearts of Iron II, which is good because it worked pretty well the first time around. This forces you to rely on good old infantry and artillery to win battles. The mechanics are still the same but you have new geopolitical realities and not as many toys like tanks or airplanes to make a difference on the battlefield. Unlike Hearts of Iron II, you can now also choose to fight in the tumultuous years of World War I as well! The World War II scenario is obvious but the World War I scenario gives you a new perspective on playing the game. Similar to the original Hearts of Iron II, you have the choice of nearly 200 nations to fight as during the tumultuous years of World War II. I was also interested in diving back into the Hearts of Iron II fandom and seeing what they’ve cooked up. I was interested because I never really tried the other fan made titles. Darkest Hour is a fan made expansion for Hearts of Iron II in the same vein as Arsenal of Democracy and Iron Cross. Sadly, due to the ever increasing frequency of great games coming out meant I didn’t have the chance to ever return to Hearts of Iron III or the HoI series in general until we got a review copy of Darkest Hour. I did review Hearts of Iron III back in the day and while I generally liked it, I decided to hold off on playing it past that untill the game was patched.

Not even the mighty Sid Meier’s Civilization could hold me in its thrall like Hearts of Iron II. Hours would seemingly go by like minutes as I planned my economy, organized my forces and researched new snorkels for my submarines.

Hearts of Iron II came out before I joined the staff here at Diehard GameFAN and therefore I never had the chance to review it although I often referred to it as one of my all time favourite games.

Darkest hour a hearts of iron game pc