Hearts Of Iron 4 is a satisfying and simple grand strategy game set in World War 2.

the Game is tons of fun and extremely easy to learn compared to former counter parts like Hoi3 and Darkest Hour.
You can play as almost any nation in the world and take them in any direction you like. You can also toggle the historical accuracy off so AI controlled countries can take different routes aswell. the Game is also tons of fun in multiplayer be it with friends or random community games (Warning: the Hoi4 community can be incredibly toxic at first)

Now that I have spat all the rosy sh*t out of the way let me rip this game a new one.

The game has major flaws that hinder it in many different ways. the faction system is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unbearable and broken. Especially when playing with AI the game can basically change its own rules and make super factions which will rip you a new one. These factions can form in any stage of the game and under any circumstance which means that building up a smaller nation by invading or trying for an achievement which requires only a couple of scraps of land usually results in a premature world war. Peace deal system is extremely broken because only way of negotiating one is by capitulating the country or the entire faction you are currently in war with. This means that you can end up in endless wars where someone from accros the globe is still in war with you without having a way to actually get to you. Diplomacy is non existant and usually not an option. the relations to another country is just a number and usually doesnt matter because the countries have another modifier which dictates if they are hostile towards you.

Only way of surviving as a smaller country without a focus tree is going fascist, because Communist, non aligned and Democratic options are extremely weak. The same is true for the nations with focus trees. Democratic options are usually extremely weak and boring because the game is essentially a map painter. The diplomatic options are too limited to make playing a democratic nations that interesting.

the AI is laughable at best but it compensates by having instant reflexes which means most of the wars are mixture of dumb luck, skill and predictions of what the AI will do. Sometimes outsmarting the AI doesn't require much brain power but its extremely inconsistant and random at times. Games past 1943 are painful because the AI spams out units at a rate which usually makes pushing unbearable. This also causes a lot of lag in the late game and makes the multiplayer desync or slow down to a crawl. Optimisation mods are required.

The Multiplayer has many connectivity issues and desyncs with even a good internet connection and a good PC are common if not guaranteed. I personally started to have problems after La Resistance. I can't host or play games with my friends anymore because of something that even the tech supports at paradox can't fix.

Update: The game started randomly working again after a couple of patches. I have no idea what changed but if your game starts acting up, it may or may not be patched within a couple of month to a half a year to work again.

Glitches and crashes and general lag and frame drops are common and you need a really beefy CPU to even make it to late game.

Also this game has the unfortunate problem of being made and published by none other than Paradox. This unfortunate flaw means that this game is riddled with DLC which locks most of the content behind a pay wall. Most of the game mechanics and focus trees are locked behind a paywall. This flaw appears in all games made by paradox. And the DLC are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pricy too.

I will give a short rundown of the DLC in this section:

Together for victory:
Necessary DLC which brings focus trees for the commonwealths of Britain and enhances the puppeting system (basically makes satelliting states viable in some way even tho its still quite garbage). Also gives you the ability to lend lease other nations. (Yes giving away equipment, a major part of WW2 is locked behind DLC)

Death or Dishonor
Gives the balkan countries (Except bulgaria) a focus tree and the ability to license equipment from other nations. Basically a glorified mod. Not really worth it.

Waking the Tiger:
Re-designs the Japanese focus tree and gives the chinese nations focus trees. a Must have. Makes the chinese nations interesting and gives japan a new flavor. This dlc also gives you a better control over your airforce by adding the ability to control bombing operations. (also ads a new branch to the German focus tree which is tons of fun)

Man the guns:
Makes the naval mechanics bearable and gives alternate routes for the UK and the US. Also gives mexico and netherlands a focus tree which are fun but dont really affect the game on a grander scale. a must have for the naval rework alone.

La Resistance:
Rewamps encryption and decryption and the conducting of foreign activities such as coups and ideology boosting by adding a spy mechanic. New branches for the french and also reworks the Spanish civil war. Buy it on sale but not a must have since the intelligence system is not that meaningful and usually its just a way of cluttering the screen and making you feel like doing busy work.

Battle for The Bosborus:
Another glorified mod. Gives Bulgaria, Greece and turkey a focus tree. No new mechanics. Quite fun, but extremely buggy and late game based. (Late game is basically trash for the reasons listed above)

No Step Back:
Good addition. Fixes the awful focus tree of the Soviet Union and gives some flavor to the Baltic states even if they didn't need any because they were minor nations that didnt even take part in the fighting. New supply system where instead of one building called infrastructure that goes from 1-10 we have roads, supply posts, ports, railroads and trains. Taking out strategic points in the enemies infrastructure is now super satisfying and little things that were obsolete like the fail rate of your equipment are now actual game mechanics. Smaller nations are now a bit easier to defend but horrible to attack with since you wont have the industry to fix the roads that you burned along the way. Tank designer is neat. However the combat width mechanic for every unit have been changed and are extremely situational now, making terrain an even bigger problem for your logistics. Good additions to the game.

By Blood alone:
Didnt buy it. You can check the store page and see the critical reception yourself.

Achievements. Some of them are extremely easy or exploitable. However most of them will make you pull your teeth out with a ball peel hammer. Most of them have not propably never been tested by the developers and have been implemented just for the funny achievement tittle.

Only saving grace for this game is a really active modding scene which holds the best content for the game. Mods like Kaiserreich, Fuhrerreich, Old World blues and even TNO (even considering the drama surrounding it) drasticly alter the game and give it the replayability which has kept me coming back time and time again. Mods... save Hoi4 for no one else can.

Not worth the full price because it doesn't even give you access to the full game.
Buy it on sale if you so desire but don't waste 40 euros or dollars on this crap.