The latest instalment in this grand strategy series will please wargame enthusiasts… but alienate pretty much everyone else.

Certain games are practically designed to showcase their intended platforms. Gears of War, Crysis and Assassin’s Creed are just a few titles that are simply begging to be played before an audience – the sort of audience who might appreciate a Locust head-shot or Creed’s crowd mechanics, that is. Hearts of Iron III, the latest iteration in the enduring grand strategy series, is the exact opposite, and to the casual eye might appear to be a simple map and several hundred menus. Actually, that’s precisely what it is; though the Hearts of Iron fanbase would likely be offended if you expected anything more.

Yup, this is a grand strategy game, with an emphasis on the grand. Hearts of Iron III is on a scale which makes Command & Conquer or Dawn of War look positively piddly in comparison. It’s also a game that will probably divide those who play it, proving either deep and involving or utterly impenetrable depending on your tastes. Though to be fair, the latter party presumably won’t be drawn to Hearts of Iron in the first place. Like Paradox’s similarly meditative Europa Universalis series, Hearts of Iron is about as hardcore as it gets; the tutorial mode offers you “guidance from an expert”, and Paradox make no effort to win your affection with fancy cinematics or speech samples.

In terms of scope, however, the game is genuinely jaw-dropping, allowing you to play as the historical leader of one of over 100 nations from between 1936 and 1948. While elaborating on the gameplay mechanics on even the most basic level would be a waste of time – even the oxymoronic Quick Start Guide pdf supplied with the game is seven dense pages of text long – the game’s emphasis on historical accuracy is evident from the authentic political party members you’ll employ to the understanding that deviating too far from original events isn’t always as beneficial as it is fun. One visual inconsistency that is somewhat questionable is the substitution of the Nazi Swastika with the flag of the German Weimar Republic; this level of censorship seriously undermines the game’s authenticity.