Hearts of iron 4 review2/21/2023 ![]() ![]() Peace was brokered, Nazi Germany dismantled and with Japan eerily quiet and content to stay put, I got a little bored and decided to try a different nation in a different starting point. Joined by fresh Commonwealth troops from Canada and Australia, the Allies went on the offensive, Berlin falling to French tanks in December 1942. A shocking 400,000 casualties later (just from my Americans, the French lost millions), the German’s manpower reserves (each nation has a finite pool of combat-ready humans) ran out, and they buckled. With North Africa wrapped up by early 1941, I shipped my expeditionary force into Southern France, where they helped withstand almost a year of constant, almost First World War-like grind. Instead of being steamrolled by the Germans, the French (and Danes) held strong. The North African campaign went much as history’s did, but what happened in France started making me realise that this game, despite its strong roots in world history, was capable of making some big surprises. I got America’s vast resources into the war as early as I could (isolationism is not fun in this game), with the first expeditionary forces reaching North Africa and Europe in 1940. This gave me enough time to get the country ready for war, so by the time the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, we were ready to roll. My first was as the Americans, and began in 1936. I played two campaigns in Hearts of Iron IV for this review. Some mouse-hover prompts (and event notifications) are highly useful! Others are not. Things that should be presented the same way between screens and menus are not. Sometimes a left-click will do something, other times a right-click. It’s just so wild, and inconsistent in the way it’s structured. Stellaris had one, so it’s a shame to see HoIIV take a few steps backwards when of all the studio’s recent games it probably needed one the most.įor almost my first week with this game, I felt like I was battling the interface as much as the Nazis. And for the love of God, a functional tutorial. ![]() Not dumber, not simpler, just better organised. Paradox’s strategy games can, and need to do a better job of being more approachable. Games like Hearts of Iron IV are Paradox’s bread and butter, and the kind of person who wants to spend hours agonising over military supply chains is *points at venn diagram hanging on the wall* often the same kind of person who won’t mind grappling with a deeply abstract and obtuse means of controlling a video game.īut it’s 2016, I’ve been playing these games for years, and I’m getting sick of just waving my hands and repeating that mantra as though it’s just the way things are, and forever will be. Well, this makes CKII look like a Super Mario jaunt. And I’m not fucking around here: I hear all the time from people that no matter how highly I recommend Crusader Kings II, it’s just too complicated. The reality of this is that I’m going to spend much of this review saying nice things about Hearts of Iron IV, but if you’re not willing or able to learn how to tame this game’s interface, then it will all be for naught. It’s a nice break from the strategic map seeing everything break down with little animated tanks. This is as close to the action as you can get. Think about the scale of that task: you’re responsible for taking millions of men, building them weapons and equipment, arming them, training them, moving them around the world and then keeping them supplied, reinforced and protected by navies and air forces. Not for a base, not for a region, but for the entire war. ![]() You’re also in charge of diplomacy, research, recruitment and, most importantly, production. This goes way beyond the mere movement of your fleets, armies and air forces. Instead of taking direct control over units and smaller-scale tactics, HoIIV puts you at the very top of the war’s food chain, where you need to look after nearly every aspect of your nation’s strategic management. Hearts of Iron IV is a strategy video game, but unless you’re a veteran of Paradox’s special take on the genre, it’s not what you’re used to. But have you ever won the Second World War the way it was actually won? Because it was won with logistics, and…hey, wait, I promise it’s more exciting than it sounds. You’ve probably won the Second World War in a video game before. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |