This game is one of the best strategy game I have ever played.

Beautiful map, great AI, decision events, many useful new features...

Yes, I'm sure this is also the best game in the Hearts of Iron series.

Darkest Hour is amazing. First of all the map: finally nations have their true shape, something I tinhk is not so secondary in such a game. After that it adds a lot of fetures to hoi2, from the decisions, to a lot new event commands that expand a lot the modding possibilities. In the game there is also a folder containing the list of ID's of ministers tech teams and leaders of all nations (something evryone tried to mod hoi2 vanilla will find really useful).

Concluding, this game is the best hoi2 i've ever played and even aver having played hoi3 DH is still enjoable.

Darkest Hour is an excellent improvement on the Hearts of Iron II game engine. The World War I scenario is well done and great atmosphere, with many cities having period photographs available when selected. Outside the new scenarios, new gameplay improvements like mobilization and the new map also contribute to this game's improvement over the old game. I recommend this game for fans of Hearts of Iron II and World War I strategy games alike.

If you like HoI2 you should test Darkest Hour. HoI2 is one of the most modded games so you have to play many good mods.

In my opinion Darkest Hour is well made addon which improves some aspects of the game.

this is an improved model on the original hearts of iron game. The latest patch has added the additional scenarios from the original as well as improving its 1914 scenario. Where as the original version had empires controlling all its provinces, Darkest Hour has split the empires down, i.e. Britain now controls The British Raj (India), Newfoundland, New Zealand etc. France controls French Indochina and Syria, The Netherlands control Dutch East Indies. The decision tab also adds some additional decisions when you have met the requirements. All in all a worthwhile improvement on the original.

I've spent on this game a lot of hours and I can say that it has bigger realistic than HoI 3, but after "For The Motherland" rating of Darkest Hour goes down.

Lot of mods and great map are main advantages of game. However, clean version doesn't offer something cool to us. Need patches.

The problem with this game is that if you play any 30+ scenarios even with very easy settings. Germany can never beat France. War starts several months earlier and Germany struggles to beat Poland. By the time it finally beats Poland Western front is so strong that game just ends in stalemate and then Soviets crush the Germans and steamroll them as there is like 0 resistance on Eastern front. Beating partisans has been made really hard plus if you attack them they can still move to nearest province even if you claimed the victory. Played as a Finland Soviets declared the war, but belligerence of the Soviets didn't raise a bit even when they waited behind my border for 2 years.Then on 1942 they bring like 30+ units and crush my 1939 troops with their 1918 to 1931 troops even when I had 10 landforts in each border province the troops ratio was 3 to 1 in favor of Soviets. So once they had conquered several provinces only then the peace treaty triggered. Certainly each extra month increased dissent in Soviet Union would been normal if it would increase here as well as they were unable to beat me for couple years.

I liked some parts of the game, but the lack of events, the way how AI protects their coastal provinces just ruin the game. It is constant amphibious attack against Germany or any of its allies. By the time AI reacts the damage done is just so huge, plus then it is almost never able to get the coastal province back.And Germany almost never tries to land anywhere.

If US joins the war it is just one nuke after another. The manpower event should be different as well. If you didn't start the war and you are minor power then mobilizing further shouldn't cost you so much dissent. Just brought out several flaws with this game, but there is many many more. Hopefully some patches balance the game a bit.

This game is evidence of why Paradox has a great working relationship with its fanbase: between them they have managed to make a great game so much better. Darkest Hour brings the great gameplay of Hearts of Iron 2 to the trenches of the First World War, as well as dramatically improving the WW2 and Cold War periods.

Imagine everything about history you could imagine. Started as a mod this full revamp of old engine makes up the fun. You have a lot of various choices and even the decision if you want to recreate the world from World War 1 or just industrialize with the Ottomans and conquer Europe.

Is is very war focused but this is the fun!

Welcome to Darkest Hour. A game running on the tried and tested HOI 2 engine poslished up and tweaked for all its worth.

There have been three independedly made HOI games running on the older engine and I feel that Darkest Hour has been the most successful. The AI has been improved along with the interface and some new contect has been added, the largest addition being the WW1 scenario.

This game is fow you if you were a fan of HOI II and do not care as much for HOI III.

The best HOI2 engine game yet!!! The map got more detailed, there is a totally different approach to war preparation and mobilisation, there game is extremely mod friendly, combat is finally bloody enough even on easy (I lost a game in Kaiserrech (a mod) by being unable to reinforce my armies). Overall far better than vanilla HOI2

Great game, expands upon HoI II in many cool ways and is a lot better than HoI3. Especially nice is the extra start dates and the Kaiserreich mod ifor Darkest Hour is pretty nice too. Highly recommended if you're a WW2 strategy fan!

Like HoI2, but just much better! The new map is fantastic, and the introduction of decisions is great. The game runs more smoothly for me, and there are more extra features than the other two remakes. What's more, there are lots of great mods for it (Kaiserreich!!) and you can also use Iron Cross and any HoI2 mods with it.

A pretty good game. I've been playing this for quite a while now, and after loving Hearts of Iron II, seeing this come out was wonderful. It improves in almost every area to make for a more immersive, realistic, and interesting game that I'm sure you'll enjoy. But should the game as purchased not be enough, there are countless other mods you can get and use quite easily to freshen things up.

Perfect reincarnation of a golden oldie, hearts of iron II. You liked it, you'll love darkest hour.

To me its The Greatest HoI2 family game!

It stands high above, in terms of content and quality, its predecessor Armageddon and surely even the other HoI2 game Arsenal for Democracy. All features have been polishes clean, new features adds even more to the fun, the engine performance is incredible and the game moddability is boundless. Whats more is that the game development team is a motivated, highly capable and revolutionary bunch! :D

There are some little problems here and there, but those are often very quickly addressed by the dev team. So the little short comings will very quickly forgotten and new features will replace all the greif!

I love this game 5/5

This is a really excellent addition to the HoI 2 game. The WWI scenario makes it worthwhile on its own, with the 1.02 patch there are more campaigns including 1940 and 1942. Well worth the price!

This game is very good. I appreciate especially the new map and scenarios (1914 and 1933). Also it is visible that the developers are still working on improvements, unlike the case of the Iron Cross.

I felt very limited and, not on tip of my seat i just think it could have been more i wonder what happens next moment i didn't fell like i had control. the things i did have control were annoying. It has get some moment like when you conquer a nation. ps there are a lot of good mods for this game.

Great game from paradoxinteractive again. It fits me more than HoI III because in my opinion in combines the best features of AoD,HoI II and HoI III. The understanding of the game is much easier than in HoI III and that makes is attractive even for the new players.

Darkest Hour is probably the best HoI 2 "Add-On" of the whole series. It has a lot of new features and runs very smooth. No laggs or anything.

Although Players of Arsenal of Democracy might miss some features of AoD in this game and find the first game to hard. But it's totally worth it. The new Decisions allow you to determine your country's history more by yourself. And the battles now have to be thought through more then in every other HoI 2 Part. Just storming into the enemy will end in a catastrophy for you.

This finally brings the need of Strategy into the game!

Darkest Hour is a big improvement over the Game it adds a very good scanario for world war 1 and a WW2 one simular to the on on HOI 2 it improves the Peformece of the game add makes adding mods into the game very easy

This is one of the greatest grand strategy games of all time. The game is very well built up, the new features implemented since HOI2DD are really useful. The game comes with a lively forum and helpful developers of course. And the best, new features are still coming with the new patches.

This game was highly touted but is a huge disappointment. Lots of bug and doesn't play very well. Taking a fantastic game series and making it more convoluted doesn't mean it was made better

Of all those supermodded HoI2 versions, I would say this one is better then "iron cross", but inferior to "arsenal of democracy". Still, it's quite cheap. Fans of the HoI franchise will like to have this one on their shelves.

Firstly i was sceptic about another HoI2 based game, but then then DH become best HoI2 game for me! Well i dont like some things like a way too long buildtimes. On other side there are great new map, good AI, new features and at last it runs somewhat faster even in the lategame. Thumbs up!

Darkest hour is a fairly slow paced grand strategy game. It is heavily optimized and as such will run extremely well even on old systems. As the title says, it is a hearts of iron game, in the line of the HOI2 games, but with a new map and many changes. If you want to try a HOI game or want a new HOI2 game then I can only recommend this game, if you want a quick game for an hour in the evening this is probably not for you

Arguably the best grand strategy game on the market. very clean. Very polished. Very historic. And very realistic. The game runs fast and good, and the interface and map is eye candy. Bearing the very low price in mind, this is an absolute must buy for everyone interested in WW2 and/or grand strategy!

A great addition to the HoI collection of games, being standalone it's also a good title to get people into the series (already got a couple of friends into it with DH).

Like all other HoI titles there are a handful of mods already out there, and many more in the making (how many will be completed is yet to be known..) - So there is no shortage of content, and the detail and possibilities provided surpass earlier HoI games (in my opinion).

The new decisions feature is great and being a fan of WW1 it's refreshing to be able to play this timeline as well.

Many necessary bug fixes also make this (after the first patch anyway..) one of the more stable HoI games out there.

The new map is great, more provinces but not overdone like HoI3.

I could say more, but chances are people are only reading this if they are fans of HoI so it would be pointless to describe the game itself.

Get it if you think HoI3 was too "fiddly" or overly complex and with too many provinces. It's HoI2 with many improvements.

First off, do not let the product description fool you. This game comes with 2 short campaigns, no grand campaign that lets you play out WW1 and WW2 in a single game. Second, if you have your mind set on world domination, look elsewhere. The scenarios are heavily scripted with forced peace agreements set on you. No choice on the matter, once you beat up a country bad enough, they will surrender, you have no option to decline, no option to set your own terms (unless they are a minor country)... all that territory you slugged away for for years? Gone. In past HOI games, I have gripped about the lack of surrender events, and never ending wars, well this one goes to far with them. When you take the choice out of the players hands, you take away the fun.

A good entry into paradox's WW2 series easier on the eyes than Aresonal of democracy with a clearer map and all the strategic depth you would expect from a HOI game.

Darkest Hour had a couple of bugs when it was released, but by now it is more stable than anything using the Europa-Engine, except maybe Victoria: Revolutions.

As somebody who bought every version HoI2 there is, I have to say that this as good as it gets. It is really fast, has good slider AI, a detailed, gorgeous looking map, a big and easily understandable tech tree, a mod folder, a very dedicated dev team and a great modding community. Kaiserreich alone would make this game worthwhile, but the 1914 and 1936 are fun, too. 1914 could use a bit more work, but it's still a better representation of WWI than what you'd get in Victoria.

For ten bucks this game is a steal and better than Iron Cross (which is marginally playable) and Arsenal of Democracy (which has one or two things DH doesn't have and plays nice). In my opinion, it even beats HoI3, but that depends on what's your preference. DH is more strategic and less micro-management.

Overall, this is one game I will play for a long time to come.

Darkest Hour showed us the still great potential of HOI II which was released a long time ago. A new more detailed map raised the strategic factor in warfare. Also there were added some nice grafic gimics like national historical uniforms in the division window and plane and ship pictures in the navy and air-force lists. Many historical events with choose functions and a WW I scenario were also added. The way how this was done could only be described by the words "with love". Except it has not its strategic organisatoric depth, this game gave all frustrated HOI III gamers a new platform. Thanks a lot.

Darkest Hour is a significant improvement upon the original HOI2 with an awesome map plus revamped techtree plus decision system plus realistic build time plus a whole load of awesomeness. While some of the supply/IC/manpower mechanics are still not as good as the forerunner AOD, DH has a much better mod support, including the latest versions of the indispensable Kaiserreich and Fallout Doomsday. While there are only two scenarios so far, the game is still undergoing major and thorough updates from time to time, which is decidedly another big plus !

A great stand-alone game, great graphics (compared to earlier Hearts of Iron games). The learning curve is quite steep, but for veterans of Hearts of Iron it shouldn't be a problem! Patches and updates are frequent and adds a lot of stuff. For those interested in alternate history there are great mods for the game!

Overall this game is a breath of fresh air for old HoI players and are a great introduction to large-scale strategy games for newbies.

An amazing game that is for anyone who loves large map based strategy games. At first it can be kind of difficult to understand how the game works but the tutorials are clear and helpful and then game's learning curve is actually quite do-able. I love the fact that you can pick a country that was pretty much neutral in WW2 and go completely military and take over Europe!

Outstanding 'remix' of well-known Hearts of Iron II, Darkest Hour gives you those small features that you always wished to have. Yeah, graphics is not great, but who plays this kind of games for visual effects?

I'm somewhat disappointed that the game does not span from WWI to the Cold War, but the small WWI scenario is fun never-the-less. The enhancements over Hearts of Iron II are, on the most part, pretty good, and it's all for a cheap price (only $10). Amazing deal. The new graphics are great, as well as the vast increase in the number of provinces, allowing for greater strategy in assaults, as well as fixing the problems of not being able to assault certain regions due to being landlocked. Still, there are some questionable implementations.

The AI rarely makes a push, especially in the WWI scenario. A country, even as a hardcore Fascist, can only have war declared upon them if they have 1 Belligerence. The AI still does not properly conduct amphibious assaults, so the U.S.A. is not an overarching power in Europe. The Ottoman Empire in the WWI scenario is VASTLY underrepresented and does not ever fight in Africa, and is usually knocked out in a few weeks. Production times on all items are greatly increased, and even more so during peace times. Armistices are automatically set in place, so it's impossible to fully annex France if you are doing well.

All in all, it feels like an expansion to Hearts of Iron II, and that is fitting for it's $10 price tag. If they managed to make a game arching from WWI through the Cold War, this would definitely be a better game. However, being that it's a game made by fans, I'm not one to complain.

A great stand alone expansion for Hearts of Iron 2 Armageddon. Darkest Hour adds a lot of new features to an already expanded and well known game within the Paradox communities. Darkest Hour adds a new scenario, the 1914 campaign, so the player can enjoy the Great War in the engine of this epic game; a new and very friendly map that will please newcomers and old veterans of the title; a well expanded tech tree, with much more detailed techs for the player to consider when directing research and much more.

But the game has its flaws. Although it has been addressed by the new patch, the World War One scenario was unplayable at first. Many of the countries involved in the war made no effort to invade or defend themselves against one another. Germany, for instance, would only man its frontiers in the east with laughable armies, transforming the east front in a cake walk to the Russian Empire. That if the Russians are led by a player. Letting the AI handle them would transform the east front in a static, ever-stagnated front.

The supply system used in the game is the same as in Armageddon, so don't expect to see your armies with supply carring capacity like in Arsenal of Democracy, they all receive directcly from the capital, which turns encirclements much more dangerous. Your units will be cut off from supply and have no ammunition the moment they lose contact with your supply center.

Such supply problem could be resolved if the two developers (from Arsenal of Democracy and Darkest Hour) joined forces to made an even incredible game, but alas, it was not meant to be.

Darkest Hour still an amazing game. The AI was reworked, so don't expect them to seat idle while you encircle their troops, or retreat some of your forces to redeploy in other part of the front and the new map make this a refreshing experience.

Apart from that, the game enjoys a very active community in the Paradox Forums. The developers are always listening to the gamers opinions and requests, making this a very flexible game and modable too. No doubt it has become one of the best WWII game in my opinion. Very ease to recommend.

Darkest Hour has got a good, user-friendly interface, new mechanics that allows you to decide how involved in some of its mechanics that you want to get, and an extremely impressive new map.

It does feel like the guys behind this went through Paradox's other games and borrowed the features in those games that they thought should be have been part of HoI2 from the start, and included them in this. Darkest Hour feels like a lot of effort and thought went into the development of it.

While it is perhaps not quite as excellent as Arsenal of Democracy, Darkest Hour still comes across as a substantial improvement over the game that it's based on.

My only gripe with it is that it doesn't seem like you can play from 1914 all the way to 1964.

I must admit - this game is totally awesome! I keep avoiding this title, treating it like some kind of joke (I read dev diaries - Hearts of Iron game set in World War One? Come now - What is this about?), but friend of mine showed me this - I get sucked immediately. After I come house, with shaking hands, I bought my own copy. Do the same - this game is so good, that it will be nominated to game of the year, I know it!

The new map is definitely the best feature DH can offer. Also the low price of this game makes it almost a must have for HoI Fans. For all others who haven't played the HoI-Series yet, I think its the best game to start wiht, because it's much more userfriendly than previous games. I really like it!

I never liked HOI3. There, I said it. Except for the map, it was awesome. So, I was very excited when DH came along, it reminded me of how Paradox USED to work. The DH crew is open and listens and make changes.

DH is too cheap, it is a major improvement over all versions of HOI2, but it still has some problems that needs to be addressed, but I´m confident they will be fixed shortly.

The best of what the Hearts of Iron 2 engine can offer. I especially enjoy the mod support, more specifically Kaiserreich. There are all kinds of other improvements over HoI2: Doomsday/Armageddon as well. It is difficult to avoid comparing it to HoI3. Personally I enjoy Darkest Hour more because I dislike the chain of command and HQ system in HoI3. Darkest Hour also runs much, much faster on my computer, allowing me to enjoy games that last past 1941 or so. I even played into the early 1960s without significant slowdown once, which is a definite bonus. If you enjoy HoI2 and want to make your experience just a bit better, get DH.

If you are Hearts of Iron series fan, this is a must to get. If you are new to Hearts of Iron, then again, this may be much more user friendly than the Paradox flagship Hearts of Iron 3, not to mention it's much cheaper to get DH than HoI3 with the expansion.

Now onto features. The first 2 things you will notice is a new map and improved performance. This map is simply beautiful. It is just a pleasure to look at it. It is also fully compatible with both WW1 and WW2, as developers designed it from scratch keeping in mind both scenarios. The performance is darn fast - you can get a full day in just a few seconds pass when playing on max speed, and even when world engulfs into war, the performance is decent and it makes playing experience so much better.

So if you played HoI series and liked them, trust me, these 2 features alone are worth 10 bucks.

About other features - it has automated trade and production to keep you from engaging in frustrating chores and just let you concentrate on what matters - war :). And buy there is a lot war - an entirely new scenario covering WW1. Ever wanted to ferry your HoI experience into WW1 - here is your chance.

On the negative side, there are only 2 scenarios, 1914 and 1936. Also 1914 scenario is too much engraived on historical outcome - you can't redraw borders as you wish after victorious WW1 and make your own Versailles treaty conditions - they are scripted. However, developers are working hard on in and further updates and new scenarios are promised. There were complains after launch, but patch 1.01 fixed a of things. If you were reluctant to buy from launch, now is a great time.

All in all, I would give this game a strong 4, and for a bargain price of 10$, its great money for value.

P.s. Did I mention there is very good Mod support with multiple mods to download and a friendly forums community? :)

I would only give this game a three. Sure new tech tree but less groups that can research than in AOD. Tech research is slow also. This game is more about money and spying than strategic combat. With enough money you can speed up tech, with enough money you can go all in on spying and get a lot of blueprints. It is a totally different game feel than HOI2 or AOD so if you are looking for a better version of them forget it. If you wnat to play something different with a lot less militay or industrial action to it, this maybe is the game. It is a lot harder to win if you are Germany in WW2 but easier to win in WW1. Also less hardwired choices in ww2 than in AOD.

Original review from wayofwar.org (polish language): http://wayofwar.org/showthread.php?t=36910

Gameplay on YT channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkGrpu8_G6o&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCBLslewj78&feature=player_embedded

A very good stand alone for Hearts of Iron II that change many aspects of the game. It is not like Arsenal of Democracy or Iron Cross that changed only minor features, here we have quite new game on good, old Europa Engine. We have absolutely new scenario which is placed in 1914 and it takes place (like all scenarios) on absolutely new E3 Map (which was lightly modified by developers).

We have also many other features like: completely new tech tree, which is very realistic and provide blueprints from begining of 20th century till Cold War.

One of the main changed features is AI which now can be very aggresive and for first few games very inpredictable. If you want to win, you can't play like in previous Hearts of Iron series games. AI now make many amhibious assaults, try to break the front line, look for gaps in defences and many more. Changed system of army creation makes us to think twice before attacking, now manpower is not the most important warfare, aur strategy is prirority.

As I wrote, game is very good, in my oppinion is the best Hearts of Iron game series and provide many hours of fun, but in early stage without patches has also many bugs. Despite of that any fan of HoI2 should have Darkest Hour on hard drive, especially when the game is very moddable and many mods are being transferred to this version (like Kaiserreich: Legacy of Weltkrieg).

Anyone who loves accurate in-depth historical strategy with rich detail and the ability to build a convincing alternate history world will want to pick this up as it does an excellent job of making the old Hearts of Iron II fit for competition with it's modern successors. The graphical and engine improvements alone, combined with the low price would make it an excellent choice for any fan of the series, but the additional features, improved features and almost unprecedented support for user modifications should make it a sure one.

There are only really two crticisms to make of this game, the campaigns aren't quite as advertised: At the moment you can play 1914 - 1920 and 1936 - 1964, there is no grand 1914 - 1964 campaign or short campaigns. And much more critically it does not include a proper manual, so if like me you are new to the Hearts of Iron II realm you will either to have to tough it out and learn some things from experience or lurk around on the official forums. If you do so however, a wealth of historical strategic entertainment awaits you.

A good improvement over HOI2; think of it as a comprehensive standalone expansion pack. The automation of trade, production, spying etc. is very simple yet very functional, allowing you to trust much of the micromanagement to the AI without losing out by doing so. The new map is beautiful, but with significantly less provinces than HOI3; there's more than in HOI2 though. The interface is mostly the same, but graphics have been shinied up and certain improvements made; for example, you can tell unit types apart more easily due to color-coding. Music and sound are pretty much unchanged though.

Another important selling point is its excellent moddability. No surprise given that the developers are all part of the Paradox modding community. All major HOI2 mods are either already available or will be soon; these mods, plus whatever new ones may be developed in the future, make this an investment in not one but perhaps a dozen games.

Finally, the game simply runs much faster than HOI2. You'll appreciate this more as the game drags on, where HOI2 would slow to a crawl this just keeps going.

The game is decent value for money, provided you like hardcore grand strategy games; it definitely isn't cutting edge in looks, but under the hood the gameplay is as good as it gets. And if you're already into Paradox games and trying out mods, it's practically a must-have.

The map is an improvement over the other HOI games, but it is not HOI III. It is based on an older version of the game. The automated trade to keep your stockpile is an improvement. overall I would say only a die-hard fan will like this version, however, for $9.95 it is worth the cost. the sprites of the ships and planes enhance the appearance of the game.