First time buyer for this game series and I must say I'm pleasently suprised. Playing as Japan I rolled most of China early in the game (1936) which was a bit of an "er... ok" moment but invading the Soviets in 1938 was a whole different ball of wax. After initially wiping the Siberian floor with the defenders the western units started trickling in one or two at a time. Which made me think. "Ah another easy wipe my army of twenty file will win the day!". Er... cough, yea, couple of turns later I see my detatchment of 7 units fighting one of 56 units near lake Baikal. Not only is fog of war alive and well I should have taken Vizzini's advice and never gotten involved in a land war in asia. As an added bonus the developers have what seems a laser focus jumping on issues as they come up in discussions. Great job so far guys!

I've played both Making 1 and 2 games prior to this one. IMO, TSWW is terrifically improved. The mechanics--though not immediately intuitive--are thoroughly fantastic one you've assimilated into TSWW's style of game management.

The game is playable without the tutorial, which is rather lacking. Pick any nation and start hacking away at an enemy. The fun will meet with terror and dispair over dwindling supplies, cash, and every lowering efficiency stats of an ever shrinking military. But, that's where the micro-management kicks in--if you like such a challenge. And, Factus has done a marvelous job of creating a beautifully organized, thoroughly complex system of management. Unlike MH2 (Making History 2), TSWW really handles the realities of nation bulding and management well. This game is truly superb in this regard. So long as you like meaningful micro-management, this game is right for you.

Being an avid player of COH2 and a frequent player of HOI4, I rate this Factus game as a niclely placed segue between these two. Unlike COH2, there's no combat to control; unlike HOI4, there's no mass of individual units to control. TSWW is brilliantly simple yet thoroughly complex.

Though I bought it on 25% off sale, the game is good enough to suggest that you buy it--(1) if you like grand strategy and (2) if you like thorough micro-management. For me, after about 100 turns of play, it's got a lot of potential.

In my first game, Japan slaughtered me (China). In my second game, it's December 1938 and I'm still trying to conquer all of China. As someone who prefers single player because of my job, it's fun to play against a competent AI. Again, this deserves a well done.

Lastly, the game designers are checking the discssuion posts and actually responding AND MAKING FIXES. That's quality leadership (IMO).

Hope you have as much fun as I'm having (and that it takes you less time to figure out the game mechanics than I did)!

Having played Avalon Hills Third Reich for years, I'm always interested in these large scale war models. I really dig it. I like running war economies and trying to patch together production to keep a war moving. I really like being able to play the minor powers. I also like this about TGW. Weird sh*t does happen tho. While playing as Greece, Germany and the USSR had an alliance and were at war with Great Britain. France was still neutral. (Poland isolated itself and had no allies when it was attacked) . But its not the same any time you play. I am still trying to grasp all the MPU dynamics since i play with minors alot. But if you like a seemingly balanced large scale war game, this is definitely for you. It has Air, Land, Sea units all pretty well thought out. I havent played all the Major Powers yet so I am not fully enlightened but as far as the gaming system goes, I LIKE IT

Quite a rich game, nice level of complexity, it really gives the vibe of the older HOI's. Being able to play any country and not be historically locked is very nice, there are more emphasizes on cultures and production. Sprites are nice and gives a lot of variety to the map.

However it's still a bit rough around the edges, making the game feel "heavier" than it should:
- end turns taking a few seconds to launch when auto saving
- interface sometimes a bit slow, a few typos
- IA sometimes unable to conduct successfull attacks (2 years to finish abyssinia, I'm pretty sure that's too much even for Italian troops ;) )
- lack of feedback on why some diplomacy does not work or why some events won't fire
- IA seem to not do much diplomacy wise aside of asking for money
- game has like 4 songs on repeat and 2 are classical (gives a nice atmosphear) while the other two are different styles as you can't select which to keep it becomes annoying and you end up turning it off. But then I can put my own music to conquer the world.

Also it'd benefit from a bit more of interface feedback (at which point is it a good idea to declare war, what's the reputation cost?, upgrade names for the factories which are sometimes confusing) but it's shapping up pretty well if the devs keep updating it

Despite it's little flaws which can be annoying the one more turn feeling is really there (quit now? Nah I have a new unit in 1 turn and a new factory in 2!) IF you like grand strategy it's definitely worth getting. Way too few grand strategy games lately so show your support!

edit: crash only happens with PlaysTv activated on my side. The more I play the more I like the game, endgame is a bit less fun but overall it has the right amount of depth and definitely the "next turn" effet. I definitely didn't see the time pass when playing. Devs are responsive and the small bugs will probably be fixed soon.
edit2: it's definitely a game I enjoy returning to, safe buy.

This game steps in and takes the place of the prior entries in the Making History franchise and adds a LOT more. Of the many hours I played in previous installments there were always changes or things I wished were addressed that never were. This game addresses many of those "wishes" without losing the fun and appeal of the originals. It is not "too hard" to pick up, and the addition of the encyclopedia function helps clarify some of the elements we can find confusing. Further, the tech support/customer service for this game is excellent. It is still being adjusted and tweaked based on the game community's feedback. I have always receives a detailed response for any inquery or tech issue. Truly excellent people that show they care.

A few of my favorite elements of this game:
Playing ANY country (Robust editor to make your own "breakaway republics").
Tech Tree options - I can choose to build my nation in various techs: Do I want a wicked air force, or become a Naval superpower? How about an Economic one, supplying the beligerants while I sit back and collect money and resources?
Depth of Play and Historical Realism - I love how accurate things are for the start time, but from there it becomes my own world to change the way history occured - who wants to play a set script? I also love the rebellions and all the different flags that pop up based on the various ideologies - excellent work on this as a history based game based in the 30s - the world was so different and you truly can get a feel for that.
This game is pretty different from MH2, but has similarities to The Great War. Improved over all in so many ways - I love the tankers and collier ships - Logistics & foresight in planning are actually important in this game.
I also love that you can put budget into making populations in rival countries unstable - this is a very "cold war" concept where I may choose to destabilize a neighbor covertly by investing in their minority parties, then when a revolution is sparked I can even gift military units to the rebel faction. This is too much fun!

I find humor in some of the negative reviews. This is not a perfect game, but it is fun, and it allows for an experience I have not found in many, if any other games. I think some of the people whining that they feel this is just an expansion to previous installments miss two key points:
1.) This game was released by Factus Games, not Muzzy Lane. For Factus to see a return on their nvestment they naturally will release this as a standalone game. Further, this was Steam from the start, whereas MH2 was not Steam originally. Lastly, to call this an expansion is a disservice to the countless hours that went into refining the tiny details of this game (I bought the beta version and have kept up with all the changes) - while this game still receives the loving attention it should from the devs as a newer release, it is much more than an expansion of previous titles. A similar analogy would be Rising Storm WW2 using the Unreal 3 Engine; Rising Storm 2 also uses the UR3 Engine, but to play the two is a massively different experience. While in that analogy, I actually preferred the original, in this case MH: The Second World War is the best in the series that I have played, and has retired the previous installments for me.
2.) The game is called Making History for a reason: You are supposed to experience managing a country in a world based in the lead in to the second world war. While certain games will play out fairly historically, others will play out very different from the real history. This is due to both player influences (realized from direct influence or unrealized through economic manipulation) , as well as through random event algorithms (I assume as I am not a developer) to make the game more replayable. This is one of my favorite elements of the game. As mentioned above, why in the world would I want to play a script that adheres strrictly to historical events every time?

I recommend this game for any fans of the MH series, as well as those who found some of the other titles in turn based history games a bit too challenging. This is the right balance of playability to get your country up and running while actual empirte building is difficult. This is how it should be, easier mechanics, great depth with automation capabilities, and difficult strategic gameplay. A difficult balance, and this game got it better than I thought they would.

I highly recomend this game, at it's present $29.99 value it is a great game. And I look forward to the expansions and future titles from Factus Games.

Nothing irritates me more than developers that sell games with NO guide or manual. I get it... takes money to pay for a technical writer to create a guide, but for JC sake, give me something to go on. I just bought the game, started playing, and within minutes I have not got a clue where to start. How do I get food production up? How do I get coal production up? Just give me some basics! Give me the good old days when you got a physical copy of instructions. This doesn't even have a tutorial. I am very dissappointed and p!ssed off!

It looks pretty, nice interface, but I don't find it very intuitive. First time playing an MH title and I can see there will be a learning curve... but this is ridiculous. I don't mind supporting early access games... but to fork out 30+ bucks and not even get a small tutorial or basic start manual is insulting. Now I have to go searching for answers on Google and watch hours of YouTube. I am giving this a thumbs down because it is ignorant to think everyone will automatically know how to proceed in grand strategy games... they are all different.

I put in 2 hours again last night and played as Brazil (as was suggested). After 10 turns I have no Coal. Food is in the negative. Running out of Oil. There are little symbols that I have absolutely no idea what they mean. Some have no "pop up" when mouse cursor is hovering over them, that means you pretty well have to guess the interpretation. Hey... some people like playing by trial and error. I DO NOT. What a waste of time.

Today... wasted another 3 hours trying to figure this out. Brazil again. After 25 turns... Negative Coal... negative Oil... negative Food. I have no patience for all this guess work. It is a real shame because this looks like a promising game, but soon I will stop playing it simply because the developer refused to spend a little time on a basic tutorial. Absolutely horrible to put out such a complex game without a manual.

Watching others play on YouTube is a joke. Sometimes they are not even sure what does what, so what are you going to learn from them. Anything I have seen on YouTube hardly helps at all. Disgraceful! Shame on you Devs.

I don't really much like this kind of strategy game. I absolutely had no idea how to play this game. Even I've done the tutorials, still hard to come by. I played the Great War at first and then The Calm & the Storm, learning to understand this gameplay for few days until suddenly I got very addicted to it. Then I bought this game. Hey, who would've thought about that ey?
I'm a big fan of history especially World War events. I really enjoy conquering other nations and set your own vassal states or colonies. I don't really mind if I don't have any ally. As long the economy is good and stable. Yea, you don't want to get economic crisis.
Though this game have a bit inaccurate, like most of the provinces, especially in Southeast Asia is still missing according to world map. Yea I noticed that since The Calm & the Storm.
Overall, I highly recommend for those who like history events or turn-based grand strategy game. Just take a few times to understand how this gameplay works.

9/10

The game is over all pretty solid. There is no significant improvement over the last installments, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

A few outstanding points:

-Recognizeable interface from previous games
-More depth and mechanics

-A bit buggy
-Very minimal scenario selection currently

The game has quite a bit of content, with many new features that feel more fleshed out than the other MH games. The game is simple to understand and also runs as a more complex turn-based strategy game. Unfortunately the game is prone to crash in its current state, but will likely be fixed as its only in early access.

Should you buy it? NO, Absolutely NOT.

In short:
PROs:
- Game has potential
- Funny to replay
- More balanced than previous games
CONS:
- Awful graphic
- It goes jerky for no reason (probably not good/optimized coding?)
- OUT OF MEMORY ERROR
- No national differences
- DIPLOMACY OMG


This game has potential but it's beyond its competitors by far on many levels.

Graphic is just very old and lazy: it's very sad to see a flat map with pale colors, even in 2004 this would have been considered old. I am not kidding, go to see any Total War Saga, you will understand what I am talking about. Same for the units and cities design, can be done a lot better. And despite very low quality graphics, the game still manages to be slow, especially during savings. And go "out of memory".

There is no peculiarity of any nation. No difference between US military, Soviet or Germans. None. Sad. The game is more balanced but even more boring. A lot more boring. Reduces strategical difficulty a lot.

Diplomacy part is useless. As simple as that. No real possibility to negotiate anything. A very bad point for a game focused on strategical elements.

OUT OF MEMORY. This is what pushed me to write this review. It is a real problem that developers were not able to solve. Unfortunately, it happens in all their products and it's frustrating. My PC is very beyond requirements, and I played so many games with maximum resolution and never had such problems. I even read from reviews on their next game that the problem still persist. Incredible.

Great game, a bit more immersive than some of the sandbox games like hearts of iron or eu4, so if you're looking for a game with historical accuracy, than this is the game to buy.