A potentially great game that is utterly destroyed by one of the worst user interfaces of all times.
We start a dissection instead, because we NEED to know why our Messerschmitts fared so poorly against those Spitfires, or what 08/15 really means.
08/15 is, by the way, not only the designation of a famous machine gun from world war I, but also a term used in world war II by german soldiers to describe boring and repetative tasks issued to them by superiors with an IQ that was barely measurable at all.
This is, unfortunately, where Paradox Interactive kicks in. The developers of the HOI-series made some great improvements with the third incarnation of the title, but seem to have forgotten that a few good ideas are not enough to produce a good game. Instead they have given us true 08/15.
I'll try to explain. Let's say we want to take a look at the economics of our country. We need abstract recources like energy or metal to run our factories, and those produce everything from tanks to consumer goods.
The problem is that the information we get - say how much energy we produce per day - is never ever accurate, so it is impossible to determine if we got enough. This problem already existed in HOI2 when changes in the "production sliders" took days or weeks ingame to register properly, but now everything is completely out of control.
In fact, it is absolutely impossible for everyone but Superman to manage economics efficiently, and even he would grow a headache, adjusting every slider every day.
The solution that Paradox found to this problem is stunning indeed. Instead of eliminating the bug they offer us automation. So all of us - except Superman - have to activate the automatic mode for economics.
And even then a lot of 08/15 happens. The AI manages economics so badly that any sane human being could just ask for one thing: To never look at at that screen again.
And that's just the economy. Every single aspect of HOI3 seems to be messed up, from faulty supply lines to the reappearence of the cumbersome research screen we had in HOI1.
HOI3 sales started back in August 09, and now we are approaching the end of October. It has been patched twice so far without any substential improvements.
Will the announced patch 1.3, possibly arriving next month as planned make a change, will it turn an unplayable game into a gem?
My guess is as good as everyones. I just look back at how they patched HOI2: It took years to get rid of simple bugs like the ghost fleets, so given the hundreds or even thousands of bugs in HOI3 i won't hold my breath.
My score of an abysmal 3.0 for the game reflects the current state as it is still unplayable to the end. If HOI3 would have been developed without forgetting 90% of what makes a game fun to play, it could have scored up to 9.0 easily.
But that's just me.