Hearts of Iron IV

 PC
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 968 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 688 out of 968
  2. Mixed: 149 out of 968
  3. Negative: 131 out of 968

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  1. HoneHeke
    Jun 8, 2016
    4
    Am struggling 4 hours on. Not a HOI vets game as others have said. Missing the detail in moving/creating/organising units. Feels too EU and not not enough HOI (have played both extensively). Too much abstraction and simplification, at a loss for words. When 4 was announced was thinking an uplifted version of HOI3 a game which I spent many years/hours playing over and over. This has echoesAm struggling 4 hours on. Not a HOI vets game as others have said. Missing the detail in moving/creating/organising units. Feels too EU and not not enough HOI (have played both extensively). Too much abstraction and simplification, at a loss for words. When 4 was announced was thinking an uplifted version of HOI3 a game which I spent many years/hours playing over and over. This has echoes of TW Rome 2 i.e. step back not forward.....will wait for the mods and dlc improvements to come out methinks. You are losing your vets Paradox.… Expand
  2. Calders
    Jun 7, 2016
    1
    This game has to be compared to it predecessors and as such it fails to deliver. They have improved it in some areas but also over simplified it in others, the result is a game that is no better than HOI3 and one that feels like it has less potential.
    This game is EU4 converted to WW2 rather than building on what they already had with HOI3. A lot of effort has clearly been made on the    This game has to be compared to it predecessors and as such it fails to deliver. They have improved it in some areas but also over simplified it in others, the result is a game that is no better than HOI3 and one that feels like it has less potential.
    This game is EU4 converted to WW2 rather than building on what they already had with HOI3. A lot of effort has clearly been made on the graphics and it does look a lot better but it's hard not to conclude that a lot of this is wasted effort especially when you see useless features such as the epilepsy inducing day / night cycle (that fortunately can be turned off ). This simply is not the type of game you play to see great graphics and when the game ships with a very weak AI you have to wonder who decided the priorities.
    In short this game is entertaining for the casual player who only wants to play it a couple of times but its not an in depth war game. The hot tip is to play as a smaller nation and try to conquer the world as playing as a large nation is simply too easy.    … Expand
  3. lasagnafeeder
    Jun 7, 2016
    9
    I went with Italy for my first playthrough (not tutorial):

    I decided to ignore Western Europe and Africa, and instead focus my expansion in Eastern Europe. I started by lending support to the Yugoslavian Fascist Party, and eventually progressed to fomenting a fascist rebellion which began in Bosnia. When the civil war broke out, I immediately invaded Slovenia from the northwest, broke    I went with Italy for my first playthrough (not tutorial):

    I decided to ignore Western Europe and Africa, and instead focus my expansion in Eastern Europe. I started by lending support to the Yugoslavian Fascist Party, and eventually progressed to fomenting a fascist rebellion which began in Bosnia. When the civil war broke out, I immediately invaded Slovenia from the northwest, broke through the Yugoslav lines, and made a dash to secure coastal ports and open up a supply corridor to the besieged rebels in Sarajevo. Meanwhile, my navy maneuvered to cut off all Yugoslav shipping in the Adriatic, while my air wings (hastily rebased to captured Slovenian airfields near the front) flew round-the-clock CAS missions to help the rebels fend off Yugoslav counterattacks.

    You should buy this game because I basically played the Bosnian War in 1937.    … Expand
  4. Koblihozrout
    Jun 7, 2016
    6
    Disappointment :(.

    AI is retarded. For instance Germany declared war on Poland (+UK, France), after a month it declared on USSR, yeah didn't work out very well. Why would you teach AI to evaluate national focuses, unnecessary! If you are at war with half the world and got focus to declare war on another country, you should immediately execute! On other hand, is France and UK loosing    Disappointment :(.

    AI is retarded. For instance Germany declared war on Poland (+UK, France), after a month it declared on USSR, yeah didn't work out very well. Why would you teach AI to evaluate national focuses, unnecessary! If you are at war with half the world and got focus to declare war on another country, you should immediately execute! On other hand, is France and UK loosing badly? Well let's guarantee Greece independence so we can get into more wars... In other words diplomacy is dumbed down to national focuses and insane behavior. Oh and it has "improve relations" option, so if you are in Axis, and anti communist treaty with Germany, you are fighting war together, got relations maxed out, it's still gonna make ultimatums to Czechoslovakia (cause national focus..), sadly it can't declare war, it would be nice finishing touch :)

    OOB gone, not much to talk about here, no HQ, no nothing. No division commanders either.

    Research gone, practical knowledge? Theoretical knowledge? Don't be ridiculous you just conquered your first ports, why couldn't you go into carriers with same speed as USA? There is no specialization you can get what you want.

    Buying licenses gone.

    Trading resources? Well remember that anti communist pact? You can still buy anything in USSR... When i say buy, i don't mean like there is a market and prices, don't be ridicules. You can't stockpile and plan for war either.

    Custom divisions, yeah put in there whatever you want, no combined arms or anything so have division full of infantry, or have many smaller ones with one infantry each, nobody cares. Let's not pretend like there are actual effective and non effective ways to wage war, since WWI it's common knowledge that modern war is about putting whatever you have on the front, and if your soldiers have enough courage you shall prevail! Upside is you can't really go wrong. A tank division with hospital and support (non self propelled) arty? Sure why not.

    On the upside equipment production and units training are done in more realistic and better way. But than again planes, tanks, civil factories don't consume fuel or any other resource now, so you can safely spam those.

    Air combat is better, but still not very impactfull. Wings don't have commanders or experience, i don't know why there is a button for day/night or both missions, since you don't care about any of that, your planes don't loose any organization flying non efficient night missions, so you should always have both day and night on.

    Battle plans and AI troop command that's a clear improvement. Not perfect but better in every way.

    Hadn't had any crushes or bugs of that sort. Graphics are better i guess, but there was nothing wrong with hoi3 graphics either. UI is OK. The game gives impression that it's not a successor to previous games but like it's a new game from different dev. It takes it's own approach on one or two mechanics, and makes them better, and it dumbs down and ignores everything we love. I heard on stream devs to say, that Vicky2 was perfect and they can't improve it, i actually start to believe it now. Will the game be fixed by DLC's? It'll be improved, but hardly fixed. Disappointment :(.    … Expand
  5. Filaton
    Jun 7, 2016
    7
    Pros:
    -Good graphics.
    -Good art. -The production system is pretty compact, doesn't give you an instant headache like HoI3. -I like the idea behind the war planning and frontiers. Cons: -The AI is kind of flunky and the frontier system is just plain frustrating at times. -Diplomacy is very dry. -Classic Paradox problems like **** optimization and bewildering UI. -Tech tree is    Pros:
    -Good graphics.
    -Good art.
    -The production system is pretty compact, doesn't give you an instant headache like HoI3.
    -I like the idea behind the war planning and frontiers.

    Cons:
    -The AI is kind of flunky and the frontier system is just plain frustrating at times.
    -Diplomacy is very dry.
    -Classic Paradox problems like **** optimization and bewildering UI.
    -Tech tree is maybe just a little too streamlined(why would I build Light Tanks when I can build Light Tank IIs just a few months later?).

    Honestly it's less immersive than HoI3. My guess is that the audience for HoI3's complexity was just too small, even by PDX standards, that they had to try and make this somehow more casual friendly. That doesn't necessarily make it a bad game, its just kind of meant to reach a different, bigger audience this time around.    … Expand
  6. Paul_Kingtiger
    Jun 7, 2016
    8
    The latest version of Paradox's world war 2 grand strategy games brings it more into line with crusader kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4. The UI and your choices have been streamlined into a much more accessible game. There are plenty of choices and those choices make a big difference, but the micromanagement has be reduced making play less of a chore (for me anyway). The divisionThe latest version of Paradox's world war 2 grand strategy games brings it more into line with crusader kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4. The UI and your choices have been streamlined into a much more accessible game. There are plenty of choices and those choices make a big difference, but the micromanagement has be reduced making play less of a chore (for me anyway). The division designer is excellent and instantly makes sense, and the new army system is far simpler than before, but still allows you to build up a army and give it complex instructions. I love the new army orders system, drawing front lines and arrows on the map makes you feel like a general in a command bunker.

    The new production and trade systems are a huge improvement over HOI3, civilian factories make trade goods and other factories and military factories produce war equipment. You tell your military factories to produce equipment of various types, small arms, specific models of tanks and aircraft and each new unit you build requires various combination of this equipment and of course men.

    The research and national focus systems work like a tech tree, allowing you to customise your nation.

    Finally, yes it is less hardcore than HOI3, but that makes it more accessible to new players, whilst still offering lots of choices and less micromanagement. But if you are turbo into that stuff you can pick up HOI3 on steam at a great price. Me, I far prefer this more accessible version.    … Expand
  7. dave12
    Jun 7, 2016
    4
    Everything that made HOI3 the truly great game it is was abandoned in HOI4. Why?? It looks better, sure, but that's about it. For HOI-veterans it's just too simplified, for the average newcomer it's still too demanding and unstructured. The simple truth is: You can't turn a game like HoI into a game that suits the needs of the average casual player. HOI 3 was demanding, true, but it wasEverything that made HOI3 the truly great game it is was abandoned in HOI4. Why?? It looks better, sure, but that's about it. For HOI-veterans it's just too simplified, for the average newcomer it's still too demanding and unstructured. The simple truth is: You can't turn a game like HoI into a game that suits the needs of the average casual player. HOI 3 was demanding, true, but it was rewarding as well, once you found your way through the complexity. HOI4 however offers no such degree of complexity. Building your army, for instance, is nothing but assigning divisions to a commander. That's it. You command them by drawing lines on a map, a so called battle plan. Once you activate your plan, you have to wait till it's completed (or failed). Before that you cant do anything to react to changing situations. The game plays as boring as this review reads.

    Air combat, which was ok in HOI3, is now degraded to assigning randomly put together squadrons (size doesn't matter) to a region (like for instance "Northern France", thats how big these regions are!) and wait for your enemies to be shot down. Nice idea, actually, but you don't get any feedback at all without clicking through three screens. And you can't demand air support for a specific part of the front where battle is at a critical point. Your bombers just fly over said region and bombard all enemy units in combat at the same rate.

    IN HOI4 you just don't get the level of immersion and presence which HOI3 offered. Everything feels detached and not really important. Your armies march according to pre-drawn lines, while your commanders make nonsensical decisions which you cannot undo before it's too late. Tech trees are apallingly linear and boring. The only good bit is the "national achievement" thing where you can unlock some bonuses for your country. But even they become boring after having it played twice.

    HOI4 should have been a milestone. Unfortunately, it's just a very expensive version of a free-to-play browser game.    … Expand
  8. Teleman
    Jun 7, 2016
    4
    AI is written by a 10 yr old who has just learned how to write "if" in visual basic. You have fronts where the opponent either completely abandons or puts everything it has got. Units move on their own after they execute your commands which results in either no bonuses for attack or defense OR bonuses but very annoying control behaviour. Focus system and diplomacy are a joke. Research isAI is written by a 10 yr old who has just learned how to write "if" in visual basic. You have fronts where the opponent either completely abandons or puts everything it has got. Units move on their own after they execute your commands which results in either no bonuses for attack or defense OR bonuses but very annoying control behaviour. Focus system and diplomacy are a joke. Research is dumbed down for idiots. Gameplay is virtually non existent. I need to be paid to "play" this game just like that guy on the paradox stream...

    P.S. I am a HOI2 fan.    … Expand
  9. KGBMinamoto
    Jun 7, 2016
    9
    If you like WW2, and you have enough time on your hands, this game is near perfect. This game fulfils everyone of your micro and macro desires, with gorgeous graphics and refined combat system. Only reason its not 10/10 is because it chugs in the late-game.
  10. Tytos
    Jun 7, 2016
    2
    The good:

    - Better graphics then other paradox games, The bad: - Performance (it's unplayable past 1943-44 thanks to the engine only using 1 CPU core) - No partisan activity, no revolts - Diplomacy dumbed down for 4 year olds - Peace-conferences after the war are plain broken (pick Luxemburg, dont do anything in the war, get half of Germany after it in the peace conference) -    The good:

    - Better graphics then other paradox games,

    The bad:

    - Performance (it's unplayable past 1943-44 thanks to the engine only using 1 CPU core)
    - No partisan activity, no revolts
    - Diplomacy dumbed down for 4 year olds
    - Peace-conferences after the war are plain broken (pick Luxemburg, dont do anything in the war, get half of Germany after it in the peace conference)
    - Soundtrack is very mediocre
    - AI can't handle the scope of the game, braindead retarded AI
    - Interface overcomplicated with too many important buttons hidden
    - trade??? wtf is this?
    - Price, this is not worth 40€, wait for a 90% sale and 2 years of patchfixing the game before getting it    … Expand
  11. Dalogan72
    Jun 7, 2016
    10
    This game is just a 10/10, I am not going to say the graphics are good, for a war-game strategic at this level, that they are. the music is amazing, the details are just marvelous, the way to move armies is brilliant. The player is in control of many many things I mean much more that just making units. In this game the player have to observe many little details to be able to win. I haveThis game is just a 10/10, I am not going to say the graphics are good, for a war-game strategic at this level, that they are. the music is amazing, the details are just marvelous, the way to move armies is brilliant. The player is in control of many many things I mean much more that just making units. In this game the player have to observe many little details to be able to win. I have played as-well HOI3 and there is let's say an internal battle about, why this and what is that about. Let's not forgot this is just a game without dlcs, first version and with bugs, but the game, the game as a whole is 10/10. This is not a RTS game, this is a complex game, maybe HOI3 was more complex but let's allow these guys Paradox to keep working on it. My most sincere view about the game is very extremely positive. A lot of hard work in this game, this is not a worthless game out of a papa-mama company.… Expand
  12. Fudgeyman
    Jun 7, 2016
    2
    After playing this game for a solid 20 hours I began to feel an urge to play Hearts of Iron 3 again. So I did and it was so much more fun, so much more interesting, so much more playable. That's all i can really say. To me It just wasn't up to the standard and quality of the previous titles making it pretty crappy.
  13. Yomoholo
    Jun 7, 2016
    10
    played The Glorious Canadian Empire Fought a 10 year war with the USA won, just barely because of an american bulge in my line that i exploited to annihilate 15 divisions burnt down the white house.... again. profit of a fully united north america ruled by Canada then looked to Brazil for some tasty rubber.

    #would burn down Washington agian
  14. arsenal143
    Jun 7, 2016
    10
    Vast improvement from HOI3, So much detail and up to you how much you want to micromanage or not. Only downside would be better if more nations had their own national focuses.
  15. SanderTB
    Jun 7, 2016
    9
    Ive played HOI II & III , i really liked to concept but found myself overwelmed with micromanagin division, chain of command structures, and a AI that will punish the smallest of mistakes.

    Imo HOI III was way to cumbersome to take on bigger nations like soviet with a twofront war, you get the picture. ALL that is gone, and now you get to do grandstragtegy on diplomacy, warfare,    Ive played HOI II & III , i really liked to concept but found myself overwelmed with micromanagin division, chain of command structures, and a AI that will punish the smallest of mistakes.

    Imo HOI III was way to cumbersome to take on bigger nations like soviet with a twofront war, you get the picture.

    ALL that is gone, and now you get to do grandstragtegy on diplomacy, warfare, production research while not being overwhelming. Interface and alot of easy and quick ways of commanding naval, air and land in just a few clicks.

    The masterycurve is till steep by normal standards but you can play the tutorial in 15 minutes and start playing around straight away.

    Paradox keeps delivering good grandstragtegy games and HOI IV exceeded all my expectations    … Expand
  16. Maugly
    Jun 7, 2016
    4
    The new Hearts of Iron 4 is awful. Hearts of Iron: The Casual, I call it.

    The army organization structure was simplified, compared to HoI3 and HoI2. Now you can just take few random division, assign commander to it, and call it an 'Army'. It does not matter what's the distance between those divisions, even if one of them is in Siberia, and the other is fighting in southern Spain. You    The new Hearts of Iron 4 is awful. Hearts of Iron: The Casual, I call it.

    The army organization structure was simplified, compared to HoI3 and HoI2. Now you can just take few random division, assign commander to it, and call it an 'Army'. It does not matter what's the distance between those divisions, even if one of them is in Siberia, and the other is fighting in southern Spain.
    You can now draw the fronts and battle plans. A good idea poorly implemented. AI will move army division around the front so much, they will never be 'ready' for an offensive action. I guess the remedy is to use separate armies for a defence and offence, but what's the point then? Eventually, you'll end up doing good old microcontrol.
    I am not sure if it's a battle system, or just AI is so bad, but every, and I mean - every - nationalists failure in Spanish Civil war ended up with their division being pocketed - by an infantry - and destroyed.
    The combat is unnaturally long, a light tank division fought with infantry on plains for 40 days. It won, eventually.

    The political map was changed. Instead of painting maps with certain color, only borders are now colored. This looks cute, but it is absolutely useless, especially with large countries such as USSR.
    Division markers are very tiny, you can not really see what units are standing there.

    The research was dumbed down just as military structure was. Now you just research 'the next infantry division', 'the next fighter', 'the next tank', etc. The research time is always the same, there are no research teams like in HoI2, or country proficiency like in HoI3. It can be halved by national focus, though.

    National focus is pretty much old-fascioned national decisions - it takes some time and 'political points' to get some research time reduced, or add factories, or ... get political points. Many of these focuses are just that - get political points. Other than attaining focuses, political points are used to change ministers or national policies. And initially, no ministers are hired.
    Only basic events are implemented, like in HoI3, I guess. For example, when Spanish Civil War breaks out, there is no event for USSR to help Republicans. You can, of cause, send volunteers and materiel to the country manually; but you won't get any rewards if Republicans win, like you did in HoI2.

    Production was improved, though. The annoying system of HoI2 and HoI3 where you distributed your production points between different needs were abandoned. Now you directly assign your factories to build military equipment, ships, or more factories.
    Apparently, you armies does not require upkeep/supplies anymore, or they are just masterfully hidden from player's sight. A big loss, I'd say. Supplies was a big deal in HoI2, and a huge headache in HoI3.

    All in all, the game looks super casual. If you're looking for some in-depth strategy game, you should probably sit this out. If you're looking for a casual strategy game, you should probably look up something on facebook, I guess there are 3 or 4 lying around.    … Expand
  17. czarinabox
    Jun 7, 2016
    9
    As a player with hundreds of hours in both Hearts of Iron III and Darkest Hour I was skeptical of some of the “streamlining” decisions made by Paradox. Fortunately I feel many of the choices they have made let the game focus on more important and fun parts of managing a country through a world war. It’s nice being able to start up a game and quickly organize your armies. Gone are the daysAs a player with hundreds of hours in both Hearts of Iron III and Darkest Hour I was skeptical of some of the “streamlining” decisions made by Paradox. Fortunately I feel many of the choices they have made let the game focus on more important and fun parts of managing a country through a world war. It’s nice being able to start up a game and quickly organize your armies. Gone are the days of spending hours reorganizing a Soviet order of battle before pressing unpause (a feature which I honestly enjoyed, but also haven’t found myself missing).

    This game lets you focus on the big picture: what strategic moves are you going to make, how will they affect your position in the war? The battle plan system is a good example of this. Battle plans were useful in Hearts of Iron III, but you still found yourself giving hundreds of orders to divisions to just move forwards. Managing a few armies instead of hundreds of divisions lets you remember their commanders as well, something I always had difficulty with in previous titles.

    The interface in general is also much better. The logistics screen in particular is very well done, and production is easy to manage while also providing a really unique and interesting system compared with older versions. Unfortunately in some areas it can be difficult to get information, especially from battles (I definitely miss Darkest Hour’s battle reports, but even HoI3’s weren’t as nice).

    I haven’t encountered issues with the AI so far, but I could just be lucky.

    Overall, if you are a veteran of previous titles I would definitely recommend giving this entry a look, as it brings a lot to the table and most of what has been cut has been fluff that, when you get down to it, didn’t really provide interesting strategic choices anyways. When I think of the best times I had in HoI3 I don’t think of reorganizing my OoB, I think of my first punches back against the Germans in North Africa, the enormous encirclements in Barbarossa, the 3-pronged naval invasion of China. This game lets you focus on those moments.    … Expand
  18. nonick
    Jun 7, 2016
    0
    Terrible game, worst HoI ever, don't buy it. You can't conquer anything if you are not Russian or US. It is stucked war like in World War 1. I'm very dissapointed :(
  19. Sturmk
    Jun 7, 2016
    10
    This is my fisrt Paradox game. I tried to play their previous ones such as Darkest Hour and HOI III, but they were really hard to get into (i'm mostly a RTS player) and i gave up really fast because i simply had no fun playing them.
    While Still overwhelming at times, this game is far more easier than their previous games, thanks to a really good interface and less microing.
    Veterans    This is my fisrt Paradox game. I tried to play their previous ones such as Darkest Hour and HOI III, but they were really hard to get into (i'm mostly a RTS player) and i gave up really fast because i simply had no fun playing them.
    While Still overwhelming at times, this game is far more easier than their previous games, thanks to a really good interface and less microing.
    Veterans should not be afraid, since it's possible to micro if they want to.
    I would say this game combines the depth of the previous Paradox games, but with a welcome Interface and mechanics overhaul.
    If i should summarize, i would say it's easy to learn, hard to master.
    Everyone should try it, and they will like it !    … Expand
  20. RiccD
    Jun 7, 2016
    10
    Had some hours yesterday. Just wanted to DL and see if I can figure out some things. Ended up late in the night with "WTF why is it so late already" :)

    Love: - Trade is so much less annoying than in Hoi III - the focus tree - division planner - Spanish Civil war (was pretty tough) - Industrial part - Political Power thing - add supporters and stuff Undecided: - The Border    Had some hours yesterday. Just wanted to DL and see if I can figure out some things. Ended up late in the night with "WTF why is it so late already" :)

    Love:

    - Trade is so much less annoying than in Hoi III
    - the focus tree
    - division planner
    - Spanish Civil war (was pretty tough)
    - Industrial part
    - Political Power thing - add supporters and stuff

    Undecided:

    - The Border / Plan klicky thing. I fail by fiddling around with that very often. Maybe I have to get used to it / maybe patches will improve this part ( If I attach an army to a border and add a Div. later - why do I have to order this division to this border?)
    - Tech trees. Still am undecided about that.
    - In combat I am usually the more microing type. So I do not know if I like the battle plans yet (Missing the bonus). Maybe I will continue microing the Mobile Divs and leave the foot inf to the battle planner.

    Not so good:

    - AI did strange things in the civil war. (Just walked around long time with inf div, not doing anything. )
    - if I change directions from an attack with a fully organized tank div. and run in an enemy Inf div with 5% Org that takes the province I am moving to a second before I arrive I really lose this tank Div as "Overrun" ??? Seriously?
    Summary:

    Great game that makes already lots of fun. Will get better with the next few patches, I am sure. Also there will be more depth in future with DLC.    … Expand
  21. Gesar
    Jun 6, 2016
    10
    The best strategy which came ever on pc!!! Clear interface, a lot of changes, beautiful graphics. Perfect for long hours. And, of course, co-op, pvp, pve
  22. brodude
    Jun 6, 2016
    0
    Looking for a new Hearts of Iron game? Stick to Darkest Hour because I have no clue what this game is trying to be other than EU4 with a WW2 theme.

    They took a wargaming franchise and turned it into something really confusing. Without things like counters or a well organized battle interface, the game strongly discourages you from playing without its built in strategic planning system.    Looking for a new Hearts of Iron game? Stick to Darkest Hour because I have no clue what this game is trying to be other than EU4 with a WW2 theme.

    They took a wargaming franchise and turned it into something really confusing. Without things like counters or a well organized battle interface, the game strongly discourages you from playing without its built in strategic planning system. There's no loner any level of organization other than a vague "army", which is incredibly unwieldy to play with unless you like the AI to play the entire game for you.

    The key difference between EU4 and HOI4 is that EU4 successfully modernized and streamlined gameplay without losing the essence of what Europa Universalis was. HOI4 is literally just EU4 without any consideration of the kind of game Hearts of Iron is.    … Expand
  23. Austinian334
    Jun 6, 2016
    9
    AMAZING GAME! There may be some flaws with the ai being too passive sometimes or the game chugging in the later time, but this game is by far the best and greatest ww2 strategy game! (aside from risk ww2 edition).

    I wanted that ww2 experience that's thrusts me into the deserts of Africa, the beaches of Normandy, or the vast jungle filled islands of the pacific, and while the experiences    AMAZING GAME! There may be some flaws with the ai being too passive sometimes or the game chugging in the later time, but this game is by far the best and greatest ww2 strategy game! (aside from risk ww2 edition).

    I wanted that ww2 experience that's thrusts me into the deserts of Africa, the beaches of Normandy, or the vast jungle filled islands of the pacific, and while the experiences aren't literal, it is an amazing game. Hope the DLC's add even more emersion than the base game itself, and I can't wait to see future projects from Paradox Interactive in the future!    … Expand
  24. Triggrd
    Jun 6, 2016
    0
    The literally removed all the things that made it a great simulation of a hard time for humanity.
    Why paradox? You used to be the one that put its players before some ideologically poisoned Zeitgeist and now this?!
    It's ironic that you removed parts of an era-simulation that was drowning in blood due to ideological wars out of another destructive ideology that is literally castrating    The literally removed all the things that made it a great simulation of a hard time for humanity.
    Why paradox? You used to be the one that put its players before some ideologically poisoned Zeitgeist and now this?!

    It's ironic that you removed parts of an era-simulation that was drowning in blood due to ideological wars out of another destructive ideology that is literally castrating all aspects of art these days.

    What a disgrace    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

47
#47 Best PC Game of 2016
22
#22 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
66
#66 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 37 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 37
  3. Negative: 0 out of 37
  1. Cubed3
    Mar 20, 2018
    50
    The complexity and slow speed of how things evolve take the fun down notches lower than it otherwise would deserve. Endless clicking through menus, and a glacial speed, ruin what could have been a pretty slick overall experience.
    Read full review
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Sep 28, 2016
    85
    Hearts of Iron 4 successfully streamlines a complex strategy game while still retaining the feel of total industrial warfare. AI difficulties persist, however, and some revamped mechanics still need a bit of polishing. [Aug 2016]
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Sep 14, 2016
    80
    Excellent revival of a rusty brand with improved accessibility to a wider audience. Paradox studio has rocked in recent years and proof of this is the best episode of the series Hearts of Iron. [Issue#266]
See all critic reviews »