Hearts of Iron Preview
Hearts of Iron will be the successor to Europa Universalis. Get the details in our preview.
Hearts of Iron is in many ways the successor to the Europa Universalis series. It's a massive-scale real-time strategy game that's laced with historical fact. The game is being developed by the Europa Universalis team and uses the same basic graphics engine. But while Hearts of Iron will feature the grand scale and exhaustive detail that the Europa Universalis series is known for, it will shift the focus to the World War II era and will make a number of improvements to the gameplay of its predecessors.
In Hearts of Iron, you control a country between the years of 1936 and 1948. You are responsible for almost all matters of state, from appointing governmental leaders to overseeing your nation's production, research, and military. Hearts of Iron initially seems like it consists mainly of a multitude of disparate menus, but once you grasp all the individual factors that play a part in your nation's well-being, it should all come together.
The interface in Hearts of Iron is virtually identical to that of Europa Universalis. The battle map, which now encompasses the entire world, commands the center of the screen. To the right are the various tabs for production, technology, diplomacy, and government. You will directly control your country using these various menus and screens. The main gameplay components of Hearts of Iron all revolve around these five menus. The production screen allows you to manage your nation's industries, deploy the convoys that ship the game's raw materials, and trade on the ever-changing world market for goods. The technology screen allows you to manage your research. The military screen lets you create new army divisions and adjust their production rate. The diplomacy screen allows you to interact with other countries, and the governmental screen lets you set up the hierarchy of your government.
One change being made for Hearts of Iron is the addition of ministers who oversee certain parts of your government. You appoint ministers using the governmental screen, and each candidate is presented with a historically accurate biography and a quick description of his leadership style. For example, if you were playing as Germany, one of the candidates for armaments minister would be Hermann Göring, and a quick check of the description of his leadership style would reveal that he is an "air-to-ground proponent." By carefully choosing which ministers you appoint to key positions, you can keep very accurate control over the direction and methods of your government.
Also seeing a major overhaul since the Europa Universalis days is the diplomacy screen. Representing the ideological struggle behind World War II, a new triangle depicts national political orientation. The three tips of the triangle represent fascism, communism, and democracy, and each nation can lie anywhere in between the three extremes on the triangle. Three major alliances spawn from the major ideological branches: the Allies, the Axis, and the Comiturn. England leads the Allies, Germany leads the Axis, and the Soviet Union leads the Comiturn. The Comiturn can join sides with either the Axis or the Allies.
In order to carry out diplomatic actions in Hearts of Iron, you need diplomatic influence points. You'll be able to demand territory, stage a coup, influence a nation toward your worldview, and more. The closer the nations are in alignment to you, the more likely they'll be to join you in an alliance. Any nations allied with you will automatically join you in war. The effects of diplomatic actions are usually immediate, and you'll be able to see the ramifications of your actions immediately. Other diplomatic actions include sharing research, assuming control of an ally's military, requesting an ally to execute a specific attack, and more.
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- Strategy First
- Paradox Inter.
- Historic Real-Time...
- Release: Nov 24, 2002
- ESRB: Everyone
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