Entry 3: Hearts of Iron IV

Rating: A- (91%).
Verdict: The cool, smoker uncle.

Overview:

Hearts of Iron IV (abb. HOI4) is the fourth title in the long-running series of the same name, " Hearts of Iron ". The Hearts of Iron franchise started in 2002, released originally for Windows, later expanded to MacOS. Hearts of Iron IV was released to much acclaim in 2016, and quickly rose to become one of the top-selling grand strategies games of all time , and remains as one of the most-played grand-strategy games in 2023 alone , with a peak of over 78,000 unique players. (Source) [steamdb.info]. Hearts of Iron IV is a political, real-time grand strategy game set between the years 1936 and 1948: the height of World War 2. The player gets to choose from a myriad of historically accurate nations, from Japan to Jamaica and everything in between. The player may prepare to defend the homeland, or seek glory for the fatherland. A plurality of interesting game elements, mediums, story and real history make a HOI4 session both meaningful and fun. Whether you decide to restore the Kaiserreich or overthrow comrade Stalin, the choice is entirely yours to make. Reshape history or simply relive it with this truly one-of-a-kind title.

My thoughts:

As somepony who has over 2,000+ hours in Hearts of Iron IV, I am a bit biased when I say, really: it's a good game. I have rarely found myself getting "sick" or "bored" of HOI4, and even when I do experience a lull a vibrant and flavourful modding community picks up most of the slack. With integrated Steam Workshop support, downloading a mod is as simply as pressing a button. Depending on the type of computer you are playing on, and how fast you dare speed it up, HOI 4 sessions can last anywhere (start to finish) from ~1 to ~3 hours. I highly recommend you play with a keyboard and mouse. When playing alone, the game can be paused at any time, and can be saved to resume later. Every nation has what's called a "focus tree", essentially a path of decisions that allow you to take your nation in historically accurate or alternative history paths, although not every nation has a unique focus tree, many nations still have the generic cookie-cutter one. You're going to need a modern computer, or some kind of hardware that has a decent processing unit (not graphics card though as it seems HOI4 primarily pulls from the CPU) in order to play at a decent frame-rate and enjoy the experience.

The good:

You can play as any nation that historically existed on planet Earth in 1936. Many "major" nations have unique focus trees, or paths, that they can take: either leading them down a historical or unhistorical path. You get to design your army entirely from the bottom-up. Change unit structure, generals and admirals, design ships, aeroplanes and tanks entirely to your liking. Combat between units has a rich, integrated mathematical computational system in which compares unit strengths, weaknesses, HP, the weather, terrain, etc., and decides a "victor" over a combat period. The land, air, and sea battle systems all feel rich and alive in their own unique ways, and a good design will be logically rewarded through the combat system. However, tanks and planes do not spawn out of thin air: you need to produce them! The production/economical side is one often overlooked in your history class, but in HOI4, you can't stop thinking about it. Balancing resource usage with production, re-assigning factories to various goods and the general struggle of doing so during wartime is rewarding and satisfying. The AI, in recent times, has been seriously increased in terms of quality. The AI can be challenging, and often times can feel like you are fighting another player. This makes breaking your opponent feel even more rewarding, and "tough" battles really have a sense of gravity to them that other games lack. The more combat losses you take, the more your nation suffers. "Manpower" isn't infinite in HOI4, and can be a serious risk!

The bad:

The diplomatic system in HOI4 suffers immensely due to it's simplification from HOI3. Interacting with AI nations can feel extremely limited, time-consuming, and generally one dimensional, which is unfortunate considering the time period and how dynamic diplomacy was during the second World War. HOI4 is not optimised very well, which means on older systems it is likely to lag and run poorly. Additionally, not every nation has it's own unique content, especially base HOI4 with no DLC! If you are most interested in playing, say, the USA, you will find that it has a fully fleshed out Focus Tree, decisions list, lore, in-game events, and so on. Whereas, however, if you choose to play as South Africa, you will be disappointed to find there is limited in-game lore/story telling for that nation. The same can be said for a plurality of other nations as well. I understand the limitation of giving every natoin it's own unique path, but hiding them behind a paywall , no less, is frustrating: especially considering the base-game is asking almost 50 USD! For this reason I highly recommend waiting for HOI4, and all of it's associated Downloadable Content to go on sale before purchasing: and do purchase it all. The game without DLC is bare-bones as is, and much of the content which actually enhances gameplay is hidden within them.

Conclusion:

I called this game the Cool, smoker uncle for a reason: it's a little rough around the edges. The core gameplay, fun, and overall experience is 100% there and a good time, but spend a little bit too long with it and you'll feel a little frustrated wondering, "Why didn't they just do ____ instead?!". I say this not out of hatred of but instead love for this title. 2,188.0 hours speaks for itself. Can I sincerely recommend HOI4 to a random gamer on the street who has never played a grand strategy game before? Not really, no. Unless you are genuinely interested in spending (potentially 100 hours) learning the mechanics of this game, you will be turned off after a few sessions. If you have a love for history or would like to get started with grand strategies, I feel like HOI4 is a good title to enter with. It's simple enough to learn how to operate the mechanics but goes deep enough to have genuinely good behind-the-scenes engine which makes games fair. Even with as many hours as I have right now I would in no way call myself a "HOI4 professional", nor do I even come close to understanding all of the complex inner-workings of the game itself. I suppose that's part of why I love it so much. It hides it's simple 1's and 0's from you rather stealthily and makes the game world feel alive and real. I will never tire of HOI4, and I wish you luck on your journey to learn and master this unique title!