The biggest one is noticeable notifications, which sounds hard to mess up, but when the icon is the size of a toenail, it doesn’t live up to its namesake. While the interface is a step up, there are plenty of examples of issues that have been overlooked. So, how could a UI that involves seeing the world map at all times backfire? When you can’t find what you want, funnily enough. The only screens that take you away from the map are the research and national focus trees, but they’re well laid out and don’t have much need for the world map. This means that if you’re sorting out what divisions you want to recruit next, you don’t need to switch between the map and the recruitment screen to make an informed decision. Instead of taking the player to different screens to deal with various topics, the game is played with the world map constantly in view. The biggest reason why HoI4 is more approachable than previous entries is the UI. The UI is better than HoI3, though, but it’s not outstanding by any means. If you don’t already know what’s coming later down the line (because who paid attention in History!?), you’re going to neglect potentially crucial mechanics because didn’t know they existed yet. HoI4’s tutorial is more like Total War: Warhammer’s where everything is unlocked from the beginning, but that’s not a good thing. It reminded me of Stellaris’ tutorial, except Stellaris didn’t have everything unlocked from the get go, so players could gradually run into the mechanics as the game played out. When you first hop into the game, there’s a short guided tutorial, which is more than could be said for other HoI games. There’s a lot to manage, and while it’s still mind-boggling in scale, HoI4 is much more accessible than previous entries in the series. On top of that, you’re in control of your country’s direction, managing diplomatic relations and directing your armies to become the one true king. You need to manage your logistics, including supply chains for your troops, with so much forethought that I could barely decide on what to do next. I’ve put 8 hours into this game (it would have been more, but E3 and uni exams crept up on me a bit like those damn French), and I still have no clue what I’m doing. Fitting, perhaps, but the description doesn’t adequately capture the scale of the matter.
To call Hearts of Iron complex would be like calling Hitler a tool. What would happen if France became glorious Commies? If Switzerland weren’t neutral? If the Soviets dominated The East? It’s a game of toying with history, but history isn’t a simple thing.
The aim isn’t really to win per se but rather to see what happens and what influences you can make.
The idea of the game is to control a nation around the period of that large, historical war people sometimes mention. HoI4 is a WW2 quasi-simulation grand strategy game, which you can say three times fast immediately to grow a pair of mighty war-faring testicles. I couldn’t get into Hearts of Iron 3, and holy balls, Hearts of Iron IV isn’t much easier, but I’m tempted to fail my exams just to figure out how any of this shit works.
Hearts of iron iv review series#
But, hey, to hell with casuals, am I right? We’ve got Hearts of Iron IV, the fourth game in what is undoubtedly the most intimidating strategy game series I can think of.
Hearts of iron iv review how to#
They’re more demanding on a player to know what’s going on and how to respond, and their unforgiving nature doesn’t help the accessibility. It’s a given that strategy games are more complicated than other genres.
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