Hearts of Iron III lets you play the most engaging conflict in world history, World War 2, on all fronts as any country and through multiple different scenarios. Guide your nation to glory between 1936 and 1948 and wage war, conduct diplomacy and build your industry in the most detailed World War 2 game ever made.
User reviews:
Recent:
Mostly Positive (42 reviews) - 76% of the 42 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive.
Overall:
Very Positive (2,940 reviews) - 81% of the 2,940 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date: 7 Aug, 2009

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Buy Hearts of Iron III

Packages that include this game

Buy Hearts of Iron Collection III (Jan 2014)

Includes 20 items: Hearts of Iron III, Hearts of Iron III DLC: German II Spritepack , Hearts of Iron III Semper Fi: Dies Irae Götterdämmerung, Hearts of Iron III: Axis Minors Vehicle Pack, Hearts of Iron III: British Vehicle Spritepack, Hearts of Iron III: Dies Irae Stars & Stripes Spritepack, Hearts of Iron III: For the Motherland, Hearts of Iron III: German Infantry Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Italian Vehicle Pack, Hearts of Iron III: Japanese Infantry Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Japanese Vehicle Spritepack, Hearts of Iron III: Mega German Spritepack, Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi, Hearts of Iron III: Sounds of Conflict, Hearts of Iron III: Soviet Infantry Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Soviet Music Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Soviet Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour, Hearts of Iron III: US Infantry Sprite Pack, Hearts of Iron III: US Pack DLC

Buy Paradox Grand Strategy Collection

Includes 4 items: Crusader Kings II, Europa Universalis IV, Hearts of Iron III, Victoria II

Buy Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi

Buy Hearts of Iron 3 DLC Collection

Includes 18 items: Hearts of Iron III DLC: German II Spritepack , Hearts of Iron III Semper Fi: Dies Irae Götterdämmerung, Hearts of Iron III: British Vehicle Spritepack, Hearts of Iron III: Dies Irae Stars & Stripes Spritepack, Hearts of Iron III: DLC - German Sprite Pack, Hearts of Iron III: For the Motherland, Hearts of Iron III: German Infantry Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Japanese Infantry Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Japanese Vehicle Spritepack, Hearts of Iron III: Mega German Spritepack, Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi, Hearts of Iron III: Sounds of Conflict, Hearts of Iron III: Soviet Infantry Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Soviet Music Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Soviet Pack DLC, Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour, Hearts of Iron III: US Infantry Sprite Pack, Hearts of Iron III: US Pack DLC

 

Reviews

"offers a challenge to most strategy die-hards"

— Dreamstation
"Paradox has done a tremendous job of making this complex design relatively easy to get into."

— Gamespot
"With incredible flexibility, freedom, and depth, this is a history buffs dream and should not be passed up if you are a fan of the genre."

— PCgameworld
"Serious wargamers are in for a real treat as the hardcore franchise returns for another go at the world's most terrible war."

— Gamespy
"Featuring a fully integrated combat model, a wide range of strategic and diplomatic options for your country, and an intuitive AI system, Hearts of Iron III is shaping up to be the best game in the series yet."

— Strategy Informer

About This Game

Hearts of Iron III lets you play the most engaging conflict in world history, World War 2, on all fronts as any country and through multiple different scenarios. Guide your nation to glory between 1936 and 1948 and wage war, conduct diplomacy and build your industry in the most detailed World War 2 game ever made.
Features:
  • Play as any nation from 1936 to 1948, more than 150 countries to choose from.
  • Control the oceans with aircraft carriers, submarines and battleships and use your air force to defend your skies, support your naval and ground forces, and to bomb your enemies
  • Thousands of historically accurate real-world military commanders and politicians.
  • Realistic military command AI with unprecedented levels of interaction
  • In-depth diplomatic and political system.
  • Historical accuracy combined with an unparalleled level of freedom of choice
  • More than 10,000 land provinces makes the game five times more detailed than HoI2 and the most detailed depiction of World War 2 ever made.
  • Customize your divisions in detail with more than 20 types of brigades
  • New economic system makes it possible to buy weapons from abroad.
  • Mobilization and reserves gives the option of surprise attacks, Blitzkrieg made real.
  • Government-in-exile makes it possible to continue to struggle from abroad with underground movements and uprisings against the oppressing power.
  • Strategic warfare system makes it more important to defend the skies and oceans against foreign attacks; leaving cities open to enemy bombing will now be devastating.
  • A completely new intelligence system, with several types of intelligence sources, makes it possible to get information about enemy reserves and troop movements.
  • Assign troops to "theatres" on the map to fight two-front wars more successfully.
  • The new AI system and more detailed map will allow for more strategic decisions.
  • Flexible technology system with hundreds of categories, where major powers get their own unique attributes.

System Requirements

Windows
Mac OS X
    • Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP/Vista
    • Processor: Intel Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+
    • Memory: 2 GB of RAM
    • Hard Disk Space: 2 GB
    • Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon X1900 videocard
    • Sound: Direct X-compatible sound card
    • DirectX®: Direct X 9.0
    • OS: OS X 10.5.8 or higher
    • Processor: Any Intel CPU
    • Memory: 128 MB VRAM, 1GB RAM
    • Hard Disk Space: 1.3 GB hard disk space
    • Video Card: GeForce 7300, Radeon HD 2400 (GMA cards not supported)
    • Internet: Broadband connection for Internet play
    • Registration: Internet connection for registration
Customer reviews
Customer Review system updated! Learn more
Recent:
Mostly Positive (42 reviews)
Overall:
Very Positive (2,940 reviews)
Recently Posted
ColtRang
( 31.7 hrs on record )
Posted: 9 August
multiplayer is cancer
Helpful? Yes No Funny
ghost750x2
( 139.8 hrs on record )
Posted: 9 August
-plays Australia
-joins allies
-spam marine/arty kangaroos & marine/antitank kangaroos
-takes all of axis Africa
-takes almost all of Italy(♥♥♥♥ing British navel invaded after I took 95% of Italy makeing ugly border gore while Russia takes 95% of Germany because of a Canadian invasion Russia feels my pain)
-takes all of Japan's islands(thanks for the help America nice job siting on your ♥♥♥)
-liberates Philippines(looks like MacArthur won't be making good on his promises to come back for you since I already saved you)
-invades Japan from the south America from the north(America finally does something productive)
-takes half of Japan mainland, Korea, and the Chinese cost
-Australia now has 120 IC, 1523 manpower, owns 95% of Italy and Africa. all of the Japanese Pacific Islands half of Japan and all of the land they own in mainland Asia (♥♥♥♥ you China and Korea this is my land now)
-gets bord extend time line to 2001
-declares war on nationalist Spain to free them from there nationalist ways
-Britain drops 14 nukes on them(no literally 14 guess they didn't want to lose Gibraltar still over kill if you ask me)
-national Spain now Republican Spain
-cold war starts
-Nothing happens for 15 years
-gets bord declared war on Russia for the lol's
-Ww3 starts
-sooooooooooooooo many nukes dropped
-game breaks
-the end
14/10 would make Australia great again then destroy it with nuclear fire
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Manik
( 326.1 hrs on record )
Posted: 8 August
Best strategy game I've ever played.

- Spend years preparing for war from 1936
- Create detailed battle plans for your operations
- Let those battle plans go to ♥♥♥♥ once everything kicks off

No but it is a very good game. Recommended.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Comrade Slaine
( 748.3 hrs on record )
Posted: 8 August
it's okay i guess
Helpful? Yes No Funny
THE GOLDEN ONE
( 476.8 hrs on record )
Posted: 3 August
Very gud game, pls buy goyim
Helpful? Yes No Funny
TheDukeOfWales
( 440.7 hrs on record )
Posted: 31 July
Played as UK.
Tried building up ASAP before WWII started.
Ended up creating huge threat level.
France wouldnt ally
France turns Facist
UK is invaded shortly thereafter.
UK is annexed.

11/10 would get annexed again
Helpful? Yes No Funny
tboinske
( 0.7 hrs on record )
Posted: 30 July
hearts of iron 3 is a very hard game to play i did not like it when i got so i would no recomend it for childern.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
MyLittleChowie
( 47.2 hrs on record )
Posted: 28 July
i thought to myself ♥♥♥♥ ye lets fix greece a super power year later broke and turkey pulling down my pants
10/10 would go broke again
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Skelly1983
( 53.2 hrs on record )
Posted: 27 July
Excellent game when it runs on Mac, at least 5 crashes to desktop or complete freezes per day.

No steam overlay, achievments, or workshop.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Cuckimus
( 57.3 hrs on record )
Posted: 27 July
After a couple tries at the game and after finally understanding it i decided to play as Germany for the 2nd time (First time i didn't understand the game so Poland,France and the UK invaded me.) So here is me trying to make Germany Great Again.

-Early 1936: Forced all of my time into making Germany lose neutrality
-late 1936: Invade the Swiss to bypass the French Border
-Early 1937: Invade Hungary since they were a smaller country
-Mid 1937 Swiss rebels start appearing out of no where even though there is a ton of MPs in Switzerland
-late 1937: Stop rebels and decide to Conquer Romania
-Early 1938 Annex Austria and decide to accept Bulgaria into Allies. By now Nationalist Spain,Portugal, Italy, Japan (and all of it's Puppet countries are in the Axis.
Mid 1938- Decide ♥♥♥♥ it and Declare war on Lithuania to get Memel back but afterwards realise that there is an event for that
(Spend all of the rest of 1938 to march 1939 making troops.)
March 1939- Tell poland to give me Danzig. Poland refuses
rest of 1939- conquering all of the Allies in Europe. Eventually took the UK after a couple tries
Early 1940- Declare war on the Scandanavian countries above Germany (Non were a part of the Allies for some reason but mainly drifting torwards it.)
Mid 1940- Conquer Norway, Denmark and Sweden all in this time period (kek)
Late 1940- build up troops in these countries and realise that i could build stuff on greenland and ice land
Early 1941- Don't want to deal with Iceland so i made it a Puppet of Germany
Late 1941- Help out Italians in North Africa and make several puppet states out of North Africa
Early 1942- Revoke Non-Aggression pact with the USSR
Mid 1942- Take Movska and Stalingrad (Historically accurate so far)
Late 1942- Nearly made Soviets surrender but then start pushing my mighty panzers back
Early 1943- Finally defeat Russia
Rest of 1943- Rebelions happen all over the USSR and put troops everywhere in Russia(Even in Siberia)
Early 1943- Make Communist China my puppet state
Feeling good by now since i have destroyed all of Bolshevikism in the World
Mid 1943 - Take over Australia
By now my armies are very stretched thin
Establish bases in Australia to send over to the US
Late 1943 - Launch invasions in the US and canada
Early 1944 - Alaska is mine (Fallout 3 flashbacks)
Late 1944 - Canada is mine now
Early 1945 - All of the US is mine
Haven't paid attention to Europe and Asia for a while by now
Mid 1945 - Right when i was about to invade Mexico, Rebels in Europe are popping up in my regions so i frantically send all of my troops back to Europe and Asia to put them down after i do that however, rebels pop up in Canada and US and take back their nations
Late 1945 By now i start getting Frustrated and about to give up; Right when i finished putting down rebels in Switzerland, France and the UK, Rebels appear in the USSR and take back a quarter of the country near Asia.
I eventually Rage Quit from this and deleted the save
i wish i had a screenshot of the nation at it's height...

10/10 Wouldn't make puppets again and was very historically accurate
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Most Helpful Reviews  In the past 30 days
15 of 21 people (71%) found this review helpful
10 people found this review funny
Recommended
11.5 hrs on record
Posted: 18 July
- play as luxembourg
- build many factories and army
- declared war against germany
- defeats germany in 1940
- restore poland to glory
- divides up germany
- declare war on the soviets
- crushed by the soviets because of troops encirclement
- capitualted in 1944

11/10 would make luxembourg great again
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
18 of 28 people (64%) found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Not Recommended
100.0 hrs on record
Posted: 21 July
Great game, amazing for World War 2 military enthusiasts. However, since upgrading to Windows 10, it is utterly unplayable. The game crashes without fail after 5 - 10 minutes of play, and no fixes I have tried seem to work. Such a shame, because it really is brilliant if you can get it to work.

Recommended for Windows 7.
Not recommended for Windows 10.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
7 of 8 people (88%) found this review helpful
6 people found this review funny
Recommended
57.3 hrs on record
Posted: 27 July
After a couple tries at the game and after finally understanding it i decided to play as Germany for the 2nd time (First time i didn't understand the game so Poland,France and the UK invaded me.) So here is me trying to make Germany Great Again.

-Early 1936: Forced all of my time into making Germany lose neutrality
-late 1936: Invade the Swiss to bypass the French Border
-Early 1937: Invade Hungary since they were a smaller country
-Mid 1937 Swiss rebels start appearing out of no where even though there is a ton of MPs in Switzerland
-late 1937: Stop rebels and decide to Conquer Romania
-Early 1938 Annex Austria and decide to accept Bulgaria into Allies. By now Nationalist Spain,Portugal, Italy, Japan (and all of it's Puppet countries are in the Axis.
Mid 1938- Decide ♥♥♥♥ it and Declare war on Lithuania to get Memel back but afterwards realise that there is an event for that
(Spend all of the rest of 1938 to march 1939 making troops.)
March 1939- Tell poland to give me Danzig. Poland refuses
rest of 1939- conquering all of the Allies in Europe. Eventually took the UK after a couple tries
Early 1940- Declare war on the Scandanavian countries above Germany (Non were a part of the Allies for some reason but mainly drifting torwards it.)
Mid 1940- Conquer Norway, Denmark and Sweden all in this time period (kek)
Late 1940- build up troops in these countries and realise that i could build stuff on greenland and ice land
Early 1941- Don't want to deal with Iceland so i made it a Puppet of Germany
Late 1941- Help out Italians in North Africa and make several puppet states out of North Africa
Early 1942- Revoke Non-Aggression pact with the USSR
Mid 1942- Take Movska and Stalingrad (Historically accurate so far)
Late 1942- Nearly made Soviets surrender but then start pushing my mighty panzers back
Early 1943- Finally defeat Russia
Rest of 1943- Rebelions happen all over the USSR and put troops everywhere in Russia(Even in Siberia)
Early 1943- Make Communist China my puppet state
Feeling good by now since i have destroyed all of Bolshevikism in the World
Mid 1943 - Take over Australia
By now my armies are very stretched thin
Establish bases in Australia to send over to the US
Late 1943 - Launch invasions in the US and canada
Early 1944 - Alaska is mine (Fallout 3 flashbacks)
Late 1944 - Canada is mine now
Early 1945 - All of the US is mine
Haven't paid attention to Europe and Asia for a while by now
Mid 1945 - Right when i was about to invade Mexico, Rebels in Europe are popping up in my regions so i frantically send all of my troops back to Europe and Asia to put them down after i do that however, rebels pop up in Canada and US and take back their nations
Late 1945 By now i start getting Frustrated and about to give up; Right when i finished putting down rebels in Switzerland, France and the UK, Rebels appear in the USSR and take back a quarter of the country near Asia.
I eventually Rage Quit from this and deleted the save
i wish i had a screenshot of the nation at it's height...

10/10 Wouldn't make puppets again and was very historically accurate
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
3 of 3 people (100%) found this review helpful
3 people found this review funny
Recommended
23.9 hrs on record
Posted: 16 July
23 hours in and I still don't know how to select a unit 10/10 would get trampled by Italy again.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
4 of 5 people (80%) found this review helpful
Recommended
26.6 hrs on record
Posted: 20 July
By far one of the most in-depth grand strategy games I have played. I am impresssed with the detail put into each nation, such as the various parties and individuals of national cabinets.
Overall, everything seems to have a good amount of detail in it, from tech to diplomacy, even the map with varried terrains and climates affecting troop movement and success in battle.

I highly recomend this game.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
2 of 2 people (100%) found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Recommended
326.1 hrs on record
Posted: 8 August
Best strategy game I've ever played.

- Spend years preparing for war from 1936
- Create detailed battle plans for your operations
- Let those battle plans go to ♥♥♥♥ once everything kicks off

No but it is a very good game. Recommended.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
4 of 6 people (67%) found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Recommended
440.7 hrs on record
Posted: 31 July
Played as UK.
Tried building up ASAP before WWII started.
Ended up creating huge threat level.
France wouldnt ally
France turns Facist
UK is invaded shortly thereafter.
UK is annexed.

11/10 would get annexed again
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
1 of 1 people (100%) found this review helpful
Recommended
47.2 hrs on record
Posted: 28 July
i thought to myself ♥♥♥♥ ye lets fix greece a super power year later broke and turkey pulling down my pants
10/10 would go broke again
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
2 of 3 people (67%) found this review helpful
Recommended
18.1 hrs on record
Posted: 18 July
Great game, Loving the stragety course into this game, DLC's are great except it crashes whenever I try to load my ave game before I bought the DLCs

9.6/10
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
2 of 3 people (67%) found this review helpful
Recommended
14.4 hrs on record
Posted: 17 July
WW2 Strategy Euphoria
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny