Strategy gamers are having a heck of a month and a half. First, Paradox Interactive released Stellaris, a grand strategy game that covers all of humanity’s future history. Then, Firaxis announced Civilization VI , which is coming out later this year and will surely introduce the strategy genre to a new generation—and invigorate it with new ideas. And now, hot on the heels of Stellaris, comes Hearts of Iron IV—a World War II-centric strategy game, also from Paradox. It’s now available for preorder.
Hearts of Iron 4: The Paradox Take On World War II
The Hearts of Iron IV release date is June 6, 2016, the 72 nd anniversary of the Normandy landings. It’s the first Hearts of Iron game in many years. The last came out back in 2009, well before Crusader Kings 2 substantially increased Paradox’s profile and overall success. Now its games tend to be bigger-budget, better-looking, and have a much better interface, while retaining their famous complexity.
Unlike most of Paradox’s other games, Hearts of Iron doesn’t cover a huge swath of time – it’s focused exclusively on World War II. But like the company’s other games, it does have huge depth. You can play as any country involved in the war, no matter how big or small. And this isn’t just a war game; it’s still a strategy game, involving big-time high-level decisions about maintaining your country on a war footing. And it’s not constrained by the real history of the war; indeed, it can and will diverge significantly. Of course, as a dedicated-war game, combat is much more fleshed out than in the grand strategy games like Crusader Kings 2.
As of this week, Hearts of Iron IV is now available for preorder. All versions of the game, including non-preorders, come with a free DLC: Poland: United and Ready. All preorders come with two bonus music packs as well as the Hearts of Iron: War Stories Gamebook. Beyond that, the game comes in three editions: Cadet ($39.99), Colonel ($49.99) and Field Marshal ($89.99). Each adds incremental rewards, the last including a season pass for the first two DLCs (not including the Poland DLC).
The game launches on June 6, and is definitely big news for serious strategy nerds and World War II-heads. What do you think? Are you going to pick up Hearts of Iron IV?
