Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday Q&A - World War II Gets a Lot Bigger

If you're looking for the deepest and most comprehensive World War II strategy game ever made, then you'd best start with Hearts of Iron II, which was released earlier this year. A staggeringly huge game, Hearts of Iron II lets you mange the affairs of practically any nation on Earth during World War II. Now, developer and publisher Paradox Interactive is readying Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday, a stand-alone expansion due out next year that adds even more features and gameplay to this already epic game. We caught up with Paradox producer Johan Andersson for more details.

GameSpot: Hearts of Iron II was a huge game that let you manage practically any nation on Earth during World War II. So what are the major new features and improvements in Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday?

Johan Andersson: We have a more complete gaming experience through different additions like the leader biography, which is generated differently depending on how the game is played. There's also an intelligence system that includes spies, propaganda, sabotage, and more.

GS: Since it's such a complex and deep strategy game, are you concerned about making the game as user-friendly as possible? Will Doomsday feature an easier learning curve or an improved user interface to help you learn and manage all that you can do in the game?

JA: Our games are known for being deep in content and, depending on what type of experience you are after, you will have to put more or less effort into learning the game and sifting through the different layers of gameplay. However, with more and more casual gamers taking an interest in our games, we have made it a focus to put things in place that will make the learning curves less steep. Aside from what we did for Hearts of Iron II, we have also incorporated color coding of messages, we've automated certain systems (like budget sliders and trade), and we've added graphical statistics, like pie charts, to simplify analysis.

GS: We imagine that you get a lot of feedback from fans of the Hearts of Iron series. How much of Doomsday is influenced by fan requests? And is there anything in the expansion that fans have specifically requested?

JA: The idea and vision of the game is a combination of what the team has wanted to do and what our fans have requested. However, we would not have created this expansion if we did not know there is a huge demand for this WWII game. We are also taking this opportunity to incorporate other points of feedback from Hearts of Iron II, like more sliders, leader biographies, and such.

GS: Doomsday will now run to 1953, which will let you "extend" the length of the war quite a bit. Did you choose 1953 for any particular reason? Will this make it easier for you to try and take over the world, or harder?

JA: This is a game about World War II, not about the Cold War, and we have made a conscious separation between the two. 1953 is when Stalin died, and because he is an integral part of any World War II scenario, we decided to end the time line there.

GS: "What If?" scenarios are a big part of Hearts of Iron. After all, you can experiment with different possibilities, like, "What if D-Day had failed?" What are some of your favorite "What If?" scenarios in Doomsday?

JA: The team's favorite, and probably mine as well, is "What if" Spain had joined the Axis after the fall of France?

GS: Doomsday may also feature an Israeli conflict. What does this cover? Will you play it on the regular world map, or is there a special Middle Eastern map you'll use?

JA: If incorporated in the final game (we are still making adjustments and deciding on which scenarios to focus on), it will be a battle scenario played on a limited part of the map.

GS: We know that tactical nuclear weapons are in the game (yay!), but what other new types of weapons are new to Doomsday? You can also trade these technologies around. How "advanced" do the weapons get? Can we expect jet fighters, rockets, and more?

JA: Absolutely, all of the above! The weapons will be advanced enough to match mid-'50s technology.

GS: Are there any final thoughts you'd like to share with us about Doomsday?

JA: Within a few hours of announcing the news of this expansion, we had more than 12,000 page views and 250 answers on our forums. It's great to see that the Hearts of Iron II fans are eager to further expand their experience through an expansion. And the scenario editor, intelligence screen, added features, and extended time period will make sure gamers will get more than they bargained for.

GS: Thank you.