A little over a year ago the definitive World War 2 mass scale strategy game was released by the name of Hearts of Iron 2 by Paradox Interactive. It was an incredibly solid title that filled the military strategy and nation management aspects very well. Unfortunately, there were two things missing from the game. First, while HoI2 was technically an update of the original title, and a superior one at that, it lacked the scenario editor that gave the first title a huge replay value. Second, it still stopped at the end of World War 2. Doomsday, the new stand-alone expansion for HoI2, aims to fix both of those complaints.
The gameplay from HoI2 remains completely untouched. The title still keeps its signature varied but simple gameplay based on a series of menus for production, diplomacy, intelligence, and research. Research is also the same. Select the technology you wish to develop and assign it to the research team you want to research. The teams are built around specialties and efficiency ratings that determine how fast the new technology is developed. Combat is also the same. You select your group, tell it to move into the adjacent province, and let them go at it with the enemy. Organization, skill, leadership, and logistics still play a vital role in your battle against the enemy, as well as defenses when being attacked.
Doomsday is set in the years immediately following World War 2. Japan has lost its prestige after the two nuclear attacks and subsequent disarmament. The Soviet Union is beginning to emerge as a major threat to the world as it has decided to take control over the territory it occupied in Eastern Europe.
Based on this information, it is expected that Doomsday would have some significant gameplay changes. Unfortunately, that isn't quite true. Doomsday feels like little more than a HoI2 scenario than an actual expansion. For example, I picked my first game to be with the United States. Like in HoI2, the first thing I did was immediately open up the research window and started with researching as much as I could. It is always a good idea to keep ahead of the competition in technology. I was a bit shocked when I opened up the screen. What I saw were all the same technology options from Hearts of Iron 2, but most of them were already researched, leaving me with little to advance in. Needless to say, based on my playing style, I quickly ate through the available technologies quickly, leaving Boeing and Ford Motor Company nothing else to do the rest of the time. My focus quickly changed to building nukes, tanks, and divisions and sending them over to the Soviet Union to give them the much needed butt-whipping they sorely deserved but real world politics never allowed.
Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed to see that Doomsday didn't do anything new other than build the feeling of nuclear tension and change the focus on advancement to military volume. The whole arms race that went on for 40 years after WW2 was lost due to the lack of new tech.
Given the shift is now toward diplomacy over other aspects of the game (unless you are nuts and want to slug it out with the Reds); it is a shame that it still feels very tacked on like it did in HoI2. It still focuses on influencing them toward your own leanings, like whether they are more capitalist or more socialist, etc. Again, based on the new time period and setting, it would have been more entertaining to have a revamped diplomacy segment to the game.
The only real difference in Doomsday is the inclusion of the scenario editor. I loved the scenario editor from the previous game because it let me do wild things. Ever think of taking over the world as Costa Rica? Well, now you have that opportunity. You can edit Costa Rica to have obscene levels of resources and tech and then use them to stomp all over the world. You could also add a new degree of challenge by dumbing down the Soviet Union or USA and giving a run at holding your own with inferior technology or a veritable desert as your nation.
Visually speaking, Doomsday is identical to its predecessor. Same unit graphics, same art, same world map design. Fortunately, the art style is top quality, even though it lacks a 3D engine and Havok physics. Everything still has that 1940's art feel. The world is colored, but very grainy, like an old magazine advertisement. Other art, like research pictures, are in black and white, giving it an authentic period ambiance.
The sounds also fall under the same tab as the previous sections – they are all the same. There are no new music tracks; there are no new sound effects, nothing. While the music is still of a very high quality, excellent symphony pieces, they now feel more out of place given the theme of the game. While WW2 was a horrible time in human history, it didn't instill the same fear as the Cold War did. WW2 was a time of patriotic duty; the Cold War was about uncertainty and a questioning of our own internal policies as much as our external ones. The music is just too upbeat for the Doomsday segment to really get the right feel to the game.
Ultimately, Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday is a huge disappointment. For anyone who didn't play the previous title, this one will actually deserve the score I gave Hearts of Iron 2 and would suggest getting this one. For everyone else, all you really need to determine if this is worth buying is decide if a scenario editor is really worth $20 to you. Doomsday isn't at all a bad game. The scores below are based on its lack of anything new from the previous title and reflect the fact that I can never quite condone buying something you really already own all over again.
