Should I buy Arsenal of Democracy,Darkest hour or HOI3 base game?

[Snadams]

Should I buy this,Darkest hour or Hearts of iron 3 without any expansions?
I am looking for the most indept realistic game.
I have read alot of stuff saying HOI3 is not good without any of the expansions(semper fi,for the mother land and their finest hour)I dont have money for any of them as I am on a budget,so after reading so much saying I need them,I taught I should maybe get this or Darkest hour instead,but I wanted to get honest opinions on the 3...
So does this and DH compare to HOI3,are they better?

Is the HOI3 really the bad without the 3 expansions,or do the just make it slightly better?
If I dont get them is it worth getting..my gut says the that HOI3 would be the best option,but again I have just read so much saying the the dlc is essential.

I still dont really know tho,out of the 3 which has the most realistic aspects to it,which is the funnest and which has the most indept detail to it?

 

[Zsar1]

Personally, I'd say: Wait for the next sale in the Paradox Store or on Steam and pick up both AoD and DH for [1, 3] € each (usually either 1,99 € or 2,99 €). While definitely similar, they have diverged enough to be enjoyable each on their own, and it still holds that if you like one of them you will probably also like the other. As far as I know, both may see additional development in the future, which may further improve their value.
- Seems like a good deal to me.

HoI3 is very different. Personally, I never managed to get into it, expansions or not. Of what I recall, the base game as it is may be fine, but if you do buy one expansion, definitely do get them all.
... Also, it's dead. What you get now is what you will have to put up with. Most games never manage to attract post-commercial maintainers (and in particular, no Paradox in-house production has).

(Personally, I found that no expansion could much reignite my interest for HoI3, while they arrived piecemeal. Getting the whole package at once, e.g. via the HoI3 Collection, might be the better choice in terms of motivation, than playing the base game now and upgrading at some later date.)

 

[Snadams]

OK man,thanks very much. )

 

[bestmajor]

Buy AoD or DH.
I'd even pay € 10 for each. It's worth the money if you like ww2.

HoI3... well if you buy you need ALL DLCs AFAIK.

 

[Titan79]

Ditto about AoD.

Moreover, once you get it, you might even add some cool mods on top of it (look e.g. at bestmajor's or my signature)

 

[Commander666]

Or you can look at my signature which has no mods but captures the spirit of AoD. The game is so good and strategically complex that at times you know not whether you are winning or losing... just like the effect of continental drift.

 

[Titan79]

Hundreds of hours invested with passion to make one (or more) mods, or a signature.

The choice is yours, OP

 

[Commander666]

I never implied your mods or signature don't have passion. In fact I wasn't even comparing to you. I simply stated, while my signature has no mods, it also promotes AoD as in the spirit of that game. Maybe you reading into something that isn't there?

 

[Hagar]

HoI3 is more of a combat simulation than anything else, basically - and only worth it including the expansions IMHO, certainly not stand-alone. I've never warmed up to it, really, and based on what I've read so far neither has HoI4 to be honest (though I've never actually tried it). DH and AoD are much more my cup-of-tea... And much more value for money, if you ask me. And there are some pretty good mods out there too. The Tripartite pack and the Major's work are highly commendable, and - if you don't mind tooting my own horn - so is CORE. The latter has some steep learning curve, though, so it's probably best to get acquainted with Vanilla first.

 

[Titan79]

Pal, the sentence "Or you can look at my signature which has no mods but captures the spirit of AoD" clearly tells you were implying something and/or making some sort of comparison.

Maybe you're pretending something different from what can be patently gathered from your post?

(and, FYI, in proper English it would be "Maybe you were reading into something that isn't there?")

-

OT aside, Snadams, keep an eye on Hagar's and the whole CORE team's work, of course - what they did is simply terrific and if you're looking for a truly accurate representation of WW2 then you'll be anything but overjoyed upon seeing what they accomplished.

 

[Hagar]

Well the credit for CORE certainly isn't just mine... I'm 'just' the Graphics Department.

 

[Titan79]

Still, you're part of that amazing team!

 

[Victor1234]

Is there any way to buy Arsenal of Democracy as a digital download without Steam? Paradox only sells the steam code for it, and the BG Logic page doesn't sell it anymore, unfortunately.

 

[Commander666]

Yes, there is, AFAIK. I bought my digital download from Gamer'sGate and don't use any Steam account. Try this: www.gamersgate.com

Gamer'sGate still lists AoD.