Choose style: | 8ch | | silver | | grass | | metal | --- Static (HTML only) version ---Hearts of Iron III
| General Information | ||||||
| Genre | Original developer | Originally released | Current developer | Remade in | MP amount of players | Characterization |
| Grand Strategy | Paradox Interactive | 2009 | Paradox Interactive | N/A | Usually 8-10. Starts to crash after that | Sequel to Hearts of Iron II |
| Specific Information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Category | Specifics | Sources / Comments | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Purchase | Copy purchase | Subscription | Free to play | Via Steam or Paradox website |
| Cut Content | Graphic | Character | Gameplay | Expansions | Other | |
| Censorship | Language | Violence | Nudity | Political | No Swastikas. No Holocaust despite the game being about World War II. |
| DRM | uPlay | Steam | Denuvo | Origin | Other | DRM-Free | Steam or Paradox's own shitty download system (I do not believe it is still possible to download directly) |
| In-game purchases | Cosmetics | Boosters | Items | Characters | Maps | Other | A crap ton of "unit sprite packs". Do not use. Also as a DLC "pack" |
| Paid DLC | Cosmetics | Boosters | Soundtrack | Items | Characters | Maps | Expansions | All three expansions, Semper Fidelis, For the Motherland, and Their Finest Hour is basically required due to the nature of Paradox adding crap into the main game to make it unplayable without expansions |
| Free DLC | Cosmetics | Boosters | Soundtrack | Items | Characters | Maps | Expansions | None. Good luck with that |
| Modding support | Banned | None | Limited | Full | Game is buggy with mods. It is likely that you will crash ~1 hour in regularly on mods that make the game semi-realistic like the Historical Plausibility Project (HPP) or BlackICE |
| False advertising | No | Yes | Full pack does not contain sprites. Some expansion + base packs do not have the prerequisite, the order of requirements is Their finest hour requiring For the Motherland which requires Semper Fidelis |
| Demo availability | No | Yes | |
| Bugs at launch | None | Insubstantial | Moderate | Heavy | AI is wonky. Still is, issues with random game hang, crashes, mutithreading, and general map cache errors causing CTD. |
| Multiplayer | Local | Official server | P2P | LAN | User servers | Unofficial | It is possible to get up to 15 players (frequent crashes). |
| Moderation (online) | None | Insubstantial | Moderate | Heavy | |
| Comparison to originals / fanmade mods | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Category | Included in Hearts of Iron III | Included in fanmade mods | Sources / Comments | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AI improvements | No | Yes | Fixed in HPP / BlackICE mostly |
| Balance improvements | No | Yes | Fixed in most mods. It is possible to do things like a naval invasion of Japan as China to conquer them, or a faceroll of the EU states via Romania |
| Russian Bias | Yes | No | Much more manageable if you can keep supply lines good in HPP. Original game gave Russians a crap ton of units and the great patriotic war modifier which makes warthunder look bad. Side note HPP Winter War make FINLAND STRONK. |
Gamer's Opinion
Great idea, shitty execution. The insanely large amount of tech options means it's impossible for most nations to be proficient in one area at all. In addition, the game crashes for no reason often, does not muti-thread, and will have the AI try to do stupid things like the USA keeping it's fleets all next to the Panama canal. You pretty much have to get either HPP or BlackICE to play the game semi-realistically. Many nations are missing leaders and the lack of leadership allows for limited play-styles. AI is stupid at the diplomatic level as PDS said "it was intended to be ahistorical" (AKA we don't give two fucks and it's shipping like this). The devs also added stupid ideas like special war goals that do not reflect well and are just interim solutions to the stupid AI. Crashes often ruin your save and will fuck you hard because it corrupted all your previous saves as well. If you play, SAVE OFTEN and be aware that on larger mods it may take ~5 minutes to save your game. Use simplified terrain if you crash a lot.