Hearts of Iron IV

As much as I love this game, Paradox's increasingly overmonetization of this game can't be ignored at this point. The Devs are constantly rushed to pump out more DLCs for minor countries, and then Corporate slaps ridiculous price tags on them. They also have made DLCs that literally overwrite other DLCs, and will pair giant features with minor DLCs in order to make an excuse to bump up their prices; Features that should be in free updates. The base game is incredibly bare bones, the DLC is essentially 90% of the actual content for the game. The Dev team also constantly get blamed for the poor choices and pricing that the upper-management makes and are typically used like the first line of defense, Shields that will absorb and deflect most of the criticism away from the rest of the company. Paradox listens to shareholders and business consultants on critical and creative decisions more so than their actual Dev teams and audiences

Hearts of Iron IV offers a captivating experience for strategy and history enthusiasts. Despite its positive aspects such as deep strategic options, historical recreation, and military planning, the steep learning curve and certain mechanical shortcomings might be challenging for some players. However, for those who appreciate the complexity and details, it can provide a rewarding war strategy experience.

Do NOT go beyond version 16.8 if you enjoy naval warfare and don't want to be bogged down with the increasingly needlessly detailed minutiae that the Paradox geeks paradoxically seem to feel the rest of us want. As time passes HoI IV is becoming less and less player-friendly.

It's the only game where you can play for hundreds, if not thousands, of hours, yet you can have no idea what's really going on. The only downside is you pretty much need to have all DLCto play the game. The game is good, though.

My hearts of iron experience after like 2 matches (i lost both of them): > Try to do tutorial > Tutorial sucks i dont understand sh1t > watch youtube how to beat tutorial > still dont understand anything > try to learn myself (it kinda works) > play as italy and declare war on france > half of the world turns out to be my enemy > starts losing the war > italy enters civil war > somehow i became on the same side as france during the ciivl war (amazing) > thinking how i got civil war if i had 90% stability > play as romania > puppet bulgaria and align hungary > i lost to hungary even thought i had 20 division versus only 2 > doesnt make any sense > next goal: form roman empire (i dont think i will be even close to that)

These can be long games, and too many updates make the previous game not loadable. I don't play everyday, and when I get back to my game and I can't load it, it is more than frustrating. It means I won't play anymore.

This is my opinion on the game so you might have a different view on it. *played on free week* Absolutely NOT beginner friendly. Tutorial doesn't explain anything and the game expects you to know all the gameplay mechanics. I still haven't figured out how to actually build a functioning factory in 3 hours of playtime. I know grand strategy tends to be hard but at least some games actually teach you how to start. I also watched Paradox's tutorial videos and the only thing they did was explaining what each thing does but NOT show it in action, which in my opinion doesn't make the player understand better. As a huge history enthusiast I was intrigued to play the game but I was left dumbfounded by how this game deals with newcomers. Also, from what I have read, the game is pretty incomplete without the DLC's which are locked behind big paywalls, the DLC's basically functioning as updates. If you like WW2 related media I suggest giving this game a try since it is pretty detailed and has a ton of interesting mechanics but as I have said, it's very tedious to learn how to actually use them.

I bought this game to play with my severely autistic and mentally handicapped little brother, Ian, who was only a small boy at the time. I learned the game as well as I could so that I could teach little Ian everything I knew. He always wanted to play Germany.. something of a fantasy for him to be a Nazi. I tried to snap him out of it. Kids these days.. anyways, We would always play the Axis powers: him as Germany, me as Italy. We put a lot of hours in the first few days of us buying the game. Learning, laughing, living, loving, the whole nine yards. You get it. This was back in 2019 or around then. We stopped playing after a few hundred hours. His attention span wasn't all that good. I think he got into model trains shortly after. Fast forward to a few months back from now. He died horrifically in an accident involving a train. Walked right onto the tracks as it was coming. Didn't look both ways. Horrible. Tragic. Devastating. I have not been the same since. I've had horrible depression and can't sleep much these days. Coming back to this game has helped a lot. Remembering all the fun we had together, me and Ian. It's almost magical at times. Thank you Hearts of Iron.