I’m overwhelmed at the coolness factor of HoI but World War 2 taken as a whole was probably the most complicated ‘event’ in human history. While there is no other company that I would even imagine had a chance in hell of making this game, it would be dishonest to say I’m not fearful for my friends at Paradox that they’ve bitten off more than they can chew – more than ANYONE could chew – with HoI. It gives you some idea of the scope of what they’re tackling when I point out that the design documents for CK were 19 pages, and for HoI (arguably needing more fleshing-out than CK at this point) it runs just over 130! (Then again, Fredrik Malmberg assured me that this was nothing compared to the final design doc for EU2…)

I confess, started out writing this preview very skeptically. I was half-convinced that even if they did make this game, the task-saturation would make it functionally impossible for a single human brain (at least mine) to play. But the more I talk with these guys, and the more I go back to admire their meticulous craftsmanship on EU1 & EU2, their attention to detail, and their close relationship with their fans … well, I think they’re actually going to be able to pull this off. And when they do? I don’t think the strategy game market will ever be the same again.

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