Paradox Interactive, as the publisher, and BL-Logic, as the developer, have announced that their World War II strategy title, Arsenal of Democracy, is now code complete and has a release date set for February 23. The grand strategy title should arrive on the PC via digital distribution and will cost interested gamers 19.99 dollars.
Arsenal of Democracy is the product of Paradox Interactive's idea of making its older game engine available to those teams that have done heavily modding work on them.
The initiative has already seen the launch of For the Glory, a game based on the Europa Universalis II framework offering more historical events and determinism than the Europa Universalis III made by Paradox. The focus of Arsenal of Democracy is also the creation of a deep historical experiences, with detail offered to the socio-political context of World War II and also to the various leaders and units, which countries counted on to succeed.
Johan Andersson, who is the executive producer at Paradox Interactive, stated that “Arsenal of Democracy is proof of what happens when a group of dedicated individuals plays something for years and years - in this case, Hearts of Iron II - and then has the opportunity to add their own ideas, their own features - in order [to] improve it… It’s a true labor of love.”
Arsenal of Democracy is promising a more detailed experience than that offered by Hearts of Iron II, with the players able to influence history in many more ways, including setting the National Identity, the Social Policy and the Ethnic Culture of any country, creating new alliances and exploiting the economic and combat systems.
The developers are also talking about the modding possibilities associated with Arsenal of Democracy, which allow interested players to create full campaigns, units, entire countries, minister traits and national ideas.
The game has also received a new trailer, which can be viewed below:
From the short demo it looks like a vast interface improvement on Hearts of Iron 3 - I wonder whether it runs on Macintosh as well as PC as the mouse looks very Mac like in the You tube demo - I would seriously consider getting the PC adapter for Mac to play this either VMware or the other one. I have found the HOI 3 on Mac to be complicated and baffling even at the most basic level with regard to troop movement and combined arms interaction, and restrictive in terms of politics/economics/trade/intelligence compare to HOI 2 - eg there seems to be no way to match historical inventions pace even with a huge education emphasis in HOI 3 or to shift a country like Russia from Stalinism to Leninism to left wing radical which can be done in HOI 2. Also tech trading seems to be unavailable even amongst allies in HOI 3 unlike HOI 2, just to mention a couple of areas. Diplomacy seems also restricted ie JAPAN and US alliance not possible and JAPAN Russia alliance not possible. You can get weird scenarios where you are allied in one are and not in another in HOI 3.
So if Arsenal of Democracy allows the player to what if in those areas and greater flexibility with regard to troop dispositions and command structures I am seriously interested in getting it and letting HOI 3 Mac fade into a been there done that not again ....
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