You're in charge of diplomacy, economics and production on a monumental scale. In Hearts of Iron 4, you're not just the commander in chief of the armed forces.

If you want to play as Eleazar López Contreras, a Venezuelan fascist with two army divisions and 12 fighter planes to his name, you can give it a go. The second, beginning in 1939, picks up the story on the eve of war and is much more focused on action and conquest.īut Hearts of Iron 4 goes a step further, allowing players to take control of nearly every single nation-state in the world during the same time period. The first, beginning in 1936, allows players to take control of any of the major Allied or Axis powers and captain their economic and political development in the years leading up to the onset of hostilities. Starting a game of Hearts of Iron 4, players are able to choose from two distinct modes. If you want to play as a Venezuelan fascist with two army divisions and 12 fighter planes, you can give it a go With Hearts of Iron 4, Paradox has dared to allow players to feel stupid. Instead, Hearts of Iron 4 has challenged what I know about history, about military strategy and about mid-20th-century geopolitics. It's not hard like a roguelike is hard, and it's not difficult in the way that a flight simulation or a hardcore shooter is difficult. But I don't mean 'challenged' in the traditional sense. Hearts of Iron 4 has challenged me at a foundational level.

But unlike those other games, Hearts of Iron 4 isn't a sandbox it's a game deeply rooted in the real history of World War II. Hearts of Iron 4 is a grand strategy wargame from Paradox Interactive, makers of famously complex titles like Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis and, most recently, Stellaris. Hearts of Iron 4 is the single most challenging game I've played in the last decade.

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