WWII stategy game
Question is, does one really want to pay another $50 for more or less the same thing with a few upgrades? Basically that's what this is.
The game closely resembles one of its predecessors EUII, which I think was the best in the series. EUII was set in a time where world was much simpler and in which the province system - which is the basis of both EUII and Hearts of Iron II - worked perfectly. I'm not convinced that this system can be realistically applied to a strategy game about World War II because we have no control over what goes on inside the provinces. In that sense, each province functions like a square on a chess board. All you can do is say, ok, I'll put another 10000 men in this square and hope it solves the problem. I find that system artificial and abstract.
Another problem with this game, that does not occur with the other games so far in the series, is the short time scale. Everything happens within 10 years, and since any significant economic or political change takes a long time to to full effect, it's difficult for a player to really achieve very much. It's as if the game runs by itself like an unstoppable machine, with the player trying extremely hard to steer it in a certain direction and achieving not very much. This can also be a good thing, in that you can imagine you're in the role of leader ;-)
HOI II, as many other of these Paradox games, has some rather irritating rules, for example, you can't declare war on a country you're granting military access to, but a country who grants you military access may declare war on you.
But, having made all these criticisms, I must conclude by saying that it is interesting and educational game, and has quite a lot of accurate historical information in it. The ministers, leaders, researchers and companies are all modelled after real ones in history, and it can be fun to chnage things around a bit, and rewrite that history.