Hearts of Iron IV

Game is great
+even greater with mods
+even greater if you understand navy (i still cant sail to American soil)
-i am now obsessed
-i need professional help to understand the navy

Great game, will take away hunderds of hours of your "life" but worth it!
after playing for 700 hours i still dont know how navy works, so theres always something new to learn!

Been wanting to play this game for years, finally gets around to playing it, computer breaks a week after I began. After months of saving up finally getting a new PC to play with my friends. After 30 hours I still have no idea what I'm doing, but who cares? 10/10 willing to suffer on the Eastern Front for my fellow maidenless bros.

Obviously, one of the best strategic games on Steam. I love it and I recommend it to grand strategists or people who just love strategic games. HOI4 is pretty complicated at the start, but it gets easier the longer you play.

Fantastic game. I highly recommend this game to all who like strategy or ww2 era games. Only downside is needing to buy all the DLC for all the focus trees and paths, but this game is one of the few that I actually shell money out on DLC for as I have such a fun time playing this game as I have over 600 hours. Small nations and major nations are both fun to play in their own way and require finesse in winning. Yet somehow I am still terrible at this game after 600 hours.

for those with ADHD or Autism (or both). hoi is a game that i cannot recommend enough. while the historical game is always fun and entertaining. the true passion lies within its alternative history. each path of each country draws upon key historical events which tell a story that while unlikely is nothing less than improbable. it is clear they have placed so much time and love into the storys and mechanics. with almost 900 hours in the game ive barely scratched the surface of the games Replayability.

the community further ensures that you will never get bored. with key mods that grant the player a completely new game. A community in which the developers actually showcase and show their unconditional support towards (sorry rockstar).

while the game has its negitives. with DLC prices being higher than average and base game without DLC missing the key mechanics that make it the joy it is today. if you can get over the harsh learning curve and even gain just a base understanding of each key role (army/navy/airforce/politics) i can guarantee you a game that even after 882 hours you'll still feel like you have so much to learn and so much more fun to be had

(its funnier to play with friends)

It's fun to just screw around and just paint the map without actually knowing what you are even doing. The modding scene is what makes this game really fun.

Game bad without mods that fix things, mods require DLCs.
I don't care about extra stuff from all the DLCs, I just want to play base game without bad AI.

It's a great WW2 game. Love the idea of exploring alternative history on every playthrough.

CAS is broken navy system is ass and the ai is retarded
It's okay

this is an awesome game, never had i consume such a game with high replayability and engaging grand roleplay strategy than this game. with many content from workshop that enhance the gameplay with new mechanic, it just add cherry on top. i love this game. please make the dlc more cheaper lol

Really addictive and fun with friends, its easy to lose track of time in this game for hours. You can play historical mode or you can change the course of history how ever you want pretty much. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes WW2 history.

Hearts of Iron is different to Many other Strategy Games, but overall the core and game-play is almost the Same as Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, both from the Same Publisher. If you have a lot of time and you want to learn how to administer and govern a Country this is the perfect game for you, if you want fun and chilling out to relax, this game won't be what you are looking for, it has a lot of different functions and options that if you don't pay attention to those details your Government can become quite unstable and lose a lot of territory if you don't have the right tactics.
So although I like and recommend this game, don't expect this to be an easy game to interact with yourself especially when you need to check all your supplies, all the troops and industries with the right balance to not lack resources during gameplay.
So I give a 3.5/5 stars.

This game allows for several hundreds of hours for a relatively cheap price, if bought during a sale (usually 15€). The integration of core DLCs and the newest one's release have boosted the game's base content greatly, and it is currently a great time to get into it.

The strategy element can be highly challenging for many people, as you're made to handle your country's politics, army branches, economy and production, as you strive for neutrality, liberation or expansion. However, once the player understands the basic concepts, the learning speed grows exponentially, along with personal skill, as long as the player doesn't become complacent.

The modding scene is also huge, as it allows for scenarios such as WW1, WW2 if Germany won, and the world as it was in 2000. These major mods are also directly supported by Paradox, the game's developer, during major updates, which means a player who likes a certain type of scenario can always play it, without having to return to vanilla, while still being able to make use of the DLC content.

It's a must-play videogame for any strategy, military, WW2 or history enthusiast (the game can teach great amounts of history, as long as the player does their own research, taking the game's events (such as news articles) as a starting point. However, there are also discrepancies one must be careful with.)

The game impresses with its depth and detail. Not only can you conduct military operations, but you also manage the economy, diplomacy, and create alliances while manipulating political processes. One of its greatest achievements is the ability to choose any country and lead it with a unique strategy, from smaller nations to major powers like Germany or the USA.

The interface and learning curve may seem challenging for beginners, but for those who enjoy complex strategy games, this is a major plus. At the same time, the game offers high replayability thanks to various scenarios and different paths the events can take.

Hearts of Iron IV is a game for those who love deep strategy, historical details, and the opportunity to immerse themselves in one of the most significant periods of world history.

I believe this is the most different grand strategy game ever released by Paradox. Not the best of them, but maybe the most difficult and the most refreshing.

Not what i expected even after watching plays online and trying a couple of different starts...

The game is very good it does take time to learn I wouldn't suggest it for under 13.

I have just bought this game and all I can say is that It's one of the best If not the best ww2 strategy game to ever be created,all the countries to choose,different mods to improve gameplay and more things that can allow you to have fun for some time.

wow a great game 10 / 10 it was overwhelming at the start and i kept losing (am still kinda losing)
but its rlly rlly fun when u understand it navy is hard. when you get bored u can download mods to change things and if its too hard for you just change the settings

Don't spend money on this game, far better time dumps. 99% of the game play is hidden behind additional paywalls and they destroy any balancing the game had. There are entire features of the game that are utterly useless, the operative system is complete garbage and ineffectual at best. However, the A.I. will out preform you in its usage no matter what you do. Some decisions in the game require constant clicking and attention that the A.I. not being human has no issue perfectly achieving. After the Gotterdamrung update Germany is useless unless you play a non-historical path.

All in all, unless you're watching YouTube videos and pulling out charts and spreadsheets, you're not going to enjoy this game in its current state. It's absolutely not beginner-friendly, and you'll spend hours of game play only to have it destroyed by one random A.I.'s choice outside your control. Every DLC was made for tryhards using broken META builds to play the game, so you can't play it unless you do the same thing.

The UI is terrible. I had to watch a tutorial on how to do the in-game tutorial. Completely unintuitive how to move units around. After 23 hours of frustrating gameplay, I just gave up and deleted the game; waste of $15.

>Friend gets me to buy the game, buys me the new dlc
>Play first game together as Britain and Germany
>Conquer France, Poland and USSR with his help
>Build fuckton of hydrogen bombs
>End the game by bombing Spain into oblivion while Turkey invades me from east

I approve this funny little map game

I was really excited to try out Hearts of Iron IV after watching some cool videos and ads - it looked like just the kind of strategy game I'd love. But honestly, it turned out to be a big letdown.

I spent about 3 hours just trying to get started and another 5 hours watching tutorials. Even after all that time, I still couldn't get into a single battle to really experience the gameplay. The game feels way too restrictive, forcing you to learn every little detail before you can actually play.

I wish there was a mode where I could jump in and learn as I go, experimenting through trial and error. Instead, it was just a frustrating experience that ended up feeling like a huge waste of time.

The game is hugely bloated with largely pointless mechanics that serve little purpose other then over complicating things. The latest update ruined the german focus tree by adding 6 million new focus' but most of them are useless. they also ruined the fun of playing germany by punishing you for not having a perfect run. failed sealion? its now impossible to invade russia because you no longer have an industry. The game was already frustrating enough, and now its just not fun.

This game is masterpiece, only a little problem is i dont have a soul now, because the DLC's are more expensive than kidney

Hearts of Iron IV is a grand strategy game that offers unparalleled depth and complexity. The game's massive scope, combined with its intricate systems, provides an incredibly rewarding experience for history buffs and strategy gamers alike.

my girlfriend said me or the game that girl went out the window 10/10 game

There are too many DLCs that should be in the base game, a cash grab, the base game is not worth full price, you need to spend as much money as the game to make it worth playing, or mod it.

I've played all the HOI games over the years, and enjoyed the time I spent with HOI4. It is not my favorite iteration of the series, nor would I recommend it to first-time players of the WWII grand strategy genre. I think that even though the playing audience is larger than ever, the series has become just too dense and too weird as a result of its long evolution to appeal to its core players. However, I would definitely recommend it to other players who are familiar with the previous iterations and who are ready to engage the aforementioned density and weirdness.

Examples:

If Britain falls, the entire Commonwealth quickly gives up even if they are untouched, robbing the player of an epic far-flung struggle. Meanwhile, Sweden is ready to fight to the last empty tile. I think the strange effort of making hyper-complex focus trees for every minor power has created this imbalance.

Peace conferences result in absolutely bizarre and incongruous partitions that leave enemies still in existence with one state because the different factions ran out of points during the bidding. This is related to the way the different factions can get lumped into the same war even if they are not allies and would have diametrically opposed objectives that should lead to a refusal to even come to the table with one another. In one game, I was in 4 wars against the same enemy but paired with different combinations of enemy factions / countries.

Puppets and allies flood your air bases and far flung provinces with worthless defensive units that choke your supply lines and cause exploitable situations of the non-player armies building up enormous forces in utterly unimportant territories. So that while the player focuses on strategic objectives, those computer armies are bogged down for weeks trying to fight for huge swathes of empty territory. This led to the USA using 2/3rds of its army to invade Western Canada and just sit there while the East Coast was steamrolled.

You aren't directly penalized for wanting to control your armies yourself, but you miss out on bonuses you get for letting the AI do the work. It hardly matters, though. By controlling your units yourself, you'll have a much more dynamic front which will show you exactly why the developers wanted you to let the AIs fight each other to keep you from overwhelming it. It's a weird possibility that the developer may not have wanted you to actually interfere with their game by playing it directly.

My way around some of this weirdness was to go it completely alone. No faction members (except when forced upon me by scripted events which I would later work to undo) and annexation instead of puppets. Still the overall feeling something has been lost from previous iterations remained. Perhaps it was the limited number of historical generals, or the replacement of photos with cartoon pictures, or the suppression of pop-ups and event logs to the point that major global events go unmentioned, or that you have to gain war experience just to put medium tanks in place of light tanks in division templates, or that there are page upon page of tiny navy technologies but comparatively small tank and aircraft tech trees, or that Uruguay was willing to declare war on me when I had a stockpile of 60 nuclear bombs and had shown I was completely comfortable sprinkling them over the map just to see the pretty flashes ... I don't know.

Is this really a better game than the versions that preceded it? If you are familiar with the series, try it and find out - during a sale.

Paradox is going in a horrible direction by producing slop mods that use AI content and feel more like an edgy 14 y/o's mod. Don't support this company

You give it your kidney and then it hits you with the "I can't find launcher-installer-windows.msi" despite you opening it for it to bring the issue up, effectively softlocking me away from accessing something I paid quite a lot of money for. I've spent the last 5 hours trying to fix it with every discussed and speculated method under the sun to no avail

good game very addicting should be study for exams instead i play this game um my favourite part of this got to be the mods would recommend Andorra to roman empire its very fun

This game lets me conquer the wastes as the NCR, very cool game, reminds me of Super Mario Bros 2, certainly one of the Game of The Years of this year and every year of the past and forever more.

I like paradox games but they have the absolute worst most backwards ways of selling their games and DLCs. What a shame, I have played a bunch of EU4 and Stellaris and I don't feel like going through all that BS with this game.

Played as Germany. Forgot to research tanks. Invaded France with bicycles. Surprisingly effective.

The ultimate sandbox experience and a must play game for any WW2 history buff. The base game and DLC open up hundreds of hours of gameplay, but with incredible DLC sized mods that playtime can go into the thousands.

dlc addicting like coke in the coke, 20/10
but pls make naval it's own fckn game, me no understand, 0/10

Game crashes for a pastime & the updates wipe you out without warning. Poor choice.

No better game for taking the edge off by moving little soldiers around europe

Absolutely worth the price, it is hard to figure it our by yourself at the beginning, but I recommend that you find some friends that want to play, and it is literally one of the best games I have ever played. 470 hours in this game and the expansions always keep it fresh. Highly recommend anyone to get and play this game.

I could say that I love this game for the deep mechanics and having a great deal of control over your armed forces...which I do...but if I'm being honest, what I love the most is the fulfillment of a power fantasy that few games can really bring due to the granularity the game provides.

And mods...so many great mods for this game that add countless more hours to enjoy out of the game. This is certainly one of those games where you can play for years without doing everything, there's THAT much variety. Well worth the purchase even though Paradox's price schemes for DLCs aren't the best, definitely recommend getting DLC on sale (which they're routinely on sale multiple times a year).

very fun scenarios to act out upon, although the game can be stressing at times, still havent learned naval and air stuff and only know of ground war

This game is dogshit. wasted 3000 hours to still not be able to just play a multiplayer game and keep up with the IC of other nations no matter the industry. Bad game 2/10 because it USE to be a alright game but now its just a burning mess full of meta incells. DO NOT BUY OR PLAY THIS GAME. Play Stellaris

Even after putting 3000 hours of my life into playing this game and all the mods that come with it, I still don't really have a positive view on it. In my opinion its one of Paradox's best but also most boring games, its combat is mind-numbing and theres not much else to do outside of prepare for war and do minor politically-related things like install a new government or start a civil war. An escape from this boring content comes in the form of modding, but the modding scene also becomes boring and mundane after a while. Many mods copy other mods, a lot of scenarios are literally copy-pasted from other scenarios and the few interesting ones are usually stuck in development hell. Over time my friends have also stopped playing it because the community around it are filled with the most hateful and terminally online people you'd ever meet. I do not recommend getting this game.

I would recommend for anyone to play, the game is versatile due to mod support and can either be very hard or easy depending on the mods you choose.

A very very well made game, It is very time consuming, but not in a bad way. You can play hours and hours of it in a sitting and not realize that you've missed your Cousin's funeral, your own birthday, and quite literally your own funeral. Honestly I still can't believe that I've not left my room for 3 years.

Great game, very in depth. The expansions are awesome as well, I like playing as lesser countries, and now some of have expanded tech trees. I recommend.

This is my favourite planning simulator. It doesn't take really long to understand the game (click around, read, you can pause time whenever you need and for as long as you need), understanding history is a plus but not a must. If you expect an RTS, you will be disappointed. This is a grand strategy game where you control your troops on land, sea and in the air, politics, industry, diplomacy, you name it - everything that a real nation needs to sort out. Once you play this game and complete it, you will never look at the real world the same. I mean, I don't understand why we don't have maxed out infrastructure everywhere, we are in fracking 2024 and some places still look like 1936...

Honestly I don't even play the main game. I just play the total overhaul mods like Kaiserreich, Old World Blues, and Red Dusk. The modding scene alone is a reason to get it.