14 DAY TRIAL // Darkest Hour is a video game that was created by a team using the now-old Europa engine from Paradox and the game is billed as pushing the limits of the tech in order to deliver an enhanced experience based on both the Great War and World War II.
I fired up a Great War campaign and, eager to construct a version of history that is as different as possible from the real ones, I chose Germany and resolved to play a game where I do all I can to avoid a battle in the West and focus on carving out a sizeable piece of Russia and then take all of Serbia down, eliminating all the Slavic threat before turning on the rest of Europe.
The game is easy to understand for those who played Hearts of Iron II in any of its previous incarnations and have tried out something like Arsenal of Democracy and Hearts of Iron III. Users should also learn the mechanics pretty quickly as long as they let go of some habits; I kept checking for the Politics tab, which is simulated under Democracy in Darkest Hour.
This new Europe engine powered experience is pretty impressive when it comes to the scope, as it allows the player to begin before World War I and change the course of history and then move to the second big conflict of the XX century and continue his or hers what if scenario.
The game also uses quite a few decisions, some of them very important, to model the historical situations, and feels significantly richer than the bare bones Hearts of Iron II.
The map has also been reworked, allowing for more avenues of attack, crucial for the WW I period.
There are also a lot of changes made to how the research trees are structured, despite the fact that the mechanics remain largely the same and there are a lot more options linked to diplomacy and espionage, which are more important in the World War I scenario.
The WW I scenario I have played seems to be working fine, but some of the players are reporting some lack of activity on the part of the A.I., especially when it comes to the Second World War scenario.